Mastering Lead Generation and Referrals

Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us today.

We have a very important exciting topic and I think something that is on the top of everyone’s mind, but we are gonna be talking about mastering lead generation and referrals. And so this goes against the test of time.

And it doesn’t matter if you are a financial advisor, if you own your own business, if you’re a doctor or a dentist.

No matter what field you’re in, we know how important lead generation is and referrals. So, would love for this to be interactive, would love to see in the chat where you are all coming in from today.

I, myself, I’m Elise Lambert, director of product and enterprise marketing here at FMG, and this is something that I always like to say, unfortunately, I’m very, very passionate about, is advisor marketing, advisor tech, and all of that good stuff. And so I have started in the field. I’ve been a financial advisor. I’ve been a marketing director. I’ve been in your shoes and understand how important it is for you to be able to generate leads, to talk about referrals, and for you to do what it is that you do best. You are a financial professional first and foremost.

And with that comes a lot of hats. Right? So you wear so many different hats and it is so important for you to be able to create processes and procedures and be able to, do that kind of stuff. So, I always believe knowledge without action is wasted and I wanna make sure this is an incredibly valuable use of your time.

So if you want, write grab a pen and paper, take notes on your computer, make sure you’re taking screenshots with your cell phone. We want you to be able to take this information away with you and put it into practice. So, let’s get going. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty and get to the get get into the weeds.

Right? Let’s talk about the good stuff. So, of course, couple housekeeping items. Recording will be sent to you after the webinar.

Look out for the follow-up with emails, and we have a fun giveaway that I can’t wait. So I’ll I’ll reveal what that is at the end.

And if you happen to be an FMG customer, I know a lot of you are not. Maybe you’re thinking about it or you’re you’re contemplating it. But if you wanna log in, follow along or would love for you guys to join in in the chat.

We have a poll today that I wanted to launch.

And what it is is I want to know how you are currently asking for referrals.

And so we are gonna go ahead and launch that.

And so, just wanna check check the pulse of everyone, see, what we got going on, and pull that out. So here we go. So where do you get most of your referrals from?

Is it word-of-mouth? Is it social? Is it email marketing? And in the chat, let’s add where you want to learn more about.

We know that this is I’m gonna go into some statistics and whatnot, but just curious where they’re coming from today, and if there’s anything that you wanna make sure we cover, in our in our conversation. But CP I’m seeing clients, CPAs and attorneys, word-of-mouth, always so, so important.

Client referrals.

Very cool.

Great. This is great great info. And, you know, we’re gonna cover a lot of this as we move forward. So, and we wanna learn more about generating leads and referrals by driving traffic to my website.

Perfect. Email, social, fabulous. You you guys are setting me up. This is what I have, in our presentation.

So, yay, let’s get going. What we’re gonna discuss today, we are going to make sure we cover social media and blogs. We’re gonna make sure we cover, we are gonna cover the and, actually, I’m gonna go ahead and share these results of this poll so everyone else can kinda see what we got going on.

But social media and blogs, email automation and referral campaigns, events and webinars. And, if we have time, I don’t think we will, a demo. But if not, you can always set, some time up with us if you’re looking for more information there. So I love statistics. I think they give us so much information. And seventy cent seventy seven percent of advisers lack a mature client onboarding process.

So a clear process helps convert these leads into clients. So some of you in the chat mentioned, you know, converting website leads and all of that. And so creating a process is so, so important.

And so I hope we don’t fall everyone on this call shouldn’t fall into the seventy seven percent after this. Right? We are going to be able to put this into play and allow for you guys to be the amazing financial professionals that you are. So today, we’re gonna talk about really three strategies for turning leads into loyal clients and raving fans.

There’s a book out there talking about raving fans, and that is one of the biggest pieces. We’ve we we just saw in the poll. It speaks for itself how word-of-mouth is one of the best ways, in client referrals to receive lead generation, new referrals, new clients, and prospects. And so let’s dive into this.

But first, money matters. So which tactics give you the most bang for your buck? We wanna work smarter and not harder. So let’s look at what the dollars are saying.

So here, this is the most widely used marketing strategies by financial advisors. So this is something that Kits has put together in twenty twenty two. Although it’s already twenty twenty four, which blows my mind, these statistics still stay true.

So marketing strategy, so it’s in the left column, and the percentage of advisers using them is in the right.

So, again, goes without saying, client referrals are top of the list right there at ninety three percent, are using them. But are they using them consistently? And we’re gonna touch on that in a little bit.

And, yes, the replay will be sent. So and just in case anyone has to hop off, client calls, anything like that, we have you covered.

COIs, so we saw that, and we’re gonna talk about some other ideas for COIs.

Networking events, social media, we see this an uptick, and we’re gonna talk about why, and how important it is for you to be relevant and to have a fabulous digital footprint.

But, of course, client appreciation events, websites, blogging, you see these. You see these numbers.

And then over here on the right hand side, what we actually we’ve seen an uptick in is videos that is starting to climb. Videos are a great way to, keep your name out there.

