We’re happy to announce that Indigo Marketing Agency was featured in Bob Veres’s August 2022 issue of Inside Information, a go-to resource for financial planning, financial advisor, and investment advisor professionals. In every issue, Veres delivers cutting-edge discussions with the industry’s thought leaders and change-makers—and we’re honored to be included!
In a deep dive with Indigo founder Claire Akin, Veres discusses how we use our Testimonial Program to collect and post client testimonials for financial advisors in a regulatory, compliant way.
Why Are Testimonials Important for Financial Advisors?
Testimonials provide credibility and social proof. If you look up a restaurant or a car wash online, you want to see five-star reviews before you take the time to drive there. The same is true for financial advice. People want to see five-star reviews before they schedule a call or hand over their life savings. Testimonials give you that credibility factor.
Veres notes, “When clients tell prospects about your services, particularly if the reviews are favorable, that can be the most powerful marketing message you’ve ever had at your disposal—way more powerful than a blog or flashy website.” Indeed, through testimonials, interested prospects get the story of the type of client the advisor helps and can self-identify: “That is what I need. That sounds like somebody who could help me.” And that is Indigo’s end goal: to get financial advisors more referrals of their ideal clients.
Indigo’s Testimonial Program
More than 90% of consumers will check out online reviews before they buy a product—and the absence of advisor reviews has been, in the past, a glaring oddity in the business landscape. So now that the new testimonial rule has officially gone into effect, the way financial advisors can market their services has been completely revolutionized.
So how do you effectively use the new testimonial rule in your marketing without running into compliance issues? That’s where we come in.
Our Testimonial Program helps our advisor clients get glowing client reviews online AND remain compliant. It’s especially powerful for advisors looking to strengthen their reputation and trustworthiness online.
Our Testimonial Program transforms your testimonials from good to great by coaching your clients to talk about what prospects really want to know:
- Why did they choose you over another advisor?
- What’s the most important benefit they’ve gotten from working with you?
- What’s the most important thing you’ve helped them achieve?
These are the questions that lead to really fantastic, well-written testimonials that paint a clear picture of who you serve best and why your clients love working with you.
Watch Our Webinars About the Testimonial Program
To delve a bit deeper into the rules surrounding this process, Veres highlights Indigo’s webinars with compliance attorneys Leila Shaver of MyRIALawyer and Chris Winn of AdvisorAssist.
Check them out here:
- Best Practices for Using Testimonials in Your Marketing (with Leila Shaver)
- How to Use Testimonials in Your Marketing (with Chris Winn)
Bob Veres’s Takeaways on Our Testimonial Program
As a financial planning guru, Veres expresses the value and advantages he sees in Indigo’s Testimonial Program. See for yourself:
- “I think it helps that an outside firm is doing this work, rather than the advisory firm itself. This insulates the RIA from an accusation by an SEC examiner that it had a heavy hand in manipulating its testimonials.”
- “I think it also helps advisors that somebody else is providing the wording asking for the reviews. Asking somebody to take the time to help your marketing can be slightly intrusive and embarrassing—but perhaps less difficult for an outsider.”
- “[H]aving an outsource provider handle the testimonial-gathering and massaging process might be a best practice, at least during the period when everybody is figuring out the rules.”
- “It also might save advisors time so they can be spending more with their existing clients—and prospects who like the testimonials about their services.”
Try the Testimonial Program for Yourself!
The results of our Testimonial Program have been phenomenal. Watch this quick video where we show you how we helped one advisor increase his web traffic by 54% and increase traffic to his “Get Started Now” page by 317%—all through Google Business Profile testimonials.
To learn more about what’s included in the Testimonial Program, how it works, and how to get started, click here.
We’re here to help you look your best online. If you’d like to begin collecting glowing reviews, schedule a call today to get started.
Interested in reading Bob Veres’s full article? Click here.