Recap
On June 23, the FCS community tuned in for a virtual webinar presented by Substance Strategy & Creative with custom research highlighting “What Financial Advisors Really Want From Marketing.” The research was drawn from 75 in-depth conversations with financial advisors from various channels and AUM levels.
The following themes – and lessons – were highlighted in the presentation:
- Lean into the human factor. Advisors often start their journey with a brand by connecting with key thought leaders and spokespeople. Putting an active, concentrated effort into considering their brand and activation in the marketplace can have a huge benefit to your business.
- Tangible differentiators matter. Financial advisors can spot marketing fluff from a mile away. Make sure you’ve “dug deep” to uncover meaningful differences connected to your brand promise – and elevate those meaningful differences in your marketing.
- Make their lives easier. Advisors are busy and don’t have a lot of time, but if you can save them time, your brand will build a lot of affinity with them. Understand what is taking up your audience’s time and determine the ways you can minimize that.
- Create visual tools to use with clients. When thinking about materials that financial advisors will want to use with their clients, remember one thing: make it visual. Advisors want bite-sized, digestible information that is easy to understand.
- Segment more effectively. Think of advisor segmentation beyond the traditional lens of channel and consider practice types, niche businesses, and specialized client types. Consider advisor designations and certifications, as well as customer journey mapping—both leveraging technology—to segment advisors for more targeted messaging.
- Scale your sales team. Marketers should leverage their internal and external sales teams whenever possible, as they are one of the best ways to reach advisors and generate the biggest lift in brand consideration (according to data from Cogent). Leverage marketing automation to deliver personalized emails and social media tools to help drive engagement.
- Leverage peer voices. Incorporate case studies, quotes, profiles, or other methods to put the advisor’s voice front and center, as advisors are more likely to trust the voice of their peers.
- Ask for feedback. Develop a program that allows you to actively incorporate the voice of the financial advisor into your marketing efforts – it will make your ongoing marketing efforts that much better and more effective
If you’re interested in reaching out to Substance to receive a copy of the presentation, fill out the contact form on their website and the team will send it to you directly.
On June 23rd at 12 noon ET, the FCS will stage a free, virtual research presentation led by Phil Edelstein, founder of Substance Strategy & Creative, on the topic “What Financial Advisors Want from Marketing.”
Over the past year, Substance interviewed over 75 financial advisors through its Advisor Roundtables program – a standing focus group of financial advisors from various channels who share their perspectives on the marketing they receive, see, and engage with. In the course of those discussions, Substance identified 8 key insights that advisors have consistently mentioned about how to more effectively market to them.
These ideas are featured in a quick, yet comprehensive presentation which includes:
- 8 insightful areas of feedback heard directly from FAs that can make your marketing more effective
- Tangible, best-in-class examples from intermediary marketers in the industry who are using these principles to their advantage
- Actionable recommended tactics for how to incorporate these principles into your own marketing efforts
- Additional supporting industry data and insight surrounding how to most effectively engage advisors in your marketing efforts
Joining Phil in presenting his agency’s findings will be his team members Kelly Erb, Partner, Head of Content, and Catie Borzillo, Head of Digital Strategy.
Note: in his spare time, Phil is the president of the FCS Philadelphia chapter.
To register for this free virtual event, click here.
