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In this blog/podcast I am going to talk to you about examples of 5 financial advisor lead magnets that make prospects go HECK YEAH.
For those of new to my blog/podcast, I am Sara Grillo.
Pleased to meet you!
I am a CFA® charterholder and financial advisor marketing consultant. I do weekly newsletters on financial advisor lead generation and they are fun and highly irreverent.
What to expect in this blog
It seems like lead magnets aren’t really that well understood by financial advisors.
I decided to make this show because some of you financial advisors don’t even know what a lead magnet is. Or you’re using one that is not getting you anywhere. Or so you don’t see the point of giving away free info to people who aren’t your clients.
In this blog/podcast, I’m going to talk about:
- What a lead magnet is
- How does the lead magnet help financial advisors in their sales funnel
- What makes a good lead magnet
- 5 examples of good financial advisor lead magnets
Let’s get started!
The basics on lead magnets for financial advisors
What is a lead magnet? It is a document that is gated, meaning that the user has to input their information (usually email address) in order to download it. This allows the owner of the content to build their prospect email base.
Lead magnets can be very helpful to the financial advisor sales funnel.
Sales funnel, you say?
Learn more about financial advisor sales funnels in this video below.
If your lead magnet is especially thought provoking and insightful it can help do some of the selling for you by making a great first impression. It can make the prospect feel curious about the financial advisor and be compelled to learn more or even meet him or her.
What makes a good lead magnet?
Here are some general guidelines.
- Give them enough information that they feel you are an authority, but not the whole thing.
- Make sure to cover material that other financial advisors do not. You will have to do some work here, but the great part is that the competition has made them freely and publicly available to avail yourself of. Start downloading!
- Don’t offer the same dry old clichéd downloads that financial advisors typically do. You know, the retirement calculator? The Social Security worksheet, etc.
- Most of all, it should reflect something about your value as a financial advisor.
When I first started my business, I launched a YouTube channel at the same time. I had a few great lead magnets that solidified by subscriber base and led many of my first clients to find me. The videos I was making were about how to pass the CFA exam and there were also many tutorials about how to model stocks in Excel. In these videos, I offered a free CFA planner and a free set of sample research models.
As of the time of writing this blog, people still come to me in hot pursuit of these lead magnets. The reason was that I dug down deep. The CFA study planner featured a day by day map of what to do in the months preceding the exam. The Excel models were basics but still offered a high level of sophisticated technical information from my past days as a research analyst. They were solid, well thought out, high quality lead magnets. It took me some time to create them, but it paid off cumulatively year over year and as of today it still does.
Why financial advisors tend to (wrongfully) shy away from lead magnets
Some financial advisors object to lead magnets, saying they are not comfortable providing that much free information to someone before they become a client. Within this assumption lies the doubt that the prospect will become compelled to become your clients as a result of receiving the lead magnet.
Your lead magnet is far less likely to fail its goal of converting the random downloader into a solid lead if the person reading it says this to themselves:
HECK YEAH this is a great article. Who wrote this? That is the one financial advisor out there who is worthy of my respect.
HOLY SH*#. I learned something new today. I really appreciate the financial advisor who wrote this. I should email them and thank you.
FREAKIN’ A. I never have had someone explain this technical concept to me so clearly. What an awesome financial advisor this person must be. Imagine if he or she were the one servicing my account – I’d be so happy.
Get My Point?
Now, the reason most people don’t say this when they read most financial advisor lead magnets is that usually the financial advisor doesn’t commit enough time creating them. So as a result they wind up being the same old BS retirement calculator or social security worksheet.
So to you who want to create lead magnets that actually work, my advice is to do the deal, financial advisors. Do the freaking deal. Get the deal done right there with the lead magnet by taking some time and making it go beyond what everyone else is doing.
It’s that easy to tell what your competition is doing. You can go to their websites and down load the things. Get the value on lockdown because the competition won’t.
5 examples of great Financial Advisor Lead Magnets
Now that we have covered the basics of what lead magnets are and how financial advisors can use them, let’s go over some specific examples. By the way, if you are digging my style then please check out my membership which offers access to my exclusive content about online marketing strategies for financial advisors.
#1 Traps to avoid when dealing with the Social Security Administration
Most financial advisor lead magnets about social security feature a calculator or a worksheet. I’m not a big fan of these types of lead magnets because you are essentially giving the DIY clients free reign to do it themselves. You are making their jobs way easier and they may not contact you.
Instead, I would outline the key challenges people who handle social security on their own commonly have. This allows you to build up some fear in the mind of the reader. Done correctly, the reader will get the impression that this is not the type of thing they want to do on their own – they’ll be in over their head.
While you’re giving them information, you’re giving them the headache side of it without proposing too many solutions. Try creating this as a video in addition to a downloadable blog and include a glossary in it as well.
#2 IRMAA Stress Test
Running an IRMAA Stress Test on what their Medicare Costs and the impact of IRMAA will do to their social security net benefit.
#3 Guide to Understanding your risk tolerance (for reeeeeal)
Miscalculation of risk and underperformance of the investment portfolio is a huge reason why people leave their financial advisor. Create a plain English guide to understanding a financial advisor’s risk tolerance questionnaire – but avoid the technical, esoteric questions that clients don’t have time to decipher.
Side note: this is a good way to catch prospects who are ticked off at their current financial advisor.
And by the way, here are some questions you may want to think about including on your Risk Tolerance Questionnaire.
#4 Budget for a particular event (hyper specific)
Don’t do a general budget worksheet. This is so played out.
Design the budget for a particular event like getting your first mortgage, buying a house, or affording a wedding. In fact, present a few models for these events. Get a few sample budgets to show variety and make sure they display the nuances relevant to the event.
The wackier, the better!
#5 Script for what to say in your first meeting with a financial advisor (estate attorney, CPA, etc.)
This one is an SEO play. You want to write a blog with the keyword “financial advisor in [your city]”. So you make the title, “What to ask in your first meeting with a financial advisor in [your city].” And then you repeat the keyword over and over in the blog. This will obviously attract people who are looking for a financial advisor in your area.
Viola! Now you’re in touch with a new prospect.
For this lead magnet, include a list of really juicy questions that the reader will appreciate because they allow them to get a sense of the quality of the person they are having the meeting with. People love when you give them practical tools that they can use to take action.
Conclusion on financial advisor lead magnets
What’d ya think? Was this helpful?
If yes…
Learn what to say to prospects on social media messenger apps without sounding like a washing machine salesperson. This e-book contains 47 financial advisor LinkedIn messages, sequences, and scripts, and they are all two sentences or less.
You could also consider my financial advisor social media membership which teaches financial advisors how to get new clients and leads from LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll at least join my weekly newsletter about financial advisor lead generation.
See you in the next one!
-Sara G
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