How well are you following up your events

Most of the financial planning businesses that we’re working with are busily reviewing their propositions as the country emerges from the shadow of covid lockdowns. For many firms this is simply a case of bringing forwards the benefits of remote meetings, identifying where they will fit in their offering going forwards and building remote meetings in as a core element of their proposition.

For other slightly more ambitious businesses, they have been running virtual client events over the last 15 months, mostly in the shape of regular webinars. These have been delivered by interesting and expert speakers, and by themselves too. Some of these businesses have seen their attendee numbers steadily increasing over the last few events, a real endorsement for their efforts. They rightly plan to continue delivering these webinars into the future.

These webinars have usually been excellent events, covering really interesting and valuable topics for their clients. However one area that can generally be improved is in the whole area of follow-ups – what happens after the event. Here are a few thoughts on maximising the impact of your webinar, to really ensure that it was worth all of the effort put into it.

 

Prepare in advance for afterwards

You know who your speakers are and you know the topics that they will be presenting. You may also have any presentation slides in advance.  So it’s relatively easy to have a few of the main follow-up assets fully or mostly prepared in advance. If these are left until after the event, they often get forgotten in the rush to get back to urgent client work. You can have the following prepared and ready to go,

  • A page or blog post on your website dedicated to the event. This should have a link to a recording of the event, that can be accessed via a completed form – this way you get to see who is downloading it and is interested in the topic. As part of this, encourage the user to sign up for your newsletter / other events so that you can then stay on their radar.
  • An email to attendees, thanking them for taking the time to attend and linking through to the event page on your website. Better still, prepare this in your newsletter software where you can track who opens and clicks on your email.
  • An email to people who couldn’t make it, advising them that there’s a recording available via the link to the event website page. As above, do this in your newsletter software.
  • If you happen to have any other relevant content on the topics covered on the webinar (whitepapers, blog articles, podcasts etc.), insert the links to these too.

When you prepare this in advance, you can be ready to go immediately after the webinar has finished and while it is still fresh in people’s minds.

 

Get active on social media

Then it’s time to get out and let the wider world know about the value you add to your clients. Publicise the success of your event on social media, leading people to the event page / blog on your website. Of course, once they are here, they may want to watch a recording of the event – to do so, they have to fill out your form, give you your email address and enable you to include them in your expert communications going forwards. Now you’re using your event to draw prospects to your business…

 

Review the analytics

After all of this, you’ll have pretty rich data. This will include,

  • How many people attended the event
  • Who they are
  • Who interacted with your emails
  • Who liked / commented on your social media posts
  • How many / who requested the recording
  • Some advisers have also sent out very brief post-event surveys, checking the pieces that people got most value from and seeking general feedback. This is more data to consider.

It’s one thing having all of this data, the important task is to use it. Block out an hour or two in your diary maybe a week after the event to go through the analytics. Was the event a success? What could be done better in the future? Most importantly, are their specific individuals who really engaged with the content and who might welcome a follow-up call?

 

Follow up

Where it makes sense, follow up with those individuals who were very interested in the topic. It’s quite possible that they are mulling over an issue in that space? Reach out with the offer of a remote follow-up conversation – this will enable each of you to see if there is something to explore a bit more, without investing much time in doing so. This might be where your event leads you into a wider planning conversation with a prospective client…

 

Next time you’re running a virtual event, invest a little time in post-event activity. It will be worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

 

Are we coming to the end of remote meetings?

One thing that is certain over the coming months is that financial advisers will have plenty of clients to meet. Most people have been impacted financially in some way by the pandemic, many people in a significant way as a result of the restrictions and lockdowns over the last year or so. Your clients need to meet you. The question that many advisers are asking themselves is about these meetings and whether there is an ongoing role for remote meetings into the future.

My quick take on this is that remote meetings will definitely continue to play an important role into the future for financial advisers and planners.

