Quick Thoughts on the Advertising Rule Updates for RIA Firms

Video transcription:

What’s up, everybody? It’s a “Park and Talk” again.

So, two years ago, because I work at home, I used to always do my videos in my car so I could just get out of my house for a while and back at it.

You know, things are sort of, like, half opening up. I’m fully vaxxed, and so I’m going to places, and I’m in my car again. So here we are. “Park and Talk” is back.

This is to celebrate testimonial week. Tomorrow is the big day, right?

The ad changes for RIAs take effect. So I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I’ve got a couple of things that I want to drop. Some thoughts on the Advertising Rule updates:

Google Reviews

The first one is about Google reviews.

The easiest way to get going is to take the reviews that you’ve got and put them up on your website.

Take your average rating and a link to all the reviews or pluck out some of those quotes that have already been dropped about you.

So, I started by trying out “financial advisor near me.” I Googled that, and, unsurprisingly, most of the firms don’t have very many reviews.

I think the most had five. But tangent here real quick. The firms that were at the very top, they got prioritized above everyone else in search results on mobile, they’re Google screened.

You might have seen this in other professions, like HVAC repair or something, but they got this new checkmark that says Google did a background check on this business, and they confirm that they’re legit.

They’ve got the certifications they need. They’ve got everything that they need.

Financial planners can do that, too. That’s in Google Local Services.

We’re going to dive into that soon on the Three Crowns blog, so keep your eyes out for that. That’s kind of a tangent though.

Getting back to reviews. How do you get reviews if you don’t have them?

I think an underutilized method is to just send out a survey to all your clients and ask them to give you feedback on how you’re doing.

• How’s your service?

• How are you fulfilling the financial needs that they have?

• How are you interacting with them?

At the end of that, give them an opportunity to link out and give you a review on one of these public platforms.

It’s also a great way to collect quotes and insights into who might be a good resource for a more full-blown testimonial.

That leads me into point two, testimonials.

Testimonials

You may be hesitant to dive into this aspect because it’s so fresh, new, and expanded.

I think, for this, just take the mindset and the approach as you do during the client testimonial, whether it is written or video.

Remember: It’s about the client. This is not an opportunity for the client to talk about your firm and how awesome you are.

It’s an opportunity for the client to talk about their experiences and to talk about the transformation that happened in their life.

It’s about them telling their story, and you play a role in that story, but you’re not the focus of it. I think that  makes it a lot less scary when you realize testimonial is still about the client.

It’s about them talking about their life. It’s not this very risky thing for them to just sing your praises and talk about how awesome you are.

It’s just a way for you to tell your part of their story and to really elevate them and prioritize them.

So, as with everything, it’s always about clients. Clients first always. Remember that no matter what you’re doing with these changes taking place.

Happy Testimonial Rule Day!

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