Marketing strategies that will help your firm grow

With a shortage of time a problem advisors face every workday as they manage client calls, meetings and everything in between, they might be hard pressed to devote the time and energy to their firm’s marketing needs.

Backing this up, a recent study by Broadridge showed that finding time is often the No. 1 challenge for an advisor, according to 85 percent of advisors surveyed.

So what can advisors do to further their efforts, and what marketing strategies can they implement? InvestmentNews spoke with several advisors and experts who shared their insights and experiences.

Eric Roberge, CEO and founder of Beyond Your Hammock, said that he’s always taken marketing seriously. Ten years ago, he had zero clients and zero dollars and had to figure out ways to market his business. That included creating content, writing blogs and making podcasts.

Now that his firm is more established with better resources, for which Roberge credits his wife, who started taking over the marketing in 2018, they’ve been able to put in the time and money into inbound content marketing. 

“We’ve found that to be an incredibly effective strategy for generating leads and helping convert clients from our target market,” he said.

Roberge says while most advisors may shy away from digging into inbound content marketing because it requires a unique skill set to execute, he’s been able to reap the benefits.

“The biggest of which is that the upfront investment of time has meant we've had to pay very little toward marketing efforts,” he says. “Everything is organic – meaning not paid – and inbound, meaning prospects come to us versus us trying to hunt down leads. Our No. 1 source of prospects is organic Google search. We have never run paid ads.”

One thing Roberge is focusing on this year is using search engine optimization on his content, which will better position the firm's website and content to be found. They’ll be spending a baseline of $1,500 a month, equating to about $18,000 for the year.

Roberge says the ideal skill set a firm should have on the team is someone with copywriting and storytelling chops, an intuitive understanding of the internet and how to navigate its various channels, including social media, and deep subject matter expertise on financial planning and investment management, to create compelling content.

“That will reach your intended audience and also be persuasive enough to pull them back to your website and convince them to book a prospect call with you,” he said.

As for what advisors can do to help make the time to have a developed strategy, Maggie Spataro, senior marketing manager at Bartlett Wealth Management, recommends hiring somebody.

“You really are going to benefit from getting someone into your firm, at least one person who has that competency, has experience in this and who can help guide your firm to a marketing strategy that's going to be beneficial for you and what your goals are,” she says.

As for marketing costs, Roberge says they really shouldn’t be looked at as dollar amounts but rather percentages.

“If you're spending 5 to 10 percent of your revenues, okay. If you're starting to spend 30-plus percent of your revenues, you got to be in growth mode," he said. "You better have the capacity to handle what comes in at that rate, because if you're doing it right, you're going to get results. Not just because it's your money, but because you did it strategically.”

Joe Anthony, president of Gregory FCA, says that the client experience and how you're communicating with clients are also marketing.

Clients want to hear from advisors about major headlines and life events "that might or might not impact their plans or portfolio,” Anthony says. “Those are the same things that you could use to fuel from your marketing activities with insights, ideas, and reactions, those recommendations.

“It starts by looking at marketing a little bit differently in terms of how to use your time with the client experience,” he added. “What clients are asking you to solve for them can be and should be fueling what you're doing and saying in your marketing.”