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Sponsored: Five Virtual Events and Six Planning Tips to Make Your Client Touchpoints Memorable

By: Merriah Harkins, executive vice president of retail capital markets at GWG Holdings Inc.

By: Merriah Harkins, executive vice president of retail capital markets at GWG Holdings Inc.

Question: At a time when clients may be reluctant to meet with you or gather in a group of any size, and you are working primarily from home, what happens to that mainstay of relationship building, the client event?

Answer: Like much else during this pandemic, it’s going online.

Advisors and their clients are becoming increasingly comfortable with video connections like Zoom conference calls as a replacement for in-person experiences. Leveraging video technology after shipping materials to clients ahead of time can be the formula for a successful virtual client event that strengthens connections. Moreover, in the process, have some fun.

Ironically, there are benefits to the move to virtual: It can cut your costs, produce higher turnout for the event, and likely allow you to connect with more people than possible during an in-person event. And, the intimacy of video can often create connections that are almost as strong as the in-person events they replace.

Just like in-person events, these events require proper set-up and follow-up to be sure you get the most for your investment. Events can be used to show appreciation for clients, network with them, and leverage the goodwill they can engender with prospects who inevitably hear about something fun or unusual you hosted for your clients.

Here are six ways you can get the most out of a virtual client event:

  1. Determine the types of events your clients will most appreciate. Non-drinkers won’t appreciate alcohol-themed events, for instance. The result may be the need to produce different events for unique types of clients.
  2. Once you decide on the event, promote it with enough time to allow clients to schedule and to receive materials like cooking or wine-tasting materials that make the event special and complete.
  3. If the event is for entertainment versus an advertised educational event, be careful about how you present your services during the event. You may be better off letting the event and your sponsorship of it be the most memorable element.
  4. Have an organized follow-up strategy to assess the success of the event and determine how to improve upon it as you begin planning the next one.
  5. If you have to cancel an in-person event, consider a virtual replacement and use that outreach to notify your clients of the virtual event.
  6. Consider inviting prospects along with clients especially for educational events.

In addition, here are five event ideas that can work as compelling virtual experiences for your clients:

  1. Cooking classes that teach clients how to make meals that run from the exotic to downhome – ingredients are sent ahead of time to clients to prepare along with the chef
  2. Virtual wine tastings featuring a specific winery or local wine shop with selected bottles and tasting materials sent out ahead of time
  3. Health and wellbeing events that can include exercise or yoga classes or nutritional seminars offering varying levels of commitment and ability
  4. Online group games with all clients able to compete for fun prizes
  5. Providing clients with access to concerts, theater events, or other online experiences you can sponsor – this requires connections to local music, theater, or other organizations that are open to accepting sponsors

An advisor survey GWG Holdings, Inc. conducted in June 2020, showed how resourceful advisors have become in delivering service and maintaining relationships with clients who feel isolated with worries that go beyond the traditional issues of investment returns and retirement planning.

The need to help alleviate client stress has moved to center stage during the pandemic. Our survey found that 55 percent of surveyed advisors reported having to play the role of a sounding board for client worries that include the loss of jobs and income, and tactics for keeping themselves and their families healthy and safe, especially for those clients who are more vulnerable to infection.

Meanwhile, the survey showed there was a link between advisors who had more frequent communication with clients, and those who added clients during the pandemic. Almost one quarter of those responding to the survey reported growth in their practices.

Client events have been an important element of the highly successful advisory practice. They not only help develop a personality for the practice, they offer something unique advisors can give back to those who trust them with their investments. In normal times, events present an opportunity for advisors and clients to rub elbows, side-by-side, in a fun setting.

In times like these, many clients welcome well-run events that allow them to share in fun and enjoy a unique personal experience with like-minded peers, even if they’re taking place on a computer screen, miles apart.

Merriah Harkins is executive vice president of retail capital markets at gwg holdings, inc. (GWG). She holds FINRA licenses Series 7, 24 and 63. If you want to partner with GWG for a client event, we would be happy to discuss options to support you and your clients. Please click here to watch a GWG webinar about this topic.

For more GWG news, visit their directory page here.

GWG is a sponsor of The DI Wire, and the article was published as part of their standard directory sponsorship package.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities of GWG or any of its affiliates. Registered representatives of GWG are licensed through Emerson Equity LLC. GWG and Emerson Equity, L.L.C. are not affiliated entities.