
23rd Juy, 2025 - Webinar replay
How ChatGPT is changing the way new clients find your business and why you need to act now
Phil Bray
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to July’s Yardstick webinar, talking ChatGPT today and how it’s changing the way in which new clients find your business and, more importantly, what you need to be doing now. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed we have Dan and Abi on as usual, but we’re also joined, delighted to be joined, by Lee, Lee Robertson, welcome Lee, if you don’t know, Lee is a former financial planner and now a non-exec and consultant to financial services firms. So uber happy to join us today and start talking about ChatGPT and how it’s going to help you take on new clients. So today we’re going to talk about a variety of different things. We’re going to start by looking at the three ways AI and ChatGPT will affect your business. We’re then going to talk about the two ways consumers are already using ChatGPT to find financial advisers. And then we’re going to get really practical, really tactical, by talking about the actions that you should take to fact find and prepare for this change, and then the specific actions you can take to help ChatGPT recommend you. So that’s what is ahead of you for the next hour of your life. Dan, do your normal home housekeeping slot please, if that’s okay?
Dan Campbell
Yes, of course. Hello everybody. So welcome to another Yardstick webinar. I hope we’re all having a nice week. So as usual, I’ll be telling you where your emergency exits are located and wishing us all a safe journey through those next 60 minutes together. So for those regular attendees in the crowd, of which I can see quite a few familiar names you’ll know by now, we encourage lots of participation in the form of questions and comments, and I usually say something like, challenge us, tell us if you disagree, which is still true, of course, but the one caveat I’ll give today is that AI and LLM’S are a constantly evolving beast, so there is an element of us all working it out together as we go. So I think what I’m saying here is, do tell us if we’re wrong, but be kind and of course, the usual way to have your say is the Q and A box and the chat function. I’ll be monitoring both today, and we’ll read out things as we go at regular intervals. And let me answer one question we get, we are recording today’s session, so a follow up email with the link to that, plus any resources that get mentioned, they’ll get sent out thanks to the real star of the webinar, Abi Robinson, who is diligently working behind the scenes as usual to make that happen. So I’ve gotten this far without making a joke that I’m an AI generated video and not a real boy. So before I can do that, let me pass you over to Phil and Lee.
Phil Bray
Cheers, Dan. Thank you very much. Okay, so in our experience of talking to advice, planning firms, mortgage brokers and also service providers, there are generally three ways that AI is affecting your business. So we’re seeing firms use it to improve their marketing. We’re seeing firms with it use it to make their business more efficient. At Yardstick yesterday, we built a little tool in ChatGPT that’s going to make a manual job much more automated. Chatting to other firms in the advice and planning space. They’re using a lot of technology, such as Saturn and adviser AI with recording meetings, summary meetings, that sort of stuff. So the second way of using AI is to make your business more efficient. And then the third way is what we’re going to be talking about today. And that’s all about how potential clients, consumers who are looking for what you do by using ChatGPT and AI to find your business, going to be really drilling down in that today. But I wanted to make my first question to Lee, are those three ways that you see firms using AI? Are there other ways that I’ve missed?
Lee Robertson
No, I think that that pretty much sums it up. But everything else is just a subset of these three top topics. I think if you were to look at things like RegTech. That’s part of making your business more efficient, isn’t it? You’re reporting to the regulator. If you’re looking at producing content to promote your business, that’s a subset of marketing. So I think these, it’s a really good summary of the three.
Phil Bray
Cool, thank you. And then one, of course, in this context of how consumers find financial advisers and financial planners. I thought I’d start off with a few definitions. So AI, artificial intelligence. And in this context, artificial intelligence means LLM, large language models, for example, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, and plenty of others. Then, in the context of large language models, what I’m really talking about is ChatGPT, because ChatGPT in the UK dominates the LLM market, and depending on what device you’re using, whether it’s a laptop or a mobile ChatGPT has 78 to, sort of high 80s of the market share with Microsoft. Copilot just massively off a cliff down at 12%. Lee, what’s your go to? LLM of choice, are you ChatGPT? Are you Gemini? Are you something else?
Lee Robertson
No, I use two. I use Claude and Perplexity, both because it got really good, I live on my phone basically. So the fact they’ve got really, really good apps. But the reason I like both of those is they also give you sources. So if you ask a question and it comes up with answers, it will also give you further reading as standard when you prompt. So that’s why I like them better than ChatGPT. I also find Claude, particularly because I like to write and I like to brainstorm ideas. I find Claude is very good at giving me that kind of stuff in a very human way, as opposed to ChatGPT can be a little bit viral for sometimes.
Phil Bray
Interesting. So you’re matching your LLM of choice to the task in hand.
Lee Robertson
Yeah, I guess so. I haven’t thought about it that way, but yes, I guess so. I even get frameworks for articles that I want to write, or even first drafts. I find that Claude does very good first drafts that you can then go in and put your kind of expertise and your personality in and that kind of stuff. So that’s why I particularly like Claude on the writing side.
Phil Bray
Talking of Lee’s phone. Do follow Lee on social media, whether it’s your Twitter, your Instagram or your LinkedIn account, Lee is a fantastic photographer just using his phone. They’re absolutely super, big fan of those. They always block my domain. So keep doing that.
Lee Robertson
That’s very kind of you. Thank you.
