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When it comes to lead generation, financial services companies have a lot to consider. Several factors can impact your ability to generate leads and close deals, from identifying the right target market to understanding the complex sales process.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide on lead generation strategies for financial services companies. By following the advice in this article, you’ll be able to develop a comprehensive plan for generating leads and growing your business.
What is lead generation in financial services?
Lead generation in financial services is identifying and connecting with potential customers who may be interested in your products or services. This can be done through a variety of methods, such as online advertising, cold calling, or attending trade shows and events.
Lead generation aims to generate interest from potential customers and generate qualified leads that will actually do business with you at some point.
What are the four steps of lead generation?
Lead generation is not a simple set up an ad here or creating an article there process. A lot goes into it; if you want to be successful, you need to have a plan. Here are the four steps of lead generation:
Step 1. Awareness phase
The first step is to get potential customers aware of your company and what you do. This can be done through a variety of means, such as online advertising, PR, and content marketing.
Step 2. Consideration phase
Once potential customers are aware of your company, they need to start considering whether or not you can solve their problems. This is where you need to provide them with more information about your products or services.
This can be done through ebooks, webinars, and other educational content.
Step 3. Decision phase
Potential customers will reach a decision about whether or not to do business with you. This is where your sales team comes in to close the deal.
Step 4. Advocacy phase
After a customer has decided to do business with you, it’s important to nurture that relationship and turn them into a lifelong customer. This can be done through excellent customer service, follow-up communications, and additional content.
You also want your existing clients to be another source of lead generation for your business. Having advocates be part of your referral marketing plan is key to long-term success.
How do you generate leads in finance?
Whether you are a financial services firm or an independent financial advisor, you will need an effective sales pipeline and lead generation strategy.
Financial advisors need to generate leads to find new clients. The leads you generate should be a healthy mix of inbound and outbound leads.
Have digital real estate
This is what we refer to as your website. It is an asset that you own and control. You should have a website that is optimized for lead capture.
Your website should be designed to attract your ideal client. Therefore, your site’s language, imagery, and overall tone should match your target market’s needs and wants.
Your website should also be designed for lead capture. This means having forms or other ways for visitors to sign up for your email list or schedule a consultation.
Need ideas for a new website or a redesign of your current website?
Check out our posts on web design examples for Financial Services and our web design examples for Financial advisors.
Share your knowledge for free
You need a way to start developing trust, and helping people by creating blog posts that can help them with their pain points is a great way to do that.
When creating blog content, you should always be thinking about how this can help your target client.
If your ideal clients come to you for personal finance help, posts like “The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Investing” can help guide them to work with you.
If your target clients are businesses, posts like “5 Ways to Improve Your Business Cash Flow” would be more helpful.
By creating content that is helpful to your target client, you are beginning the process of building trust.
Develop ways for potential clients to find you
It is time-consuming and expensive to focus on outbound strategies constantly.
By developing a strong inbound marketing strategy, you will be able to acquire leads without having to be out looking for them constantly.
Our top suggestions include:
Seo
Seo is great because you are providing an answer that people are actively trying to solve.
This means that they are already interested in what you have to say. They just need to be able to find you.
By optimizing your website and content for SEO, you are increasing your chances of being found by someone who is actively searching for the solutions that you provide.
Local SEO
Local SEO is effective at reaching people in your local area who are looking for what you offer. It is often considered low-hanging fruit if you know what you are doing.
Local SEO offers effective lead generation for financial businesses in conjunction with organic SEO.
Public relations
This is all about having a presence where your ideal clients hang out.
If your target clients are small businesses, having a regular column in a business publication can be very effective.
You can also get involved in trade associations or other groups your ideal clients are members of. This will help you get in front of them and establish yourself as an expert.
Level up your value content
You always see pop-ups for eBooks and other “helpful” giveaways. This is considered gated content.
Instead, start by giving some away completely ungated. Provide so much value that it almost seems like something people would pay for.
Then level up on this value where they need to sign up to get the rest of what you have to share.
The goal here is to be different and get as many people as possible to understand who you are and what you can do. This works well in conjunction with SEO.
Strengthen your referral network
A great way to start is by building relationships with other professionals whose clients might need your services. These could be accountants, lawyers, or even just business owners in general.
You can also offer referral bonuses or other incentives to your current clients for referring people to your advisory business.
Just be sure there is a substantial mutual benefit that makes this a no-brainer for your network.
Leverage your current clients
We all know client referrals are the best kind.
But what about going a step further and leveraging your current clients to help you generate new business?
This could be in the form of case studies, testimonials, online reviews, or even just social media posts from happy clients.
By doing this, you are showing potential new clients that you have helped others like them and that you can do the same for them.
Host an Event
Hosting community events or educational workshops can be a great way to generate new leads.
By hosting an event, you are positioning yourself as an expert in your field and building trust with potential new clients.
Events can also be a great way to connect with other professionals who might be able to refer business to you.
Just be sure that your ideal clients actually attend the events you host.
Get social and build relationships
It is sometimes challenging to think about what to post on social media.
But there is a side that most people forget that can potentially be better than spending your time posting random content that doesn’t get you leads.
That’s by engaging with others’ content and building genuine relationships.
This could be in the form of commenting on blog posts, sharing articles you found helpful, or even just connecting with others in your field.
By doing this, you are positioning yourself as a thought leader and someone interested in helping others. This will make people more likely to want to do business with you.
Think of it this way. Build connections to the point where your prospective client would want to meet with you if they visit your city or vice versa.
Be known for something
In order to be memorable to your prospective clients, you need to be known for something.
Not as in being known as a financial advisor but as something more profound and more memorable.
You could be known as the guy or gal who helps people retire early or the one who helps business owners sell their businesses for top dollar.
You could be known as the one who helps families plan for college or the one who helps people get out of debt.
As you can see, you want to be known as the problem solver for a specific audience.
Pay to play
It can get expensive if you haven’t dialed in on your market research and client personas. However, paid advertising still effectively puts you in front of potential leads at scale.
Using Google ads can be a great way to get in front of new prospects while you give time for your SEO efforts to mature and drive traffic to your website.
Once you have fine-tuned your sales funnels, it’s time to start thinking about paid traffic sources like Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads.
Paid advertising can be a great way to generate new leads, but it’s essential to ensure you have a process to turn those leads into clients.