Posts related to wealth management and financial advisor marketing.

RIAs: What Your Ideal Client Wants | Fiduciary Financial Advisor

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A prospective client may assume that a financial advisor, when giving advice, is acting in their best interest.

Fiduciary Standard for Financial Advisors

Indeed this prospective client may have heard the word FIDUCIARY Financial Advisor bandied about by talking heads and journalists in the financial media and that is now a Rule of Law.  For an independent fee-only Financial Advisor (RIA), being a fiduciary will matter a great deal to your ideal client and can be a key if not prerequisite selling point. But they may not grasp the full meaning and intent.

Positioned right, being a fiduciary can be a major point of differentiation from broker/dealers claiming to be financial advisors, but who are associated with vertically integrated brokerage firms that sell products with ‘hidden fees’.

One advisor quoted in the article in a recent New York Times article said  “The fiduciary rule ultimately comes down to the fact that some people are making a lot of money at the expense of other people who have no idea how much their adviser is getting paid.”  A video from a large independent advisor, compares butchers and nutritionists.  Butchers push meat. Nutritionists advise you what to eat, because they have the best interests of the client at heart.  The latter is the fiduciary.  A Revenue Architects client says, “the professional fiduciary is expected to perform and advise you based on your best interests, even if it comes into conflict with the advisor’s own interests.”

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Riskalyze Review: Quantitatively Gauge Investor Risk Tolerance

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Recent studies indicate that financial advisors expect continued strong demand for their services in the next year.  Russell Investments third-quarter Financial Professional Outlook indicated that Advisors remain bullish about the capital markets looking out over the next three years.

Marketing Volatility and Investor Behavior

Source: Russell Investments

However, they worry about investors’ emotional response to market events that could harm their businesses and their clients’ well-being, The Russell Investments study showed market volatility to be the most common topic initiated by clients.  A Fidelity Advisor Investment Pulse Survey showed similar results.

“When investors make emotional decisions, they decrease the odds of reaching their financial goals,” said John Hailer, chief executive officer of Natixis Global Asset Management in the Americas and Asia.

How can financial advisors set reasonable expectations with challenges like volatility and low-interest rates?…how can they take the emotion out of investor conversations to set realistic goals and stick to them?

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Robo-Advisors and Capturing the Next Generation Investor

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Many independent financial advisory firms are at an inflection point, facing disruptive changes from technology and generational transitions.

Technology-Driven Transitions

  • Emerging “Robo-Advisors” who are seemingly adept at gathering assets from Internet-savvy millennials
  • Digital Nation: Increasing use of social media and mobile devices among all generations, and most effusively by millennials
  • Real-time access to almost anything

Generational Transitions

  • Generation X or “Generation Now”: Following on the heels of existing pre-retiree and retired clients is Gen X ages 30-45, who currently control nearly $3.5T in investable assets (Cerulli – Lodestar, 2012E.)
  • Generation Y:  77 million strong, on par with Baby Boomers, constitutes 24% of the US population (Nielsen)…clients of the future…the social generation defined by technology – always on and mobile.
  • 71% of affluent Gen Y investors report having $100K-<$250K in total investable assets and an additional 5% are already millionaires. (Cogent Research 2013)
Population by Generation

Source: Nielsen

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Smarter LinkedIn Marketing for Financial Advisors

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HNWI on LinkedIn

Source: Join the Dots

LinkedIn is the most used and most trusted social media platform that high net worth investors (HNWIs) tap to research financial decisions, according to a 2014 survey of HNWIs by Join the Dots. And they are using it across all investable asset ranges.

HNWI tapping LinkedIn Financial Content

Source: Join the Dots

 

 

 

These HNWIs are tapping various forms of content to inform the financial decision journey, according Join the Dots research.  Those who use it for both discovery and consideration are driven to action.

 

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Sales Imperatives for the Mutual Fund Wholesaler

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Across industries, there are a lot of articles that suggest sales is dead. The argument is that web provides a content rich platform for buyers to “self-sell” and there is no longer a need for a salesperson to drive awareness, shape and develop needs and craft tailored solutions. Some studies found that 70-80+% of a decision is made on the web and through trusted networks before a person ever engages a sales person. The sales rep’s role is reduced to order taking at the end of a self-sell cycle.

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What’s Your Integrated Digital Strategy?

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An Integrated Digital Strategy clarifies how you differentiate your online presence and drive revenue with your website, mobile, social media, search, email marketing, apps and online advertising. Using analytics to capture customer insights will inform your digital strategies and tactics and keep you aligned around key performance indicators (KPIs).

As more customers ‘self-sell’ on the web, a digital strategy is increasingly important. It is about integrating digital into all facets of marketing and describing the role of different web channels, inbound marketing, content marketing, search and the role of and social media.  Integration can range from adding a URL at the bottom of a print ad to having a common creative message on your home page and in banner ads to the sophisticated delivery of sequenced messaging on multiple digital media vehicles.

Integrated Digital Strategy

Source: RevenuePerform.com

Disruptive Technology Driving Digital

Four specific technology developments are driving a tectonic shift in the digital ecosystem:

  • Mobile. Widespread penetration and evolution of feature-rich, smart mobile devices
  • Social. Ubiquitous social networking and user-generated content
  • Cloud. On-demand, real-time access to supercomputer power and unlimited storage
  • Internet of Things. Convergence between the real and the virtual worlds.

These technologies are changing the relationships between consumers and companies. Consumers have more power to gather and process information, connect, and voice opinions. And companies can leverage vast new sources of consumer information that lets them engage customers in a microtargeted way across multiple digital touch points.

What’s the State of your Integrated Digital Strategy?