Phil Bray
So we’re talking today mostly about ChatGPT, because while Lee isn’t potentially in the 78 to 87% they do dominate the market share here in the UK, of what consumers are using, and they’re using it in two ways, to find financial advisers, financial planners, and first way they’re using it is to research an existing recommendation. So they might have asked a friend, a work colleague, a family member to refer them or recommend them to a financial planner. They might have asked another trusted source, a solicitor, an accountant, to recommend them on so the first way that they might be using ChatGPT to find you is to research a recommendation. The second way is an alternative to a service based search on Google. Now a service based search might be typing into Google “financial adviser near me, financial planner in Nottingham”. I sat going through these slides earlier, sat in a Cafe Nero, this is my want, and I was just typing a few things into Google. And service based searches are services such as “financial adviser near me, financial planner Nottingham”, etc. So just to unpack those two ways in a bit more detail, if we’re looking at how people might use ChatGPT to research an existing recommendation. We need to look at the current journey that people go on. So the current digital journey looks something like this. The consumer gets a recommendation from a friend, family member, work colleague, professional connection, and then they run what’s called a brand search on Google. Now a brand search is where you look up the name, or the consumer looks up, I should say, the name of the firm they have been recommended to, or the name of the planner, the adviser that they’ve been recommended to. Now, some of these people are just looking for some basic information. “What’s the telephone number of this firm I’ve been recommended to? Do they work with people like me? Let’s go and have a bit of a nosy on their website”. Other people are considering multiple options, because all the research we see shows that people aren’t recommended generally to one firm. They seek multiple recommendations, so they might be recommended to firm A, firm B, and they’re heading on to Google to compare those options. They first meet the adviser or planner on the Google search results page, and they start getting to know them on their website, and during that digital journey from the Google search results page to wherever they click and on the website, they’re making a judgment about whether firm A or firm B is the right one for them. And clearly, we can’t influence what they think, but we can influence what they see. And at that point, when they’ve done that research and run the brand search, clicked around, had a look, they will either make an inquiry or they will continue their search somewhere else. And this is where competition happens in the adviser and planner space. Rarely happens around a meeting room table. It happens online, happens before people meet you, and it’s invisible. And it’s why Marcus Sheridan, author of “They Ask You Answer”, talks about the fact that 70% of a consumer’s buying journey is made before they meet you. So that’s the current digital journey, and there are three ways ChatGPT might change things here. The first is very simple, rather than doing the basic research on Google, someone uses ChatGPT or somewhere. So they’re looking for a telephone number, they’re looking for a website address. They’re looking for an email address. They choose to go to ChatGPT rather than Google. The second way they might use it is to validate that recommendation, and that you can see people using a relatively long prompt there describing their circumstances. “I’m a 65 year old male. I want to think about retiring. I want independent advice, and I want to meet face to face. I’ve been recommended to this firm. Insert the name of the firm. Are they a good fit for me?” And then ChatGPT will give an answer. The third way that people might use ChatGPT is where they are comparing multiple advisers and planners. So they might give that prompt the similar sort of prompt to what I’ve just said. But then finish it off by saying, “I’ve been recommended to firm A, firm B, firm C. Please tell me which is going to be a better fit for me”. And then ChatGPT will give generally, a really detailed answer, and it will make a recommendation, whether the human then goes ahead with that recommendation to go with firm A rather than B or C. Who knows, but those are the three ways that we see ChatGPT interacting with referrals from existing clients and introductions from professional connections. Lee, just before I go and unpack that second way of people using ChatGPT, just give us your thoughts on what I said there, if you would be so kind.
Lee Robertson
Yeah. Listen, that all makes a lot of sense. I think the thing that always stands out for me is the prompt. The more detailed you are in your prompt about what you want, the better results you’ll get. And some people get a bit hung up on the prompting, you could ask ChatGPT to recommend a prompt for best results on what you’re searching for. So you can actually get that to do the initial work if you’re a bit nervous about writing prompts. But I think the better the prompt, the more detailed, the more context you give it, the better result you’re going to get. And I know that sounds self evident, but I often see people using really, really short prompts and expect a detailed answer. So think about what you want to ask and the context.
Phil Bray
I completely agree. We’ve got to brief ChatGPT and AI in the same way we would a human and if the output from the AI isn’t great, more likely in my view, that the prompt wasn’t great, rather than the AI was having a bad day.
Lee Robertson
I’m sorry, Phil. I mean, what always strikes me is Google’s a blunt search engine, but with AI, whether it’s ChatGPT or anything else, the more conversational you can make it. It’s a much more conversational discussion than you would get with Google. So if you can put that in your mind, “if I was asking a friend for this kind of advice, what sort of information would I give my friend?” I’m not saying AI is your friend, but I will say thank you, by the way, just in case when the robots take over. But, the more conversational stuff you can give, as if you’re asking an actual friend, the much better result you’re going to get.
Phil Bray
Yeah, I agree completely. I agree completely. And that takes us to a slightly different point that you can pretty much work out what somebody might type in a traditional Google search in the days of SEO, and then target those keywords, with ChatGPT and AI, because people are writing prompts and asking long questions and speaking to it like a human that’s much harder, which takes me on nicely to the second way and unpacking the second way that people might use ChatGPT to find your business. And as we know, not everybody asks someone they know, someone they trust for a recommendation or referral, and therefore many people will run service based searches on Google. Now, service based searches generally focus on a niche or locality. So that niche might be financial adviser for women who are getting divorced, might be financial adviser for dentists. So that might focus on the niche, might also focus on the geography. We know that niche is accepted a lot of people, a lot of consumers, want to work with a financial adviser who’s based closely to them, and it’s why platforms like unbiased and VouchedFor have what’s your postcode, what’s your location, really early on in their journey. So a typical service based search, when it’s focused on location, might be a “financial adviser near me, financial planner Nottingham, retirement advice”. That sort of stuff. And then we’re all familiar with the traditional Google search results page. You’ve generally got some paid adverts at the top and the bottom, below the top paid adverts, you’ve got a Google Business section when the search is based on a locality. And then you’ve got the 10 blue links, the 10 natural search links. And that’s where everybody has been focused over the years, making sure that their business is on page one and ideally on the top of page one. And that’s still that SEO, that search engine optimisation, is still important, because clearly the LLM’s, ChatGPT, etc, is searching Google as part of its research before it gives the answers. So that’s where we are right now. I think ChatGPT and AI is going to change that in two ways. The first is a migration away from traditional search to AI search now deliberately used the words traditional search and AI search there, rather than Google and ChatGPT, because, as we all know, when you type something into Google these days, you often especially if it’s an informational search, get the AI overview at the top. So this morning, when I was sat in my Nero, I typed in “financial adviser near me”, I got the traditional search results page. I didn’t get an AI overview at the top. When I typed in, “what’s the state pension age in the UK”, I did get the AI overview at the top, and the AI overview at the top is causing a problem for people who were relying on consumers and visitors to their website clicking those blue links, because oftentimes now we are not getting past that AI Overview. So that migration from traditional search to AI search is sometimes a conscious choice, going into ChatGPT rather than Google. Sometimes it’s forced upon us with the AI search results at the top of the Google search. And if you’re in the US now, it’s even taken a step further, where, instead of just tabs at the top that say results, images, news, one of those tabs now says AI, and if Google then makes that the default, all better off on Google search. So let’s say two ways that consumers might do service based searches. We’ve got that migration away, and then we’ve got what Lee and I were talking about earlier. We have the fact it’s a more detailed search. We’re not just typing a short keyword string into a traditional Google search. “Financial Planner in Norwich, mortgage adviser in Nottingham”, people are treating AI like a human, giving it a lot more context, a lot more information, and therefore getting a lot more detail back as well. Lee thoughts, comments on that second way of consumers using AI?
Lee Robertson
I think you’ve described it really well. You’re going to get a much richer response, as opposed to if we take the AI part out of Google at the moment, but it was almost like a directory. You typed in a question, you got the answer. It’s a bit like looking up the Yellow Pages for people old enough to remember those you kind of search for something, you found it, and then you had the detail, but I think with AI, you’re getting a much richer experience, and it will tell you more about the firm depending on the question you’ve asked, depending on the context. So it’s a much richer, more informative response right from get go without having to go through to the websites.
