Most financial planners and IFAs love the idea of including videos on their website, social media and other marketing channels. However, what’s the best way to make use of them?
Of course, how you can use an IFA video partly depends on its design, how long it is and the core messaging. Yet there are at least six great ways to make use of them across a range of purposes and contexts, which we’d like to share with you here.
1. The friendly website welcome
AS a financial firm, what impression do you want to give to people when they encounter your brand (e.g. your website) for the first time? Presumably, you’d like them to be impressed by the quality that they see, and also attracted to the design and what you are saying.
Video can be a powerful way for an IFA to achieve these purposes. A great example is Tandem Financial, a financial planner based in Bedfordshire. The moment you arrive on their homepage you encounter a well-design video introducing Paul Cleworth (the director), and why the business exists.
The result is that, within 3 minutes, the visitor can quickly get a sense of what the business is like, who the core people are and whether they’d like to speak to them. An IFA video, in short, is a great way to welcome people to your website and help them to self-qualify.
2. Marketing outreach
Do you have a passion for reaching new clients online, and offering them valuable content about financial planning? Videos for IFAs are a powerful way forwards. Take YouTube as an example. Here, we can point to interesting examples such as the following:
- Ben Felix. Portfolio manager with PWL Capital Inc in Canada, Felix offers regular thought leadership about index funds and investing via his YouTube channel. With over 172k subscribers, this has become a valuable branding tool and, undoubtedly, useful for lead generation.
- Pension Craft. Former investment banking strategist at UBS, Ramin Nakisa runs a successful “financial planning DIY” YouTube channel from Amersham. His channel has over 58.2k subscribers as is a valuable means for generating business income through his membership scheme.
3. Service education
Many people could benefit from the distinct services offered by a financial planner or adviser – such as pension planning, financial protection, investment advice and more. Yet it isn’t always clear to prospects what each one is, how it works and the value on offer.
This is where IFA videos can be hugely helpful. For instance, if you have six distinct financial planning services, perhaps you could design a short animated “explainer video” for each one (situated usefully on the respective landing/services page). Within 2 minutes, therefore, your website visitors can clearly understand each service without otherwise having to trawl through lots of text.
Here at CreativeAdviser, this is a form of IFA video marketing which we actively engage in on a regular basis for our clients. You can see examples of this kind of content creation here.
4. Client testimonials
One of the best ways to build trust in your service and brand is to present new visitors with glowing client reviews and case studies. Offering these in a written format (e.g. a downloadable guide) can be immensely powerful. However, if you want to take this to it’s highest form, then get your client in front of the camera to talk about their amazing experience of working with you.
This might involve organising a professional video shoot, bringing a camera team into your offices and inviting clients to a neatly-done “interview format”. However, using IFA videos for client testimonials does not have involve this level of work. For instance, could you hold a 10-minute Skype interview with a client, record the session (with their consent) and then post it on your website?
5. Live FAQs
People love to feel like they have access to the celebrities and brands that they love. Downing Street has taken note of this in recent years, forming a big reason behind Boris Johnson’s “Peoples PMQs” on Facebook Live. Here, British citizens can ask questions directly to the Prime Minister and hope to receive an answer within the session.
Have you considered a similar approach for your own IFA video marketing? Again, Pension Craft is a great example of this in action. Regularly, Ramin will host a “market roundup” YouTube Live session where subscribers and viewers can pose questions to him about different investments (e.g. Bitcoin). It’s a great way to build a loyal following, forge an online community and grow trust with an audience.
6. Product/platform demonstrations
Do you have a client portal, exclusive content area or mobile application for your financial planning service? If so, then a great way to encourage clients to make use of these great assets is to provide them with a video demonstration on how to use them effectively.
Here, it may only be necessary to provide a single pre-recorded video presentation to the client, perhaps via a link in an email to the client. Depending on the platform or product in question, the tutorial may only need to be 10-15 minutes in length – mainly taking the form of a recording of you sharing your screen as you walk through the steps they need to take.
