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Advisors consistently cite referrals as their top marketing strategy for attracting ideal clients.
With advisors increasingly relying on digital marketing, the traditional referral strategies are obsolete.
Advisors who have seen their flow of referrals reduced to a trickle may be looking for new ideas.
Those who are investing in digital marketing need to stimulate more referrals online.
What are the proven referral strategies that work in digital and social media?
How can advisors leverage “online growth hacks,” marketing short cuts, to get more referrals?
Here are five winning tactics to leverage immediately for more online introductions.
1. Fix leaks in your referral bucket with a referral web page
Many advisors have holes in their referral bucket.
The most common scenario is your clients and centers of influence are telling prospects about you, but there is no referral system or next step.
And there is nowhere for those referrals to go online to start the introduction process with you and your firm.
Basic strategy: Add a web page to your website.
Growth hack: Use inviting text to make it clear that you welcome referrals and outline the first step in the process of engaging referrals.
Have contact info (ideally your direct line) and a web form with fields the referral completes including “how did you hear about us.”
Give this specific URL to your referral sources including clients, COIs, and partners.
Create a unique referral URL for key referral sources.
For example, if Main Street Estate Planners refers many new clients, create a referral web page specifically for their referrals.
2. Avoid referral follow-up failure with multi-step follow-up combining online and offline
While advisors complain of only a trickle of quality referrals, their prospect and referral follow-up systems are non-existent.
Basic strategy: Reach out to referrals within 24 hours with at least two contact points that include email and phone. Also include text, social connection request, etc.
Schedule the next outreach in your CRM in the event the referral does not respond immediately.
Growth hack: Savvy advisors are taking those referral requests and responding immediately with a personalized welcome email, a phone call, a book, free report/white paper, or an educational video.
Since referrals will not respond immediately, a multi-step, multi-media follow-up system of at least seven contacts within 28 days is suggested.
A baseline follow-up system with seven steps is three emails, two calls, and two direct mail pieces. The exact order of the steps can vary, but it should kick-off within 24 hours of the referral and stay in front of the referrals at least once a week.
An advisor I worked with many years ago went from no follow-up system to a robust, seven-step process that included an email with his core white paper within 24 hours.
The result? An amazing 50% increase in the number of appointments booked per referral.
3. Sponsor or host an online event with the specific objective of generating referrals
The pandemic has forced advisors to gain proficiency in online meetings and webinars.
By sponsoring or hosting an online event with referrals as the primary objective, advisors can offer additional referral opportunities or replace in-person events.
Basic strategy: Some advisors have hosted bring-a-friend workshops in their office or social events like wine tastings.
Simply move this event online and promote it as a clients and friends event.
For example, an independent advisor in my area transitioned its estate planning workshop for women to a webinar. Same content, same event invitation.
The webinar produced the same six to 12 attendees as the workshop, and the firm did some business.
Growth hack: Savvy advisors are engaging centers of influence and digital influencers in their niche and target community who invite their lists to the advisor’s event.
Work with hosts who have large social followings, email or customer lists who look a lot like your best clients.
For example, an advisor in Houston, TX partnered with five other wealth management experts and held a virtual conference on all things money for business owners. Participating experts promoted the event to their list and spoke for 45 minutes.
The advisor generated 125 new prospects from the event and was busy for a year working to convert many to clients.
4. Networking online so you sell in bunches like bananas
Many advisors are in the habit of making connections with clients and friends via social media and adding them to their CRM or marketing list.
Extending this habit to existing and new prospects and referrals grows your network and digital footprint even further.
Basic strategy: Some advisors are leveraging select platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to expand their social media circle and add a connection point with referrals.
Growth hack: Savvy advisors are actively engaging referral sources and centers of influence to promote their practice and research and identify new referrals.
For example, a financial advisor who works with one partner at a law firm used social media to identify and engage the other 12 partners in the law firm.
As a result of these online introductions, the advisor was invited to present to a meeting of all the partners on retirement planning and signed three of the partners as clients on the spot.
Imagine if an advisor applied this strategy to their top 10 “A” clients? They could quickly multiply to 20 or more “A” clients with minimal effort.
5. Your own influencer marketing online to scale your practice with ideal clients
Ok, let’s say you have some of the above bases covered and you are ready to scale your practice.
Basic strategy: Get to know social media or online influencers with large lists or followings that resemble a composite of your best clients and have them introduce you virtually.
For example, interview the Influencer for your radio show or podcast.
One of my advisor clients ran a weekly radio show and invited guests to speak about their area of expertise. Invariably, as a thank you for giving these experts a platform to share their expertise, the advisor would get a referral in return.
Incidentally, the radio show itself produced only a handful of prospects each year for this advisor.
Growth hack: Savvy advisors are engaged in influencer marketing on steroids.
Connect with multiple influencers who have a large, trusted following which fit your ideal client profile.
Run your best marketing program to their list and/or following.
For example, have them promote your educational webinar, your free report, your e-newsletter or your book multiple times over a period of years.
An advisor in a growing area of Denver, CO befriended an entrepreneurial accountant who shared the same floor in an office building. The advisor became friendly with the accountant and watched him grow his practice quarter after quarter, adding wealthy families in their affluent suburb.
The advisor built a strategic partnership with the accounting firm and authored a monthly column in the accountant’s e-newsletters to warm-up the clients to his services and pave the way for direct referrals.
Over time, the advisor gained a whopping 59 choice clients through this channel.
How do you gain more referrals online the easy way?
Put on your guerilla marketing hat and leverage one or more of these five marketing grow hacks. Think of them as marketing short cuts.
You can multiply introductions, increase the percentage of referrals that look a whole lot like your ideal clients, and accelerate conversion from initial contact to client.
Bob Hanson is a fractional marketer and author of Marketing Power for Financial Advisors. Get his checklist, Nine Questions Advisors Must Ask Before They Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional or Full-Time Marketer, click here.
Read more articles by Bob Hanson
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
