Want to know without a shadow of a doubt how to market yourself as a financial advisor so you get the highest Return on Your Investment?
Hi my name is Michael Granados, a professional Digital Strategist who’s transformed the lives of hundreds financial advisors, real estate agents, financial services, everything in between and I’m going to show you the 15+ ways to market yourself as a financial advisors, I’ll show you what you’ve been missing and what you never would have thought of when it comes to marketing yourself CORRECTLY.
Did you know most financial advisors fail to market themselves at all? Yep. It’s true. Most rely on the same strategies and tactics like reaching out to past clients for referrals or looking into your book of business to discover new assets and institutions you can partner up with…
But what if that’s not enough? It’s time to start thinking outside of your 4x4 box and step up to the big leagues and take your strikes at bat, swing for the fences and hit a home run. Now is the time to turn to online world wide web to get you more desirable clients who care about who you are first, what you have to offer, and to make HUGER profits.
Let’s get started.
15+ Best Ways To Market Yourself As A Financial Advisor
This first one is one you've probably heard before, so we'll start with some familiarity.
#1 Attend Local Network Marketing Events
Have you ever thought about attending a local networking event to get the word out about your financial services you offer? I’m sure you have, this way you don’t need to technologically or finance related, here’s what I mean.
Recently, Edward Jones partnered up with the producers of PBS’s Tastemasters series in order to host nine culinary events across the country. This event allowed clients and their friends to learn a new skills alongside their financial advisor. During the event, the financial advisors would get help by the marketing team that hosted that event and this would connect the financial advisors with the clients and friends after it was all over.
It’s a sort of a collaboration where both parties help one another out to get more business. Other than that approach you can attend financial related networking parties, gatherings,social events like shows to connect with future prospects and other financial advisors you can learn from too.
Here are a few ways to know of any events:
- Contact your local chamber of commerce in your area and see if they have any networking events coming up.
- Get on LinkedIn, search for “financial advising” or “financial services” groups and speak to the creator of the group or people inside to get any news on events
#2 Ask For Referrals
Why don’t you ask a previous or on going client for referrals? This is commonly what you will do over and over and there’s nothing wrong about going to a current or past client, reaching out to them via email or phone(especially if you know them more personally) and asking them to recommend you to a friend, co-worker or people they don’t know.
I’ve been in business years and other than having a strong web presence where people can find me by searching on places like Google, you can easily be referred to by word of mouth to someone in desperate need to get their finances in order.
The great thing about your skill set as a financial advisor is that you are helpful in many areas like:
- Taxes
- Budgets
- Assets
- Liabilities
- And so much more
All this gives you the edge to reach people of all demographics and psychographics, which means more potential business.
#3 Host A Client Event
How about hosting your own financial services or unrelated event? This is a strong approach to meeting your existing clients in person to show them the appreciation you have for them while at the same time meeting new clients that your existing base brings.
You can host a workshop or a seminar where you give everyone tips, tricks, hacks, secrets that they are just waiting for any financial advisor to tell them before they commit with them, and then at the end of the event you can hand out your business cards, grab emails, and follow-up with them after the event.
Remember from #1, it doesn’t have to be related to financial services. You can host a BBQ, a day at the park, and then slowly work your way into collecting phones, emails, handing out business cards and so forth.
#4. Sign Up For Social Media
Social Media is where ALL the attention goes these days, your audience is sitting behind a screen scrolling up and down their news-feeds, but I can tell you something you wouldn’t have guessed…
They are in Facebook Groups! Yes, your ideal customers are inside of Private or opened Facebook groups looking for help to all their financial needs and within a split of a second you can be the one to help solve their problems. How do groups work?
Groups are on LinkedIn, In Instagram, on Forums, but for this example, I’ll talk about Facebook.
STEP 1: Go to the search bar and type in “financial services” or “financial advisors”, and hit enter.
STEP 2: Click on the Groups tab
STEP 3: Join The Groups
You can try different variations like:
- Tax help
- Home Mortgages
- Insurance
- and so on
After you’re inside these financial services type related groups, you can comment on people’s post and giving them a hand. Don’t just start friend requesting everyone though!
