
The new testimonial rule has officially gone into effect as of May 4, 2021! This completely revolutionizes the way financial advisors can market their services. But as an advisor, how do you effectively use the new testimonial rule in your marketing without running into compliance issues?
That’s where we come in.
We’re excited to announce that Indigo is now offering a Testimonial Program to help advisors get glowing client reviews online—all while remaining compliant. This program is especially powerful for any advisor looking to strengthen their reputation and trustworthiness online.
Why Are Testimonials Important for Financial Advisors?
The new testimonial rule is a phenomenal change for our industry (one that’s about 40 years overdue!). Client testimonials are really important for financial advisors for two reasons:
1. 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.
2. Testimonials boost your search engine optimization (SEO) and help people find you online.
Google gives preferential treatment to businesses that have reviews. So, if you have zero reviews on your Google Business Profile page, it’s actually hurting you when it comes to people finding you online.
On the other hand, if your Google Business Profile page has at least five reviews, you’ll rank higher than those that don’t. So, for our Testimonial Program, our goal is to get you at least five, five-star reviews that boost your credibility and help improve your SEO.
Why We Created Our Testimonial Program
We developed our Testimonial Program because we know it can be awkward and uncomfortable asking your own clients for reviews.
A lot of times we see advisors with five-star reviews, but they either don’t have comments or the comments say something vague like, “Great financial advisor.” This tells a prospect absolutely nothing about who you serve, how you help, or why they should work for you.
With our Testimonial Program, we transform your testimonials from good to great by prompting 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.
What’s Included in the Testimonial Program?
When you enroll in our Testimonial Program for financial advisors, you get:
- Up to five written testimonials
- A “Please Share Your Story of Working With Us on Google or Facebook!” email to collect testimonials
- A “See What Clients Are Saying About Us!” email to show off those glowing reviews
- A possible “Client Profile” article for any reviews that are truly remarkable and worthy of a deeper dive
- A disclosures page added to your website
- A “Client Stories” page added to your website that houses all your testimonials in one place
What are the three types of testimonials we help you get?
We help you collect these three types of testimonials:
- Reviews for your Google Business Profile and Facebook pages
- Client stories for your website
- Client profiles that highlight your best client reviews (usually in-depth video or text articles with photos)
How Our Testimonial Program Works
Okay, those are a lot of benefits. But how do we actually help you collect testimonials? Here’s the 14-step process we deploy once you enroll in our Testimonial Program:
- First check with compliance to make sure you can receive testimonials.
- We add a disclosure page to your website for testimonials. (We create this page if you don’t already have one.)
- We confirm that your Google Business Profile (GBP) and/or Facebook pages are live.
- We deploy our “Please Share Your Story of Working With Us on Google or Facebook!” email. This email asks all clients to leave a review, which is required by compliance.
- One week later, you send a specific email to your “target clients”—individuals who know you well, are tech-savvy, and have a GBP or Facebook account.
- We send your target clients survey questions via email and follow up for responses.
- We take your client’s response and write a great one-paragraph review.
- We ask your client to 1) post their review on GBP and Facebook (replacing their previous review, if necessary), and 2) give us permission to use it on your website.
- We follow up with your clients twice if they still haven’t posted on GBP.
- We create a page on your website called “Client Stories” where we add all the testimonials we receive. (We don’t create this page until you have at least three testimonials.)
- We create a corresponding email called “See What Clients Are Saying About Us!” that shows off all your client reviews.
- If a client gives a great review that’s worthy of a deeper dive, we’ll add that to your marketing content calendar as a “Client Profile” story.
- If a client is willing to do a video testimonial, we schedule a Zoom call to record their thoughts, then we edit it into a high-quality video (additional $500).
- At the end of the Testimonial Program, you receive a summary of your results and testimonials.
Testimonial Program Example
We’ve already been gathering testimonials for a few of our clients, and the results have been phenomenal!
Watch this video to see how we helped one advisor increase his web traffic by 54% overall and by 317% on his “Get Started Now” page—all through Google Business Profile testimonials: How Testimonials Can Drive More Traffic to Your Site.
Here is another example of a client who successfully completed the Testimonial Program:
Testimonial Program Results Example
How Much Does It Cost?
Program Pricing: $999
(Additional $500 for video testimonials)
Think of our Testimonial Program as an investment in your future. Collect glowing, five-star reviews today, and they’ll keep serving your business and attracting the right clients for years to come.
How to Get Started
Our Testimonial Program is available to all current clients, so contact your account manager to get started.
If you’re not sure about compliance, ask your compliance department directly or contact your account manager and we’ll get the ball rolling for you. We add all the appropriate disclosures to your site and can handle any compliance checklists you get.
Need a Testimonial Rule Refresher?
It’s been a while since the testimonial rule went into effect. If you need a refresher, watch this webinar to learn everything you need to know about the testimonial rule and compliance: How to Use Testimonials in Your Marketing.
Here is another great webinar I recommend watching to learn more about how to best use testimonials in your marketing: Best Practices for Using Testimonials in Your Marketing.
Next Steps
Ready to start collecting those glowing reviews? Contact your account manager today to enroll in our Testimonial Program. We’ll take it from there! You just sit back, relax, and watch the five-star ratings pour in!