How AI is Impacting Advisor Referrals (and what you need to do)

Hey there. Hope you’re doing well. I am doing this video today for our clients because I want to make you aware of a very big consumer behavior shift that is starting to happen that if you’re not aware of it yet, you’re going to become aware of it because it’s a very big change that’s happening and it is impacting advisors and you need to be aware of it so that you can capitalize on this opportunity and it is a really great opportunity for growth here and also just be aware of the threat that exists with this situation, too.

So, here’s the deal with advisors, historically speaking, how people find advisors is through referrals almost always. And the reason for that is because of what’s at stake. You know, when somebody is looking for an adviser, they’re looking for the person that they are going to, you know, entrust with everything they’ve worked so hard for their entire lives, their security, their future, their family’s future. It’s just a huge decision that’s really unlike anything else, you know, from a consumer behavior standpoint. And so people don’t make that decision lightly. They’re not googling for a stranger to manage their money.

In other words, people find an advisor almost always by asking people they know and trust for recommendations or referrals and then going online and vetting those referrals and, you know, deciding ultimately who to reach out to. When someone is referred to you, their next step is not contacting you. It’s going online to vet you and check you out to decide if they should. Okay, so your website is where that decision happens.

So what matters in a referral centric, referral dominant industry like this — what matters for that is number one that you’re referable. You’re giving a good experience to your clients and they’re, you know, people that know you are confident recommending you. That’s obviously important. But once you get that referral, what’s important is that when somebody goes online to Google you to find you, like looks for you by name or your company name, that they can find you quickly and easily. And that everything they find sends the right message and inspires them to get in touch. When they get to your website and they skim through it and read through it, if it’s the right kind of prospect, they should feel like, “Oh my gosh, yes, this is what I’ve been looking for.” That’s when it’s working super well and that’s when everything is spot on. And that’s what’s important for people in this referral centric industry, in this referral centric process.

What is changing — the big shift that you need to be aware of — is that now people are starting to use AI as their referral source. And in the vetting process, they’re doing this in a way that they never have done this with search engines. And the reason for that is AI is very different than search engines.

If I was to put into Google as just a search engine, if I was to put it into a search engine, I’m looking for a financial advisor and want advice on who I should talk to. I’m in Oklahoma. I own a business. I am in my late 40s. I’m an empty nester with two kids in college and I probably want to retire, you know, 10, 20 years from now, whatever. Who should I be talking to? If I were to put that query into Google, Google does not understand what I’m even asking. It’s going to hone in on a few keywords and it’s going to be like, “Oh, she’s looking for a financial advisor and I can tell from her IP address she’s in Lawton, Oklahoma. Here’s some financial advisors in Lawton, Oklahoma.” That’s about as sophisticated as it gets. And we all know that. That’s why people don’t use Google for that type of thing.

Well, if you put that exact same query in AI, the result is very, very different. AI does understand the nuance of all of those details. And so AI is going to look broadly at all the information available online to see who, what websites, what firms, what people have demonstrated expertise in the things that I have explained that I need expertise in. So it’s going to look for websites that have deep information about planning for business owners and empty nesters and retirement and all the things that I added into that query. It is going to look and see who has demonstrated expertise in that and it’s going to give me recommendations based on that. Probably three recommendations, sometimes a little bit more. At any rate, that’s what’s happening with AI and people are realizing that AI is a potentially helpful source for recommendations and referrals.

So, what’s happening is people are starting to use AI instead of or in addition to asking people they know and trust for recommendations. So, they’re still starting with recommendations and then they’re still going online and vetting those recommendations from there to decide who they should reach out to. But they’re using AI for that initial referral in a lot of cases. The other thing they’re doing is using AI in the vetting process. So, sometimes people are still getting human referrals, but then they’re putting those into AI and saying, “Here’s some firms I’ve been referred to. Who should I talk to?” And then AI is giving them a recommendation and an explanation as to why from there.

We had a client maybe a week ago. This is a client that we do a lot of content marketing with. So we do a lot of blogging and content development and all that for him and with him. And this exact scenario happened. He was compared — him and another firm were compared and AI was asked who should I go with and they chose our client and cited all of the deep information he has on his website about all the things that he does as to the reason why they felt like they should go with our client, and they did, which was really exciting.

So here’s the situation though with websites. What people need from websites is less is more, right? So when somebody, when a prospect, a busy, successful person comes to your website and they’re vetting you and checking you out, they do not need to sort through volumes of deep information just to discern who you are and how you can help them. They want to know who you are. They want to make sure that you do the things they need you to do and they want to know how to get in touch. That’s the important stuff. Now, it’s okay if you also have like a thought leadership section or something for your blog posts and press and media, but I’m talking about the bulk of, like, the main part of your website. It needs to be less is more and not cluttered up with a ton of crap because people are busy and they will not sort through it. And so, what people need is really good, strong, powerful, and concise information that makes the case of who you are, how you can help, and, you know, why they should work with you essentially. And so that is still the truth. That’s still what needs to happen for humans. So your website still needs to be less is more.

