Attract, engage and convert new client business opportunities
Financial advice firms have traditionally relied on personal recommendations and referrals to acquire new clients. But increasingly prospective clients are utilising technology to search and obtain personal financial advice, which makes understanding the digital sales funnel as part of the marketing mix key to attracting, engaging and converting new client business.
A digital sales funnel is a process that financial advice firms use to convert prospects into clients. The funnel represents the journey that a prospective clients takes from being aware of a firms’s service or product to becoming a fee paying client. The funnel adheres to three main sections; the top, middle and bottom.
1. Define your goals
It is easier to work on your sales funnel if there is a clear vision for your firm. Have you set target fee income or revenue objectives, and by when? How much assets under management do you want to acquire, and by when? Do you want to enter a new market or sector? What and when? Do you want to target a specific area of advice, for example, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria? Once you have figured out your primary firm’s goal, you can begin to plan out the rest of your sales funnel strategy.
2. Outline your prospective client personas
Prospective client personas are fictional, generalised representations of your ideal clients. Creating an analysis of whom you think your clients will be will help you generate relevant content and product development and frame future engagements. These personas will help you tailor your sales, marketing and advice strategies to the needs and desires of a specific group of people.
“68% of financial advice firms have never created a digital marketing sales funnel.”
Source: Salesforce
3. Analyse your client’s behaviour
Client behaviour analysis is a review of how clients interact with your firm. Clients are separated into each persona based on their common characteristics; then, you observe them along the client journey to record how they engage with your firm. Organise your research around questions such as: What problems are your clients trying to solve? What engagement channels do they use?
4. Create marketing collateral
The next step is to create a place where prospective clients can research and obtain your advice. Marketing collateral describes a compilation of different media types and improves the awareness of your service and product offerings.
Collateral can include paid adverts, websites, landing pages, sales emails, PDFs, downloadable guides and case studies. Marketing collateral should run parallel to your firm’s primary advertising and contain a call-to-action, a line of text or image which urges your prospective clients to take action. Your content should outline the details of your services while compiling reasons why your clients are making the right choice by choosing your firm.
What content should you use for a sales funnel?
Now that you have the foundational framework for your sales funnel, the next step is to create content. It’s essential to create content with relevant keywords for your prospective client personas and consider which tactics and channels are best for each step.
Top of the funnel
Content should connect prospective clients to your firm and help them feel confident in choosing you. According to Hubspot, 68% of prospective clients feel more optimistic about financial advice after consuming content from them. One way to draw attention is to use your knowledge from researching your audience to create tailored, high-quality content that will answer their problem.
This can involve:
- Corporate brochure
- Blog posts
- Financial and Lifestyle Magazine
- Digital newsletter
- Digital guide
- Digital factsheet
- Market commentary
- Infographic
- Video
You want to show prospective clients why they should enlist your advice services and what makes your firm different from competitors.
Middle of the funnel
Next, it’s time to build and nurture a relationship with the prospective client, creating content that emphasises that you can provide solutions to their needs. According to Google, firms with a refined middle-of-the-funnel engagement and lead management strategy see a four to ten times higher response rate than generic email blasts and outreach.
The middle of the funnel may well be the most critical stage, as a prospective client is likely to remove a firm from the running if they don’t appear suitable and will turn to a competitor.
The most effective types of content in the middle stage comprise:
- Client testimonials
- Webinars
- Blog posts
- Financial and Lifestyle Magazine
- Digital newsletter
- Digital guide
- Digital factsheet
Now that you have your prospective client’s attention, your effort shifts to keeping it. Engagement is all about keeping them actively considering your services and products. The content you create for this stage has to be high-quality, relevant and consistent. But don’t overwhelm them with too many touchpoints. It’s about striking a balance.
Bottom of the funnel
The bottom of the funnel is when it’s necessary to reaffirm why the prospective client should convert to becoming a fee-paying client through action-oriented content. This type of content needs a clear message tailored to their unique problem.
This can involve:
- Arrange a complimentary meeting
- Arrange a Zoom call
- Invitation to attend a seminar
- Promotional offer
Creating a varied and robust content library will ensure you have the resources to attract the right client personas and move them through the sales funnel.
Looking to take your digital marketing to the next level?
If you would like to discuss how to take your firms digital marketing to the next level, for more information about how Goldmine Media can work with you, talk to a member of our Business Team at 0845 686 0055 or email: findoutmore@goldminemedia.co.uk.
Andrew Spencer, Inbound Marketing Executive,
Goldmine Media
