I’m not from this community. We’ve been here about 14 years, so when we got here, I didn’t know anybody. It’s taken time, but once you build those relationships in the community, the referrals come. But it’s never enough, so I’m very active on social media — more personally than professionally. About four years ago, we implemented a new approach. When we have a new client, we would ask them if we could make a Facebook post welcoming them to our office as new clients. And they all said yes. Nobody said no. So we did that for about a year, and it got no action, no activity, no reach. It was a complete waste of time. No comments, no likes, no shares, no mentions. Nothing.
We were trying to figure out what was going on here. We realized that the only people who were seeing those posts were my current clients and friends. Those new clients’ friends weren’t seeing that because it was on my page. So we made a change, and it was a dramatic change for our business as far as marketing goes. We changed it to where we asked them to go to their social media and make a post about their experience coming to our office, and in return for that — we consider that a referral — we would send them a Visa gift card.
It worked like a charm. It still works like a charm. Now all of their friends are seeing that post, and all of their connections are seeing that post. You have to believe that when they see that they have to be thinking, “Wow, I’ve never felt that way when I’ve left an insurance meeting or financial planning meeting.” It’s usually a bad experience. They’ve certainly never left an insurance meeting and thought, “I’ll go make a Facebook post and tell everybody how awesome this guy is.”
The response has been dramatic. I’ve gotten calls saying, “Hey, I know my buddy Joe had a good experience, and I need life insurance.” It’s been a huge, huge factor for us, and again, it’s not me looking at the client face to face and saying, “Give me the name of three of your friends and family and phone numbers so I can call them.” Because I can’t do that; that’s not my personality. Random people in the community are walking up to me and asking me about insurance, and they’re people I don’t know. That never, ever happened before, and that’s the only thing we’ve changed, so I know that’s where it’s coming from.
It’s a company-approved form that we use and it’s a $25 Visa gift card that’s approved in the state of Illinois, so all that compliance is built in. It’s a professional piece that we give the client, and it looks good at work.
Matthew Richard Duffy, FSS, LUTCF, is a seven-year MDRT member from Murphysboro, Illinois, USA. Hear more in the MDRT Podcast:
Fantastic and inspiring idea.
Great!
It is a great, most practical idea that every professional advisory should implement.
Thanks for sharing.