How Financial Advisors Can Land More Business Using Personalized Thank You Cards
Financial advisors bear a lot of responsibility. Their recommendations have a sizable impact on their clients’ financial fortunes. One piece of bad advice can lead to dramatically different returns, sometimes years later. Once the mistake is discovered, it’s often too late to change circumstances.
For this reason, trust is a significant component of the advisor/advisee relationship, and it’s critical to establish it early and nurture it throughout your collaboration. Indeed, being honest, giving sound advice, and responding quickly to client questions are the foundation of a healthy practice, but there’s more that you can do.
Financial advisor thank you cards are an inexpensive supplement to exemplary client service. They can be used for marketing purposes, help with lead generation, and are an excellent tool for maintaining brand awareness while strengthening relationships. All of these will help you land more business over time.
And the best part is that you don’t have to handwrite your thank you cards to enjoy the benefits of handwritten cards. You’ll discover later in this article how Simply Noted can automate your handwritten thank you cards, turning them into a powerful business-building tool that requires as much input from you as sending an email campaign. But first, let’s look at why thank you cards are so effective.
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WHY FINANCIAL ADVISOR THANK YOU CARDS?
Everyone enjoys being appreciated. Our affinity for gratitude seems baked into human nature. We feel good when someone thanks us for a contribution we made to their lives. Even more salient to our purposes here, we view the person that thanked us more favorably. In a strange way, the fact that someone appreciates us makes us appreciate them more in return.
This interaction is helpful for marketing purposes because it lowers defenses and makes prospects more open to sales messages. It also creates an initial baseline of trust — when prospects feel good about themselves (and you,) they’re more likely to accept that you know what you’re talking about.
The gratitude effect complements existing business relationships as well. Sending financial advisor thank you cards to existing clients demonstrates that you care about them and appreciate their continued patronage. It shows humility, too — you might be the professional in the relationship, but you recognize that you don’t have a business without your clients.
Humility, trustworthiness, and responsive customer service are all valuable traits you should want to promote about your business, and thank you cards hit all three — and more!
But do they need to be handwritten? Absolutely! Emails and printed thank you cards feel cold and impersonal. They lack the authenticity that handwriting provides. While a handwritten card is created for one specific person, emails and standard cards are generic and can apply to anyone. To get the best performance from your financial advisor thank you cards, you need to handwrite them (or have Simply Noted do the work for you.)
SEE ALSO: 10 Ways Custom Business Thank You Cards Can Make You Money
HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH HANDWRITTEN THANK YOU CARDS
There are several ways financial advisors can leverage the power of the thank you card. They’re helpful at every stage of your client relationships — even at the end. If a client is dissatisfied, thank you cards can save the account or mitigate professional damage. Try these strategies with your business.
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Thank Prospects For Responding to Other Marketing Messages
Thank you cards are a great complement to other lead generation tactics. When someone contacts you through your website, responds to a direct mail piece, or comes to you through a referral, send them a thoughtful thank you card with a heartfelt introduction. You’ll find you convert more of your leads to clients by simply thanking them for their interest.
Thank New Clients For Putting Their Trust in You
When a new client signs on, they’re taking a chance on you. You should reward this initial trust by quickly thanking them for their business. Not only will this further ingratiate you to them, but it will also set the tone for the sort of customer service they can expect, inspiring further confidence in your professional capabilities.
SEE ALSO: 5 Sample Thank You Cards for Business
Express Your Gratitude for Referrals — and Get More Referrals
Referral marketing is important for financial planners. Prospects referred to you convert more reliably because there’s trust built into the relationship. So be quick and effusive with your thanks when a client refers someone to you. Not only will this strengthen your bond, but your client will also be more likely to direct even more people to you in the future.
Say Thanks to Existing Clients Annually
Your existing business is never guaranteed. If your clients haven’t heard from you in a while, they may be susceptible to being poached. So keep your relationship fresh in their mind with an annual thank you card. Let them know how valuable their business is to you and remind them that you’re available whenever they need you. This simple gesture will help you retain more business longer.
Thank a Departing Client For Their Business
It’s good practice to send a thank you note whenever a client ends their relationship with you. If they were dissatisfied, this small gesture could be enough to open a new dialogue. If they’re looking for something else in your professional relationship, your card might remind them of why they chose you initially. Even if they still move on, it’s good to end the relationship on a good note. It may pay dividends in the future.
SEE ALSO: The Value of Automated Thank You Cards in Business
MAKE THANK YOU NOTES FAST AND EASY WITH SIMPLY NOTED
We’ve shown how powerful handwritten financial advisor thank you cards can be. However, few professionals have the time to handwrite thank you messages on an ongoing basis. Simply Noted creates authentic-looking handwritten cards using robots, real ballpoint pens, and AI-powered smart fonts that perfectly replicate the subtle details that separate real handwriting from digital facsimiles. Your clients won’t be able to tell the difference, and that’s the point. You want them to assume that you penned the message yourself, with them in mind. That creates a memorable connection.
We offer several ways to automate single cards as well as mailings in the tens of thousands. You can easily include handwritten thank you cards in your normal digital marketing workflows with our integrations. Have them mailed automatically given specific triggers or opt to mail one-offs. It’s up to you. We’re here to make it easy.