Lead generation for financial advisors: how AI is reshaping the future
The development of high-quality leads for prospective new clients is the growth engine for most financial advisors.
AI is a tool that is reshaping lead generation for financial advisor marketing. The predictive analytics feature of AI allows financial advisors to better hone in on prospects who are the most likely to need their services.
Proper use of AI in lead generation can help increase the marketing efficiency of financial advisory firms, allowing them to focus on their primary objective of providing the best possible advice to their clients.
Predictive analysis is one aspect of AI that is reshaping the lead generation process for financial advisors.
The use of AI can enhance the lead generation process and perhaps other aspects of the advisor’s practice, but advisors must remember that, at the end of the day, the human element is still important.
How is AI transforming lead gen for financial advisors?
Perhaps the biggest way that AI is transforming the lead generation process for financial advisors is through predictive analytics. This process combines historical data and machine learning algorithms to help advisors predict who is most likely to need their services.
Predictive analytics allows advisors to focus more closely on prospects who likely need and want their services as well as existing clients who may be viable targets for cross-selling efforts of additional services offered by the advisor.
The predictive analytics of AI can help advisors:
Enhance their targeting of prospective clients
Can help lead to higher conversion rates of prospective clients through more timely engagement
Anticipate the future financial advice needs of existing clients, enhancing client retention rates
AI can also help advisors automate lead qualification and lead scoring. Advisors can apply their criteria for a solid lead through AI tools and reduce the time normally needed to produce a list of qualified prospects to whom their marketing is directed.
Even though AI seems to focus on automation, using AI can actually help advisors craft more personalized communications with prospects and with existing clients. The data advisors get back from using AI tools in the communication process to help them better understand the needs of prospective clients, enabling them to focus marketing communications tailored to the prospect’s unique needs and financial condition.
What are the benefits of using AI for lead generation?
Overall, the proper use of AI tools can help advisors efficiently generate leads by applying their criteria for a good prospective client to the process. This can free up valuable time to devote to serving their current clients.
Automated AI-based lead gen tools can help advisors pinpoint and focus on the prospective clients who are the best fit for their practice. Most AI lead gen tools allow the advisor to set parameters for the types of clients that are the best fit with their practice.
AI can help with the compliance aspects of both lead generation and compliance issues with existing clients. AI note-taking apps can be useful in documenting conversations with both prospects and clients; this can make note-taking easier and help ensure that this information is readily available for your firm’s compliance department.
AI can also be invaluable in content creation that helps advisors convert prospects into clients. Instead of sending out canned, generic content, AI allows advisors to easily tailor their promotional content to various types of prospects. For example:
Business owners who are concerned about their succession planning.
Pre-retirees who are worried about market volatility and how it might impact their ability to retire on time and to not outlive their assets.
Helping high net-worth families maximize their wealth in a tax-efficient way.
How can financial advisors integrate AI into their lead gen process?
The first thing here is for advisors to evaluate their current lead generation process. Is what they are doing working in terms of providing the number of qualified leads they are seeking? Also, how much of their personal time is going into this process? Is this time that could be better spent in other areas of their practice including advising existing and new clients?
If you find that your lead generation process can be improved, both in terms of the materials you are using and the time you are spending on this process, then AI might be a way for you to improve the process on both fronts. AI can help advisors:
Enhance the targeting of potential clients by focusing on their unique characteristics and potential needs.
AI tools can help advisors create detailed profiles of their ideal clients. These profiles can be used in conjunction with AI to help build a more focused lead generation process.
AI can be used to automate the research process to target ideal prospects.
Help advisors manage their engagement with these prospects to ensure they engage with them on a timely and recurring basis to show their interest in working with them.
The ability to enhance personalization is one of the key AI tools that advisors can incorporate into their lead gen process. The personalization process for lead gen includes:
Integrating initial prospect data input with existing databases
Use AI to analyze lead behavior and the quality of any engagement with the prospect
Develop a scoring system for leads based on their potential conversion to become clients
Develop the capability to prioritize high-scoring leads for immediate follow-up
The use of AI in lead generation is not a one-time, set-it-and-forget-it process. Rather, it can be a solid ongoing tool that advisors refine to generate the types of quality leads they need to grow their business.
5 AI tools that can improve your lead generation
AI offers a number of tools to help advisors improve their lead generation. Five to consider are:
ChatGPT allows advisors to create highly personalized content that speaks to the needs of specific types of prospects.
Automated lead qualification and scoring tools - such as ones offered by Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier - can help score the likelihood of a lead becoming a client at some point.
AI-enhanced CRM tools, such as HubSpot, Zoho CRM and Salesforce Einstein, can help predict the needs of prospects and clients to help ensure that advisors are one step ahead.
Data protection tools help ensure that AI-driven data used by financial advisors adhere to compliance rules surrounding data protection and privacy.
There are AI-powered tools that allow advisors to automate the solicitation and management of feedback from clients and prospects to help enhance their lead generation messaging to prospects. Tools include HubSpot, Zendesk AI, and TypeForm.
If you step back and think about the potential of these five AI tools plus other features that AI can offer, the potential to enhance and refine an advisor’s lead generation systems seems unlimited.
Remember though, AI is simply a tool. Its effectiveness will be determined by how advisors use it, including applying their human intelligence to tailor these and other AI tools to their needs.
Work with Unbiased
AI and other technologies are reshaping the lead generation process for financial advisors, and this trend is likely to continue.
Unbiased Pro can help you grow your firm by delivering leads directly to your inbox while also providing you with the tools to manage them throughout the sales process.
Content Writer
Roger is a financial and business writer who brings his extensive experience as a financial advisor to his writing. Roger's work has appeared on a number of sites, including ThinkAdvisor, Investopedia, Motley Fool, Time and a number of other sites. In addition, he ghostwrites extensively for a number of financial advisors and other financial services firms.