As we start to emerge from the pandemic, the positive sentiment around a full economic recovery is palpable. We’re making plans again, from dinners out and family vacations to in-office hours and in-person conferences.
In gradually shifting back to pre-pandemic life as a society, there are many previous activities we will revert to, but also other things learned over the past year that we should continue to embrace. For many registered investment advisers (RIAs), connecting and networking with clients in-person became extremely difficult due to the coronavirus. In spite of this disruption to their regular course of business, more than two-thirds of RIAs increased their frequency of client communication since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the TD Ameritrade Institutional 2020 RIA Sentiment Survey Mid-Year Update.
Those who managed to do so amid myriad coronavirus-imposed challenges should seek to maintain that momentum. But for RIAs who were less engaged over the past year, there is still time to implement a more expansive client communication strategy and regain ground. Here are a few best practices to either continue or consider moving forward:
- Give Zoom a rest and use on-demand video. Without the ability to sit down face to face, video provided the next best way to connect. But “Zoom-fatigue” became real a few months into the pandemic. On-demand video, which clients can watch on their own time, provides a personal way to connect without the hassle of scheduling individual meetings to relay the same message. Over the past year, we’ve worked with our RIA clients to produce high-quality videos from home. Our efforts included helping clients create appealing backdrops and navigate new video equipment, as well as providing full post-production. These videos for The Wealth Alliance and Girard represent two good examples.
- Diversify your social presence. The rampant expansion of digital platforms continues — LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Clubhouse, Reddit and the list goes on. While it is virtually impossible to have a presence on every platform, advisers need to account for varying digital experiences. Since the pandemic began, we’ve seen more RIAs than ever before engage in conversations with us about improving their social media and digital strategies. We continue to work with RIAs to maximize their content across platforms — for example, taking one news article and promoting it via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Keep your strategy nimble. A well-planned communications strategy with defined goals will always help you accomplish more of your objectives. That being said, we also advise being open to pivoting from the existing strategy, so you stay relevant with current market dynamics and world events. The pandemic put a whole new emphasis on that philosophy, presenting more challenges from a personal and professional standpoint that many of us won’t forget for a long time.
The bright side of an obstacle is how we learn and grow in order to overcome it. We’ve worked hard over the past year to support our RIA clients and help them use all available resources to stay connected with their clients, who, like many of us, have been desperate for normalcy and stability in a very unsettling time.
If you’d like to deploy any of the strategies detailed above, please reach out to Gregory FCA so we can talk about what makes sense for you.