Phil Bray
Yeah, agree completely, and that’s why whilst we should and we do it on behalf of Yardstick clients, we do monitor the amount of traffic that comes to their websites from AI. It is no longer all about the clip. SEO is all about where you appear and getting the click. With AI, it isn’t because the detail, like you say, the detail that consumers get in the search results from ChatGPT, etc, might be enough for them to say, actually firm A is where I’m going. They don’t even need to go to that website. So it isn’t all about the click these days.
Lee Robertson
And so that’s that’s interesting, Phil, isn’t it? Because as an agency that builds websites where you want people to come onto websites and have a look around, that must be presenting, sorry I’m going off track here a bit, but that must be presenting you guys with something of a challenge.
Phil Bray
Yes and no, because what we’ve got to remember now is we have A, actually, the traffic level is really, really low, but B, we now have another audience for our websites, and that audience is ChatGPT and the LLM’s. And as we’re going to talk about in a bit, the information that you put on your website needs to match what ChatGPT is looking for, if appropriate. So the website is still massively important. Because when you look at the sources that ChatGPT is looking at, it is looking at websites. It is doing Google searches. So that website needs to give ChatGPT the information that it’s looking for, and also, ideally, it needs to rank well from an SEO perspective. And that’s the interaction between AIO, AI optimisation and SEO, search engine optimisation. So your website is even more important than it ever was. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that, Lee.
Lee Robertson
Pleasure. Not even rehearsed.
Phil Bray
It wasn’t no. Okay, so if those are the two ways, this change has already started, we know ChatGPT is already sending people to adviser planner websites. It is already recommending advisers. 1 in 10 advisers and planners say that they have had a new inquiry from ChatGPT in 2025, and what I want to do is open this up to everybody in the chat. So my question to you is, has your business had an inquiry from ChatGPT or AI so far in 2025? The answer is yes, no, I don’t know. So everybody go, everybody put the answer into the chat right now, and I’m going to get Dan to read those out in a second, because I’m really interested to see whether your business is getting inquiries from ChatGPT, at the moment, the answers are yes, no and I don’t know you’re not recording that information. So in the second half of this webinar, we set the scene, second half, we’re going to talk about what you should be doing now. But Dan, I think we’ve had a few questions so let’s deal with the questions. Let’s get people’s answers for whether they’ve had leads through ChatGPT, and then we’ll go forward from there.
Dan Campbell
I’m going to go to Scott’s question from a while ago. So Scott asks, “I’ve heard lots of talk of issues around GDPR, with LLM’S and the like, as the data isn’t stored in the UK or a country with the same level of privacy regulation, which AI tools should we be careful of, or is there a way to check where these tools store the data entered into them?”
Phil Bray
I’m gonna get Lee to answer this as well. And I think my view here is that from the purposes of this webinar, we’re talking about how consumers use ChatGPT. What we’re not talking about today is uploading any information to ChatGPT, about the business, and when it comes to other forms of AI, for example, the recording of meetings and transcripts, etc. Scott, I think that question is better put to the people who market those products and build those products, frankly, because I don’t know the answer to that. Lee, do you have anything to add to that?
Lee Robertson
I’m only really going to echo what you say. I would never put personal detail into any of the search engines that are kind of generic, like ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity or whatever, just because of this whole thing. And I think Scott’s right to raise it in terms of tools, the broader AI stuff. I mean, if you’re thinking about, you know, model office for RegTech or adviser AI or Saturn or whatever, they’re built specifically for the UK market, and they will happily talk to you about where that data is stored, and it’s all GDPR compliant, but in terms of the large language models that we’re talking about today, I would never put personal detail, identifiable detail in.
Phil Bray
That’s sensible. Dan back to you, mate.
Dan Campbell
Okay, so we’ve got a question, I always like a question from anonymous attendees. An anonymous attendee asks, “How is ChatGPT able to make the recommendations? Is it using search functionality?”
Phil Bray
Yes, what it’s basically doing is performing the role of a human. So if you are a human and you’re searching for a financial adviser online, you will put various search terms into Google, you will go and review the information, and you’ll asseminate it to come to an answer. And that’s essentially what ChatGPT is doing. It doesn’t have a secret stash of information over here that it can go and review that isn’t available to humans. It has all the same sources of information. And basically what it does is it very, very quickly reviews that information, simulates it, and gives it back in an answer. And the really interesting thing I did again, did it this morning. I put a prompt into ChatGPT. It gave me three advisers to recommend, and that it suggested met my criteria. Then at the bottom I could click sources, and when you click the sources, you get a panel on the right hand side, and that shows where it’s looking. So it was doing a Google search. It was looking at adviser websites. It was looking at VouchedFor, Wikipedia as well. Slightly bizarrely, does seem to have a bit of a love affair with yell.com and was looking at other directories as well, and we’re going to talk about that later in this webinar. So for me, it’s performing a very similar role to a human, just much, much quicker. Lee, anything to add there mate?
Lee Robertson
No, I think that’s about right. Funnily enough, I did. I did see a question pop up, which is what I was listening to. And I thought I was just going to ask Claude the answer to that, are you happy that I give it?
Phil Bray
Absolutely, go for it mate.
Lee Robertson
So the question that popped up there was, “what is the average age of a ChatGPT user?” I use Claude for most of my searches. So Claude is very happy to talk about other AI models, and it says “more than a third of users are aged between 25 and 34 the largest group, though, is making up more than half is this 18 to 34” so you go so typically, younger users.
Phil Bray
That’s interesting. And I wonder if over time, in the same way, social media channels can be broken down by age demographic, for example, typically you would see a younger audience gravitating towards TikTok, Instagram, old audience gravitating to Facebook, professional audience gravitating to LinkedIn. Be interesting over time, whether that sort of thing is mirrored with AI usage.
Lee Robertson
Yeah. Sarah, yeah, of course. And the majority of ChatGPT users fall between 18 and 34 making up 54.85% of the total user base, users tend to be younger. A really interesting stat is that for those of us over 55 which includes me, we make up only 13% of ChatGPT users.
Phil Bray
We can all admire your ability to multitask there Lee, I don’t think I could have done that in the same Dan, back to you for any questions.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, so Natasha asks a really important question. “How do you know if an enquiry has come from ChatGPT?”
Phil Bray
You ask them without sounding glib, we at Yardstick, talk a lot about recording every single new inquiry that comes into a business, no exceptions, and at that point when the inquiry comes in, it’s really important to find the source. “How did you find out about us?” And the source is the first time they heard your name, so if they were recommended by an accountant, that’s the source, if they did a search on Google, that’s the source. If they did a search on ChatGPT, that’s the source. The source is not email, website, telephone call. That’s the method of communication. The source is where they first heard about you.
