Many financial advisers and planners waste a huge amount of money on their marketing.

On average most advisers/planners convert between 25% and 50% of all new enquiries (the lowest we’ve seen is 6%!). There are many reasons why a prospect might not immediately become a client, including:

• They weren’t the right fit for your service
• They decided to go elsewhere
• The timing wasn’t right for them.

Here’s the thing though; most advisers and planners simply move on to the next prospect and fail to do anything which will nurture prospects who don’t immediately become clients. That means they waste the time and money they spent attracting them in the first place.

A lesson learned

We had a couple of great reminders of this last month when we took on two new clients who initially enquired about our services more than two years ago. Back then, the timing wasn’t right for them. Undeterred, we added their details to our CRM and nurtured them by:

• Sending our weekly blogs; our key method of adding value and demonstrating knowledge
• Connecting with them on social media; so they see our posts even if they don’t read our weekly blog
• Sending “I saw this and thought of you messages”; so they knew we cared
• Checking in every few months to see if the timing was better.

By doing these things we added value, demonstrated knowledge, and positioned ourselves as the go-to experts. Checking in with them also communicated that we wanted to work with them.

Everyone needs to feel wanted, right?

6 ways to fix the problem

You will inevitably get enquiries from people you want to work with, but who don’t immediately become clients.

Ignoring them wastes time and money. In contrast, nurturing them until the time is right for them to take the relationship forward improves your return on investment (ROI) and maximises your marketing resources. It’s not hard either, it just needs an effective process and an occasional dose of spontaneity.

1. Collect new prospect data religiously. You can’t stay in touch with prospects (or make evidence-led decisions about your marketing without the right data. There are 12 data points that you should collect for every new enquiry. No exceptions!
2. Nurture prospects by sending monthly (quarterly isn’t frequent enough) newsletters to add value, demonstrate knowledge, and provide a gentle touchpoint with your brand.
3. Send one-off “I saw this and thought of you” messages. This is where a little spontaneity goes a long way. This type of message, whether it’s by email, WhatsApp, or direct message on social media, allows you to check in with the prospect and add value in a relaxed way.
4. Find the prospect on social media and connect, so they see your posts and get a light touchpoint with your brand.
5. Use retargeting ads on social media, again, so prospects get a light touchpoint with your brand after having visited your website
6. Invite them to events and webinars (which are easy to put on and cost a fraction of face-to-face events) to continue adding value and demonstrating your knowledge.

How many of these do you do in your business?

Effectively nurturing prospects often requires a change in mindset. I’ve been involved with businesses in the past where many of the advisers moved on if they didn’t immediately convert the prospect into a client. They had no interest in longer-term nurturing.

In some ways, that’s understandable and it’s why nurturing should be done centrally in firms with multiple advisers/planners.

It also takes patience. It can take months, even years, for a prospect to come back to you. But, that doesn’t matter if you have enough prospects at any given time.

We’re all human

None of us is perfect and every so often something slips through the net. Last month we heard from a prospect whose email I missed. Unfortunately, that meant he looked elsewhere for marketing support.

There were valid reasons why this happened but, in the grand scheme of things, they aren’t important. His feedback to us was gracious and most welcome. It served as an important reminder that systems and processes are important to ensure our human frailties mean things don’t get missed.

It also demonstrated why nurturing, with the possible exception of the “I saw this and thought of you messages”, should be managed centrally.

Make newsletters a central part of your nurturing process

Regular newsletters are an essential part of an effective nurturing process. They should:

• Be sent regularly, at least monthly (quarterly is too infrequent to have an impact)
• Be sent by email and link through to the article onto your website (PDFs are a big no-no)
• Be relevant and add value.

We have several newsletter packages to help firms that don’t have the time or desire to produce them internally. If you’d like to learn more about our proposition please click here or call 0115 8965 300.