It’s important to stay relevant in today’s technology-filled world. Over the past decade, we have seen technology disrupt many industries including hospitality, transportation and fine dining. Some companies resist changes in the marketplace, but those who are embracing these advances in technology are thriving.
Financial advisors who have adapted to the changing times are finding that they are able to use technology as an asset to better serve their clients. In this episode of Money Script Monday, Justine presents 5 technology tools to help increase lead generation, improve customer retention, and stay ahead of the competition.
Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version of it!
This post is intended for financial professional use only.
Video transcription
Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Money Script Monday.
My name is Justine Bockman. Today, we'll be talking about five technology tools every financial advisor should be using.
I work on the marketing team here at LifePro Financial and I have the pleasure of working with financial advisors just like yourself each and every day.
I help them with their branding needs, their marketing campaigns, things of that sort.
The number one thing that I've realized is that the advisors that really set themselves apart are the ones that have embraced technology and really implemented it into their practice.
By using a lot of the technology tools that are out there and available today, you could actually streamline a lot of what you do so that you have more time to be in front of clients doing what you do best.
With that being said, I thought I'd put together five technology tools that I really see as super important for financial advisors to implement into their practice.
To help them with lead generation, retain existing clients and really stand out from their competition.
With that being said, let's just jump right into it.
Website Builder
The first tool that I wanted to go over today is a website builder.
Now you probably know it, everybody uses the internet today to make a buying decision.
The same can be said for when they're looking for a financial advisor.
You really need to put a website out there that not only talks about your products and services but talks about what makes you unique and your unique niche.
I have the pleasure of helping a lot of advisors with their websites. For those advisors that I do help, I give them two different options.
You can either do a custom website through a platform like Weebly or Wix. What these platforms have is super user-friendly capabilities.
Even someone who's never done any kind of web developing before can use a platform like this to build themselves a website.
Now some advisors tell me "Hey Justine, I don't want to go out and write all that content myself."
For those advisors, I actually tell them about a company called FMG Suite. They recently bought out a company called Advisor Launchpad.
What they do is they create client-friendly, advisor-specific websites.
That means that all of the content that you would need to build a website is already there. Anything from the process to how you do things to specific products or services out there in the marketplace.
What's great about working with a company like them is they with people just like you every day.
They'll make sure that everything you do is compliance-friendly. Definitely a great thing if you're not already having a great website or if you want to optimize your existing website, definitely two great companies to utilize.
Email Capture Form
The second tool I wanted to go over is an email capture form.
An email capture form is basically a box that would pop up after someone clicks on a button.
Maybe they're interested in a service that you provide or the way that you do things in your practice.
A form would pop up after they click on a button saying they're interested and it would ask them for their name, their email address and maybe even their phone number.
What this does is it allows you to communicate with someone even after they leave your website.
I like to think of your website as a full-time employee, meaning they actually work 24/7 for you.
A website doesn't take vacation days, doesn't take sick days, a website is constantly live and out there capturing new business for you.
If you set up your website correctly, it should make it super easy for a prospect to be able to tell you that they're interested in something or they want more information about something.
By utilizing software like OptinMonster or Leadpages, you can actually build forms to be thrown in all throughout your website.
I actually tell some advisors that every single page on their website should have some sort of form for the prospect to be able to fill out, so great tool here.
With that being said, I'll jump into the third one and that is an online appointment scheduler.
Online Appointment Scheduler
This is something you may or may not have seen before. This actually gives someone the ability to book an appointment using your scheduler.
What this software do is they connect with your existing calendar. Let's say you use Outlook, Google Calendar, whatever it may be.
Your calendar will sync with your online calendar so that when a prospect, a client, or maybe even someone else wants to book an appointment with you, they are able to really easily see when you have availability, and this saves a ton of time, right?
There's no more phone tag, there's no more emails going back and forth trying to figure out a date in time that work best for both of you.
This easily syncs up and vice versa.
When you book something in your calendar, your online calendar will immediately block out that date and time so that people can no longer book during those times.
Where I've seen this being used the best is actually having this online scheduler integrated into your website.
If someone is interested in filling out a lead capture form like we talked about earlier, maybe after they fill it out they're immediately brought to your online scheduler so that they can book a 15-minute call with you to go over it.
With software like ScheduleOnce and Calendly, you actually have the ability to set up confirmation emails, follow up emails, reminder emails before, during and after the appointment is actually made.
If you're not already doing this an online appointment scheduler is a great tool to streamline what you're doing and really just generate some more business and some more appointments on your calendar.
Social Media Automation
The fourth tool that I wanted to go over today is social media automation.
Companies like Hootsuite and Buffer are basically social media managers.
I noticed that a lot of advisors are pretty good about posting regular content.
The problem is maybe they go through articles or videos a certain time of day once a week and then they post all of those articles and videos at that given time.
Now, what's wrong with this is that you're not sending consistent messages and communications out to your fans and followers on LinkedIn, on Facebook, whatever it may be.
By using a software like this, you can actually schedule out all of your social media posts for the rest of the week.
I've actually told some advisors to maybe block out some time in their calendar, maybe one to two hours on a Friday afternoon when they're not too busy with appointments.
To really sit down and look through any articles, any videos that they saw throughout the week.
Or go on some news websites and really gather that information and then login to their Hootsuite or Buffer account.
Then they are able to set out all of the dates and times that all of these articles and videos are going to be posted over the following week or two.
This is a true time saver, an advisor can wipe their hands clean of it, not be concerned with did I post content recently?
So great tool here. Social media automation is a no-brainer for a lot of our advisors who just constantly have appointments and a lot of things going on.
Video Email Software
The fifth and final tool I wanted to talk about today is video email software.
You know it, we all receive hundreds of emails in our inbox every day.
And too often, many of those emails are just text heavy.
What we've seen, and it's actually been proven out in the marketplace that images and videos are great ways to make your email stand out from your competition.
What companies like BombBomb and Loom have allowed you to do is to record a video on your smartphone, on your laptop, on your desktop, if you have a Webcam, record a quick video and broadcast it out to either one person or a whole list of people.
That email will be sent on your behalf with the video and received by the other end within just a couple minutes.
Some of our advisors have actually asked me, " Justine, is this more so for recruiting and lead generation and finding new clients where I would send the email out to multiple people and it would be a more broader video or is this a personal one-to-one video?"
To those advisors, I actually say both for sure.
One of our top advisors is actually using BombBomb all the time. Where he sees it best used is after he's kind of warmed up to a prospect.
Maybe he met the prospect at an event he actually sends them a personal video, making reference to maybe their family or their neighborhood and ask them for that next appointment.
This is great to really get you down the funnel.
Also, we've seen great success with these being used for celebrations, for birthdays, holidays those personal messages are awesome.
That human-to-human interaction can totally replace an appointment, a call, it's a really, really awesome way to really connect with your clients, existing clients, and most of all, maybe even ask for some referrals.
I know I just threw a lot of information at you guys.
What I've done is in the text below, I've included links to all of the companies' websites that I've talked about today.
Contact LifePro
Now, if you have any further questions as you're going through any of these tools, feel free to reach out to LifePro at (888) 543-3776.
We're here to help you with those kinds of things.
Thank you so much for your time today. And I can't wait to see you on the next episode of Money Script Monday. Take care.
Additional Resources
Simplicity Group is a premier distributor of life, annuity, long-term care, and securities-based insurance products serving financial professionals nationwide. The company was formed solely to help independent insurance agents, financial planners, and other financial service professionals become successful.
[Simplicity Group:CurrentMSMPost]