The point is to add value to the groups first. The more active you are in these groups, the more people will take notice and reach out to you.
Plus I have a free Facebook training you can check out here if you’d like.
#5 Start A Facebook Business Page
Did you know that Facebook Business Page’s are the new advertising billboards?
Yep. It’s true. The cover photos on a Business page transcend to your audience by letting them know who you are and what you do. This is your chance to acquire more interest and more quality leads. A Facebook business page will help you share with new and existing clients what type of services your provide, along with:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Locations
- Phone Numbers
- Website details
- Posts
- And so much more
This will build authority, trust, and a future relationship with your leads and get them to believe in you. As a digital strategist for so many years, it all comes down to ONE thing…
Branding. People will ask “why should I come to you?” And you’re going to deliver that questioning with your past results, reviews, chat, and so forth, which brings me to this video:
#6 Have A Website
The #1 problem most financial advisors and any offline business owner has when they first hear about marketing online is they think of places like Facebook and advertising, completely blinded by the fact that they need a stronger web presence…
And what better way than having your own website. A website will:
- Give you an asset that you own which means you can control what content or information you place on their without worrying about Facebook or some other social media channel thinking wrong of it and suspending your account(which I have seen done).
- Impress your existing and future clients that you bring real value to your marketplace by showcasing what you offer best of, how to get in contact with you and give them a free gift.
What do I mean by a free gift?
The #1 way you’re going to get people to do business with you is if you have what’s called a “lead magnet”, and basically this is where you offer something free of high value in exchange for the person’s email address…
This way you can follow-up with the person and send them emails whenever you’d like. You know for a fact they’re interested in financial advice because they gave you their email address for the free thing you gave them, and now it’s just about following up.
These freebies are things like:
- PDF’s
- Cheat Sheets
- Training Courses
- Guides
- eBooks
- Financial Excel documents
- And more
*Can I please get your help to spread the word about this post to financial advisors who need the help? This will only take a second.* Click the twitter bird below.
#7 Start A Blog
Is a stand alone website enough these days? NO. Unless you want to keep manually directing people to your website over and over again from social media, word of mouth or even referrals, you need an automatic strategy…
One where people will find you by Google search or any other search engine. Your blog will talk about ways to help people with their financial problems, questions, and the right help they need so they can be well informed to make a decision if they want to do business with you.
How do people find you?
People will find you through what’s called Search Engine Optimization(SEO), it’s where you optimize your blog so that Google and other search engines give you the best chance of ranking on the first page. And you can also use keyword research tools to know what people are typing into Google so you’re not just guessing what people want to know.
This has been my favorite strategy for years, it’s where I began my journey online and have grown a couple of my businesses to over $1,000’s per month. I made for you a free Blogging course so you can do it without making mistakes and it’s the best it can be here if you’d like to check it out.
#8 Join Mastermind Groups.
This is similar to Facebook groups only that it’s for financial advisors and not for the general public. These groups typically these days online exist online and it’s equivalent to that of a book club. Financial advisors of all levels get together to collaborate, share ideas, tips, and discover new ways of helping existing and future financial clients.
#9 Focus On Your Specialization
Why should a client choose you over all the other millions of financial advisors? What makes you unique, different and stands out?
Listen, these days people WANT specialized financial advisors and not some generalist they can just hear from over the phone. Think about all the people glued to their phones, laptops, and all devices searching online…
They are constantly running across financial advisors left and right. So they’re smarter now about “WHO” they choose based on one financial area over the others and what they can offer in terms of value, time, money, and more.
Who do you currently serve right now? Do you work with small businesses, large corporations, retirees, executives? Divorce, asset management, or retirement?
Make sure you develop a unique value proposition so you separate yourself from your competition, this way you’re not bumping heads in a red ocean of common financial advisors. Outline on a piece of paper to yourself what you do best or what you want to specialize in and ask yourself “WHO” needs these services the most.
#10 Avoid "Techno Babbling"
Techno Babble is another way of saying - Don’t speak in an advanced financial vocabulary that ONLY you know what it means, this is a fast way to push you future clients away!
When you speak fancy to your audience, this turns them off and they start to think that they’re inferior and dumb, DON’T do this!