 

What clients want and the hierarchy of engagements

The first step to take before you make any decisions in this regard is to find out what your clients want themselves. There is definitely a growing belief that a surprising number of clients may prefer remote meetings going forwards. They don’t want to incur the travel time (and nor do you), finding parking, getting to your office etc. If you’re in a city centre office and the client lives in the suburbs, a one hour meeting can mean the guts of a half-day written off by one of you. Other clients on the other hand will definitely want to meet you face-to-face (F2F) again.

You also need to consider what works best, both for you and also for the client. If there is a hierarchy of engagements, F2F meetings have to sit at the top of the pile. Nothing beats that human interaction of meeting in person. If you have an upcoming meeting that requires deep engagement, such as getting the client to open up about their lifestyle / financial objectives or to guide them towards better investment behaviours, it may make sense for you to insist on meeting face to face – for the benefit of the client.

However if it’s a somewhat routine review session, a remote meeting may make more sense for all.

Virtual meetings definitely win out over phone calls as we’ve all found the unique and sometimes funny moments they can produce – the dog starts barking, the small child interrupting mum or dad or some mayhem in the background. They give you a better view into someone’s life and again, are just that bit more human.

 

Make remote meetings part of your proposition

Quite a number of advisers are now building remote meetings in as a stated element of their client propositions. They are being included for lower value clients where the level of ongoing income simply doesn’t justify a F2F meeting. Remote meetings are also being built in as part of an enhanced offering for high value clients, as an addition to F2F meetings – maybe an extra half-yearly or quarterly remote catch-up.

Some advisers are now using remote meetings as an initial screening call for new prospects, particularly where there are geographical distances involved. Advisers will rightly no longer travel great distances chasing some questionable lead.

 

Make remote meetings interesting

Remote meetings can be a bit awkward, when both parties are just staring into their cameras for any length of time. Look to break up this experience a bit by screen sharing during the meeting. Some items to share and run through together might include,

  • An agenda: Always useful, this will put structure around your meeting.
  • A presentation: A thoughtful and informative presentation is a nice break from staring at each other through cameras.
  • Complex data: If you have any complex data to discuss such as investment reports and graphs, providing these visually will significantly enhance the experience and your client’s understanding.
  • Future cashflow plans: Talking through forecasted cashflows and examining “What If” scenarios is extremely powerful in remote meetings.
  • Brainstorming / collaboration tools: Mind mapping tools or virtual whiteboards are a very powerful and engaging way to make your remote meetings more interesting and to stop attention wandering.

 

Have the right set-up for good quality remote meetings

If you agree that remote meetings are here to stay, you need to ensure that you’re not being let down by the technology. This doesn’t mean that you need to buy lots of expensive equipment, however there are a few basic requisites,

  • Good broadband: Without this, remote meetings are a very flawed experience and may do more harm than good. There is nothing more frustrating than someone coming in and out or appearing pixelated as a result of poor broadband.
  • Camera & audio: These don’t have to be expensive additions, many desktops have very good cameras built in. However some laptops don’t… Check the quality of your device camera and if it’s not good enough, buy a decent webcam.
  • Know the features: Whether it’s Zoom or MS Teams that you use, know how to use them. There really isn’t a lot to them, so know and use the features. Use the waiting room functionality and password features as a default, and then understand and check all of the settings are as you want them.
  • Create the best environment: You don’t want to be interrupted during calls, so make sure this won’t happen. Also choose your backdrop carefully – try and avoid too much / too little light and have a tidy background. Some people like to feature bookcases behind themselves, others prefer a tidy, clean background. You can choose backgrounds within Zoom and MS Teams, but beware that these can create strange effects as you move around.

 

Remote meetings are most likely here to stay. Choose how you use them wisely and then put your best foot forward.

Bowl your clients over with your content

One of the main marketing challenges faced by many of the financial advice businesses that I meet, is around the production of good quality content that will really help them engage their clients. Here are a few thoughts to help you overcome this challenge.

 

Be Organised & Committed

The secret ingredient! We’ve all faced that looming deadline for “my turn” to produce that article we’d promised to go into a newsletter or as an update on the website. It’s tough when you’ve no idea what you’re going to write about! The good news is that you’re not alone, this is the single biggest challenge faced by everyone tasked with writing content.