And a COI is a center of influence. So this could be someone like an estate attorney. It could be a real estate agent. It could be someone that you’ve aligned yourselves with, maybe a CPA, someone that does, you know, PNC, whatever it might be.

But marketing consultants, COIs, paid advertising, webinars, solicitors. So I always like to look at what are all of our options out there. Maybe there’s something on here that might jog your memory. So, again, feel free to snag a picture as we go.

And firms with a documented ideal client persona, client value proposition, and marketing plan attracted forty two percent more new clients and forty five more new client assets in twenty twenty one. So I ask you, do you know who your perfect client is? Do you know, the demographic? Do you know the general makeup of this individual or this group of professionals? Or is it families? Is it retirees?

You know who you like to work with and I always say it’s always more fun when you work with people you enjoy, but do you know exactly who you wanna target? Do you know, the value you bring to them? Right? Maybe you work with business owners and you provide specialty services regarding that. Maybe you work with white co professionals. Right? So what is that value proposition for your ideal client?

And maybe in the chat, throw out some of your ideal clients that you work with, or maybe a client that you would like to work with?

And it looks like, on my end, I have a little trigger. It looks like we have clear, clear, service and all of that. So if anyone has audio that’s skipping or anything, it might be on their end, but don’t worry that the, recording is being sent. So my question to you all is on your piece of paper, identify who exactly that client is, who you’re looking to target because that’s gonna really allow us to refine our messaging and to refine our process when we’re thinking about lead gen and referrals.

So client referrals represent a declining percentage of new assets as you move from your smallest RIAs to your larger RIAs. So, again, the blue is our in this in this graph right here. We have in the light blue firms under two hundred and fifty million, firms over that is the gray, and our top performing firms are that orange. So the top performing ones have that ideal client in mind.

They have that value prop ready to go. It is embedded. It is ingrained in their marketing. It is on their website.

It is their messaging through and through in their emails and their socials, and they have a clear marketing plan. So if you haven’t thought about putting together that marketing plan, we have some really great resources, some past webinars we’ve done, to create that marketing plan as well.

But the yeah. And there’s some really great programs out there, and it looks like some people are looking at retirement age clients. We wanna attract that next generation.

That is the buzzword.

We have the greatest wealth transfer that is about to happen. I sound like a broken record. You as financial professionals already know this. But, also, when we’re thinking about this, who’s next?

Who else do we want to attract like that next generation? And so with marketing, it increases as a percentage of new assets and is the greatest, piece of top performing firms. So that marketing plan goes goes hand in hand with what we would like to do. So this this right here is summarizing marketing tactics.

And so I said, let’s look at the best bang for our buck. This is what we are looking at. We always want to try and figure out what that ROI is on our marketing, and I know that is arbitrary.

People say, oh, you’re in marketing. Well, marketing is a is a very broad term. It’s like, well, what part of marketing? Are you SEO?

Are you websites? Are you paid? Are you, email marketing? Do you do guerilla marketing? Right?

There’s all these different tactics, but let’s look at financial professionals specifically.

And, so let’s look at the tactic, the percentage of people using them, satisfaction rate, of course, and the revenue per new client. So, client referrals are really great.

We always wanna look at revenue per new client. Where do I see the highest client appreciation events? And, again, traditionally, we always think that these events needs to be, in person, but they also wanna be virtual. Right? So we can host virtual events, which, then we get to avoid some of our plate liquors and those big fancy dinners, and webinars are much cheaper to put on.

But some of the ones that we really wanna spend some time thinking about today, webinars, drip marketing. So my question to you is, do you have a drip marketing, do you have a drip marketing process put into place? Do you have drip marketing?

And maybe in the chat, let’s see. Are some of you guys utilizing drip marketing today?

But there’s some really cool statistics on here. But, again, utilizing these to make sure that the money follows. The value is also following by your effort.

So one, let’s talk about social media and blogs. And blogging and SEO go hand in hand and how important it is. And, so we’re gonna talk about SEO a little bit, and that means search engine optimization. The easiest way for me to explain this is if someone goes to Google, they type in financial advisor near me. Your search engine optimization is where where you rank in that search, where you fall on that search page.

So, I skipped a couple slides, but your online presence matters more today than ever before.

So ninety three percent of online experiences begin with a search engine. They go to Google. And especially now, we as a society no longer not and this isn’t always true, not a blanketed statement, but it’s more common for people to no longer live where they grew up. So they get a job somewhere, they move.

During the pandemic, we saw people move, either out of the cities or into the the suburbs. We’ve seen a lot of movement lately, and that’s much more realistic these days. And so where are people going? They are going to Google financial adviser near me.

I live in Fort Worth, Texas, so I Google financial adviser Fort Worth, Texas. Go ahead. End your search engine right now. Figure out where I’ll let you I’ll let you multitask right now or do it on your phone.

Go to Google and type in financial advisor near me, financial professional near me, financial advisor that works with dentists, Fort Worth, Texas, whatever it is. Type that in. See where you rank.

