Promoting a financial advice business in a market where advisers are becoming a rare commodity is more important than ever, say two practice consultants.
Elixir Consulting managing director Sue Viskovic, who has built her career on helping financial advisers improve the way they deliver advice, says advisers need to market themselves more now than ever.
“As we’re moving into a time where there’s going to be a lot more clientele that require advice than the advisers there to service them, it’s increasingly important to improve that marketing message,’’ Viskovic said on the Professional Planner Principals in Practice podcast.
“Not because they need to find new clients, but it’s incredibly important that the clients that they are bringing on board and growing with are the right type of clients that they’ve determined that they want to work with, and to put them on the right footing to be able to start a great relationship.”
Viskovic said with the demands of continued professional development and training, there seems to be little support to learn how to operate and market a business, but it can be done well via educating clients online.
“It’s a great way to stay in touch with your clients, keep educating them, keep adding value to them in and around those times that you’re actually meeting with them face to face,’’ Viskovic said.
“Done well, your education pieces that you create for your clients can be repurposed for marketing material to attract new clients and because you are speaking to your defined client type, you are being heard by the right types of clients because you’re talking their language, you’re talking to their problems and they’re the people that you’re attracting as opposed to casting this massively wide net and getting a whole bunch of kind of fish that you don’t necessarily want.”
Adele Martin, a multi-award winning certified financial planner and founder of The Savings Squad podcast and My Money Buddy, said Australian advisers are good at verbal referrals and joint ventures with like-minded businesses, but should also look at internal marketing content and using social media platforms to educate clients was important to keep clients loyal.
“Australians are really good at word-of-mouth marketing and getting those clients to refer… and joint ventures, the way you have a relationship with an accountant or a mortgage broker – you’re basically borrowing the trust that they build up with the clients,’’ Martin said.
She says internal marketing and education keeps clients up-to-date and builds trust.
“So many times, I’ve had my clients come back to me and repeat a video that they’ve seen in my Facebook group or live video that I’ve done,’’ Martin said.
Martin added your current clients are listening to you already and for that reason it can not be underestimated the impact this material has for internal marketing and client retention.
“I have much easier sales conversations and more chance of them going ahead because they’ve listened to my podcasts, they’ve seen me on [Facebook] live and so I’ve been able to build up that trust with them.”
Martin likened trying to convert referrals to clients without online marketing as trying to get married on the first date.
“They’ve come from an accounting partner, there’s that in front of you, and you’re like: ‘Okay, sign up to this thing’, and they’re like: ‘Well, I’ve just met you and now you want me to get married?’ because they haven’t seen you, they haven’t been in your email, they haven’t been your friends before the podcast, they haven’t seen you enough. That’s it. That’s why after they’re not going ahead,’’ Martin said.
“If you do marketing, well, you’ll attract more of your right type of clients.”
