Building Trust Through Education

Written By : Greg

One of your primary goals is to build a trusting relationship with clients. Once they develop confidence in your expertise, and feel comfortable with your character, it becomes much easier to influence their choices. You can work together to make the right decisions about their finances, so that your clients can achieve their personal objectives

Of course, it isn’t so easy to jump from A to Z. As you know, most new clients will not feel instant trust toward you. It takes time to build that relationship, and there are many opportunities that you could miss along the way. On the other hand, there are also opportunities for missteps that could damage your relationship!

Building a solid relationship with your clients takes time, patience, and hard work. Fortunately, we have analyzed some common relationship-building methods for you, and we can shortcut the process a bit by sharing what we know.

Education is key… But don’t overdo it. You should seek to educate your clients on issues such as different types of investment vehicles, insurance products, or government regulations that impact them. You accomplish several goals when you seek to educate your clients:

• You demonstrate your knowledge on a variety of topics, which inspires confidence in your skills
• You answer the questions that have been keeping them up at night
• You offer them assurance that there is a solution for any problem – and you can find it together
• Clients feel more comfortable making important decisions when they are educated
• You interact with clients by offering them the information they need on a regular basis – keeping your name at the top of their mind

You can accomplish client education in a variety of ways, through regular blogging, email campaigns, and interacting with them on social media. Of course, there can be a down side to education as well. Some of the risks include:

• “Over-educating” clients. It’s important to remember that the average person knows very little about finance, and offering them too much information creates confusion. Confusion usually causes clients to back away from making decisions, because they feel overwhelmed.
• Over-educating clients online can cause them to stop reading your blogs or opening your emails. Now you’re interacting less, not more.
• Some education tactics come across as sales tactics, and most consumers are wary of the “car salesman persona”. If you make this mistake, you could destroy trust rather than create it.

So how do you strike the right balance, between educating clients and turning them off? When creating materials for your online marketing strategy (blogs, emails, and social media posts), ask yourself these questions about your clients:

• How much do they know about finance? How much do they need to know, in order to make sound decisions?
• What are their concerns? What are some common questions about saving for retirement, Social Security, insurance products, and so on?
• Does my material answer these questions?
• Is my material engaging and relevant to my typical client? Am I educating or over-educating?
• Does my material come off sounding like a blatant sales pitch, or a brag about my expertise?
• Does my material offer enough information to answer questions, while inspiring the reader to contact me for the finer details?
• Am I blogging, emailing, or posting on social media on a regular basis? (about 4 times per month is recommended)

As you can see, client education is an intricate dance between you and your “partner”. You want to lead, without being pushy. You should respond to their needs, both confidently and sensitively. It often takes a bit of time, and some trial and error, to strike the right balance. But once you do, you should find that the rewards are well worth the effort.

Contact us for more information on how a digital marketing campaign can educate your prospects, build healthier relationships, and convert them into clients.

 

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing