As financial advisors, we’re constantly looking for new ways to win clients. The past few years have paved the way for two very effective growth channels for us to use today—taxes as an offering, and webinars.
In this recorded session, tax-planning technology expert Torie Happe with Holistiplan and I touch on the power of this dynamic duo for financial advisors looking to grow their businesses. Read on!
Why Tax Marketing Magnetizes Prospects
Let’s face it: everyone needs help with taxes. Investors often don’t want to deal with the complexity of their taxes which requires professional help, nor do they know how to fully optimize their tax situations. In fact, when investors hear the word “taxes”, it has a negative connotation.
But this is where financial advisors can come in: when we take away that negative connotation taxes have for many investors, we can show them that we care and we listen to them.
The more you can open the door to communication, the more your clients will see taxes in a positive light. As an advisor, you have an opportunity now to provide a positive experience for the majority of your clients and colleagues.
Pretty much everyone needs help with their taxes, including:
- Those who have a pile of cash in retirement
- Business owners
- 1099
- W2
- Pre-retirees and retirees
- And everyone else!
To add, according to a study by Herbers & Company, 9 in 10 investors want their advisors to help with tax planning. 73% of advisory firms offer tax help to some degree, leaving room for improvement here..
Advisory firms offer business, education, estate planning, employee benefits, and more. However, consumers want help with retirement planning, investment management, and tax planning. It would benefit firms if they shifted the majority of their focus to what their customers want.
And if you feel intimidated or concerned about offering services about tax marketing with no background in it, here’s my advice: technology can be your guiding light to ensure you don’t go overboard.
Financial Planning Opportunities For Advisors Who Talk About Taxes
The topic of taxes makes for widened conversations that extend into different financial planning opportunities for advisors. This includes:
- Tax-Efficient Portfolio Management: A thorough understanding of your client’s tax situation puts you in a better position to understand their overall personal finances.
- Retirement Optimization: Comprehensive knowledge of your client’s tax situation allows you to understand each retirement account’s role in their overall financial strategy.
- Tax-Sensitive Withdrawal Strategies: This helps you to identify which accounts to withdraw funds from first to minimize taxes.
- Coordination of Tax Strategies with Your CPA: You can advise your clients on how to withdraw from each account, how much to withdraw, and when to withdraw.
- Ongoing Tax Management: You can advise on tax-saving strategies, and even review your clients’ tax returns to ensure their tax liabilities are accurate.
Financial advisors can truly use the subject of taxes as a way of communicating more frequently with clients and adding longevity to their client relationships. A win-win.
How Tax-Focused Webinars Help Advisors Win New Clients
Tax-focused webinars provide a valuable opportunity for advisors to showcase their expertise and educate potential clients on tax planning strategies.
Even though you can educate people through various other forms of media, like blogs or social media posts, webinars give you that human connection since you’re virtually face-to-face.
They’re also a great way to scale your business! Not only can you serve clients anywhere in your local area, you can also do it from the comfort of your own home.
In fact, webinars are often an ideal starting point for advisors who don’t want to get in-person yet, or when you feel burnt out from past seminars. It’s also really cool that you’ll still be able to form a meaningful connection as if you were physically shaking someone’s hand.
Here are some tips directly from White Glove advisors to apply when holding tax-focused webinars in the future:
Before the Workshop
- Promote your webinar through various channels, and make sure to let people know specifically what they’re going to learn.
- Prepare ample lighting and choose a clean background for your setup. My #1 tip: be sure you have natural light coming in from a window in front of you (never behind you).
- Outline your content so you don’t get lost during the workshop.
- Apply consistent branding throughout your webinar showcase; Holistiplan has an awesome marketing kit for you to start with!
- Rely on technology to guide your conversations and everything else that you offer.
- Ensure the quality of your pitches by getting a professional microphone! I use the Blue Yeti for all of my webinars.
During the Workshop
- Have someone introduce you to your audience. This will give a more professional feel and set the mood for the rest of the workshop.
- Open your main topic and make it engaging. Use storytelling techniques to make your content relatable and interesting. You can also incorporate interesting statistics (like how more people pass away from descending Mount Everest than climbing it, reflecting how important it is to preserve wealth when discussing taxes in retirement).
- Narrow down your topics and stick to them. If you do this, you can go deeper into specific areas of tax planning, providing your audience with valuable, detailed information.
- Invite your audience for a mini-consult. Ask your clients what brought them to the workshop, and if they have any concerns that made them willing to take 60 minutes out of their day to attend your session.
After the Workshop
- Call everyone that showed up on the same day. Call them twice if they don’t answer, and only then leave a voicemail.
- Use drip campaigns to make sure you’re following up with them. Ensure your CRM is in place for this—White Glove is the technology you need to make this happen.
- Move webinar attendees from that mini-consult to their first visit by “dangling the carrot” with Holistiplan’s tax report. It’ll also be a great starter case for you to set a meeting to talk about tax planning and other concerns.
Why White Glove Is An Excellent Choice For Advisors Who Want To Grow
Using White Glove to ensure workshop success and post-workshop drip campaigns, advisors can manage and track client interactions efficiently. Leads are followed up automatically, so nothing gets missed. Advisors can easily stay in touch with webinar attendees and cultivate them into customers.
To add, the seamless “next step” with Holistiplan makes it easy for advisors to transition from webinars to personalised tax planning.
White Glove takes care of the marketing, the follow-up, and your entire webinar strategy to make your webinar a success. To get started, go to whiteglove.com/diana and schedule your free, 1-1 tax webinar strategy session.