That’s a really great place to start thinking. But leads from search engines have a fourteen point six percent close rate, while outbound leads, like cold calling, direct mail, have a one point seven percent close rate. So that rate is so much higher. It’s because people are now starting to do their own research.

So what does your digital footprint look like? Do you have great reviews? Do you have a nice website? Do you have a social presence on LinkedIn and a business Facebook? And, of course, making sure everything is approved always very, very important.

Advisors who get six to ten or eleven plus clients per year have a calendar link on their website. So do we have clear calls to action?

That is very, very important to make sure that we are capturing these leads. So So a clear call to action. What is that? A CTA is what you might also see it being referred to as. So that is a book an appointment, on your website. That is a clear button for them to be able to call you or maybe even be able to chat with you. So do they have a way to get in touch with you?

And blog posts for specific questions. So being able to, one, you have a blog, and if not, maybe it’s time to start thinking about implementing this strategy for you.

A really great blog tactic is post about specific questions.

I saw, an adviser today on LinkedIn. I’m scrolling, and please add me on LinkedIn. I would love to see all the great work you guys are doing, from a social standpoint or seeing the events you’re hosting and you’re you’re promoting on social. But blogs post for specific questions.

So I saw someone today post about the difference between and it said four new parents, the difference between five twenty nines and other tactics. And to me, that is a milestone moment that people are looking for specific information on and for their target audience that is relevant information. So, they also they took that social post and they turned it into a blog post. So do your blog posts, do they address specific questions?

So thinking about who our target audience is, what questions do they have? Right? Is our target audience retirees? Are there questions about when I can retire, Social Security, Medicare, all of these important timely items?

Do your blogs address these specific questions?

And if you’re ever wondering what kind of questions your target audience might be asking, throw it into Google. Right? Type in top questions for baby boomers. Boom. It’s gonna give you a whole bunch of items, whole bunch of ideas that then you can use to create blogs. Programs like FMG create content for you so you don’t have to.

And, again, your headers are important. Headers within your blog are very important to break up that section. We wanna include graphs and images as well. We want this to be easy for the eye to read, and we wanna go in-depth on one granular topic. This is also great not just for prospects and hopeful clients, but also your current clients. I think that is something we forget to think about is making sure we are taking care of our current clients.

So think about this. We want to keep our clients coming back to our clients time and time again. We want our clients to come back to our website time and time again. So we want this to serve as an encyclopedia for them, as a place where they know they can come, they can get some information, they know how to reach you.

And it’s always important in order to encourage better search engine optimization here is to add and link to other pages or posts. So this can link to a calculator on your website. This can link to a really good, article on whatever specific topic you are looking for.

So blogging, blogging, blogging is really great. Another way, is to partner with those COIs, so that center of influence. So this can be with your blogs. This can be with your social posts. I’m gonna readdress this once we get to events here in a second and webinars. But who are you partnering with?

And take a picture of this because a lot of times, yes, we’ve partnered with our state attorneys and our CPAs.

But there’s some more out there that we can think about. So economics, finance professors at a local college. Right? Bringing on people, that have done a ton of in-depth knowledge and research regarding a specific topic.

Tax planning. Right? CPAs, EAs, estate planning, risk management, and insurance. And in the chat, I want this because I want this to be community.

Add who some of your favorite COIs are.

I see estate planning attorneys a lot and CPAs.

You know what? And sometimes it doesn’t need to be specific regarding finance stuff.

I have seen really great COIs regarding, you know, bringing on a a a personal trainer, bringing on a wine sommelier, bringing on other COIs that might not be your traditional, financial COI, but think outside the box as well. Think about who your target audience is.

Women doctors for women health seminar. I love that idea. That is such a great idea.

But again, in the chat I’m I’m not seeing enough. So everyone log in real quick and and let’s let’s talk about it because there’s some really good ones out there.

Cybersecurity as well. Behavioral finance. This is a huge topic right now. Cybersecurity is on the top of everyone’s mind.

A massage therapist. That is fabulous. I love that, and everyone appreciates that. Right? So think outside the box.

Dietitians, I’ve seen chiropractors, car specialists. I’ve seen that people that specialize in cars, and they do a really great informational session on that. Travel agent.

Great idea.

Love this.

Realtor. Yes. The market is wild right now. Bring on a realtor. Bring on someone to talk about that.

Mortgage specialist, lending person. Right? Lots of really great ideas. Wow. Love this. Love in the chat.

Okay. So next, we’ve talked about funeral director. Amazing. This is a very important thing, and people often underestimate the cost and how and when and why. What a great marriage counselor.

Amen to that. That is a really good one.

We know that finances and marriage go hand in hand, and what better way to bring on? That is fabulous. Thank you, guys. Great ideas. Keep them coming so that everyone else can share.

So we talked about social and how important it is for you to be relevant. So how often are you sharing on social? Right? Because your social presence really also it helps with your, search engine optimization. So search engines like Google are also now pulling from your LinkedIn, from your business, from your YouTube, which we’ll get into here in a second as well.

So the second tactic, email automations and campaigns.