Dan Campbell
Perfect. Okay, so got quite a few other questions coming through, but just to give us an idea of the yes, the no’s and the don’t know’s in terms of who’s getting what inquiries. So it looks as though the overarching answer is no. The majority of people have got no as their answer. So I came to 39 no’s, but they were coming in thick and fast. So we’ll check that as we go. Maybe put that in the follow up Abi, because we can actually pull the transcript from that. Yes’ I’ve got 17, although it does look as though a few people have voted twice. So let’s pull that down to 15, and then don’t know’s slash not sure’s, 31 I can see. So it looks as though majority is “no”, closely followed by “don’t know”, and then a little bit further down, “yes”.
Lee Robertson
Still, higher than the 1 in 10 by the signs of things.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, 100%.
Phil Bray
We could feed that information into ChatGPT, and it can work out the answer for us. Okay, so first half of this webinar, setting the scene, explaining the two ways that consumers might use ChatGPT and AI to find you. Now in the second half of the webinar, let’s get really practical, really tactical, with some of the things that you should be doing. And I think there’s two stages to this. The first is a fact finding stage. The second is a doing stage. So what would I be doing from a fact finding perspective? The first thing I’d be doing is trying to replicate the types of prompts, the types of questions people might be putting into ChatGPT. Now this is nowhere near as easy as it has been from a search engine optimisation perspective, when you can probably follow the 80/20 rule and think that 80% of these searches probably deliver most of the most of the responses, although they’re the search terms that most people use. So this is much, much harder. The first thing I’ll be doing is replicating a few of the search terms, the few questions, prompts that your ideal clients might be putting into ChatGPT. And that tells us a couple of things. It tells us if you’re on ChatGPT’s radar for those types of searches, it also tells you, because you can click in and we get it on the right hand side, it tells you the sources that it’s going to, and that’s really, really important information. You can follow up if it doesn’t recommend you. So if you’re not one of the three firms that it recommends for the particular prompt, you could ask a follow up question, “why did you not recommend this firm?” And then it will tell you why it didn’t recommend your firm, and that kind of gives you a checklist of the things that you should be doing so three reasons to replicate those problems. One, it shows whether you’re on ChatGPT’s radar. Two, it shows you the sources used. And three, if you ask that follow up question, it helps you understand why ChatGPT didn’t recommend you. Second thing you should be doing, and Abi is going to put a link in the chat for the free scorecard that we’ve got, is go and use our free scorecard, and that will help you again, understand where your gaps are with regard to some of the things we’re going to talk about in a bit free scorecard take you 10 minutes to complete it, bit of research needed, and then it’ll give you results at the end, and it will tell you where you need to focus, because I’m going to give you a long list of things in a minute, and that will tell you where you need to focus. And then the third thing, and we write about this in our blog on Friday, and Abi’s going to put a link into that which you can read or you can listen to the AI generated podcast. It’s not me, and I’ll be sticking on an American accent. It’s an AI generated podcast. You can read or listen to that, and that will talk to you about why it’s important for firms to create what we’re calling a differentiator list. And a differentiator list, unsurprisingly, is a list of things that make your firm different. There are no USP’s in financial planning, but we do need to understand what are the key things that make your business different, because we need to scatter those few things throughout the actions that we are going to be talking about and suggesting that you do and that blog just has a list of differentiators, every single differentiator that we can think about. And you would take anything out that doesn’t apply and add anything in that you think we’ve missed that is specific to your firm. So your first actions are those three things. They all fit under the fact finding head, replicate a prospect’s searches, use the free scorecard and prepare your differentiator list. Lee, do you want to add anything there mate? And then Dan, have you got any questions about that?
Lee Robertson
No, I think that was fine. Mate, very comprehensive.
Phil Bray
Dan, have we got any specific questions about fact finding out the stage of it?
Dan Campbell
We’ve got a comment from Scott who says, “I asked ChatGPT for recommendations in my specialist area of mortgages, but it didn’t recommend me. So I asked why it didn’t recommend me? Then I asked it “what I can do to help me appear in its searches in the future” in a format I can copy and save. So I have a hit list of things to do from ChatGPT on how to appear in more ChatGPT searches”, so you hold a mirror against it really, quite an interesting tactic.
Phil Bray
Yeah, exactly. Scott’s done exactly what I said said earlier there is look at the sources and then ask it if it didn’t recommend you, why it didn’t recommend you and Scott, you’ve got your to do list to go and crack on with this afternoon, assuming you’ve got no mortgage applications to submit on behalf of clients.
Lee Robertson
And you can see just how useful that is over and above, say the typical Google search, you can interrogate the answers much more easily, which is, and Scott’s done as you say, absolutely the right thing.
Phil Bray
So those are the three things we should be doing from a fact finding stage, what are the practical tips, practical things that you should be doing to put yourself on ChatGPT’s radar. And for me, these come under two main categories, two board categories. The first is publishing what we call source information. The second is building expertise indicators. So let’s dig into these in a bit more detail. Source information and blogs, I would be encouraging firms to be adding at least three long form blogs, 800 to 1000 words, to certain point people switch off. So add at least three long form blogs, 800 to 1000 words, onto your website each month. Now, ideally, those blogs should be targeting the questions that prospects might ask you, that consumers might be searching for online, and you should be scattering your differentiator list throughout it, and they should be written and uploaded to your website. If you can do more than three, do more than three, but I would be doing at least three each month. Then I would be making sure that every single one of the appropriate financial services directories has your listing on there. So there are a bunch of financial services directories, the SIFA, Resolution, etc, you can see them on the screen, and most people’s directories have some information missing. We did a big research project looking at about 550 directory listings on the CII Chartered Firm Directory, and almost every single one had something missing, whether it was the website address, the services that were delivered, the telephone number, it was just quite a lot of information missing. So go and check first of all that you are on the right directories. And then make sure your profiles are fully completed. The Money Helper Directory is often one that trips people up. Often people are not there. You have to be independent to be on there, but often firms are not on there, in my experience. Dan, I can see things popping through. Have you got any questions about this slide?
Dan Campbell
No, but a somewhat related question from a while ago by Andrew that asks “how it can filter on the quality of a firm. Is it just sheer mentions? Clearly, we’ve got the long form articles here that add to that. But what does ChatGPT slash another LLM see as the quality of a firm?”
Phil Bray
So often online reviews. We’ll get to that in a second. But it’s those expertise indicators which ChatGPT seems to use as indicators of quality. So I’ll get to that in a second, if that’s okay? What else should you be doing looking at non-financial services directories? I’ll be taking a yale.com listing, a free yale.com listing. I wouldn’t pay any money to them, but I take a free listing with yale.com. I’ll be looking at local Chamber of Commerce directories, and I’d also be looking at any other directories that target your particular audience, your niche or your location. So I know of directories, for example, where medical professionals can go and find support services. So make sure, if you were specialising in dentists or doctors or GPS, that you are on there. And of course, this becomes self fulfilling after a while, because you could go to ChatGPT and ask them “which directories are available in my local area?”, or “which directories specialise in offering services to my niche?”, and then go and look at it. Yeah, so it all becomes self fulfilling after a while, but we’ve got the financial services directories and the non financial services directories, so I’ve made sure you’re on as many of those, and that your profiles are fully completed. Then sticking with source information your Google business profile was always important, the section on the right hand side of a search results page for your business. It’s where you have some images, it’s where you have Google reviews, it’s where you can upload articles, it’s where you can have quite a long piece of text. I think it’s 750 words. It’s quite long about your business. So make sure your Google business profile is fully up to date, and the description explains three things, what you do, who you do it for, and why people use you. The “why people use you” is your differentiator list, and we have produced it in the past, a definitive guide to building your Google business profile. Abi will be putting that, or has already put that into the chat. It’s not just thrown together is it? LinkedIn, again, your LinkedIn profile is important, whether it’s your personal or your company page. And again, we’ve got a definitive guide on that, and that will explain everything that you need to do to build your LinkedIn profile and little segue while we’re talking about LinkedIn. If you want to learn more about how to use LinkedIn, Abi, we’ve got a workshop soon.
Abi Robinson
We have indeed. Thank you very much. And I think I’ve got eight people to tell off who I can see have been doing the LLM scorecard while you should have been listening. So your penance is that you have to give us your score in the chat, so you can do that while I’m talking. Thank you very much. So in terms of the workshop, yeah, myself and Katie, our Head Of Social Media, this is the third year that we’ve done this workshop. Now it’s, in our opinion, getting better every time, and the next one will be on Wednesday, the 6th August. You’ve got three hours of our company, so it’s 10am to 1pm and we’ll be covering the four key things that you need to do to, as it says, use LinkedIn effectively, how to have a great profile, how to write engaging posts that will actually get your ideal clients interested and keen to learn more about you. And what you do, how to build your network with the right people, and how to engage with the wider audience to go beyond broadcast mode and start building those one to one relationships. We used to do it as a webinar this format, where we can’t see and hear you, but for the workshops, we like to make it a bit more interactive, so not to scare you, but you have the option to have your camera on, to have your mic on, and there’ll be lots of little activities throughout so that you end the session with a new headline, with a new about section, hopefully, if we have time, hopefully with a post written that you’ll be able to put up the next day. So it’s going to be really practical, really actionable. I will, once I’ve finished blathering, put the link in the chat so that you can have a look and hopefully join us. Then we’re limited to about 30 places. I think we’ve sold just over half of those now, so it would be great to see as many of you there as possible. And if you’ve got any questions, just drop me an email after this.
Phil Bray
Thank you, Abi, thank you very much. Okay, so continuing with source information, I would be adding a really detailed, very pragmatic and very specific “Why Choose Us?” page to your website. This is not a place to be saying “we’re honest, we’re nice people, we’re transparent”. Everybody’s honest, nice and transparent. Be really specific. List your differentiators if you’re independent, talk about being independent. If you’re fixed fee, talk about fixed fee. Make sure you list your specific differentiators on the “Why Choose Us?” because that’s really important source information for ChatGPT. When somebody has put into ChatGPT, “I want these three things”. If you do those three things you need to have those on your “Why Choose Us?” page. I would then be adding location pages to your website. And those location pages are very simple, and they’re probably the same, except one might say, “we give financial advice in Derby”, one “financial advice in Nottingham”, one “financial advice in Leicester”. So the location pages are the towns and cities that your business supports. Because again, if someone says, “I want a financial adviser in Nottingham”, and you have a page on your website that says, “We give financial advice in Nottingham”, ChatGPT will pull the two together. If someone says, “I want a financial adviser in Nottingham” and your website doesn’t say that, then ChatGPT can’t match those two things together. So there is some work to be done on some websites. And then the third thing on a website is, I would consider adding a fees page to your website. There’s all sorts of research around this, which we’ll get to in a second, but I would consider adding a fees page to your website, and that’s largely because, and this explains the problem and the solution, 75% of consumers want transparency in the sales process, our research shows only 14% of adviser planner websites disclose fees online. So there’s a big disconnect between what consumers say they want and what financial advisers and planners are giving them. And we’ve teamed up with Marcus Sheridan and a business that he’s invested in called Price Guide. And in September, we’re launching an AI driven fees page solution, an AI driven fees page solution. And from our perspective, for the firms that want to get involved, it’s a win-win, because consumers get the information they want when they want it, and the advice firm gets inquiries. So this isn’t just reading information on a page. It’s answering questions, giving the fee to the consumer, but turning that into a lead for the advice planning firm, all using AI. We teamed up with Marcus and another guy called Steve’s business called Price Guide, and we’re launching this in September. We’ll be doing a webinar with Marcus in September, but we are looking for three firms who we will build this for free for. We’ve already got one, so we need two more who we will build this for free for, and they will become case studies to show how it works. So you get all the benefits, but you don’t pay for it. So if you want to be considered to be a case study. Email me now, Phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk – don’t worry Abi, won’t tell you off for doing it – with the word “Case Study” in the subject line. We know this is going to be really popular, so we’re going to also treat those people who are not a case study, but want it on a first come first serve basis. So if you want to be put on the wait list for it. Put “Waitlist” in an email to me that doesn’t actually commit you to anything, but it just means that we will go to the first person on the wait list, the second person, the third person, to explain the proposition in more detail when it becomes available. So if you want to be put on the wait list for the proposition, the AI driven fees page proposition put “waitlist” in an email to me, if you want it to be one of the case studies. Put “case study”. Lee, We were chatting beforehand about fees pages, and I think there’s pros and cons to doing it. I think AI is another pro. But what do you think of the pros and cons of doing these pages?
