5 Strategies for Charles Schwab’s RIA Stands For You

By John Stone

Next week, I will be presenting with Charles Schwab on national webinar for Registered Investment Advisors. The focus is on shaping digital strategies in support of the RIA Stands For You campaign.

Many of our financial advisor clients are late adopters of social media and digital marketing. Why? The advisory business is deeply 1:1, highly personal and guided by confidentiality and extensive regulation. Launching into a social media and digital marketing strategy is fraught with potential pitfalls and a mis-step can undermine the hard fought reputation that is the life blood of the advisor and the primary source of new business through referrals.

So how should an advisor tackle the digital marketing minefield?

The answer is by establishing a solid online presence and focusing first on 1:1 engagement – adding additional elements over time.

Schwab’s RIA Stands For you campaign is a great source of content and brand lift for clients of Schwab Advisor Services. During our webinar next week, I will be outlining 5 strategies and related tactics that advisors can use to take advantage of the campaign and enhance their digital and social media marketing efforts. The following are 5 summary ideas – and we will explore many of these in more depth during the webinar. We classify these ideas into three levels of commitment  “starting”, investing” and “advanced”.

Website Hub: Use RIA Stands For You to enhance your website content and messaging.

• Use campaign language to enhance your value proposition and website copy.
• Publish a FAQ or Resource Page using campaign content and links
• Update your 3rd party outposts with your  “about us” profiles
• Publish downloadable “premium” content
• Add “share this” features to your content
• Publish a blog post series and leverage the series into a Newsletter

RIA Stands For You Branding: Gain from campaign’s “halo effect” by using the brand mark and links.

• Add an RIA Stands For You Link (or Logo) in your email signature – Include branding and links on your eNewsletters as well
• Add an RIA Stands For You Widget (Logo) on your website

1:1 Targeting: Use tools for 1:1 engagement using RIA Stands For You messages.

• Use new tools to help filter and focus on your targets for deeper 1:1 engagement
• Enhance 1:1 engagement with campaign value proposition content
• Tailor your sales presentation with campaign messages
• Survey your clients and find your “NPS”  promoters and to improve your service.

Social Media: Engage your audience and expand reach and influence with social media.

• Add a LinkedIn Company Page & widget on your website
• Share your blog posts on social media and curate content from the campaign
• Mix in lifestyle and charity content
• Build your “Klout” score with thought leadership, reach and influence

Campaigns: Combine RIA Stands For You elements into your custom campaigns.

• Use your “Premium” RIA Stands For You Content as PDFs for download
• Work with COIs to speak and introduce your content to their audience with webinars and meetings
• Run an email campaign with content and landing page for lead development

Hopefully you can attend the webinar to learn more, but either way feel free to schedule a 1:1 consultation with us to explore these and other ideas and start shaping a strategy that works for your firm.