This is one that is really important because drip email marketing allows for you to set it up and forget it. Set it and forget it. There’s that old infomercial out there. Does anyone maybe in the chat, you can let me know. Do you remember the set it and forget it? It was like this oven. But I say that all the time, and that’s what pops in my mind.

But the set it and forget it piece, are you, one, collecting prospects’ emails on your website? And two, so, right, we’re driving traffic to our website. We’re talking about getting these leads and these referrals. But once they come to your website, then what?

Are you capturing them? Do you have a lead capturing magnet? Do you have a pop up? Do you have somewhere where they can sign up for their newsletter?

Are you collecting that data?

So that’s first. And then how are you consistently staying in front of them?

Email drip marketing is one of the best and easiest ways to do so. So you’re capturing their email and now you are continuously staying in front of them. So they email them over time, sending them valuable educational and timely content. That is so helpful.

And it this gets even more effective if you have that niche market. Right? So if I, have these leads as they come in, I’m organizing them. I’m organizing them for my specific, groups.

Right? Hey. This person signed up on my my website. I collected their email. Maybe I’m gonna also add them on LinkedIn, and I’m gonna look at them and I’m gonna say, okay.

Great. This is a business owner. I’m gonna make sure that I’m now sending them a drip marketing campaign for business owners specifically. And sometimes we don’t even need to get that granular.

It can be as simple as, you know what? This is a client and this is a prospect. So does your current contact list, whether it lives in a CRM like Redtail, Wealthbox, Salesforce, is it organized? And if you haven’t, this is my friendly nudge to let make sure that you guys have organized these because then this allows for these drip email marketing campaigns to go out.

What are some ideas for drip marketing? And in the chat, if you’re doing any kind of drip marketing, we’d love for you to share some of your ideas. But we have some drip campaigns, that you can use. But some ideas, new clients emails, a new prospect email drip campaign.

Right? And in that drip campaign, you can you can talk about your your office, the value you create, the services you provide, the the COIs you partner with. Right? Those could be four separate emails for prospects.

So is that is so important to be able to have this drip. It is crucial for you to stay in touch with them. And, again, we don’t wanna bombard them with emails, but you can you can time these out in a scheduled, thoughtful manner as well. I’ve got a quick question about what’s the best way to organize contacts and what do you organize them by?

I’ve seen it in a number of different ways, and you also have to think about your current practice. At bare minimum, organize them by prospects and clients. And then if you want to get even more granular, then there’s a couple different ways, and I’m gonna throw some ideas out there, and you can figure out what resonates best with you. But some do it geographic.

Right? I live in the state of Texas. When I was an adviser, I had mine, mine organized by geographic location. So my Dallas clients, my Fort Worth clients, Austin, San Antonio, Houston.

I also had it organized by occupation. Right? So business owner, doctors of, what I mean, all the CPAs, state attorneys, professional athletes, whoever it is you work with.

We also you can do it by demographic. You can also do it by age. Right? That’s a really great way. And in the chat, feel free to add some of the ways that you all do that.

But here’s some great ideas in the chat, so keep them coming.

Alright. So what if I don’t have a big email list? Right? So maybe we’re in the process of building our email list or maybe we’re in the process of organizing it.

How can we continue to build our contact list? How do we continue to acquire leads and get referrals? And one, we talked about partnering with that center of influence. So have them be a guest in a webinar.

Invite them to contribute to your blog. Maybe you’re a podcaster.

Right? Allow them to come to your your, enjoy or invite them to join in on your podcast, but promote them and encourage them to also promote that to their audience. This is one of the easiest ways to double your, your leads and your audience very quickly. And show of hands, if anyone has a podcast in here, and feel free to share the URL if you have a podcast because that is something we’re also seeing a really great way for lead gen.

Social media, posts that focus on the benefit of someone that someone gets from joining or using their service. So we wanna talk about what they get from working with you. Is it financial prosperity? Is it kids going to college?

It is that. And direct invites via LinkedIn to target your audience as well. Right? LinkedIn is this amazing tool where we can filter.

Right? We can go in. If I work with business owners, I can go into LinkedIn. I can set my geographic location.

I can type in business owners, and I can easily find opportunities for leads right there. And then I can send a connection. I can send them a nice message. I could even send them an, a lead magnet or a ebook.

Right? A lead magnet is something that that, is just that. So it it can be an ebook. It can be a value add.

It can be a complimentary consultation. So something that is getting them in the door or a butt in the seat.

Encourage clients to share the emails with others. Right? So if you are sending your clients a timely educational piece, write in there. Tell them to share that email with their current or a friend or someone that matters to them. Right? Tell them what you told them. Tell them again and remind them.

Sometimes we just need to be very clear that that is our expectation. So what if I don’t have a big email list? No problem. Let’s partner with some COIs.

Let’s get on social media, and let’s encourage. Let’s go to our current clients and start to ask right there.

And so timely content wins time and time again.

And the timely thing is so important, and we really saw this become more relevant during the pandemic. It was so important to be able to share what is going on in this wild world almost instantaneously.

And so that is really important. So we actually we have a do it for me program if anyone is looking for someone to help them write the content, do so in a timely manner.

