How to Generate New Leads as a Financial Advisor

Whether you’re a new or established financial advisor, you know the importance of lead generation. Whereas brand-new advisors might feel greater urgency in attracting those first leads and building up their customer base, veteran advisors understand that new leads for financial advisors provide an influx of revenue needed to stabilize and grow a firm. 

You are likely already busy advising your clients and managing investments, and lead generation requires additional time and dedication. But the right lead gen strategy—and a commitment to some of the industry’s established best practices—can help you become more efficient in generating these leads, building more significant ROI, and reducing your overall time commitment to marketing your business.

Here are some tips to help financial advisors attract new leads to their business, from traditional strategies to more innovative digital approaches.

Host educational seminars or webinars.

In-person events, which have been a mainstay of financial advisor lead-gen strategies, are tough to pull off during a pandemic safely. And who knows how successful in-person events will be after we reach our “new normal” post-pandemic. 

But webinars are a convenient alternative—and these webinars can offer certain advantages in-person events can’t, including the ability to connect with prospects outside of a tight geographic area and the option of recording webinars to feature on your website. 

Plus, because you’ll capture prospects’ information when they register to attend your webinar or watch it on-demand, you’ll have what you need to nurture the relationship (keeping in mind that most new business doesn’t close after one interaction). 

Offer premium gated content as a free educational resource.

Gating content is a great way to gather lead information in exchange for some free financial guidance. E-books, white papers, webinars, and other educational materials can offer much value to potential customers in exchange for their contact information.

With this information at your disposal, you can continue to engage them through drip email campaigns, direct calls, and other marketing strategies to warm up leads and create new conversion opportunities. Meanwhile, this gated content strengthens your brand reputation by demonstrating your expertise, offering practical tips and information, and illustrating the value of working directly with your business.

Partner with local CPAs and other centers of influence.

Financial businesses that offer related but distinct financial services can be a great source of referrals—and if you have an established customer base, you can provide the same referrals in return. 

CPAs, tax planning offices, insurance companies, and other financial services organizations likely serve the same customers you’re trying to target through your marketing efforts. But because these services are often clearly delineated, with regulated financial services making clear who your competition is and isn’t, it is easy to partner with local small businesses to support one another’s customer growth efforts. These relationships can help leverage a new audience.

These relationships can also strengthen your overall customer experience by turning your firm into more of a one-stop-shop. Even when you don’t offer specific services in-house, you can refer clients to a trusted partner, eliminating the friction of clients seeking out these services on their own.

Highlight investments into innovative fintech solutions.

The use of algorithmic and AI-powered financial advising tools may be particularly appealing to younger consumers looking for a data-driven approach to managing their money. 

But that doesn’t mean that boomers don’t appreciate technology. Having client-friendly digital illustrations can quickly showcase the value you add for your clients. Interactive tools can improve education among customers of any age. Offering tech-enabled services alongside traditional advising processes gives your customers more choice in how they engage with your financial services.

These investments can also create efficiencies that help your firm reduce its operating costs—which you might then pass on to your clients in the form of reduced fees. If so, the cost savings enjoyed by your clients can become a key highlight of your marketing messaging.

Add new content to your website regularly.

A blog is a great tool you can use to capture organic search traffic and demonstrate your expertise to interested prospects. Blog posts can also promote new access to webinars and other premium gated content. The SEC is in the process of finalizing changes to marketing rules for advisors, and your website provides an excellent opportunity to take advantage of those changes. 

New website content can also distribute this content through email, social media, and other marketing channels to extend its reach and generate more leads for your financial advisor firm. By staying active and demonstrating your in-house expertise, your business can participate in, and even drive, essential and timely conversations related to the financial advising process. 

Ultimately, free, SEO-optimized content increases your website’s organic reach, your visibility among your target customers. Additionally, you’ll improve the ease with which they can evaluate your services, your brand voice, and your expertise to decide if they’re interested in working with you.

Offer to speak to or write guest blog posts for new audiences.

Building visibility is key to generating new financial advisor leads. By speaking at events and guest blogging on partner websites, you can contribute your time and expertise to strategic outlets to gain an audience with potential customers.

Being a guest blogger or speaker can apply this strategy in two ways. First, you can look for opportunities to deliver your expertise and content to a relevant audience. For example, you could provide articles for online magazines and websites serving your target audience, or you could conduct webinars in collaboration with local financial services partners. Additionally, seeking guest bloggers to supplement your existing content and educational resources is another option.

At the same time, you can draw new audiences to your business website by hosting content from guest bloggers who have a large social following. This cross-promotional activity can get your brand and thought leaders outside of your content distribution channels, which can engage new prospects and generate new lead opportunities.

Don’t Just Generate Leads—Close the Deal.

Lead generation is an essential first step in growing and sustaining your advisory firm. But you should also make sure you have the right procedures in place to convert these prospects. 

To start things off, you need a CRM that can manage and track new leads to help you organize sales and marketing efforts for each prospect. Have a plan for what you’ll do with the leads you generate, or your efforts at lead generation will turn into wasted costs and low ROI.

It would help if you also built out the content channels and marketing strategies you want to qualify those leads. Create your blog and start generating content. Set up an email newsletter service, and build a drip campaign sent to anyone who signs up for more information through your website.

Content provides an opportunity to create new leads, but you need to have a strategy for engaging those leads once they arrive. As you plan an upcoming financial webinar, you should also plan out how you will engage prospects who sign up for the webinar. Make sure to include the emails you will send, whether you plan to call them directly, and what kinds of content you will use to move them through the sales funnel and closer to a conversion. 

Create content that addresses these different stages. For example, as prospects near a decision, they might benefit from a blog post or infographic that helps them properly evaluate a financial advisor. Set a plan for when and how you will deliver this content, and lean on your CRM to keep track of where you stand with each of your customers.

As you start to generate leads for your financial advisor firm, make sure your messaging is polished. Ensure your CRM is running smoothly, and your team members are all aligned in engaging these prospects and guiding them toward a new client conversion.

Are you looking for more tips and tricks to grow your customer base? Download our guide, The Financial Advisor’s Guide to Lead Generation.