You’ve worked so hard to secure a client, walked the path toward the right financial planning and/or product, and the sale is made. Do you have a strategy to stay connected with these clients using social media and digital marketing beyond the sale?
No, I’m not talking about your annual client meeting
Do not confuse my question with your annual client meeting where you review the planning put in place, investment options to consider, and additional products to add to their arsenal of assets. I’m talking about what, “What is your after-sale social/digital marketing strategy?”
Why staying in touch through social media is so important
Social media is such an easy way to manage and leverage data about our clients. It’s important to know what is going on in your clients’ lives, see them – just them – through all the digital distraction going on, and interact in a way that is genuine and specific to their need.
For those registered reps who have compliance to consider, most today will allow you access to tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Look at each platform below where I provide an after-sale data point you can use to help manage your relationships up to the client meeting:
LinkedIn – it’s not a resume site, folks. The easiest thing on earth to do is to connect to your clients so you can see what is going on with them, their job, and their connections. Use the notifications to see who has changed jobs (do they need help with a rollover?), changed names (do they need beneficiary forms updated?), retired (do you need to move up your annual meeting?).
Twitter – it’s not all that overwhelming. You can follow your clients on Twitter and see what they are interacting with and join conversations so you become more conversational than transactional with them. What’s their favorite sport? – maybe invite them to a game some time. Are they talking to people you could potentially meet one day? – invite them to join you for a lunch one day.
Facebook – it’s not just for memes. You can connect with your clients on Facebook and learn so much about their personal lives and get deeply rooted as a friend. You will get updates about their birthdays, see who they are interacting with on a regular basis (maybe invite them to a client picnic in the summer and bring their best friend), and see what kinds of restaurants and recipes they are sharing (maybe you order them a gift card for holidays to their favorite place to eat).
Related: Why Do So Many Leaders Lack Social Media Skills?
Digital media will help, too
If you feel really crazy (and compliance agrees) you can produce easy digital media pieces to further connect with your followers. Think about it like this:
Videos – you can make short snippets with your cell phone and upload them to YouTube. You can also purchase platform access to a company like Covideo and produce easy videos right from your laptop.
Podcasts – with only a handful of tools you can produce a weekly or monthly podcast. You could even interview your clients on the podcast and share them with your other clients to help promote their businesses to each other.
Be a person of action – Go beyond the sale. Talk to your compliance officers and tell them what you want to accomplish. If you need to have me be a part of that conversation to help you navigate the call, invite me. I want to see you create an after-sale strategy which further engrains and roots you to your clients and their lives.