Financial Pro’s… this Bud’s for you!

Internet Marketing For Financial Planners:

I decided to write this week specifically to financial planners because this is the one industry that is not embracing social media or online marketing. Quite frankly that surprises me because so much authority derives from harnessing the power of the internet. So many relationships are built through the online marketplace. The typical email I get from financial planners are various charts and graphs that may as well have been created in Microsoft Paint.

So Financial Pro’s… this Bud’s for you!

When we think of online marketing, we think of a guy in his house, in his underware reselling Nike Air Jordan’s for a sweet $15 mark up. For some, this is a great deal of money. They probably should find a wider array of products, perhaps some that have a bigger profit margin! But I’m sure you sophisticated financial guys already picked up on that!

In any case, It’s my belief, and with tangible evidence of course, that financial planners could reap multi-million dollar production levels by embracing the world of Internet Marketing and Social Media. Firstly, after you read anymore of this, you may explore to my blog and read about some of my work and what my philosophies are. There you will find that I understand “the sale” just as well as any of you. The only difference is of course, the product and the sales timeline. You do business slower than me.

Advisors Timeline:

Meeting, Information discussion, meeting, information exchange, underwriting, meeting, discussion, decision.

This is quite a process! It usually takes several weeks-months to complete. This is why we want to educate customers beforehand and establish rapport/trust as soon as possible. This is more than a phone call. This is more than "let's set a meeting to chat". It also eliminates any cold-call aspect in the equation.  

I think I have a very simple solution that can shorten this timeline as well as improve agent-customer rapport. I think their needs to be continuing education for the client. If you were doing articles and press released on how your whole life insurance can pay toward your disability policy, or that in year 27 on a whole life policy, your cash value will be equal to greater than premiums put in. These are simple examples to sophisticated financial pro’s like yourselves, but I am sure you have strategies that are far more complex, but can be discussed and “put out there” for a client to read. And we can track who reads this data. So after 2 months of a prospect reading your blogs every week, you know you can call him and he’ll probably have a lot to talk to you about. And a high level of rapport. We're basically taking the "i'm calling for your yearly checkup" out of the equation. Make sense?

As they say in the insurance biz, “once your list runs out, you’re out of business”. You also have pressure to continue to build a network. What if I was to expand that network by 10,000 people? You see, when you post valuable content (giving away something for free), let’s say, IRA advice as an example, and a person improves their retirement income due to a simple strategy they learned from you. They are going to take you and any other content/ideas you send VERY SERIOUSLY. They will introduce you and talk about you to friends. Your info will spread around faster than Kim Kardashians sex tape.

The fear amongst consumers in the economy is clearly evident even in 2012. With the elections in November we’re going to see sophisticated clients start talking about the “what if’s”. In other words, they’ll be indecisive and less likely to commit to any long term plan. As you know from a professional planning standpoint, there are a lot of areas people can improve in, and straightforwardly put, are clueless to. Call it ignorance on the clients behalf, but in my opinion is the lack of information the financial planners are providing them. That's YOUR job. The relationship/confidence building you are missing 364 days out of the year.

Thank you for visiting my blog, please feel free to read other articles and tactics right here on my site. 

Please inquire if interested in hearing more about my work with financial companies.

Matthew Geiger

Hudson-West Media Group

Matthewjgeiger2@gmail.com