Financial education is among the most efficient and effective marketing tools available to financial advisors. Consider three major advantages of using education as a cornerstone of marketing for financial services:
- Prospects come to you: An educational course gives value to the prospect, who comes to you on their own, pre-qualified and needing financial advice.
- You’ll build relationships: Connect with your audience in a low-pressure, non-sales context that establishes trust and credibility.
- Do more with less: Engage quality prospects 20:1 rather than with a “plate-licking” dinner seminar or cold call.
We live in a world where clients are more technically savvy and conduct more of their own research than in the past. Today’s prospects tend to make decisions about whether or not they’ll invest in your services well before they ever engage with you. According to a study released by GE Capital Retail Banks, 81% of B2C customers will research online before making ‘big purchases’ of $500 or more, and 60% start with a search engine.
The FMT platform gives you a turnkey solution to engage curious prospects on their own terms. You become the research stage of their process and provide them with the information they’re actively seeking. At the same time, attendees get to know your brand and have a chance to envision themselves working with you in a more personalized arrangement.
How to use financial education as marketing
Regulations and compliance are important considerations in any educational program for wealth management. The course you teach is not in and of itself a sales pitch. You will not be selling financial products directly to attendees, so there’s no pressure of a sale. Nonetheless, it’s typical for a single FMT course to attract 17 highly qualified attendees, 10 appointments, $2.5M from 4 new clients, and add $4M in AUM to your pipeline.
A high-quality program acts as natural marketing for financial services. When you provide a valuable attendee experience and inspire trust in your expertise, follow-up appointments practically create themselves.
How financial education works on the FMT platform
FMT handles marketing for financial advisors from end-to-end so that you can focus on what you do best — providing valuable financial guidance. Here’s how it works:
- FMT works with you to define a strategy for your firm
- You get a fully reserved, exclusive market area
- We provide proven course materials, speaker notes, and even attendee workbooks
- FMT promotes your course and handles all RSVPs and registrations
- Instructor training is available to help you deepen engagement and close new business
- You teach the course (in-person and/or virtually)
- Attendees follow up, you book 1:1 sessions, and you win new clients
The results speak for themselves
With only 1 market area, and 2 to 3 marketing campaigns (or 4 to 6 classes) each year, you can expect to book on average 30 to 45 potential 1:1 sessions with pre-qualified prospects who are actively seeking financial guidance. Fiduciary advisors are consistently pleased with the results that the FMT financial education program helps them achieve.
“Presenting the FMT seminars has made my business. I grew from $15M to $85M with this as my primary marketing activity.”
Steve Margulin/Financial Advisor
“Built from scratch an $80M AUM practice of nearly 200 households. My practice is thriving now and FMT is the core of our growth.”
Michael A./Financial Advisor
It takes a proven platform and marketing engine to grow your business through financial education. One advisor recently invested in a competing platform and attracted 30 attendees to his “free webinar” — but had zero appointments. The virtual course campaign FMT ran for him next resulted in 16 of 19 attendees converting into appointments. For every $1 invested, he achieved a return of $11.
Contact FMT today and learn more about how we equip advisors with compliance-ready financial education courses that convert vetted prospects into their best lifelong clients.
This article was originally published in October, 2021. Updated January, 2023.
