TESTIMONIAL MARKETING CASE STUDY: UFPG
Since founding United Financial Planning Group (UFPG) in 2007, Gerry Barrasso has overseen the advisory firm’s growth into 3 locations in the New York City metro area, with over $200M in assets under management.
Today, Gerry’s team partners with Wealthtender to compliantly collect online reviews and incorporate client testimonials into their marketing strategy.
The results speak for themselves, improving visibility in search results, driving new business to UFPG, and increasing the conversion rate of prospects into clients.
“Wealthtender is one of the best decisions we have made as a firm. I wish we had done it sooner.”
Gerry Barrasso
United Financial Planning Group
How UFPG Began Collecting Online Reviews with Wealthtender
After the SEC Marketing Rule became effective, UFPG financial advisor, Amir Noor, was quick to spot the opportunity to compliantly collect testimonials from his clients and promote them online. In November 2022, Amir joined Wealthtender, the industry’s first SEC-compliant online reviews platform.
Amir followed the testimonial marketing playbook provided by Wealthtender and began inviting clients to write reviews on his Wealthtender profile on January 6, 2023. That same day, he received his first five glowing reviews.
As Amir’s five-star reviews continued to roll in, his UFPG colleagues took notice. Beyond Amir’s reviews gaining visibility with thousands of visitors to wealthtender.com each month, the gold stars he earned started appearing in search engines, sending positive trust signals to Google’s algorithms and strengthening his SEO (search engine optimization).
In November 2023, Gerry and Mike Barrasso decided the time was right to expand the firm’s presence on Wealthtender and implement a testimonial marketing strategy to fuel UFPG’s next stage of growth. Since that time, UFPG has collected dozens of five-star reviews and skillfully executed their strategy to increase their conversion rate of prospects into clients.
Q&A with Mike Barrasso, UFPG Director of Business Development
We asked Mike Barrasso, UFPG Director Of Business Development, to answer a few questions about how his team has taken advantage of the SEC Marketing Rule and their partnership with Wealthtender to compliantly turn their online reviews into a growth accelerator for their business.
Wealthtender: Thanks for sitting down with us today, Mike. Within just a few months, you implemented a testimonial marketing strategy for UFPG that began paying dividends right out of the gate. We’re excited to hear more about your approach and what you’ve learned along the way.
Mike: My pleasure. Our Wealthtender reviews have been utilized in a variety of ways, some that even surprised us!
Wealthtender: Let’s start with how your online reviews have contributed to increasing awareness of UFPG among your target audience of prospective clients. Can you share your approach to these top-of-the-funnel marketing activities?
Mike: We have dedicated a specific page to showcase our firmwide reviews on our website. Wealthtender made it simple to embed all of our reviews. I can confirm this page gets a solid amount of traffic before and after prospects book calls with us (thanks, Google Analytics). We are building a new website and plan to have each advisor’s reviews linked on our “Meet the Team” page. We also plan to have small carousels of reviews on different parts of the new site.
Beyond promoting our reviews on the UFPG website, we post reviews via linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook weekly. This has created tons of content for us to improve our social media presence.
Advisors can easily embed Wealthtender widgets, like this one, on their websites. Widgets display all disclosure fields necessary for regulatory compliance.
Wealthtender: This is wonderful to hear, Mike. Studies show that online reviews create emotional connections with consumers that can accelerate the trust-building process. As consumer awareness and trust in UFPG grows with the help of your online reviews, can you share your strategy for engagement with prospects as they progress into middle-of-the-funnel activities?
Mike: Of course. After nearly every introductory call with a prospect, we send a link to our reviews with the next steps. If the link isn’t sent with this initial email, I use it as a piece of content to follow up with the prospect. I’ve found that following up with value, rather than asking for a response, works much better.
In the future, we also plan to implement retargeting ads.
“Our Wealthtender reviews have been utilized in a variety of ways, some that even surprised us!”
Mike Barrasso
United Financial Planning Group
Wealthtender: It’s great to see how you have incorporated client testimonials into your top and middle-of-the-funnel activities. But where the rubber really hits the road is the conversion of prospects into clients. What can you tell us about your bottom-of-the-funnel marketing experiences with online reviews?
Mike: Since we began utilizing Wealthtender a few months ago, I can recall one prospect who was interviewing multiple firms. They said to us, “It is down to you and two other firms. What makes you different?”. Along with being fee-only and having CPAs on staff, I asked if either of those firms has this many positive reviews. They signed up as wealth management clients the very next day and moved over $1.5 million in assets.
Another scenario that comes to mind is we had an AUM prospect who did a financial plan with us. Their investment manager was taking advantage of them (high-fee illiquid products that made no sense for them). They felt bad about firing him and were unsure who they could trust. Our reviews provided social proof that we could be trusted; We didn’t even send the reviews to them, they simply came across them in their research on our firm. Wealthtender’s SEO is great!
Reviews collected on Wealthtender send positive trust signals to Google’s algorithm, helping advisors rank higher in search results and convert more prospects into clients.
Wealthtender: We love hearing stories like this, Mike! Thanks for sharing. Beyond the role online reviews have played in increasing the ROI of your traditional marketing funnel activities, are there additional benefits you’ve encountered?
Mike: Yes. In fact, I would highlight two additional areas where we’ve benefited: with our current clients, and with our own staff.
First, I think that asking our clients to write reviews has forced them to reflect on their positive experiences with the firm. It has for sure strengthened relationships, and while I can’t attribute any referral specifically to Wealthtender, I’m confident the reviews help our current clients “sell” the firm to their friends and family.
Second, the “feel good” factor of these reviews on our own staff is something most probably don’t think about. We were nervous at first when the request for a review email went out. While there was relief that they were all positive, we were also blown away. The reviews were nothing short of heartwarming! Gerry had a massive smile on his face with every review that came in because it was clear that we were actually making a difference in people’s lives. Staff members were mentioned as well, and it had the same effect.
Wealthtender: Congratulations on your success in implementing such an effective testimonial marketing strategy, Mike. And thanks again for choosing Wealthtender as your digital marketing partner. We look forward to growing together for years to come.