To win in the digital economy, explore new approaches and learn by experimentation, while focusing on crucial capabilities and overcoming any gaps.  Ask these questions:

  • Do we have a dynamic digital strategy that generates value and considers new business models?
  • Do we have deep insight into how our customers are using new digital tools?
  • Do we have a partnership strategy with the key technology players to enable us to respond?
  • Does our marketing strategy take advantage of new technologies to enhance our traditional campaigns?
  • Are we fully utilizing online and mobile channels as part of our go-to-market strategy?
  • Do we have the right talent and organization to execute our digital strategy?

Addressing these questions and formulating an integrated digital strategy will ultimately make your businesses relevant in a digital era while growing opportunities and profits, as well as scaling efficiently in the process.

Identify opportunities to address now with DIGITAL EXPERIENCE INDEX.

Revenue Architects is here to help with our digital marketing assessment using the  DXI or DIGITAL EXPERIENCE INDEX.  It’s complimentary!  

The Digital Experience Index (DXI) is based on eight interdependent dimensions: Brand, Visibility, Design, Content, Usability, Functionality, Conversion and Amplification.

SIGN UP FOR YOUR  DXI DIAGNOSTIC TODAY!

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3 Ways to Increase Website Conversion

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Getting a web visitor to take action is the main objective of any web page. Unfortunately, many businesses see still a website as a brochure and do not take into account the way that web usage has changed and what the real purpose is. They spend all their time on design and not enough on usability and website conversion optimization. Pretty is good but conversion grows a business.

1. Use of Strong Visuals

Images need to have a purpose not just be decoration. Derek Halpen at Social Triggers put together a great article on the effective use of images.

He pointed out the following potential reasons for using images.

-To show a key product or service feature

Derek points out how genius the image of Apple Air in the envelope is. Apple is selling the “thinness” feature and nail it with the image. If you are selling a service, a good graphic can explain your offer.

MacBook Air image example for web conversion

-To direct attention

Images can be used to direct the web visitor’s attention. Images of people looking at or pointing can emphasize a key headline or call-to-action like a sign up form.

-To build trust

Using pictures of real people involved in the business whether they are customers or team members builds trust. Derek points out that people want to deal with real people. Stock images just don’t cut it. Customer testimonials have a lot more credibility if they have an image of the customer with them.

Revenue Architects testimonial example

2. Get the Headline Right

Another key page element is the headline. Copyblogger found 8 out of 10 people read only the headline. The promise of the headline must be compelling enough to turn a browser into a reader and then a sign up. Copyblogger offer a 11 part course to help with this. You won’t get the headline right first time. Optimizely lets you to test different headlines (and images) with no coding required. Testing should be an ongoing process.

3. Be Mobile Friendly

The big movement right now is towards responsive design. This means that a web site will reconfigure to be usable for any device from laptop ti smart phone. Website builders from Virb to Wix and Squarespace now offer responsive solutions. Excellent responsive themes are available for WordPress.

Revenizer mobile responsive web exampleDespite this, only 6% of small business websites are mobile ready according to a recent survey. The same study calculated that the lack of mobile readiness is costing US small businesses $1T each year. Mobile is now 28% of all web traffic. 4 out of 5 of these visitors will leave a site if it is not mobile optimized.

Make sure your emails are mobile optimized also. 70% of users will delete an email if it does display well on their smartphone. 75% of users open emails on smart phones.

 

Looking for help with improving conversion. Contact us at Revenue Architects.

For more ideas, go to Revenizer for 400+ more tips on optimizing digital + real time stats on your marketing performance.

The article summary is below.

Revenizer web conversion tips

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LinkedIn for Financial Advisors: A Primer

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Linkedin Investor Usage

Source: Cogent Research


Linkedin is the most prominent social media network that investors use to research financial decisions.

With the large and every increasing number of affluent investors using LinkedIn, their expectations are that you have more than a presence. In order to provide value and differentiate from competitors, independent financial advisors need to actively engage.  Very simply, an active and robust presence on LinkedIn will enable you to better retain and attract new clients. 

  1. Increase your visibility, starting with a robust, search optimized profile
  2. Reconnect with clients and colleagues
  3. Get recommended
  4. Enhance reputation/build influence
  5. Prospect for new clients
  6. Share and join events/groups
  7. Conduct targeted advertising
  8. Set up a Company Page

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Digital Experience Index – Annual Check Up Assessment

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Expanding Your Digital Review

Website assessments are nothing new, yet today, we need to take a comprehensive view that includes a look at your websites, apps, media, and social media presence. So, when you do your next check-up, instead of thinking “website assessment,” you should be thinking “digital assessment.” Given how rapidly things are changing in digital strategy and systems, you should be conducting a self-assessment at least each year. When we do this for clients, we call it a “DXI” –  Digital Experience Index. The benefits are clear.

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What is Your Model Week? – Advisors and Professionals Need a Plan

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Yesterday, I had an in depth session with a leading Boston area financial advisor. Their firm has doubled every five years and they have plans to double again in the next five years. In the past, their growth has been on the back of solid personal business development activities by the two partners along with timely, yet somewhat ad hoc referrals. To achieve the next level of growth (from $300M to $600M AUM) they understand that they need a more systematic marketing and selling engine. But what should they do differently?

The challenge is that, along with growth comes increased business and operational complexity which takes up more senior team time. The senior team is saddled with business responsibilities and are not able to fully engage the market as intensely as they did in the early growth years.  At the same time, it is the senior team that is most critical to selling success. So, what is the answer?

Image via: onthefly.onemillionskates.com

Part of a good solution is to develop a ‘Model Week’ for each member of the business development team. The model week articulates the level of selling activity that is both critical and realistic in a given week – balancing much needed personal time with the needs of the business and the sales engagement process. The elements that should go into a model week can be derived by building a revenue model. Here are some considerations:

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