5 Wealth Management Marketing Ideas to Get More Clients
Expanding your services into wealth management can be an attractive way to scale your business if you're hoping to work with higher net worth investors. It's also a challenge, however, as there may be a smaller pool of potential clients to go around. If you want to stand out amongst the competition, you'll need a solid wealth management marketing plan.
Ready to grow your client base? SmartAdvisor helps you connect with leads.
Why Marketing to Wealthy Clients Is Different
Marketing is a core business activity for successful financial advisors. Without a proper marketing plan, it can be much harder for your business to gain traction and maintain a steady flow of clients.
A well-planned marketing approach is even more important when you're trying to carve out a name for yourself in wealth management. Multiple wealth management firms can compete for the same limited number of clients so the way you promote your business is vital.
When you have an established plan in place, it becomes easier to:
Build trust with prospective clients
Solidify your brand image and messaging
Create credibility while highlighting your expertise
Promote increased loyalty among existing clients
Increase your return on investment, in terms of both time and money spent promoting your business
If you've already created a marketing plan, that can serve as the foundation for fleshing out a wealth management marketing strategy. And if you don't have one, creating one is the next step.
Wealth Management Marketing Tips for Advisors
Marketing, at its core, is about getting the right message to the right people. These five common tips can help you determine what your wealth management marketing plan should look like:
1. Know Your Audience
Before you can begin marketing to wealth management clients, you first have to know more about them. That includes understanding the types of needs, goals and challenges that wealthier clients, or those who are seeking to build wealth, may come to you with.
For example, a higher net-worth client may be interested in things like legacy planning and finding opportunities to minimize their tax liability to preserve wealth. Depending on their age, they may be gearing up for retirement or preparing to send one or more of their children off to college. Clients who own a business, meanwhile, may be puzzling over how to create a succession plan to pass it on to someone else.
Aside from those considerations, it's also helpful to weigh the type of expectations that a higher net-worth client may have regarding communication, the range of services you'll provide and the tools that you'll offer to help them manage their portfolios. They may expect regular status updates on their investments that include detailed reports, both of which you should be prepared to offer.
2. Build Authority
Trust is an essential element in marketing, particularly when you're hoping to connect with clients who are seeking wealth management services. If a prospective client has a significant amount of assets that you'd like them to place under your care, they need to know that they can trust you to deliver the highest degree of service and advice.
Establishing your authority and credibility can help with building that trust, even before an investor becomes your client. There are numerous ways you can do that through your marketing, including:
Collaborating with influencers who are prominent in the wealth management space
Conducting PR outreach to connect with financial journalists who may be looking to interview wealth management experts
Being a guest on a wealth management podcast
Starting your own podcast or a wealth management-focused YouTube channel
Cultivating a following on social media channels where your ideal clients are likely to spend time
You can also build authority by having a professional website and publishing blog articles, white papers or case studies displaying your knowledge and expertise.
3. Choose High ROI Strategies
There are many ways to market yourself as a financial advisor but trying to do all the things, all at once may yield less than favorable results. You may benefit more from focusing on just one or two marketing channels at a time.
The different options for marketing wealth management services online include:
Content marketing
Email marketing
Direct mail marketing
Ads, including social media ads, display ads and paid search ads
There are also opportunities to market your business offline through client appreciation events, print advertisements and getting involved in your local community. What you have to decide is which of these activities are likely to offer the best return on your investment in the form of conversions.
Take digital ads, for instance, which are a popular marketing tool for advisors. If you're considering putting some money into ads, you first have to consider who is going to see those ads. Again, this goes back to knowing a little about your client and where they spend their time online. If the right people aren't seeing your ads, they may not yield much in the way of results.
4. Emphasize Client Experience
Investors who continually have positive interactions with their advisors may be more likely to remain their clients in the long run. If you'd like to not only gain new clients but keep them, then delivering the best experience possible should be a priority.
That begins with the first contact that a prospective client has with your firm, which may come through your website, social media or an online search. Regardless of how a client finds you, you can set the right tone by ensuring that:
Your branding and marketing messaging are consistent across different channels
Your website is easy to navigate, with your contact information clearly displayed
You're offering the types of digital tools that your ideal clients expect
Once a prospective client makes initial contact, you can reinforce the positive experience by promptly following up and offering a seamless onboarding experience. Underscoring the overall experience you provide in your marketing materials, as well as your wealth management services, can help you convey even more value to prospects.
5. Consider Outsourcing
Marketing can be a time-consuming task and you may decide that it's best handled by a professional agency. Marketing agencies for financial advisors can assist with a range of tasks, from creating social media content to handling PR outreach so that you can focus on other activities to grow your business.
If you're not quite ready to go all-in with a marketing agency to promote your wealth management services, you might consider using an online lead-generation tool instead. Lead generation services act as a bridge between your business and prospects who are ready to connect with a wealth manager.
These tools can also help you create a specific profile for the types of clients you'd most like to get matched with. Additionally, they can equip you with everything you need to follow up on leads quickly and smoothly so that you don't miss any opportunities to gain a new client.
Bottom Line
Wealth management marketing doesn't have to be complicated if you understand the fundamentals. Getting to know your clients' needs and evaluating the different avenues for marketing your business can help you carve out the right path for reaching your goals.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
If you don't have a lot of time to devote to cold calling or emailing each day, working with a lead generation service could save you valuable time. SmartAdvisor, for instance, helps you to connect with leads and gives you everything you need to follow up with prospects who fit your ideal client profile.
Referrals can be a powerful tool for growing your client base and there are a few ways you might approach getting them. The first and most obvious choice is to deliver top-tier service to your clients so they're eager to refer you to their friends, family members and coworkers. Hosting client appreciation events to thank them for their loyalty is another way to collect more referrals.
Photo credit: ©iStock/fizkes, ©iStock/Drazen Zigic, ©iStock/Drazen Zigic
The post 5 Wealth Management Marketing Ideas to Get More Clients appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset.
