Through the course of our work, we’re fortunate to partner with a lot of financial professionals who are hungry to take their growth to the next level. We also work with firms that have already created growth flywheels spun to life by assertive marketing and integrated communications campaigns.
The professionals in the first camp often ask: What does it take to get where I want to be? What do I have to learn and put into practice? And what organic growth strategies are actually working right now?
So far this year, Gregory FCA hosted several panel conversations from marketing and business development leaders at Wealth Management Edge, DeVoe Elevate, Invest in Women, and other financial services conferences throughout the U.S. At each of these events, we spoke to experts in the second camp who shared their takeaways freely.
We’re grateful for the transparency and candor these panelists brought to the table. Everyone in this industry is trying to crack the code on organic growth. Yet the leaders we spoke to had no interest in hoarding secrets. Financial advice is a competitive, dynamic industry, but that doesn’t mean it is a zero-sum game. There is plenty of room for everyone to succeed.
Bake the cake before you eat it
A marketing campaign takes time. It doesn’t matter the venue. Your first digital ads, your first Reddit AMA, your first podcast or blog series are unlikely to fill your books with an instant rush of excited new prospects. It will take months, not days, to understand how well your growth efforts are working. Your initial metrics probably won’t knock your socks off, and it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels for nothing. One of the main takeaways was that approaching a comprehensive marketing campaign requires at minimum a three to six month commitment before you can justify shelving the idea or doubling down.
Stick with it. As much as the RIA industry has grown, most financial advisor firms are not household names (yet). Your prospects are there, but they need time to get to know you, and you need to take the time to understand how to best reach them. Persistence over the long term pays off.
Centralize and adapt
At the same time, don’t be afraid to mix up your approach. Growth campaigns take a while to get going, but after six months, it’s probably worth evaluating your progress. Marketing is a moving target, and the SEO strategies that worked six months ago may be completely invalidated by changes to search engine and generative AI models.
This is where a centralized marketing strategy shines. If all outreach is handled at an individual level, it’s hard for leaders to understand what works and what doesn’t. This piecemeal approach also depends on the bandwidth of individual advisors to conduct sophisticated marketing outreach on top of the full-time work of seeing to the money needs of their clients. In other words, it’s likely to stall out or be relegated to “when I have time for it” work.
A centralized, multichannel strategy makes your growth efforts more resilient and adaptable. It also spurs you to think of ways to use and reuse the touchpoints that make you stand out in the marketplace. Market commentary notes become newsletters become podcasts become pitch fodder for video producers.
For the mathematically adept: Multi-channel marketing + consistency + refinement – bad ideas = growth.
Say something about yourself
No matter which marketing channels you pursue, there are always opportunities for an RIA to highlight its culture and client experience.
For instance, an RIA making strategic acquisitions has so many things it could announce beyond how the deal increased their AUM and geographic footprint. Those things are important, yes, but… what is it like to work with you? Why did your deal partner select you, and not another firm? What can your clients expect as a result of the news? How have past acquisitions affected the client experience and the professional trajectories of the teams and businesses that joined yours?
Financial advisors often struggle with these questions, or default to the same language a reporter or prospect has heard a hundred times from different sources. Yet a firm’s success comes as a direct result of its compelling client experience and energizing work culture. Find any chance in your marketing to highlight these traits, and you will already be a step ahead of your competition.