To avoid this, set up a “Content Calendar” for the year. Get all the potential contributors into a room for an hour or so and brainstorm loads of article topics. As potential subject areas come to mind, drop them into the calendar with a few bullet points of what the article might cover.

What will this achieve? First of all, it gets you started each month – you know what you’re going to be writing about. Secondly and as important, as new ideas come along over the year, they get inserted ahead of other articles that mightn’t be as strong. So now you’re driving up the quality of your topics. You’ll actually find after a while that you’ve too much content and now can actually start being selective about what you write. Hard to believe but it happens, every time you have a Content Calendar.

And once you start, stay committed to the process.

 

Be Relevant

Your audience are far more likely to engage with your content if it is relevant to them. So as you develop out your content topics, spend some time thinking about them from your audience’s perspective. The latest developments in investment software or some obscure technical point about pensions might be of interest to you. But your clients probably won’t give a hoot…

They want to know about topics that will impact their lives, so put yourself in their shoes and develop your content with them in mind. Of course you need to know who your audience is before you can do this. Are they business owners, professionals or are you focused on personal protection etc. for families? If you have very diverse audiences, you might need to target specific content at specific people. All pretty straightforward to do with the wonders of modern technology…

 

Be an Educator, not a Salesman

Your audience will switch off if you spend your time pushing sales messages at them. At the end of the day, they will see your content as simply an ongoing sales campaign and will disengage.  Add value by writing about financial issues or challenges that affect them in their lives, in which you can exhibit your expertise. Aim to be seen as an expert, an educator, someone with valuable insights that will help your clients, rather than a salesperson.

To make this easier for yourself, write about topics you know. This means that you won’t have to spend loads of time researching topics, and this familiarity with the subject will help you write better content too.

You see the world of marketing has changed. Rather than trying to constantly interrupt people with messages to sell, sell, sell; successful advice businesses are establishing themselves as thought leaders, as educators and as experts. So then when potential clients at their own time of choosing have a financial need, they will naturally gravitate towards these advice firms that they already see as valuable.

 

Be Alert

Great topics to write about will emerge from a range of sources. Presentations you attend, conversations you have, comments from other clients. Once your antenna is up, you’ll start to identify nuggets from what other people say – their challenges, their areas of interest, the issues they want to read about. So write about these!

Also when reading a newspaper or surfing the web, you’ll come across loads of topics of potential interest to your audience. Put your own spin on these topics and write about them too.

 

Be Brief

Be expert but also be brief. The purpose of your content is to engage your audience, not to demonstrate that you know every intimate detail of a topic. Typically an article of 750 to 1,000 words can be read (and written) quickly and will perform well in search results. If you only have 500 (good) words though, go with that – don’t pad it out to get to 750 words.

Make your content easy to read too. Use headings and/or bullet points to make it easier for the reader. If the topic is just not capable of being explained in anything close to 1,000 words, break it out into a series of articles. And now the challenge next month has just got easier…

 

Be Found

What has this got to do with Content? Well, one of the key drivers of strong performance in Google search results is original, good quality content. While this might not have been a driver behind your efforts to produce a regular stream of good content, it’s a very valuable bonus.

 

At the end of the day, I reckon the initial thought of producing a lot of content is far more daunting than the reality! I hope these thoughts help you with your challenge.

image courtesy of Flickr / Mohammad ALNajdi

6 “no no’s” on LinkedIn

I’m a big fan of LinkedIn and have been for the last decade. While some people (too quickly) dismiss it as just another route for recruiters to target your staff, I believe it offers significant benefits to financial planners in building and engaging a valuable network. However it’s not perfect, and as a follow-on piece to the above linked article, I think it’s useful to set out a few practices that people should avoid when using LinkedIn.