Don’t be a common financial advisor who bores people with jargon only you want to hear, or puts people to sleep because you mentioned one word your client doesn’t know about...that’s all it takes...ONE word.
A casual, professional voice works best for explaining financial services.
#11 Use Storytelling
This is the MOST POWERFUL marketing strategy of all you’re going to hear today, please listen closely.
Have you heard of the saying “Facts tell, Stories sell?” Well, it’s true. If you want to get people to believe in you, to see you as their leader for many years, then you need to send a message to them that:
- Breaks their current beliefs
- Addresses their fears
- Creates a new belief
Stories are at the center of all digital and offline marketing, this is a MUST. You start by showing people(by words) where you once were and take them down the story of how you got to where you are today with something called the Epiphany Bridge Script.
I made a full post for you with a video that shows you how to use effective storytelling for marketing with a done-for-you script you can pick up for free here.
#12 Get Reviews
Reviews good or bad are the foundation of any industry getting clients now a days. If you do a simple search on google of something like “financial advisors near me” you can see a listing of them and when you click through to view their business, guess what;s there?
Reviews. Keep in mind that this is people’s financial lives, they want to be secure and make sure they make the right move to work with you. Get your reviews on places like:
- Yelp
- Top Rated Local
- Consumer reports
This will not only build trust and assurance with your future clients but credibility.
#13 Get On Video
If you had to ask me where is the consumer attention shifting to online I’d say very fast “Video”. Video marketing is HUGE(I can’t emphasize that enough), but have you ever thought about why?
People trust people not the product, and if people can see you or what you offer in a video format, this will build their trust faster, and by nature us humans are visual, so why not show case who and what you do with a video?
You can use platforms like:
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Wistia
I’ve helped out business owners get more leads simply by using video alone. Another great combo is mixing your video inside of a blog, now we have a winner!
#14 Advertise Effectively
Want the fastest way to reach your dream clients? Advertising is the fastest way to reach a market of clients who maybe have heard of your or not but will be interested in your services.
I’ve helped financial advisors with their advertising on platforms like Facebook with Facebook Ads, Google with Google Ads and so on. For a small budget of like $5-$10 a day or so, you can show your services to a specific group of people who want your information…
With Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has given you access to all people’s data like:
- Their age
- Their occupation
- Where they live
- Their education
- Pages they like
- Interests
- And so much more
This way you’re accurately spending your money at capturing leads and not just throwing random darts at the board hoping that they’ll hit in the right spot.
I made for you a FREE Facebook course where I’ll show you how to use Facebook with paid and organic traffic and you can gran that here.
Google is the same concept, but unlike Facebook where people are scrolling for entertainment, on Google people are ACTIVELY searching for an answer to their problem(s), so you can deliver your services knowing that’s what they want.
The concept is always the same, you led them what’s called a landing page where people have no option but to give you their email address and in exchange you give them something of high value for free like a:
- Checklist
- Mini-Course
- Strategy session
- Ebook
- guide
A free strategy session will be a good way to go or a guide that shows your audience how to make more money and save more money.
#15 Use A Sales Funnel
This is the best way to market your services in a professional and 1-1 conversation so you can build rapport much faster. A sales funnel is like a landing page where someone has no choice but to enter their email address in exchange for the freebie you’re giving them…
And Once someone hits enter, they are put on your automation system for email marketing, chatbot, SMS(messaging), and then takes them into the second page which is the Thank You page where you can ask them if they have a long term financial plan in place and then you can ascend people up your “funnel”.
Here’s a video on that:
I made for you a post on the right landing page system you need to use and where I give you my free templates here.
Final Thoughts
These are your 15+ ways to truly market yourself as a financial advisor and the ways you can get the better edge on your competition. My advice is to mix a bit of everything in, especially the sales funnel part at the very end…
This way you’re not wasting your time with a website trying to wait for people to fill out your contact form, click through a bunch of tabs only to exit away, and instead you use a funnel that will give your future clients what they want right away.
Check out how to do this with my #1 recommendation below:
See you on the other side!
-Michael
P.S. Do you have any questions about what you saw today? Please feel free to leave me a comment down below and I will get back to you ASAP!