Our our timely content written with our do it for me program, I’m gonna go into the details right now. So everyone can stick around if you want details later. But sending emails about what is going on in the world right now gets really great open rates. So timely content is important and then also having a referral campaign. So do you have a email drip campaign set up to ask for referrals specifically?

So our automated is it automated?

So you don’t have to think about it, and it’s doing it for you. So, yes. And we just got a comment. Has our timely content been approved?

Yes. All of our content is approved, and we also have an internal compliance portal to make it easy. I think that’s one of the biggest things people are like, I wanna send timely content. I want to create an email campaign, but I don’t have time to create all this content.

Great. There’s there’s a lot of people out there like FMG, and there’s others, of course, other great resources that can help you create that content. But we want to automate our processes. We want to make sure that, these these mechanisms that you’re putting in place are helping you do your job and helping you market all at the same time.

So sometimes it’s hard for people to ask for referrals as well.

And so we have a specific campaign that is a that you can configure to a specific audience that asks for referrals alone. So you can you can create your audience, you can send them, and they can go out for a referral and ask for that referral right there.

So these referral campaigns are very easy to set up and send out. It is a nice email. It’s a thoughtful message. And, again, like I said, I always had a really hard time asking for referrals myself because, you know, what if they say no?

Hold on. I’m going backwards. What if they say no? And so creating an email allowed for me to disconnect there.

That allowed for me to be able to send that out, without having that emotional attachment there. Because I think there was something and maybe raise your hand in the chat of you felt the same way. And sometimes you’re like, man, that’s kind of an awkward conversation, but maybe this I’m gonna and an email is a great way to create that disconnect to, to help you send those out. So this is just an example of one of our referral campaigns.

It’s an email that goes out. It has a really nice form fill in there. So there is a, you know, know someone who you might benefit from a conversation with a financial professional. Hey.

I’ve got the person. I work with this person. I trust them. They are someone that I’ve been working with for x amount of years.

There’s an easy form fill here. It goes out quarterly. You can easily add, the audience and who exactly you want this to go out so it doesn’t have to go to everyone or, and you can easily follow-up. So we’ve talked about email, automations, drip campaigns, and how to automate that when it comes to referrals, and now events and webinars.

So this is, another one we’re gonna talk about. So ninety nine percent of advisors say, if I could just get in front of people, I can close the deal. Right? And I hear this all the time.

And what’s the secret to doing that, getting in front of people? Webinars. Webinars are your secret sauce.

And in the chat, if you are currently doing webinars, type in what kind of webinars you’re doing, or how often you’re doing webinars to give everyone else a really good feel of how you’re implementing these. But the highest converting marketing activities, so and this is for, slow growth firms and hypergrowth firms. So the hypergrowth firms are the ones with the the the dark blue, slow are the periwinkle light blue, whatever we wanna call that. But Google Ads is up there. Bing Ads, we know that not as many people utilize Bing.

Organic social media, website traffic, content marketing, and search engine optimization is really high. What do we see the biggest uptick right now? Events. Events.

Events. Events. So this is a great way to get in front of leads. This is a great way to partner with COIs.

This is something that you can implement in your drip marketing.

Events are awesome.

And I’m seeing in the chat, we have wills and estate planning, women in finance, tax planning, great events, Medicare q and a. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

And so webinars and virtual workshops. What’s neat is you can host this event.

And I think a lot of people shy away from doing events because they’re like, man, I might just get one person. Here’s the thing. If you get one person, that is you getting in front of one person, and now you can repurpose that webinar. You now have a replay that you can send to everyone afterwards in an email.

You can create clips. You can break it into mini series or small clips. You can add it to YouTube or whatever your approved video, platform is. Right?

So we now yes. We have a webinar. We record it once. Now we can repurpose it in a number of different ways.

And so maybe those of you that are currently doing webinars, maybe you’re gonna take a nugget away and say, like, you know what? Maybe we should start breaking that into smaller pieces.

Oh, good. We have some podcasts popping up. Yay. I love that.

And we’re also sharing some very important blogs and other pieces on each one of these. So hopefully, you guys can grab those, grab some attention there, and go and dive into any one of these topics we’re covering today.

But answer questions that your clients and prospects have. Right?

Allows people to get to know you. You getting on video allows for people to move see you, get your personality, get the feel for who you are, hear your voice, put a name with the face. So many great things can come from webinars and virtual workshops and bring on other experts like I said. So leaning on these COIs.

Ask guests to invite their lists as well. Make it easy for guests to share with their network afterwards.

So really great way. And what do we suggest for using webinars? You, of course, depending on who you’ve hung your hat with, you figure out who, is compliant. We, personally, we use Zoom, but we’ve also used a number of different platforms.

Zoom webinar comes at a cost, but it has a lot of really great capabilities for follow-up, for, analytics as well. So we personally use Zoom for a lot of those reasons, but there are some other good ones out there.

And, again, sometimes with events and webinars, people go, man, I wanna do them, but there’s just a lot of moving pieces. Right? I have to promote the event. I have to set it up. I figure out what the heck I’m gonna say. I need to get it approved through compliance.