Lee Robertson
Well, starting with the pros. I mean, you’ve already touched on it, transparency. And I would declare when I was running my financial planning practice we thought about this a lot, but we never actually published our pricing on our website. Was that slightly bottling it? I don’t know. But I think transparency and trust, particularly in this age, as people get more cynical, search gets better, whether it’s through AI or traditional methods. So I think that’s a huge, huge pro. You’ve got efficient client screening. If you’ve published your pricing, and that’s just so far out of the wheelhouse of that particular inquiry, they will screen filter themselves away. If you’re pricing, you touched on this earlier, things like fixed fee. If you’ve got a differentiated price model, then it’s competitive positioning, isn’t it? You’re stating we have a progressive pricing model. That’s not similar to most of the market. We’d love to talk to you. So that’s competitive positioning. I guess you’re reducing sales friction. Everyone struggles with the word sales, but one way or another, we’re all selling ourselves all the time. And there’s professional differentiation. If you’ve got a progressive charging structure, as I’ve said, it’s useful to get that across. Cons, loss of pricing flexibility, if you’ve got a business that does lots of bespoke work, whether it’s IHT or its generation wealth transfer or whatever it is, but it’s very niche, very bespoke. You might lose some price flexibility, although anything that you publish online, I guess you could caveat saying that these are typical fees. Your individual circumstances may mean that you pay more or less, or however you phrase that you could get ChatGPT to write that caveat for you. I guess we’re going to say that all the time now, aren’t we? In the complete context, the asymmetry of knowledge between clients, they might become a little bit too fixated on the cost and not the benefits. Particularly as a lot of people, at the start of a journey, they don’t quite understand everything that goes into financial planning and just how much work is done.
Phil Bray
Yeah, I agree, Lee, you’ve frozen a little bit, so I’ll fill in here. I think the fees page shouldn’t just disclose the fees. It needs to talk about the features and the benefits of the service. It needs to put into context, maybe those fees with comparisons, and it also needs to be wrapped in some lovely social proof to show the value of the service that might be client testimonial videos, for example.
Lee Robertson
Yeah, sure. Sorry about freezing there. I think the thing is client anchoring. If they fixate on price without knowing everything goes into the financial planning process, that might be a problem.
Phil Bray
I agree that’s a big call. Yeah, I agree completely. Okay, so we talked about the source information we should be putting out there, and there are some very practical things that everybody on this webinar can go and do this afternoon, even if you can’t start online blogs this afternoon, you can check out those directories. The second thing is to build expertise indicators. And an expertise indicator really does what it says on the tin. It shows that you are an expert. So what would I be doing here? I think Google and VouchedFor reviews. We have always, always, always recommended that firms collect reviews on two platforms. 99% of the time, that’s Google and VouchedFor. If anybody wants to know why, we’re really happy to answer that conversation. But I would be focusing on Google and VouchedFor reviews here. I would also be recording testimonial videos. Client testimonial videos, I’d film them, I’d add the videos to the website, and then I would also add transcripts to the website. And because, to the best of my knowledge, and I think Jamie, you asked this question earlier about videos, to the best of my knowledge, ChatGPT will be able to read a transcript, words on a page on a website, but will not be able to watch the video on the consumers behalf. That’s the way I understand it. If I’m wrong, happy to be told that. So I’d film client testimonial videos. I would add them to the website, and then I will put transcripts on there as well. There’s an SEO benefit from a transcript, as well as an AIO benefit. So there are another two things that I would be doing. What else would I be doing? I would be entering, and if possible, getting shortlisted for and winning awards. That, again, seems to be an expertise indicator that ChatGPT is interested in, and they might be financial services awards, and they might be local or niche awards. I would also be trying to boost your press coverage, if at all possible, and that’s the personal finance press, the trade press and local press as well. One of the things you could do is to consider signing up for Newspage, which is a fantastic service that I know, Scott, you’re on the call, I think you use Newspage. And so consider signing up for Newspage. But again, things like awards and press mentions, also appearing on webinars, on podcasts. They do seem to be expertise indicators that ChatGPT is interested in, and we couldn’t let Lee go today without talking a little bit about the some top tips for winning awards and also getting press coverage, because Lee both of those things were really core to your business when you were a financial planner and a business owner.
Lee Robertson
Yeah. Top tips about winning awards is A, enter them. B, stick within the word count, C, provide in your appendices, put in supporting material, frame it well. You could even get AI to help you do this, but kind of make it easy to read for the judges who might have many, many award entries to sift through, particularly the long listing stage. And finally, bring some passion to it. So many of them seem to be written by somebody on a Friday afternoon trying to get out the door. Put a bit of passion into why you want to win the award, why you think you’re worthy. But the big bug bear for me is sticking within the word count. So many people try to go over the word count, I actually red line from the minute I get to the word count. Anything that comes afterwards, I red line and just don’t look at but supporting material doesn’t count for your word count. So putting as much supporting material making sure that it supports what you’re saying. And it’s not just a brochure dump. So those are my top tips.
Phil Bray
What about press coverage? Lee, give us your top tips for press coverage.
Lee Robertson
Yeah, press coverage- be available. Journalists will graze on. Make yourself known to journalists that you like and respect in your niche, whether that’s connecting with them on LinkedIn, a big way, I’ve always found, is to comment on what they publish, and you begin to be seen by them. I would say this to anyone, whether it’s for press coverage or not, if you’re trying to connect with people like and comment on what they’re posting, don’t stalk them. But I know there’s a fine line sometimes, but if you find something they’ve written, really useful, really informative, then comment thank them. Say “just a great post”. You will come to their attention. And I think that’s a very soft way, have case studies available. Journalists, financial journalists love case studies. So if you’ve got clients that are willing to be quoted, and I would do this as part of part of my client servicing, when I had my phone, I used to ask clients if we were ever asked by the press, “would you be willing to be a case study?”, as long as they don’t look too far into detail. And so many clients would say yes. And that’s the same with video testimonials. There’s a big fear about video testimonials, or if I ask my clients, they’ll say no. Actually, there’s a heap of clients that will say yes. So there’s always availability there. So without rambling, I hope that’s kind of helpful.
Phil Bray
That is a fantastic tip to ask your clients during the annual review process, if they would be prepared. If you ever got asked to be a case study, you’ve then got a list, haven’t you? Fantastic. So what have we covered today? As we draw close to 11, and I will stick around and hopefully Lee you can as well to answer a few questions, what have we talked about today? Well, we talked about the three ways AI affects your business. Then we’ve gone into a lot more detail about how consumers will use it to find businesses like yours, and then hopefully we got super practical and tactical for everybody’s liking, and the actions you should take around fact finding, running searches as a consumer might do using our scorecard and building the differentiator list, and then the actions around the two ways, we can help ChatGPT recommend you, producing source information and building expertise indicators. Some of those things you can be doing immediately. You could be going and building a money health profile this afternoon. Some of them will take more time. But, I think it’s really important that you do this even if your main source of business is referrals and recommendations from existing clients, it’s still massively important that you do this stuff, because we know ChatGPT is being used by consumers who have been recommended to you. So the genie is out the bottle. Consumer usage of AI, whether it’s ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc, is only going to increase. So the big question is, are you going to get ahead of the curve or you’re going to be forced to play catch up? The choice is yours. If you want to get ahead of the curve, we’ve given you, hopefully today, some really practical things that you can go and take away. We have one minute left for Abi to ask you a favor and to explain when our next webinar is, and then we’ll do questions down.