 

LinkedIn is not for selling

If you’re thinking about using LinkedIn for selling, think again. LinkedIn is a platform for setting out a professional profile on the web, building a valuable network and then engaging with this network over time. There is nothing worse than accepting a connection request, only for it to be followed by a sales pitch from my new connection. It is by far my number one gripe and will result in me not engaging with you…ever. Think about it – it’s like walking into a room, introducing yourself and then shoving your product or service in the other person’s face. You never do it in real life, don’t do it online either.

 

Never send out the stock LinkedIn connection request

This one is the second biggest sin in my book! I urge you to always personalise a connection request. If you know or have previously met your target connection, remind them of this. Otherwise find something in their profile or on their website which demonstrates that you want to connect specifically with them. It’s too easy and lazy to send out a bunch of standard connection requests hoping that some of them will land… but is that not just spam?

 

There’s no point being secretive and hidden

Remember that LinkedIn is a networking tool. This is important, and the best physical networks are ones where people are open with other, introduce new people, collaborate together and help each other. So why do some people keep their connections hidden online? I’ve been using LinkedIn for about 15 years now and still haven’t heard of a single example of a client being “stolen” or even approached, as a result of being identified as a connection of another adviser.

In this vein too, I always advise that you remain visible yourself and identifiable when looking at other people’s connections. What’s the harm in someone seeing that you are considering connecting with them or otherwise researching them? Is that not an integral part of networking?

 

Don’t leave your profile unfinished

This is one that we’re all guilty of. Review your profile regularly as this is your personal showcase on the web. Make sure the information is up to date and that you’re putting your best foot forward in each of the profile sections. LinkedIn make this very easy for you, by asking you all of the relevant questions in each of the sections.

One area in particular that carries a lot of weight and adds hugely to your profile is the Recommendations section. Why don’t you approach that recent, delighted client to whom you have just delivered clarity, valuable advice and a roadmap to achieving their financial goals. They will probably be delighted to recommend you, but they won’t think of it – you need to ask!

 

Less haste, more speed

It’s very easy to share updates on LinkedIn. But it takes a little bit longer if you want to maximise the impact of your posts and the value that you add. It is worth that extra minute or two to go and find a good image to use, as opposed to not using an image. Posts without images have far lower click rates. In the same vein, if you are sharing 3rd party content, add your own take on it or a question that you think it poses. It might take a minute to think of it and type it in, but it’s worth it rather than just sharing a link.

 

Don’t give up

It take time to build an effective network and to then engage your network. I’m a long-time user of LinkedIn and really believe that with a little bit of effort, it can pay big dividends. For me it has been a consistent and valuable source of new clients, and that is without ever “selling” on LinkedIn. Instead through trying to add value with what I hope is useful content, LinkedIn has got me on to radars that I otherwise probably would never have appeared.

It does take a little bit of time and some effort, but it’s worth it. If it’s not happening quickly for you, stick with it. It is worth persevering.

 

Is LinkedIn worth the trouble?

For those looking for the shortened version – the answer is a resounding YES!

In fact LinkedIn is really not optional for financial advisers any more, as the opportunity cost of not using it is simply too great to ignore now. You must have a presence on it and it must be a very strong presence.

Why? Well here are a few reasons.

 

Your professional profile

Your website tells people about your business and the services that you provide. Your LinkedIn profile on the other hand gives you the opportunity to tell people about you, the businessperson. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your career credentials, your skills and your experience. You also have the opportunity to include recommendations from happy clients. Your LinkedIn profile offers you the opportunity to connect on a personal level with prospective clients.

 

Give yourself a head start

It’s always great to have something in common with a prospect when you meet them, to get off on the right footing! Maybe you went to the same school, shared a common previous employer, are in the same sports club or have an unusual interest in common. This gives you a conversation topic for those first few minutes as you draw each other out into the conversation. LinkedIn is a rich source of this information and might help you to press the “happy” buttons from the word go…

 

A valuable research resource for prospects too

We all use Google to check out potential suppliers before we contact them. The same applies to financial advisers. I think it’s safe to assume that almost 100% of prospective clients will carry out some research of you and your business before entrusting their money with you! Your search (Google) results hopefully will list your website and your LinkedIn profile.