And so within the FMG, there is a tool that, we have specific themes. We have premade event templates. So, for example, our state of the markets event template, we have a presentation that you can utilize. We have a script. We have invites.

We can easily promote this and create a landing page for you, add it to your website if you have a website. So I just want to highlight this and say work smart, not hard, and be able to utilize platforms out there that help create these events for you. But and, again, it doesn’t have to be a state of the markets twenty twenty four. It can be something as simple as a client appreciation event or you coming alongside a marriage counselor and adding these events.

But there’s some event templates in there to to take that heavy lift off your shoulders and be able to easily promote these events as well. So creating a email series for each event. Right? Creating a drip campaign for post events, being able to easily share your your webinars, your virtual workshops, your in person events, in a, in an email or a social post.

Some other fun events I’ve seen, or virtual events or even in person events, and maybe you guys can add these in the chat. But I’ve seen some really cool ones. I like, one of the ones that sticks out to me is, they hire a photographer during the holidays, and their clients and prospects can come in and get their picture taken. And then they can use those for their holiday cards.

That was one that I saw really so, again, it doesn’t always have to be financially driven, but there we can think outside of the box for a wine tasting event, a golf outing, a charcuterie board class, really fun things. So how are you currently promoting your events?

And are we turning these virtual workshops, these webinars into video?

And some people are shying away from video, and it’s because they feel as though, well, I don’t have the fancy light and the camera and the microphone.

I’m here to remind you, you don’t need all that fancy stuff. We have really great computers these days. Our phones are always right here. Oh, there it is. You can see it.

And they have great cameras, great speakers. These don’t need to be Steven Spielberg productions. We are okay with what you produce.

So being able to produce these videos is important and being able to put them so if you’re if it’s compliant for you, being able to put them on YouTube. So I thought this is just fascinating, but YouTube is the second largest search engine today. People are going to YouTube now like they do to Google looking for questions. So can I work while collecting Social Security? Right?

So we talked about this for blogs as well. Right? Answering these important questions as a blog and as a video. You can use your blog as a script for a video, which also is great for compliance. Compliance always likes that as well.

And, also, the popularity for short form video is soaring.

And what’s the best duration for videos? So, yes, popularity for short form clips is really, very popular right now, but think about, your own attention span. So if it’s an in-depth topic, people are now listening to videos like they do podcasts. So it really kinda just depends on your message and what you want. So normally, if it’s a short video, I say three thirty seconds to two minutes.

But also people are now listening to videos as podcasts as well.

And so more people listen to podcasts on YouTube than they do Spotify, which just is so interesting how how we are seeing consumers utilize this important information.

And so recommended content planning for March to boost your lead gen. So here, I’m gonna give you a bunch of ideas that you can incorporate as your blocks, that you can incorporate for social media, that you can incorporate for your videos.

So this is like an alley oop. I want everyone to be able to take not this my next slide, I’ll tell you when, but take a picture of it because it is an entire content calendar for your year.

But content planning. Right? Here’s an idea. We just released this with FMG, but we have a state of the markets presentation, and what it covers.

How stocks performed in twenty twenty three? What drove market performance in twenty twenty three? What is happening today? And what’s the forecast for this year moving forward in twenty twenty four?

So this is a downloadable presentation. It’s available for people in our premium content library. You can easily create this as a webinar. You can repurpose it as a video.

So just an idea. And, again, maybe you’re not using FMG, but here’s an idea of something you can put together.

And, again, content planning. What is something that is on the top of everyone’s mind right now? It is tax planning. So twenty twenty four tax planning white papers. Do you have white papers that you can easily send to them as a lead magnet?

Are you talking about a tax season social sequence? Right? Do you have your social pieces lined up?

Twenty twenty four annual tax guide. Right? These are all pieces. And this is the content calendar that I was just telling you about.

Take a picture of this, and use this for some of these hot topics that your audience, your clients, and prospects want to hear from you. So March is coming up. It is right around the corner. Women and Investing.

International Women’s Day. It’s National Backup Day. I didn’t know that. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Medicare general enrollment, that’s ending. Right? And we can even start to think about what else is coming up. So April is financial literacy month. Great time to start talking about that. Financial literacy is a great way to think about that next generation as well.

And so I told you all there would be a giveaway today.

And what is that? It’s coming up, and I wanna talk about referrals before we do that. So thinking about referrals, I actually just added these slides about ten minutes before our presentation because I went to the dentist today, and it gave me a ton of really great ideas. And what I wanna ask you is do you currently have a clear process for asking for referrals? And maybe you do and maybe you can, add some sprinkles and a cherry on top to your process if you’ve already had it. Maybe I’m gonna give you some ideas, but consistency is so important because that leads to scalability.

Right? So we want processes and procedures when we’re thinking about referrals in lead generation.

So have you added asking for referral to your current client process?

So overall, having a process for collecting referrals ensures that your business can harness the power of that word-of-mouth, which we know is the number one reason why people are referring you, which we know is the number one reason why people are referring you, and is it in a strategic and organized way?