Abi Robinson
Yes, thank you. I will keep it brief, but I have to say Lee, on behalf of us, thank you, and as a Scot, you will be very happy with our support for your home country. I have done this. But no, if you want to pay us and leave for today’s session, which, of course, is free, as our webinars always are, then we would really appreciate a Google review. It should only take a couple of minutes. It’s really nice for the team to be publicly recognised for the work that they’ve put into this as a player that goes on behind the scenes as well. So there will be a link in the follow up email for you to do that if you have got a minute or two and there is a little bit of a break now. We didn’t want to leave Dan on his own next month, and me and Phil are away. So yes, we won’t be around in August. Hopefully you’ll be on your holidays or taking some downtime as well. But thanks for the mention about the press piece, because that links in very nicely to our September webinar, which will be with Greg Simpson. He’ll be talking to us about all things PR, the journey, the life cycle to getting into speaking, making the most of press coverage and, it’s going to be a really, really exciting chat. So we’ll send the invite out when it’s ready, but hopefully we’ll see you all there.
Phil Bray
Thank you, Abi. Right Dan, let’s do a few minutes wrapping up questions. If anybody needs to go then shoot off, but the questions will be recorded so you can catch up later.
Dan Campbell
Perfect. We’ve got a lot of people wondering whether Phil has the St Andrews cross painted on his nails as well. I can tell the answer is yes. I’ve seen them. He will say no, but I saw them before this call. The answer is yes. Let’s go for Neil’s question. So Neil says “interested in Phil and or Lee’s take on this, if an adviser has no idea where to begin with, AI, because, of course, there’s an assumption that everyone does what’s the first mindset shift they need to make to prepare not just to use a tool like ChatGPT or Claude, but to thrive in the AI era?”
Phil Bray
Lee, mate, you take that first.
Lee Robertson
I would say, get involved. You can’t go wrong. Basically, just, just play with it. I mean, lots of them, they’re free. And I’m talking about the large language models here, not not the specific profession, you know, professional tools, but just just play with it. Ask it questions. Ask it for its own prompts. Just start to play with it. See where you get to, remember you can ask follow up questions to that same answer, which I think this is where it really pulls away from the traditional Google search. You ask it a question with a nice prompt, it comes back with an answer. Then you ask it. “Can you refine this further? Can you expand on that?” And another thing that I love is having AI act as a devil’s advocate, you give it a question, then you would say something like, “what would be the counter arguments to this particular point of view?” And I think that learning thing really works that way. So I guess the thing for me is, get involved. Play with it. You can’t go wrong. As long as you’re asking it sort of moral and ethical questions, which you would be. You will not go wrong. Just play with it, learn it, find out its own particular four bills. As we’ve said, we talked a lot about ChatGPT today. I use a couple of different ones. Find the ones that work, and there are all sorts of AI directories online of the large language models, and just just find the one that suits you. As I say, I tend to rely more on Claude, but that’s not to say it’s any better or worse than chat. GPT, it’s just what I particularly tend to like for the way I work.
Phil Bray
I think to answer your question, Neil, I would defer to Yardstick webinar alumni, Andy Bounds, if you get Andy’s Tuesday email a few weeks ago, he had a great phrase, “be curious not furious”. Curious not furious. And I see a lot of people in denial about AI and the role it’s going to play. It’s already here. It’s been here for longer than a lot of people think, so like you say, Lee, be curious, not furious. Dive in. Give it a go.
Dan Campbell
Thanks, guys.
Lee Robertson
It’s like anything. Play with it.
Dan Campbell
Let’s go to Matt’s question next. Matt says, “any ideas about notes from the community? I did a search in ChatGPT, for advisers in the local area, and this had the following note at the end, sourced to a post on Reddit and it reads “a note from the community online local feedback suggests that professionals who charge a flat upfront fee are preferred over advisers who take ongoing commissions. At least one reader recommended steering clear of insert large financial advice at firm here affiliates when seeking unbiased advice?”.
Phil Bray
Yeah, I think Reddit is not a platform that has historically been on the radar this side of the Atlantic. It’s been a more US focused platform, and is going to get much more important in the UK. I think it’s, it’s going to get much, much more important in the UK. Those community notes are read by Google, and are read by AI. So it’s a challenge that’s on the challenge list around Reddit. I don’t know if you got anything to say on Reddit Lee?
Lee Robertson
The thing about Reddit is, it’s where people sometimes go to vent. They’re not being particularly helpful. They’re just having a big old rant and a moan so, and you can see, because people talk about that large wealth manager, that AI is picking up those community notes that people are moaning about their charging structure and stuff, so you can see how that directly translates through. I wish Reddit was a little bit more positive in the comments that come from people. But then I guess you get what you get.
Phil Bray
I completely agree. But I guess the pragmatist in me says that if ChatGPT and Google are reviewing it, then it needs to be on our radar. But I completely agree with you, it can be a bit ranty.
Dan Campbell
Let’s go for Brandon’s question next. So Brandon says “Phil discussed in detail in his recent blog the benefits of using this list of differentiators over a single USP, and that these differentiators should be used throughout a firm’s digital presence. However, are there risks of overloading your website, slash socials, with too many differentiators? Is there a concern that it could confuse AI or dilute your messaging if a firm is able to compile a fairly lengthy list of differentiators, or is it simply a case of more is better?”
Phil Bray
That’s a really good point. Brandon’s from Yardstick, I can probably see him out there right now. So for me, the only place I would be listing my differentiators as a list is on the “Why Choose Us” page, and what we’ve got to see there is the differentiator as a feature. You still have to explain the benefit to the consumer of independent, we can’t expect independence as an example. We can’t expect the consumer to know the benefit of independent, we need to explain the benefit of the feature. So I could see how you would list everything out in one page, all your differentiators, but then you would scatter them through the rest of your website and the rest of your marketing. So for me, probably all in one place on the “Why Choose Us” page, and then scatter the rest and use them appropriately.
Lee Robertson
Yeah, I would agree with that. Very few prospects will read your whole website. They will focus in on the “About Us” page, AI, ChatGPT and the others will read your whole website assuming it’s found you, and it’s entirely unemotional, so it will not care that you have scattered lots of that through the website. Clients, if they read every single page, might think, “I’ve heard this already”, but they tend not to read every page, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
Phil Bray
Lee, that’s an incredibly good point for those people that have hung around that AI will read every page of your websites, but humans won’t. They’ll read between three and five.
Dan Campbell
Okay, let’s go to Paul who asked a good question about 20 minutes ago. Paul asked, “does Google and AI like AI written, or helped written blogs that are on our website? Can it really tell?”
