Steve Holmes
(Feedsy)

 

I recently asked over 1,000 advisers, “are you OK?” We know it has been a really tough time, and even though I did this via an email list, I honestly do care. In that email, I received over 50 responses back advising that “we are OK thanks”, and many are working from home and having some virtual meetings.

Advisers are very resilient, but they have had to be, it is just unfortunate that many have left the industry in the last 18 months, because we need this profession right now.

Advice is needed in these difficult times and the advisers that have survived the Royal Commission and regulatory change are now emaprting their knowledge and care to clients like they always have. I absolutely believe in advice, I have had a Financial Adviser, Accountant, and General Insurance adviser now for many years and I consider them friends. I am in a far better position today because of them.

Right now there is no more important time to communicate to clients, right now clients need their Financial Adviser.

When there is a gap in communication people will fill that gap with misinformation, others will jump in, and we have seen that during this COVID-19 crisis.

A trusted source of regular content from a client’s trusted adviser is so important.

If we asked the question to Advisers right now, if I could give you back more time, what would you do?

Not to preempt their answer, but many would say to see or talk to more clients so they can help with more advice.

Advisers need to put 100% of their time and efforts into the advice process and servicing their clients, they are the best qualified for this, and it’s what they love to do. The cost of providing advice is blowing out and becoming unaffordable for most, so advisers need to look at ways of making their practice more efficient.

When I started Feedsy with my co-founder Gavin Klose it was all about helping advisers engage more with clients in less time.

When I first started with one of Australia’s largest licensees, Advisers, or Agents back then had admin support, stationery, processing, reception, lodgements all supplied by the licensee. Maybe that’s showing my age, but times have changed, the profession has changed, the regulations have changed and now the world has changed. Once thing is constant, and that’s change.

Pause, reset and outsource.

How could you redeploy the time consuming and often clunky marketing functions and add value to your core business, which is more advice to your clients?

Advisers love spending time with clients and they are very good at it. We believe they should be dedicating 100% of their time with clients and with functions that are part of the advice process and outsource the stuff they don’t 100% understand or don’t want to understand. That’s often the digital stuff and that’s where we come in.

Some tips:

• Digital communication is a must.
• The efficiencies of running virtual review meetings commencing now will last far beyond the current crisis.
• The current environment makes you think and work differently and many of the changes made could remain for the longer term.
• Email automation to create regularity and consistency is the key, but also have the functionality of a more personalised email update.
• Use more video to introduce your emails and social media messaging, advice is personal, use the digital medium to amplify your message.
• We need to outsource stuff that we don’t 100% understand or want to understand (my business included).

Let’s turn back the clock for a moment.

We’re Steve Holmes and Gavin Klose, a couple of young(ish) Dads who in the damp South Aussie winter of 2012 decided we’d like to help out coaching our kids’ footy team.

Through the coaching, we realised we had both been working in marketing – helping big companies kick communications and sales goals through content marketing and social media.

 

But big companies were not where we saw our future.

“I’d spent more than twenty years working for one of Australia’s largest financial planning companies,” says Steve, “And I’d seen enough accounting and financial planning businesses to know how much they care for their clients and their ongoing commitment to providing quality advice. But I also learned they’re often lost when it comes to selling themselves or to articulating their true value.”

“I remember Steve pointing to his old iPhone3 while we were watching the kids run around the oval and asking – How do we get our clients to reach their clients on this? On their mobile devices?” recalls Gav. “And then we had an idea. And it all went from there.”

Content and social takes expertise and time small business owners often don’t have, especially Financial Advisers.

We realised we do have that expertise. And we had a vision for making online marketing easier and more beautiful.

So we changed the directions of our lives. We developed Feedsy, an email newsletter, web, app and social media based communications solution which provides specialised news content targeted specifically for financial services, branded with your brand, and sent regularly straight to your clients.

Without you having to write anything.

Ever.

(Unless you want to, in which case, you can add as much of your own content as you like, including video.)

 

Now, in 2020, Feedsy helps financial services professionals across Australia engage more with customers and prospects in less time.

 

To find out how, you can book a free online demo with either one of us by clicking HERE.

If you’re lucky, we might even give you some footy coaching tips.