Financial Advisor Marketing Events: Transitioning Client Events to Be Successful In the COVID-19 Era

For financial professionals, events are a great way to connect with current clients and bond with their team. They add a fun side to the world of finance and show them that you are interested in getting to know them and their families, rather than just providing financial advice. They can be beneficial However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we handle events and connect with others drastically. So, how can financial advisors transition their current client events to be successful in this post-COVID-19 era? We’ve got 5 tips plus examples.

Client Events

When it comes to hosting events for your clients, examples of doing this are:

• Company Dinners
• “Shred” events
• Estate or Tax Planning Events
• Cooking classes
• Picnics or family outings
• Guest Speakers
• Workshops
• Wine-tastings
• Trivia Nighs
• Movie Nights
• Sports Outings
• Photography Sessions

As you can see, there are several ways to connect with your clients, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, these in-person events came to a screeching halt. People have had to get creative with how they host events, so here are some ways to transition these events to virtual plus examples.

5 Ways to Transition In-Person Events

How can you still connect with your clients even when you can’t see them in person?

1. Webinar Presentations

Presentations are an important aspect for clients as these offer opportunities for them to learn something new that will make their financial journey stronger. In the case of Twenty Over Ten client, C.L. Sheldon & Company, they serve a very unique niche and offer fee-only financial planning and wealth management for both active and retired military members. ETAP stands for Education Training Awareness Program, and since it was canceled, he’s offering a signup option in a pop-up on the home page where customers can watch a recorded webinar version from President Curt Sheldon’s “Financial Strategies ETAP” presentation.

2. Video Presentations

Presenting useful financial topics for clients in video form is something that can be done during the coronavirus pandemic and can carry over in a post-COVID-19 era, as well.

Twenty Over Ten client, Forward Thinking Wealth Management does a great job of utilizing video on their social media platforms, as can be seen in the below Facebook posts.

As you can see, Dan Johnson, CFP®, does a great of consistently posting short videos on his Facebook page ranging in topics from assets, tax-loss harvesting, the stages of a bear market and so much more. Clients are able to watch these videos as they are quick and digestible and they can still learn the types of informal that they may in a workshop or presentation. This is something that is sustainable both during a pandemic and once it has passed.

3. Virtual Cooking Classes or Wine Tastings

Zoom became the go-to platform during the pandemic, as millions of people around the world had to start holding their meetings and connecting via Zoom once they were no longer able to go to the office and meet in-person.

This goes for hosting events, as well, and if your wine tasting or cooking class was canceled, that doesn’t mean that you can’t share a link and allow others to connect. Chefs and wine connoisseurs can still show the ingredients and wines that are necessary to participate so that they can

In an example from InvestmentNews, a friend of a financial advisor was a professional chef whose restaurant closed, so he started hosting cooking classes. The advisor’s clients were interested, so he printed aprons with his logo and a quote about food, then sent them to his guests along with the invitation. He included a list of ingredients plus where to purchase them and told them that they could also invite their friends since accommodation wasn’t an issue.

4. Photography Sessions

Another financial advisor has been hosting fall photo sessions, especially since this is such a beautiful time of year. She has been inviting her clients and their families (plus pets!) to meet her near a pond where a professional photographer is taking family photos. Since the photographer stands 6 feet apart and sessions are scheduled 30 minutes apart, social distancing isn’t an issue with an activity like this. What’s even better is that this is in time to get family photos for holiday cards.

5. Trivia Night

Zoom happy hours were a novelty at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, as we have been social-distancing in some fashion for over eight months now, it’s not quite what it was at the start. Some ways to bond with your client and make these more interesting are to incorporate some sort of game night, such as a trivia night with breakout rooms and even prizes. It’s a way to get to not only learn more about your clients but also your team and provide a little extra motivation in the form of fun prizes.

According to Orion Advisor Tech, there are some things that must be done in order to ensure that your Zoom game night runs smoothly.

Before the Event

It’s crucial that you:

• Choose your topic
• Promote it
• Prepare for the happy hour

When it comes to choosing your topic, pick one that you are passionate and knowledgeable about that will also offer your clients important information that they can take away and apply to their own situations.

Once you have chosen a topic, such as a trivia night, then promote it accordingly with landing pages on your website with a registration link and information plus tease it on social media so that it can reach a larger audience. Additionally, send out email marketing campaigns to your clients to drum up excitement and let them know what to expect.

During the Event

Get comfortable and take note of the lighting when hosting, making sure that you are lighting yourself well and that you can eliminate any background noise. Additionally, now is the time to let your personality shine through! Crack jokes when appropriate and really do your best to connect with your audience, especially since we desperately want and miss the human connection that we have missed for so much of 2020.

When it comes to asking trivia questions, you can pepper in informational questions along with fun ones so that your clients are learning something along the way that they can use themselves.

After the Event

Even though this was more casual than a typical seminar, connect with your clients afterward by sending a follow-up email with any information that they may have learned plus prize information if any of the participants won something.

This is a casual and fun, yet professional way to connect with your clients during these difficult times and really show that you care about their well-being.

Has COVID-19 Sidelined Your Events?

We hope that this has provided you with some creative insight when it comes to connecting with your clients during these unprecedented times. We can’t wait to get back to seeing each other in person, but some of these virtual events may go hand-in-hand with in-person client events. It has been a great way for others to connect even when they couldn’t attend them in person and make these difficult times just a bit easier. Additionally, showing your clients this extra support is so important, especially since many people are going through difficult times and need that extra support.