As a adviser, you work hard to build your client base. It’s likely that many of your existing clients found you through referrals from friends and family members. But how can you grow your business beyond personal referrals? And how can you retain the clients that you worked so hard to obtain?

This article offers eight digital marketing strategies to help you reach potential clients, deepen relationships with existing customers and build your personal brand. Wait, you’ve got no idea about marketing? Perfect. These are simple tips, especially for advisers.

1. Leverage email and SMS templates from lenders to activate your database

When was the last time you asked the lenders you work with for marketing materials to help promote your business? At Bizcap, we provide advisers with email and SMS templates to use when communicating with clients. These templates explain how our lending solutions can address clients' specific needs and unique challenges. By sending out these prewritten emails and messages, advisers can educate and engage their database with little effort.

Not only is this valuable for educating your clients. Sending regular emails to your contacts reminds them of your presence and keeps you top of mind as their go-to adviser. This way, when they or someone they know needs a business loan, they are more likely to reach out to you.

Bizcap isn’t the only lender who offers these resources. Ask your contacts at each of the lenders you work with for their email and SMS templates, and get sending!

Download Bizcap’s email and SMS templates here

2. Repurpose email and SMS templates for social media

Some lenders, including Bizcap, even offer social media templates that you can post. You might like to change the colours to suit your brand and add your logo to them, or if you’re not so design savvy, you could simply use them out of the box.

If the lenders you work with don’t provide social media content, you can make your own posts using the email and text message templates they give you. The key here is to extract a few key points for each social media asset, and accompany them with captions that are both informative and tell a story.

Download Bizcap’s social media templates here

3. Know who you’re talking to on each social media platform and tailor content accordingly

With so many social media platforms to choose from, it can be overwhelming deciding which ones to use. Hint: it’s not necessarily those that are most trendy.

When deciding which social media platforms to use, ask yourself: who among your target audiences are on which platform? Are they on Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? Or are they more likely to be found on LinkedIn?

Perhaps some of your target audiences – like business associates, referral partners, aggregators and lenders – are on LinkedIn, while others – like first-home buyers or small business owners – are on Meta or TikTok.

Once you know who you’re talking to on each platform, you can tailor the content accordingly.

4. Test which social media content works. Here are five types to try

Not every type of content will resonate with every audience. Try testing which types of content work for yours. Here are five types of content you might like to try:

Useful: Content that your target audience can use to achieve their goals. E.g. Bizcap wrote this article with end of financial year tips for small business owners, and then turned it into a social media post. We made this post to teach small business owners about lines of credit and promote our new product, the Bizcap Line of Credit.

Personal: Provide insights into your business and the people who work there. E.g. When Tony Truong became our Chief Credit Officer, we posted about his childhood dreams and also celebrated the business' five-year anniversary with a peek into the party.

Insightful: Thought leadership content that positions you as an expert in your field. This post by Bizcap’s Chief Revenue Officer Rebecca Del Rio offers growth tips for small business owners.

Industry updates: News, research or recent studies that are relevant to your target audiences and your business offering. E.g. As a adviser, you might like to share news of the Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate rises.

Business updates: Are you launching a new product or service? Have you just brought on a new lender? Or are you speaking at an event? Let your audiences know. Here’s an example of a video we shared about how superb our debut Lenders’ Corner event was and a post that celebrated reaching $1 billion in deals.

Don’t be afraid to have fun or be a bit silly – within the bounds of your brand (i.e. don’t get too carried away if it’s not in line with how you want your business to be seen) and when it suits the message. For example, we had some fun in this video announcing the winners of our Limited Luxury Rewards promotion.

5. Respond to Google reviews in a timely manner (ideally within 24 hours)

Before buying a product, 89 percent of consumers read online reviews. This underscores the importance of maintaining a strong Google review presence.

Replying to reviews helps build trust with potential clients and encourages repeat business from current clients. It shows that your adviser business values feedback, both positive and negative. It also demonstrates your commitment to addressing issues and improving client experiences.

Not only that; responding to reviews can improve your SEO (search engine optimisation), especially if you reply within 24 hours.

6. Ask your customers for positive reviews

Only 9 percent of consumers would consider engaging with a business with a 1-2 star rating. So it’s important to ensure that your satisfied customers are sharing that satisfaction through online reviews.

You might think, “no one’s going to want to leave me a review” or “they’ll leave one if they want to”. But don’t be shy: research shows that most people are likely to leave a review if the business asks for one.

When asking clients for a review, think about when in their customer journey to do so. Consider the timing that would be most effective: you’ll want to catch them when they’re most satisfied with your service. As such, you might find it best to send clients the request right after they happily secure a loan through you.

7. Use templates to request reviews and consider automating the process

To effectively scale your requests for reviews, you’ll want to create a templated request – be it for email or SMS. You might even consider automating the process.

At Bizcap, we've made Google review request templates that our adviser partners can use to improve their personal brand.

Click here to download our Google review request templates

8. Maintain your Google Business Profile (formerly: Google My Business)

You know when you search for a business on Google and it appears with all their contact details, opening hours and so on? That’s what we’re referring to when we discuss Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business (or GMB).

When you keep your Google Business Profile up to date, it helps to improve your adviser business visibility in search results. So, make sure your profile has the right name, address and phone number.

You can also add social media content to your Google Business Profile, as well as photos.

So, how do you feel about ramping up your digital marketing efforts now? With these easy marketing strategies, we're sure you'll find new clients, turn potential customers into new leads, and get more business out of your existing database.

For tips on how to increase adviser revenue, click here.

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