One of the most common questions financial professionals seek an answer to is, “How can you help me attract more and better clients?” Interestingly, when prompted to articulate their brand and contact strategy, they often find themselves unsure of where to start.

Many top financial professionals have built their businesses through a combination of disconnected activities and events such as referrals, community involvement, the occasional client/prospect event, etc. While this type of approach can work, it’s often a bumpy ride to success. Try a better approach: Use a well-designed, outward-looking contact strategy focused on building your brand and marketing your services. It can create tremendous leverage in effectively growing your business.

Financial professionals seeking to grow their businesses have been taught through the decades that they need to be doing in-person seminars, coffee clubs, luncheons, happy hours, etc. Those may all still be an important part of the larger branding and contact strategy. However, technology has evolved the game for how we can communicate to a larger audience for little to no cost.

Being excited about the next upcoming event or sharing details of what clients may have missed on the prior event are excellent reasons to touch base.

First, the Benefits of Virtual Brand Building

Having a regular calendar of interesting topics and speakers can produce multiple benefits to the financial professional or wealth management firm. Here are the top 3 benefits of hosting regular virtual events:

• Constant connection: It creates a constant connection, giving you a platform to build your brand not only with the clients and families you work with but also with your own family, friends, and a growing referral network that may be more spread out geographically. It may also help you seem more connected with them even when you have not spoken with them directly in some time. Grow the list!
• It provides a reason to have an event: Often, financial professionals look for a good reason to have events and check-ins that might not have anything to do with financial plans or capital markets. Being excited about the next upcoming event or sharing details of what clients may have missed on the prior event are excellent reasons to touch base. This also presents an opportunity to stay in touch with potential prospects.
• It solves the “what now” problem: Most top financial professionals have some version of the classic elevator pitch. They’re out in the community and they meet someone for the first time, getting into the “what do you do” conversation, and as soon as the financial professional shares their version of what makes them special, the conversation generally moves on—leaving the financial professional with the “what now” problem.

Meaning, what can they do now to increase their chances of potentially working with this person? Having a tight calendar of interesting events solves this problem by allowing the financial professional to follow up their elevator pitch by saying, “By the way, I host a really interesting monthly event series for my clients, family, and friends. Give me your email address and I will make sure you get the next invitation.”

Second, How to Get Started

If this idea sounds compelling but you’re not sure how to get started, here are 8 simple steps and considerations to set you on the right path:

1. Start by setting the calendar of events looking out one year in advance. Ideally, you should have between 10 and 12 virtual events. Consistency is more important than the actual content or the number of people that dial in.

2. Develop a regular cadence for email communication regarding upcoming and past events. Consider creating a simple postcard to mail at the beginning of the year highlighting each event and the topic. Keep a stack at the front desk in your office. Send a reminder email bi-weekly, referencing the most recent past event and marketing the next one. Be sure to send the reminder email the day of the event and, possibly, one hour before the event.

3. Leverage the approved content at your firm. Most broker-dealers have a content-approval team working with top asset-management partners to curate and post their best client-facing resources. There is likely a robust library of already approved content available for you to use.

4. After deciding on what topic and presentation you’d like to deliver, reach out to your product partners or home offices to find out if they have a speaker that would deliver the presentation. Or take the bold action to learn the presentation and deliver it yourself.

5. We recommend using software that will prevent attendees from seeing one another. This allows you to speak as if there are 200 attendees even when there are only two. Additional note: the number of attendees is much less important than the ongoing execution and consistency of your virtual events over time. It’s about the process.

6. Don’t allow for live Q&A. This may sound counterintuitive; however, it does two things:

   • Creates the opportunity for additional follow-up and feedback after the event. After all, we want more quality interaction with our top clients and prospects.
   • It keeps the event on time. We all know “that one client” that is going to ask a long, winding question that may or may not be relevant. If this happens too often, it will turn folks off to wanting to dial in the next time. It is important to end on time or early. Additionally, it’s just as important to always start on time.

7. Research shows that Tuesdays–Thursdays, at 11-1 are the best times to host these types of events—but be willing to experiment. Try mixing up the times and see what works best.

8. Keep the agenda simple to start. An example agenda might look something like this:

   • Financial professional kicks off the event and shares a story and/or update about something personal, possibly relating to the speaker’s content. 
   • Financial professional introduces the guest speaker or a product partner who will introduce the speaker.
   • If the product partner is participating, they should say a few words about the importance of great financial professionals in our lives, etc., and then turn over to their guest speaker.
   • At the end of the prepared remarks, the guest speaker turns the event back to the financial professional.
   • Financial professional closes by thanking everyone, reminding them about the next upcoming event, and suggesting if anyone has comments or questions to reach out directly to discuss.

Third, How Virtual Branding Leads to Growth

A monthly webinar series is a potent tool for financial professionals, facilitating client acquisition and brand elevation through word-of-mouth influence. Regular webinars build a reputation for expertise, sparking positive chatter among clients and prospects.

This word-of-mouth momentum becomes a powerful force, attracting new clients who value the insights and knowledge shared. Consistent engagement fosters a community that not only appreciates the financial professional’s expertise but actively spreads the word, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and brand enhancement.

Next Step: 

If you are interested in learning about some of the client-facing content we have at Hartford Funds, please reach out to your External or Internal Financial Professional Consultant for more information and ideas on getting started.