And so when I when I went to the dentist today, I was just completely blown away at their process in asking for referrals, asking for reviews. So I walked in, and I met with them. And while they were updating my paperwork, they asked for a five star review right then and there. And some of you might say, well, they haven’t you know, I’m a I’m a repeat customer.

Right? I come back time and time again. I they know I like this. So they know that they are asking for that, and they asked for it upfront.

You know what? First thing in the morning, I just had my coffee. I was feeling great. I said no problem.

I left them a five star Google review right then and there. Google reviews are so important for search engine optimization.

When someone refers you, they’re going to Google to look you up, and we wanna make sure that you have these. So they ask for that upfront.

And if your broker dealer doesn’t allow, ask allow you to ask for reviews, that’s okay. We can also, maybe you can ask for a testimonial that you could then get approved and put on maybe a brochure or maybe even add it to your website. And, again, not everyone allows for this, so this may or may not apply to you. But I know a lot of, rules are starting to change, so you can always put this in the back on the back burner for once it is approved. You can utilize some of these tactics.

Something else that they did that I thought was so important, they asked for that next meeting in the beginning stages.

And again soliciting for there it depends on where you where you are and who’s where your compliance. So it depends on who you’ve decided to hang your hat with.

But setting up that next meeting is so so important.

So making sure that you’re getting your current clients on the books, setting your books up for it, you know, whether you meet with them quarterly or biannually. We all have those clients that would meet with you weekly if they could, but setting up those meetings beforehand so you are consistently booked. You have a booked calendar. And, again, I I talked about this earlier, but if if the ask is uncomfortable for you, have someone else in your office do it for you.

Right? And that takes out that that emotional burden or whatever it could be. But, yes, in everyone, that’s what I’m saying. The the ruling changed for testimonials in twenty twenty three, so that’s why I added this in here.

Thanks everyone for adding that in the chat. And we also wanna make it really easy for people to refer you or to ask for referrals. So send them that link using via text using something like my rep chat or an approved texting or you can send it to them in an approved email that goes out.

And ask them about their excellent experience on social and ask them to tag your business as well. Right? Maybe take a picture with them, after your meeting. You gotta provide an awesome experience because what is allowing for you to set yourself apart from Joe Schmo, financial advisor across the street? And there are really two things that sets you apart. Actually, there’s three.

And actually, the first one kinda goes hand in hand, but it is you are you are communicating them to them on a regular basis. They hear from you. They receive your drip emails or your email automations.

They are hearing from you on a regular basis. That is actually the number one reason why people leave is because they feel as though their financial professional does not talk to them on a regular basis. So that is number one. And two, I was talking about it. Oh, here it is. They’re coming back to me. Client experience is everything.

Whether you have a seamless virtual client experience or from the minute they step in your office, they smell cookies. They’re greeted with a smile. They are, they’re known by name. We’re remembering key things.

We remember the their dog’s name. We remember, you know, all these important pieces that people want. People want a world class experience. And so are you providing that from start to finish?

And that was just something that, like, my dentist did a phenomenal job of this today, and I was like, we have so much to learn from them because you are a you are a trained professional just like dentists are and or a doctor or anyone else. And so let’s treat our clients like that. They are used to setting up the appointment ahead of time. They are used to, asking for a referral.

And so really cool.

Yeah. Six month annual reviews just like a dentist. So if you’re looking for some referral ideas, just go to the dentist. Right? A lot of them are doing a really great job of sharing on social.

So I just that was top of mind. That was relevant today that I thought I would share.

And there’s other professionals as well that are doing a really good job. And so we’ll keep going, but here’s just a a laundry list that I I I typed up as I was as I was hurrying before this conversation.

But and, yes, in the chat, rely on your CRMs. If you don’t have one, there’s some really great ones out there. But rely on your CRMs to create reminders, to organize your contacts, to allow for you to have a seamless process.

But, again, we wanna deliver exceptional service. So what does your your process look like today?

Ask for referrals directly. Incentivize referrals. Right? We can ask our office manager. We can ask our other teammates in our office to help ask for these. Right? Maybe you have a little office, pool going.

Implement that referral program. Utilize social. Right? That’s a great way. Provide referral tools. So that Google review. Provide a easy form for them to fill out and pass that along.

Follow-up with customers. Right? Follow-up with leads every now and then. We wanna make sure we are also following up, especially post webinar, post event, and we wanna show our appreciation for our clients and prospects.

Nothing is better than a classic handwritten thank you note for showing appreciation. I think that the handwritten note is, like, totally underutilized.

And, of course, we wanna monitor and measure our results.

So I would love to hear on social after this webinar, follow me on LinkedIn, and tag me in a great referral story, a success story. I wanna hear all the great things you are doing.

FMG actually can create, greeting cards and automate greeting cards as well. We can create personalized thank you notes where we take care of the postage and everything for you as well. So think about that if you wanna create that process. So today’s giveaway, look for this in the follow-up email. We have created a webinar success twelve step checklist. So here’s all the key pieces you need to be able to set up a webinar.