However, AI needs exactly the opposite in websites. AI needs to understand your expertise. They need deep custom content that showcases your unique human wisdom and thought leadership. Okay. AI has a lot of knowledge. The internet has a lot of knowledge. It doesn’t have wisdom. And so your unique human wisdom, insights, and information coming from you is how AI deciphers you as an expert. Okay? So essentially what you need is a secondary layer of content, a deeper secondary layer of content on your website that does go very into the deep weeds to demonstrate your expertise in the things that you’re an expert in.

Okay. So that content information, it cannot just be canned content. So, it can’t be a page about investment management from your broker dealer or your wirehouse or whatever. It cannot be canned content. That does not work at all. AI, search engines, everyone can see content that’s on multiple websites and it doesn’t help at all. It doesn’t move the needle or show that you’re an expert. So, it can’t be canned. It needs to be custom and it needs to demonstrate your unique thought leadership. And that’s how it understands that you are truly an expert in this.

And so how do you have your website built for both — but have it both less is more and extremely deep in the deep weeds content-wise? The right approach for this is having your website high-level for people but then having like this deeper secondary layer that they get to through hyperlinks on the pages of your website. So let me show you what I mean by that. On your website, you may have an expertise or services page or who we serve or what we do or something like that on your page on your website that makes the point — you know, it’s kind of high-level summary and probably lists out some of the core markets that you work with. This is great. This is exactly what people need. What needs to happen is that these all need to be turned into hyperlinks that if you click on them, it goes deeper and showcases, you know, this deep in the weeds intentionally content that showcases your expertise and it should be, you know, several paragraphs of information or sections of information and then FAQs. FAQs rank really well in AI’s algorithms and stuff right now. So that’s kind of the best practice there. So that’s what needs to happen — this deeper secondary layer of content needs to be developed for websites.

So that’s going to be super important moving forward. What we’re doing to help make that easy because that’s a big lift, right? It can’t be — it has to be custom written. By the way, it also shouldn’t be purely AI content. I know, you know, anyone can go and just say, “Hey, write me a page about retirement planning for business owners.” But if you do that and it’s just purely AI written information, number one, AI knows AI content and it just isn’t as visible as content that’s had human writing and involvement. But also if you’re relying on AI for the information instead of what’s in your brain, all it can pull from is the general information on the internet, right? If you ask it to write a page about retirement planning, but you’re not giving it input from you, it’s just going to look at what’s out there available for everyone. And that does not move the needle in showing your unique wisdom and expertise for it to show you up as here’s who you should work with in this.

Okay. So the way that we’re solving this for our clients is we have created a content capture system called Advisor Hive which is essentially a place where you can go and brain dump your thought leadership and wisdom on whatever subjects you’re an expert in and then we will take that brain dump and turn it into deep content for your website. So essentially let’s say you’re an expert in special needs planning. If you can brain dump on special needs planning for 15 minutes in our Advisor Hive system, we can take that and turn it into this deep content that we need for your website.

Our content capture system, it’s basically you log in and choose whatever topic you want to talk about and then you literally just record a brain dump and then click finish and that’s it. It automatically uploads to us. There’s no software or anything for you to download. You don’t need to do anything else. It’s literally just start, finish, done, and then it goes to us and we will take it from there. From there, we’ll take that information, like I said, turn it into content, FAQs, etc. You’ll have a chance to review it, of course, and give us any revisions, and then ultimately, we’ll put it on your website and submit it to compliance.

So, if I was an adviser, if I was in your shoes, I would be either very quickly getting, you know, whatever your core areas of expertise are that you want to show up for. If somebody says, “I’m looking for a firm that does blah blah blah.” You can either do all of this at once or you can drip it out like maybe tackle one or two topics a month until you have all of them done. But that’s kind of the approach.

So, if you’re wanting to do this, if you want to move forward with this, let me know and we can figure out next steps. The other thing to tell me as well is whether or not you need anything else updated or reviewed on your website at the same time. Or if you just need to add this deep expertise content. If you’re also due for a redesign or you want your, you know, main company overview, core messaging reviewed or whatever, let me know and I can give you a proposal accounting for all of that. Or if you just want services and expertise content, that’s great. We’re doing this in bundles of five, so five, 10, or 15 pages of content. And that’s pretty much it.

So let me know thoughts, questions, etc. I just wanted to really make you aware of this shift. And also, by the way, this is like a really great opportunity. I know there is a threat — like if you do nothing and you don’t add this to your website, yeah, people are going to use AI and ask if you’re an expert and it’s going to say you’re not. It’s not going to show you up. So, there is a risk there. Maverick agrees. As I was saying, there is a risk there if you do nothing.

But also view this as a huge opportunity because this is something that most advisers have not realized yet. Most people have not realized yet. We’re on the early side of this and that does mean you’re going to have a period of time where you’ve got a unique opportunity to capture market share. People who are maybe not in your state, nowhere near you. They know no one that you know, but they do need the very, like, niched, sophisticated services you offer. You just have a unique opportunity right now to capture some market share and kind of open up a new pathway to the business as well as the existing pathway with the referrals and making sure that when they vet you — if they look for the referral through AI or vet you using AI — that you are going to be seen and understood as the expert that you are.

So anyways, it is an exciting opportunity. Lots changing. There’s about a million different conversations we can have about AI, but this is the most important one right now. So, let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much.