AI Lead Gen Best Practices for Financial Advisors

More advisors are exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence for lead generation to scale their businesses. Tech companies are rising to the challenge to deliver user-friendly, results-driven tools that offer advisors a streamlined way to connect with high-intent leads. Developing some AI best practices for lead gen can help ensure that you’re using these tools effectively and compliantly.

SmartAsset’s Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP) offers financial advisors services like client lead generation, automated marketing and more. Learn about SmartAsset AMP today.

How Advisors Use AI for Lead Generation

AI lead gen tools bring advisors and prospective clients together using big data and predictive analysis. Lead generation platforms use AI to analyze large data sets and identify prospective clients who have the greatest propensity to use professional advisory services. They then send those leads to advisors in exchange for a yearly or monthly fee.

This often happens with the help of an AI agent. AI agents are autonomous programs that do the heavy lifting of finding and qualifying prospective clients for you. They draw on a variety of data sources to create client profiles, then sort through them to find prospects who are ready to work with an advisor.

Using AI for lead generation can allow you to:

• Increase your efficiency and productivity by automating prospecting tasks, so that you can devote more time to your current clients
• Refine your buyer personas, based on AI analysis of prospect behavior
• Shape marketing campaigns for scalability to increase conversions

AI agents can interact with prospects who visit your website via chatbots to answer questions or help them navigate your website. While engaging with prospects, the agent is also collecting valuable information about the prospect’s behavior and intentions.

Some AI lead gen tools may go a step further and offer AI-powered marketing tools that allow you to foster engagement automatically. For example, you may get access to email templates, automated workflows or scripts that you can use to connect with prospective clients and start or continue a conversation.

AI Best Practices for Lead Gen

Using AI for lead generation could help you save time and weed out prospects who are still on the lower end of the intent scale. That being said, AI is still relatively new to the advisory space. Following some best practices can help you incorporate this technology into your business seamlessly.

1. Set Goals

Defining your goals is the first step in using AI for lead generation. Moving forward without clear goals could leave you less than satisfied with the results. Your goals should be connected to your intentions and guide you toward a desired outcome. The more specific you are, the better.

Once you have some goals in mind, decide which metrics you’ll use to track them. Metrics give you a quantifiable framework for determining whether an AI lead gen tool is producing the results you’re seeking.

2. Know Your Ideal Client

A detailed ideal client profile or buyer persona can help you make the most of AI lead gen tools. Buyer personas are hypothetical versions of your ideal clients, and can greatly enhance the value you derive from any tool you use.

Specifically, these tools allow you to develop search filters to target specific prospect segments. You can filter by age, geographic location, net worth… all factors that you’d include in a buyer persona. You may also have the option to filter by life event.

For example, say your ideal client is a high-net-worth, near-retiree who anticipates inheriting their parents’ estate. You might add “receiving an inheritance” or “retiring” as trigger events.

3. Match the Tool to Your Needs

Lead gen AI tools may perform similar functions, but they aren’t always identical. Any tools you use should reflect your needs.

For example, decide whether you’re most interested in any of the following:

• Predictive analysis and lead-scoring
• AI-powered engagement and marketing content generation
• Automations and streamlined workflows
• Fully managed marketing solutions that go beyond lead gen

Aside from your purpose in using an AI tool for lead generation, consider its possibilities for integration. If you use a specific CRM, such as Wealthbox or Redtail, for example, it would likely be to your advantage to use an AI lead gen tool that integrates with your chosen platform.

4. Educate Your Team

If you anticipate giving members of your team access to AI tools for lead generation, a training session may be necessary. Anyone in your firm who’s using an AI software or application to connect with prospects should understand:

• The tool’s purpose
• How it works to generate leads
• How to interpret the data that the tool generates

You may also need to plan a special strategy session in coordination with your marketing team if your preferred AI tool includes marketing features. For example, you may need to jointly decide what type of metrics to use to gauge how well an AI tool is working and where you may need to adjust your marketing strategy.

5. Emphasize Compliance

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recognizes the challenges that AI use presents in the regulatory landscape. For example, questions have been raised about the potential for conflicts of interest that can accompany the use of predictive analytics¹.

Some of the most significant compliance issues surrounding AI for lead gen center on marketing and data security. There are two key rules to be aware of:

• The SEC’s marketing rule defines what advisors can and cannot do or say when marketing their firms. AI-generated marketing content is subject to the same guidelines as what you share via email, social media and other channels.
• The SEC’s cybersecurity rule requires advisors to have a clear cybersecurity policy and to promptly report any security breaches. Any data you collect through a third-party AI lead gen tool must be properly secured to ensure that it’s not accessed by any unauthorized persons.

Additionally, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires financial institutions to advise clients or customers of how their information is used and shared². The Act also requires financial professionals to give customers or clients the option to opt out of data sharing.

Reviewing your compliance policies can help you determine where you may need to make provisions for AI use. Any compliance efforts you undertake should be relayed to your team to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Bottom Line

AI best practices for lead gen are routinely changing as new technologies are developed. What may be relevant today may be less so six months or six years from now. Monitoring AI news and compliance trends can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Practice

• AI can help with marketing automation and content generation, but it’s just one tool you may have at your disposal. For instance, you may opt to partner with an advisor marketing platform like SmartAsset AMP to expand your reach. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
• Lead generation is just one possible application for AI. Some of the other ways you could put it to work include note-taking, customer support, calendar management and content creation. Comparing AI platforms and tools can help you find the resources that best fit your firm’s needs and goals.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/Autthapol Champathong, ©iStock.com/FlamingoImages, ©iStock.com/TrixiePhoto