The wealth industry has evolved to encompass many services in today’s financial landscape. While wealth firms exist to provide financial advice and support to clients, they also must help their advisors succeed in their client engagement and communication endeavors. Advisor marketing services and communication tools are among the technology advisors need to help educate their clients and attract new ones. Here we break down the ‘why’ behind offering these services to advisors ‘free’ or as part of their technology or marketing fees.
Why offer free advisor marketing?
Free advisor marketing services and tools empower advisors with invaluable resources to attract more clients and retain existing ones. They equip advisors with a strategic edge in a competitive landscape, enabling them to communicate their strengths effectively while providing clients with a valuable tool: financial education.
Given the industry’s shift towards a client-centric model, financial education beyond investment performance is particularly crucial. Advisors must detail their knowledge and selling propositions, enhance the client experience, offer financial education, and include value-added services to differentiate themselves from their competition. Effective marketing strategies anchored in financial education have the potential to enhance client-advisor communication and create a bond of trust and integrity, which results in increased client satisfaction and loyalty.
It’s vital that firms understand that advisor marketing and communications should remain in-house under the guidance of internal marketing and compliance professionals. Many firms that have received marketing communications violations this year, a record year as FINRA continues to crack down and issue fines. Many violations were from advisors using un-approved content from third-party vendors.
The advantages of in-house advisor marketing
Providing enterprise advisor marketing services at the firm level dramatically reduces the time and effort required of advisors to navigate the complexities of marketing. They now have more time to focus on their core competencies—providing financial and investment advice—hence fostering efficiency. Offering enterprise-level complementary marketing services increases an advisor’s productivity in attracting and retaining clients. This directly contributes to the firm’s asset growth under management (AUM) and overall profitability.
From the perspective of wealth firms, offering marketing services to advisors has distinct advantages, too. For one, it fosters a more cohesive and streamlined brand presence. If each advisor is left to devise their marketing strategies, there inevitably will be inconsistencies in the brand’s message and possible marketing communications violations.
By providing a unified enterprise marketing service, wealth firms can help ensure that advisors adhere to the firm’s branding guidelines, use compliance-approved messaging and content, and maintain consistency, professionalism, and a strong brand message throughout all marketing communications.
An effective recruiting tool
Advisors looking to transition often factor in the resources provided by prospective wealth firms. One such resource is free advisor marketing services and martech tools inside their wealth tech stack. Couple the other wealth tech solutions at the firm with martech tools such as digital newsletters, third-party content, CRM and website integration, archiving, and so on, all supported and managed by your internal marketing and compliance teams and you have a very compelling recruiting tool.
It’s essential to note that the provision of ‘free’ marketing services should be separate from ‘cheap’ or ‘low-quality.’ It’s also vital to stress to advisors that enterprise marketing services and tools are managed by the firm, not a “do-it-for-me” provider where the firm has limited insight and no involvement. That way, the advisor is not responsible for submitting content or initiating marketing actions, which often are ‘swivel chair’ and come with few integrations.
For the in-house advisor marketing initiative to be effective, wealth firms must invest in high-quality enterprise martech tools and capable marketing professionals. These are the winning combination for providing tailored marketing strategies that cater to their diverse advisor base while maintaining brand consistency and integrity.
In conclusion, a wealth firm’s free marketing services to advisors should not be seen as a cost but rather an investment in their advisors’ productivity, brand image, growth, and bottom line. The strategic decision to pay for and provide marketing services and martech tools enables their advisors to entirely focus on their core function of offering exceptional financial advice, thus fulfilling the bedrock promise of wealth management: creating, growing, and preserving their clients’ wealth.
