December is typically a difficult month for Financial Advisors. With the holiday season, extra spending, and less free time, cancellation rates rise and appointment rates lower. It can be discouraging but it’s a reminder to keep your pipeline full and leads warm. In between sending end-of-year client appreciation packages, consider learning and perfecting these two strategies that work now (and will in the future) to keep clients coming.

1. Webinars 

The first thing to note when doing webinars (especially if you let anyone anywhere watch it) is that you have to be good at closing virtually. You will get appointments from offering an educational webinar and they may not be close or able to come in person. It’s more difficult to connect with clients virtually and can take time to learn but it can open up so many opportunities once you’re ready. 

Webinars work best when running Facebook ads to them. We consider our sweet spot $2500 a month ad spend. This has been so successful at filling our pipeline that we haven’t run ads for 3 months and still have an average of 60 registrants a week. 

This is possible because of follow-up email funnels that are constantly running. Sending an email every other day makes sure no leads fall through the cracks. It also helps to ensure quality. These people who are registering for our webinar have decided to based on their readiness for financial help (and are more likely to book an appointment because of it).

Lastly, webinars work best if automated and scheduled. You’re too busy to host a live webinar four times a week. So, record it once (be sure to not include any identifying phrases that give away it’s not live) and schedule it for two different times on two different weekdays. This saves you time and gives potential attendees enough time to work it into their schedule and have higher attendance rates.

2. Seminars

Similar to webinars, you have to be good at closing in person if you’re hosting seminars. Since you are likely hosting this seminar close to your office (never in your office!) people should be willing to meet you there. It’s easier to connect with people and earn trust face-to-fast so in-person appointments are usually better than virtual meetings. 

Seminars should always be hosted at a neutral location, independent of your business. Remember, you’re not selling attendees anything during the seminar, just offering them valuable information to help them on their financial journey. We use colleges, universities, and libraries most of the time. Hosting a class at an educational institution helps set the tone that the seminar is nothing more than a lesson and free information. It also helps keep costs down when compared to dinner seminars. It also helps ensure that the people in the room actually want to be there instead of just after a free dinner.

Be sure to send out ample reminder email, texts, and phone calls to people who have registered. They likely want to be there but have other things going on (especially if they’re not in retirement yet) that distract from the seminar. Confirmation calls and reminder emails/texts ensure higher attendance rates. They also show the potential client your commitment to what you do, already earning some trust. 

Lastly, not everyone who attends will book an appointment. That’s okay. That’s why you run seminars in conjunction with webinars. Now that you know they have interest, you can turn them to your webinar. Offer more valuable information until they are ready to meet.

3. Things to keep in mind

Both webinar and seminar systems can take a while to perfect and start producing the quality leads and future clients that you’re looking for. This is to be expected and shouldn’t be discouraging. It’s a step in the right direction and all apart of the process that is worth it.

Additionally, sometimes there’s bad months. Again, as to be expected. No business is perfect and booming all the time. On the other hand, some months do boom. This evens itself out in the end.

December is still slow. But, once January hits people will likely be in planning mode and be reminded of the advisor who’s webinar or seminar they saw in the past and who’s emails they still receive. That’s likely who they will choice to schedule with, even if they don’t now.

We have been implementing these two strategies in 2023 and it’s helped us reach $34 million YTD (projected $36 by year end). We know it works for us and it can work for you too. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our marketing for financial advisors, go here!