Hortz: You already have carefully crafted very simplified and engaging content on complex financial topics. How are you addressing changes in its delivery to a remote virtual setting?

Dean Thurman: The content and the quality of the education between the Host and the learners are exactly the same. What changed is the virtual delivery. To assist advisors, White Glove created a moderator feature and full-service real-time tech support during the virtual event. And on top of that, we are now including our flagship industry standard “triple guarantee”: guaranteed registration, guaranteed attendees, and guaranteed success. This is included with our virtual seminars as well.

Mike Thurman: Other industries are facing the same challenges and making the same shifts. Medicine is one that comes to mind. Just yesterday, my daughter had a doctor's appointment online with a tele-doctor who practices medicine virtually. If doctors can do it well, financial advisors can do it too.

Hortz: How do you bring the right prospects to your virtual webinars? How and where do you get leads for the most motivated webinar listeners?

Evan Kramer: Finding and driving qualified prospects to advisors’ events is our expertise. We use strategic local digital marketing to find the right prospects who are searching for financial information and engage them on a timely basis. By using millions of data points on consumers—each individual consumer has 52,000 data points—we can target and engage those who are considered a quality prospect.

We then handle the invitations, registrations, email and text reminders and outbound human confirmation calls to ensure most interested prospects show up—all with no risk to an advisor’s domain reputation. It leaves the advisor with nothing to do but show up and demonstrate passion on topics. It frees them up to have fun and connect with the audience. Our advisor hosts also receive the contact information for those who signed up but did not attend the virtual seminar.

Hortz: What do you say to advisors who have never done virtual seminars before, are not familiar with the technology and may be nervous to be on camera? How can you help advisors with these obstacles to succeed in a virtual environment?

Dean Thurman: We understand that not every advisor is used to hosting webinars or is tech savvy, which is why each virtual seminar comes built-in with concierge support both before and during the event to manage any technical issues and answer questions. We also offer complimentary one-on-one training prior to the virtual event.

Additionally, White Glove hosts at least one Host University each year where we bring together successful White Glove advisor hosts from around the U.S. and Canada where we exchange ideas. Our next Host University will probably be virtual and focus on best practices for a virtual seminar. We have engaged some of the top experts in the industry doing virtual meetings so that we can share their pro tips on what building engagement and a virtual community looks like. And I think by watching our training videos and learning from these experts, advisors are going to feel much more comfortable and be able to present themselves more confidently.

Mike Thurman: Part of this training includes providing tips and pointers for being in front of the camera and really connecting with the audience during a virtual seminar. It also covers how to present with confidence, use of gestures and the use of the technology with a dedicated account executive who ensures they are comfortable. Our team loads up the slides and has the platform set up so the Host and their team does not waste hours setting all this up. Advisors are supported with everything they would need to know in order to be successful at being a financial educational resource—a true turnkey solution.