Phil Bray
Traditionally, if search engine optimisation was important to you, appearing as high as you can on a Google search, one of the things that drove your positioning, there’s a whole load of things, but one of the things was how regularly you update your website with unique content. And broadly speaking, we’ve got not too much time left, but broadly speaking, the more unique content on your website that is relevant, the better. AI is slightly different. Doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t give you credit in the same way that Google does for producing unique content, it still needs to be relevant. It still needs to be applicable to the prompt and the question that the consumer is answering. But my understanding is that the relevancy of bespoke content is less important from an AIO perspective than it is an SEO perspective. Lee mate, anything to add there?
Phil Bray
No, I’d agree with you. I’m just going to drop in one of my pet peeves though, it’s that you don’t have to be AI to spot AI written content a lot of the time. When you’re prompting, do things like say things if you are going to use content from AI, and I often use it to get frameworks of articles I want to write, or first drafts, as I said earlier, but put some context in writing a conversational tone. Don’t use AI conventions such as long M dashes and for God’s sake, take out all these “nevertheless” and “furthermores” and all that kind of stuff that AI forever drops in, but there’s no shame in using it, particularly if you’re not a confident writer. Use it for the first draft and then just bring your own unique personality to it. I think lots of content is great when there’s a story involved, drop a bit of a story in to give it context, but there’s no harm at all. And I think I agree with you, Phil, that AI doesn’t seem to care in the way that Google used to for unique content.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, and to add another one of my pet peeves, I’ve been writing using long M dash for decades, so I’ve had to reassess how I type things now, because everyone just assumes everything I write is AI written, and it’s really turned my world upside down Lee, let me tell you.
Lee Robertson
You’re talking to the man that was taught to type and put two character spaces after a full stop. And I’ve been told that everyone hates that, but it’s so ingrained in what I did. I learned it in the Royal Navy, and I’ve never been able to get out of it, so I always put two dashes in.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, we often have to find and replace a double space in documents that we run out. Now at least I know who the culprits are. I’ve got one on my list of names, perfect. Have we got time for one more question? Should we go for one more question? I would like to go with Aaron’s question to finish. So Aaron says, “In the past, we would build our website to suit Google and its SEO preferences. Now, in an AI world, are there any technical changes we should make to our websites to suit the LLM’S?”
Phil Bray
Can we do Fiona’s question as well afterwards?
Dan Campbell
I’ve just seen that, of course.
Lee Robertson
I’ve got one as well. I like to drop in.
Phil Bray
Okay, so are there any technical changes? Yeah, there are. And that’s about how information is displayed in schemas and all sorts of other other things, and we’ll be writing more about that over the coming weeks. What’s your question Lee?
Lee Robertson
Apologies, I can’t remember who asked it, but someone said,”If you don’t have a website, where would you publish your content?” I would say LinkedIn and Substack.
Phil Bray
Yeah. I’d agree with that. Or build a website, maybe. And when I say that, I mean a personal blog page. We’ve got some advisers that work for large nationals, where they clearly can’t control what’s on their firm’s website. So what they have is their own blog. It’s kind of going back to the way the web was in 2005 something like that, where people had blogs, that’s where blogs started, wasn’t it? And they have their own blog pages, and that’s where they put their thoughts. So blog, your own blog site, Substack, LinkedIn, maybe all three completely agree.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, perfect. Okay, let’s finish on Fiona’s question then. So Fiona asks, “Do you have any tips for when to choose Google reviews or VouchedFor, or even testimonials? For the website with clients, there’s a lot of different platforms to gather reviews for.”
Phil Bray
So Lee Dan, you’ve had your pet peeve. This is mine, about online reviews. So thank you for asking the question. Fiona, so for me, testimonials, I just wouldn’t have them on the website. I think there’s far better ways of showing the value that you add, whether it’s Google reviews embedded in VouchedFor reviews embedded in client videos, or client survey results, all that sort of good stuff. In terms of choosing between Google and VouchedFor I wouldn’t. I would be asking clients to leave a review on both. So what you tell clients, “we use Google for reviews. We use VouchedFor reviews. Here’s the link for Google, here’s the link for VouchedFor go and choose what you do”. Yeah. So we’re reframing this. We’re not asking them for two reviews. We are giving them a choice for two reviews. Google reviews are really important. VouchedFor reviews are really important. It is not a binary that one is better than the other. They are both equally important. And in my experience, if after you do an annual review meeting with a client, you send one email with two links Google and VouchedFor and that email is wholly exclusively and only about Google reviews. Don’t hide the request in your investment report, your suitability report, or something like that. You will get reviews coming into your business. For every one you get on Google, you get between five and 10 on VouchedFor but they are both incredibly important. TLDR, don’t choose to use both. That’s a wrap for the questions Dan, I think?
Dan Campbell
I believe so.
Phil Bray
We have never stayed on for so long after a webinar.
Dan Campbell
An encore. They can’t get enough of us throwing the questions to us.
Phil Bray
I think it’s Lee. We’ll get Lee back next.
Dan Campbell
Yeah, that seems to be the link, doesn’t it? Yeah.
Lee Robertson
Well, good luck everyone with your journey and AI.
Phil Bray
Right, a few thank you’s. Thanks to Dan. Thank you to Abi. Thank you very much, Lee for being on here, some brilliant nuggets of information in there that we will repurpose and use in future blogs and social posts, recording out this afternoon to everybody. We’re missing August. We will see you in September with our webinar with Marcus Sheridan and our webinar with Greg Simpson. Have a good summer break. Everybody see you in September. Bye, bye.
Dan Campbell
Bye, guys.
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Managing Director, Handford Aitkenhead & Walker
"We have felt like collaborators, rather than customers, and feel like Phil and his team has a vested interest in our marketing success that far exceeds his fee.”
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Financial Planner, IQ Financial
We were lucky to be referred to Yardstick last year. We are delighted we hired them. They have specialist knowledge designed specially to help Financial Planning businesses like ours.
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Head of Marketing, Ellis Bates Financial Advisers
Phil's style is informed, humorous and collaborative. The content is punchy, relevant, a go-to guide on how to create more recommendations and prompts action with no exceptions. Great workshop.
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Financial Planner and Founder, Delaunay Wealth
I am absolutely delighted with all the work the Yardstick team has done for us and am very excited about how this will drive our new business/client acquisition in future. I would highly recommend them to any financial planning firm that takes their business seriously.
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Director and Financial Planner, Insight Wealth
Great to work with a good professional outfit that had provided us direction and clear thinking in marketing our business effectively to obtain quality new clients.
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Director & Financial Planner, Citygate Financial Planning
A thorough and excellent service. Phil and his team know exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it. We very much look forward to working together more in the future.
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