Financial Advisors now have access to more channels than ever to connect with high-net-worth prospects. However, with increasing competition and limited time for marketing, many Advisors find it challenging to identify which channels are most effective for their business.
That’s why RFG Advisory created the Advisor Growth Study Club. It offers the Advisors who partner with RFG a regular opportunity to discuss their growth strategies, share insights about specific channels, and learn from their peers’ success. Each monthly session, hosted by Chief Behavioral Officer Brendan Frazier, features a different guest speaker exploring their most impactful growth channel – and our inaugural session revealed how hosting personal finance classes can be surprisingly lucrative for Independent Advisors.
This month, we had the pleasure of hearing from David Koren, who explained that running personal finance classes has generated 80% of his current client base, which has reached $220 million in AUM this year.
Here are David’s four key pieces of advice to run events that drive lasting revenue:
1. Choose the Right Space
Advisors could host classes in any available space, but David suggests a university room is ideal because it signals authority. While he is careful not to imply that his classes are run by the university, hosting classes in a respected institution gives his classes an extra air of credibility.
This might seem like a significant expense, but it’s important to consider its value in the long run. David typically pays $1k to hire a room for two sessions. It’s important to view these upfront costs as necessary investments – and ones that could be quickly repaid by winning even one new client.
2. Focus on Marketing
The most common challenge when hosting any event is getting the right attendees to come, which is why David spends most of his marketing budget on promoting these events. Surprisingly, given the emphasis on digital marketing today, his primary method of attracting attendees is physical mailouts. He sends these to carefully targeted prospects who are a good fit for his services, supplementing this approach with paid Facebook and radio ads.
Printing and shipping the mailouts cost roughly $6k per event and contain ample information. “They’re like an infomercial,” David says. This positions the class as a valuable resource.
Note: Advisors who partner with RFG gain access to a team of professional marketers who assist in the planning and execution of these types of campaigns.
3. Plan Your Curriculum
The quality of the material you teach is vital to deliver value for attendees – and ultimately establishes you as a subject matter expert. David uses two primary resources to educate his “students”:
– A financial education book: Once he knows how many attendees his classes will have, David purchases each person a pair of books from a firm called FMT, which cost $50 each.
–Interactive presentations: David creates a presentation to supplement the books and make the classes more engaging.
Note: The marketing team at RFG dedicates their time to helping Advisors who partner with them to create such interactive presentations.
4. Play the Long Game
Educational seminars or classes should be viewed as an investment in your Advisory business – not a quick fix to grow your book today. Many of David’s clients took their time before deciding to work with him, but once they did, they saw value that justified the investment in the educational program. In fact, one of David’s most valued clients took a class in 2011, and 5 years later finally signed on with his firm. David fostered this kind of long-term engagement through:
–Open-ended invitations: He made it clear to every attendee that they could contact him.
–Sharing his book: Many attendees still use the books from his classes’ years later – which keeps David top-of-mind when they decide to engage with a Financial Advisor.
Ultimately, David argued that Advisors should think about their classes like a sales pitch for their services: how much value can you provide? How much authority can you build? These are the factors that will determine how many attendees become highly engaged leads or clients – and many Advisors will benefit from comprehensive support to ensure they maximize these factors.
Grow Your Advisory Business with RFG Advisory
At RFG, we empower Advisors with intentional marketing strategies, tools, and content. Our goal is to help grow Advisors’ business organically, ultimately building their enterprise value. Our multi-channel digital marketing and communications platform, combined with an RFG-provided annual
marketing budget, enables Advisors to achieve an impressive 19% annual organic growth rate—three times the industry average.
Want more expert advice on how to grow your AUM or start your own firm?
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