So we are sending this out to everyone.

This is hitting your inbox right after this is along with that replay. So this will come to you.

And again, we’re talking about lead generation. So do you have a lead magnet set in place? And what are some examples of this? We create these for you. So these are some FMG examples, that we have. But are you collecting these leads as they come to your website?

Your first name, last name, email.

Are you providing a value? Right? People want a a transfer of value with these items. So are you transferring value?

When they sign up, when they give you their information, are you providing value back? Are you providing an ebook? Are you inviting them to an event? Are you going to show your appreciation in one way or the other?

Event tools. So, again, creating events.

We have a tool for you to help create these events, make it easy, and I mentioned our do it for me program. I don’t I’ve said this a million times when I was a financial professional, but I was like, gosh. I just need someone to do it for me. And that is exactly where our do it for me program started.

With this, with this program we have, you have a content marketing plan that is created by Susan Theater, our CMO. She’s incredible.

And our amazing chief evangelist, Samantha Russell. If you don’t follow them on social, you totally should because they are bellwethers in the industry. They are thought leaders and award winning thought leaders at that. And so our content is written specifically for them that gets written for you.

You have a marketing specialist that comes alongside you. You meet with them on a regular basis and they help you deploy all these great pieces. So you get a great calendar. They help you with two blog pieces.

They help you promote an event. They help you with your social and emails, and they really take that heavy lift off your plate. So if you want to think about our do it for me program, I highly suggest it. If you’re looking for more information, you can always contact us at marketing at f m g suite dot com.

And these are you can also scan this QR code and you can get in touch with us. You can sign up for a demo if you wanna see more or maybe you wanna learn more about your specific maybe you have a you don’t have website with us, but you wanna look at using our marketing tools. Great. You can utilize, some of our marketing tools even if you don’t have a website with us. So you can have a website, you can have a marketing tool, you can have both, or you can have them separate. So depending on what your current makeup looks like or maybe maybe, you can find the the right flavor for you based on what you’re doing. And I’m gonna go ahead and I’m gonna open it up for q and a at this point.

And we’re putting in the chat great ways for us. So there’s that email if you wanna get in touch with us.

There is the link if you wanna sign up for a demo. And someone just mentioned they said, can we get a copy of that twenty twenty four calendar? I’m just gonna pull it up. Right now, we don’t have it scheduled to go out. But where did it go? Somewhere in here.

There it is. If you wanna take a picture of it, you can grab a, grab that. And if you don’t have FMG and you’re looking to add lead gen to your website, you can always use something like a JotForm or another third party as long as it’s approved, of course, to be able to add that.

And, are the lead gen forms able to be embedded in your own website? We have a WordPress site, not FMG. If you have maybe a WordPress site and you could always embed something like a jot form, for that.

But FMG does create content. Right? So if you’re looking for ebooks or other marketing tools, that is a great way to supplement your WordPress website.

So you could look at it grab a demo, look at what content we have available, how easy it is to share emails and social, and a great way to complement your, your your, your WordPress website.

And is there education on how to use the lead gen tools, if you are a client? Yes. We have, some webinars we’ve done. We also we have a knowledge base articles, that we have that we can always share. So if you reach out to marketing at FMG Suite, we can help get you some of those very specific, very specific tools.

And, I’ve got a question about our do it for me program. And so I’m just gonna pull this up real quick, and, hold on one sec while I pull up a new I’m not actually, I might not have time, but email marketing at f m g suite dot com, and we can get that. So, again, you get a dedicated marketing specialist that you meet with on a regular basis.

You get a content marketing plan that is created specifically by two amazing thought leaders in in the in the space, and you and we help you execute on these marketing items. So social posts, emails, help promote events, help with blogs, help promote you, and help allow you to, execute on your behalf. And so that is a lot of those details of the do it for me program.

And we can also add a link in the chat so you get more information there.

And okay. One last question. When using LinkedIn specifically, are you using the InMails, to get through the premium services they provide?

Yes. A lot of people some do, that or they are reaching out to them, and asking for them to connect first and then sending out. So LinkedIn’s a great way.

When will Instagram be content be automated?

Great question. We are still waiting. So we now do provide automated or not automated. We do provide Instagram content. As of right now, it is not automated.

It is we’re really just waiting for regulation to change on that. So we’re standing by. We are ready to pull the trigger once more people allow for Instagram to be used in that manner. So, yes, we have Instagram content. Right now, it is not, automated. And with that, I would I just wanna thank everyone for joining us today. Hopefully, maybe and in the chat, if you’re still still around, type in one thing you learned or one thing you’re gonna implement today.

I hope that this was valuable use of your time, and you enjoyed, enjoyed this and you’re able you’re able to learn something, and now we can put it into play. But I look forward to seeing you on LinkedIn. I look forward to seeing all the amazing marketing you are doing, and I appreciate you. And, happy marketing. Happy happy I can’t even talk anymore. Happy lead gens. Happy referrals.

I hope everyone has amazing twenty twenty four, and, we’ll talk to you soon. Thank you so much. Bye, everyone.