According to Forbes, the financial services industry is making a comeback due to marketing. Getting new leads, however, can sometimes be an expensive and tedious process — especially if you are doing digital marketing for financial services. There are a variety of ways to get new business leads, some even free like setting up a credit repair business. Let’s examine some ways you can start getting leads right away, as well as which ones are worth keeping. While some leads may result in financial bliss, others may have you chasing a path to nowhere.
1. Network Online and Offline
You are your best lead generator so talk to as many people as you possibly can – don’t be shy! You never know when someone may need your services, but they first need to know what services you have to offer.
Online Networking
Connect, connect, connect. Find as many people as you can that could be potential clients and partners. Once connected, be sure to drop them a note and include that you appreciate referrals too. Get creative and offer a bonus, fun gift, or payment for each person they send to you who becomes a client. No one likes a taker, so it’s nice to reciprocate and ask what you can do for them too. This builds professional trust and respect that may earn you their business.
Follow top industry sources, retweet, share, and comment. Capitalize on others’ audiences to gain more of your own followers who can be potential clients.
Offline at Industry Events and Meet Ups
Conferences
These are another good way to build up your professional network.
Aside from attending conferences in the professional services industry, look for conferences that are happening in your area and go to places strategically placed near the conference center once it’s over for the day, like a nearby restaurant. You are bound to meet a flood of conference attendees, a large majority who may be out-of-towners, who could be potential new leads.
Community Events
Make the effort to get out and meet your community. Look for meetups and other local events where you can surround yourself with those who are most likely to use your services. The goal is to be top of mind so that when anyone in your community hears the word financial services, your name immediately pops up into their brain. You don’t have to be the mayor but it wouldn’t hurt to act like one.
Offline in Daily Life
Never underestimate the power of your day-to-day surroundings, no matter how mundane they may seem. The conversations you have standing in line at the grocery store, waiting in the doctor’s office, meeting new people while walking your fur baby at the dog park, or even commuting to/from work may prove to be your best leads.
2. Use Your Website
Be sure to have a professional-looking website that clearly states what you do and how you can solve a potential clients’ pain points. Include a call to action such as “Book a Free Consultation” that will direct people to a form to collect their information. This will serve as a valuable lead generation pipeline for you.
Digital Marketing for Financial Services
If you don’t have a clue where to start, there are many professionals out there to help in the area of digital marketing for financial services. A good place to begin if you attempt this on your own though is Facebook. There you can create a custom audience of exactly who you want to target, in your area or more expansive. Your custom audience can be divided by demographics, interests, industry, geography and more.
Become a Thought Leader
Even if you weren’t a total genius in school, if you know enough about your business you have all you need to get started on your path to becoming a thought leader. The more content you can get out about your industry, solving people’s pain points, telling your views on trends, forecasts, tips for people, the more you cement yourself as an authority in the financial services world.
Diversify Your Business Portfolio Offerings
Whether you’re a seasoned financial service professional or just starting out, competition for business is fierce. It’s imperative to find a way to differentiate yourself in order to stand out if you want to survive.
While you may already offer top-notch customer service, clients are demanding more these days and they are looking for a one-stop shop for all of their financial needs. One of the best financial services business ideas is to add credit repair services. By offering credit repair services, it’s the perfect solution to put you ahead of your competition, as well as provide you with a new lucrative revenue stream.
With credit repair in your financial services arsenal, you will:
- Build client trust which turns into future referrals
- Gain warm leads from your credit repair clients for other areas of your business without your marketing financial services
- Help build LTV of your clients by 200 - 300%
Makes sense, right? If you offer more services, that’s more opportunities for your clients to keep coming back to you vs. having to look elsewhere. Best of all, the leads come to you!
So now that you know how to get all of these great leads, how do you know which ones are actually worth pursuing, and which ones are a waste of your time?
3. Identify the Leads to Keep, and the Ones to Let Go
Three Leads to Keep
1. The Investor: This lead has money to invest, but not much experience in doing so themselves. They may have new money via a tech industry job, recently inherited a sum, or have a new interest in planning for retirement or a 529 plan for college education for their kids.
2. The Inspiration Story: This lead has gotten back on their feet after some setbacks (medical problems, divorce, or other life challenges) and, although they don't have very much saved, they are working hard to gain back what they lost and build a life for themselves and legacy for their family.
3. The Couple: You’ll spend more time up front scheduling the appointments, but you'll gain it back tenfold when you have two people rather than one committed to a financial plan and shared goals, earn both of their trust, and get access to their network of friends and family as referrals.
All of these leads have the greatest chance to lead to the big cha-ching, so pursue them hard. And no matter which type of client they are, they all can use credit repair services to free up more income, which means extra cash for you!
Three Leads to Let Go
1. The Questioner: This lead will ask you for a lot of free financial advice, but is not likely to take advantage of your paid services. You can recognize this one because, by the second conversation, you've fielded a lot of questions, but have no meeting set up to begin the process. Stay clear of this freebie!
2. The Jerry Maguire: This lead will have you saying "Help me, help you" more times than you want. After a while, you'll end up realizing that this person won't take your advice because they probably don't know what they want and aren't willing to make a choice of how to invest or manage their finances. Avoid running around in circles and just run away!
3. The Professor: She likes to tell you all about her experience with investing and financial planning, and you begin to wonder why she hired you at all. Most often, these leads want someone to cosign on their plans and lack the confidence to make the choice on their own. Unless you are a fan of being regaled with tales of financial been-there-done-thats, let this one go. They will pay you to cosign their plans, but you won't gain any referrals nor much experience.
Now that you know how easy it is to get leads, and free leads with a credit repair business, as well as which leads to pursue, you’re ready to start making money! But just how much exactly?
Learn how easy it is to set up a credit repair business and how much money you can start earning right away with this simple profit-earning calculator.
