Financial advisor webinars are a great untapped resource for many financial firms. Webinars may be a new/old idea for reaching large numbers of relevant prospects. We say relevant because you can target the attendees you want to reach.
Most advisors still rely on traditional marketing methods to add new clients, assets under management, and revenues. Unfortunately, these marketing methods have largely relied on face-to-face contact in the past. That’s because the sales culture that has dominated the financial service industry for decades relied on face-to-face meetings to conduct sales presentations and close new business.
Take away face-to-face marketing contact and many financial advisors have struggled to develop virtual marketing business practices during the pandemic and for the foreseeable future.
Eventually, the virus will be no more deadly than the seasonal flu. That may already be happening with the introduction of effective medications. A vaccine may be a year away. The truth is no one really knows the virus’s long-term impact on the methods that advisors use to market their services to investors.
The Digital Marketing Revolution
What we do know is increasing numbers of investors are using the Internet to find, research, and interview financial advisors. It stands to reason, investors who use the Internet to find advisors may also use the Internet to research and interview financial advisors.
This opens the door to a new way that advisors can market their services to investors. They can use online financial advisor webinars to reach large numbers of investors who are seeking financial advisors.
Until recently, financial advisors might have used seminars to reach larger numbers of investors at one time. That business opportunity, which requires face-to-face contact, has sailed at least for a while. Today, webinars have replaced seminars and they are a lot more cost-effective. Plus, they can be used repeatedly until the content is no longer timely or relevant.
Financial advisor webinars are a type of digital marketing. They are designed to attract large numbers of investors to Live and On-Demand webinars.
The Telehealth Business Model
How valid is digital marketing for financial advisors?
There is a good chance financial advice will follow in the footsteps of telehealth. According to Wikipedia, telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, monitoring, and remote admissions.
Sound familiar? If doctors can improve physical well-being using telehealth, financial advisors should be able to improve financial well-being using telefinancial.
Doctors serve patients and advisors serve clients. Both professions are based on information that can be delivered digitally and in online presentations.
There is a major difference. Financial advisors must produce their own new clients. It is very rare when investors spontaneously contact advisors. This creates a need for additional digital marketing strategies and services.
Financial Advisor Webinars
Many advisors are considering new paradigms that include face-to-face contact but are placing increasing importance on virtual marketing business practices.
At the top of their lists is the use of financial advisor webinars that facilitate getting their names in front of large numbers of prospects.
How else can advisors get in front of so many people for so little expense? Webinars cost less than seminars and they are a lot more effective.
What investors see (websites, blog articles) and hear (webinars, video) during webinars will have more impact than ever before.
Producing a high quality live or on-demand financial advisor webinar takes some specialized knowledge, but when it is done you have a very powerful marketing resource that can be used for multiple marketing applications.
The webinar is a big step. Even bigger steps are getting people to attend webinars, stay on the webinars until they end, and for them to take some type of action that benefits the financial advisor who sponsored the webinar.
Webinars Produce the Best Results
The role of financial advisor webinars is to produce leads that financial advisors can convert into prospects and clients.
This is a bit of no-brainer when investors have to register to access the webinar. Advisors have the contact information they need to follow-up by telephone or email. During the follow-up, advisors determine if investors have an immediate need for a financial advisor.
These investors become prospects for advisor services.
Time on Site
How else can advisors convince large numbers of investors to visit their website and spend 15-30 minutes watching content that was produced by advisory firms?
In a recent Paladin survey, the average time on site for financial advisor websites was 2 minutes and 33 seconds. Investors visited an average of five pages during that time span. Part of the problem is investors surfing the web – jumping from site to site. Advisors need something that keeps investors on their websites for longer periods of time. The answer is a series of high-quality webinars.
Information-Seekers
Investors attend financial advisor webinars because they are seeking information that will educate them on financial matters and help them make better decisions.
This need for information creates a great opportunity for financial advisors to deliver information using educational webinars.
If the webinars are good enough, financial advisors can use a registration requirement to obtain contact information from webinar attendees. Advisors use this information to follow-up, however, there may be a timing issue. For example, the attendees are not seeking financial advisors they are seeking information. The need for an advisor may occur later.
This means financial advisors who use webinars for marketing will also need a relatively sophisticated CRM system that drips on the information-seekers until they are ready to talk.
Advisor-Seekers
The ideal attendee for a financial advisor webinar is an investor who is actively seeking a financial advisor.
Step one is understanding why investors attended the webinar in the first place. The obvious answer is they want to learn more about the topic of the webinar. However, it is also a way to learn more about the advisory firm that sponsored the webinar.
The next step is determining the type of advisor they are seeking: Financial, tax, legal.
Next is the timing of the advisors’ decisions: Next week, next month, next year.
This is an ideal marketing opportunity for financial advisors who use webinars to create new marketing opportunities for their firms.