If you’re not on LinkedIn, what does this say about you? To many people, it shows a lack of professionalism, not having your finger on the business pulse. Equally damaging is having a very poor presence on LinkedIn. A badly created profile, with a very small number of connections hardly sends out the message that you are the best provider in town to meet the needs of a potential client.

 

Driving traffic to your website

It’s all well and good having a great website, however you’ve got to ensure that people actually get to visit it and see your content. And this is where LinkedIn plays such an important role. You can share content that is housed on your website out via LinkedIn. And of course if any of your network interact with your content by liking it or sharing it themselves, your content then is highlighted to a whole new network of contacts, leading these people back to your website where they hopefully will learn all about you.

  

Helping your search engine results

Social media in general and LinkedIn as one of the main platforms now plays a significant role in achieving excellent search engine results. While of course it remains very important to have your website pages set up correctly, with well written content featuring your chosen keywords, that on its own is not enough. Fresh, original content that is endorsed by other people earns a lot of brownie points with Google and helps push your site up the search results. And LinkedIn is one of the most effective places for this to happen for you in a business context – when you share your business related content and your insights, and others then interact with them.

 

Providing great insights

Another benefit of LinkedIn is the insights that you can get. You can a real sense of whether your content is of interest to people, and more importantly, who is actually finding it interesting. As people, like, comment upon or share your content, you learn who is reading and finding your content of interest, in a way that no other medium (except email marketing) will deliver. Maybe it’s worth your while reaching out to these people and suggesting a coffee?

 

The benefits of LinkedIn are huge and can’t be ignored by financial advisers. Is it time that you learned how to get the full benefit from it?

 

Here we go again… how are your team?

And so it’s Level 5 for the next few weeks at least. The only racing certainty is that it will not be back to business as usual in the foreseeable future. Many are wondering if we’ll be back to normal at all in 2021.

We all need to recognise how challenging this is for our teams.

For some individuals, a lockdown is a breeze – they love working from home. They have created a very nice working environment and routine for themselves, when based at home. However for many, this is simply not possible.

I bumped into a friend locally at the weekend, he runs an IT department for a major Irish employer. While working from home is fine for him, he spoke of the challenges faced by the younger programmers in his team. These colleagues are used to lots of desk space, three monitors on the go and all of the necessary technological aids. Some of them are now working on laptops on their bed, in shared accommodation. Not a good environment for detailed work.

Can you help your team with their remote working environment? Would the purchase of a small desk help them or what equipment can they take from the office that will help them?

Recognise the challenges that some with younger children face. While the schools are still open this time, children will be around in the afternoons. Also, younger children may be in the house all day, with the inevitable distractions that they can bring.  Be flexible, understand the pressures your team may be under at home and trust them to do their best.

Communication is critical in these times, it is so important for you to stay in touch with your team and to stay visible. Your staff need your leadership now, more so than ever. Agree a regular call – this might be every day, or every second day and use Zoom or MS Teams for team meetings. Keep the team together, just at a distance.

Of course, your business still must deliver the very best service to your clients. This is where both you and your team must step up and deliver in these challenging circumstances. While being flexible, set very clear expectations with your people in terms of their working hours, the outputs you require them to deliver and the level of client interactions you need. This is not a time for your business to go quiet, it requires you and all the team to stay in touch with your clients to reassure them in these difficult days. Your expectations of course should be high, but they must be reasonable.

Your staff are going to see you through these difficult months. Just because they are working remotely from you, never forget that you are one team. Maybe you can’t buy them lunch at the moment, but that’s not to stop you showing your appreciation to them. Consider sending them a small gift to show your gratitude. If this is not possible, ring them and say thanks for their efforts.

You’re the lynchpin of the team, so don’t forget to look after no 1, lots of people need you to stay healthy. Your family, your staff and your clients can ill-afford you to get sick. So, take no chances yourself.

You’re also the leader. Now is the time to stand up and lead from the front. Your staff and your business need this if you want to emerge from these difficult times in the best possible shape.