19 Financial Advisor Marketing Strategies
How does a financial advisor stand out from the crowd?
The crowd’s pretty big, by the way. As of February 2012, the number of registered representatives with a FINRA-member firm was 630,154. (In actuality, a large percentage of these registered reps do not work directly advising individuals; a more accurate estimate of practicing financial advisors might be closer to 300,000-350,000.)
So…how does a financial advisor distinguish themselves and their practice, and attract the necessary number of new clients to sustain a robust business…and stand out from the crowd?
Of course, it would be presumptuous to assume that there is an easy, one-sentence answer to this critical question. However, it is not a stretch to say that your financial advisor “marketing strategy” plays a key role in whatever your answer might be.
So, if you’re a financial advisor, here’s a second question for you. What is your marketing strategy? More specifically, how are you concentrating your limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales, and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for your practice?
If your responses to these questions are not as strong as you’d like them to be…don’t despair! Far from it. Use this information as a terrific starting point for building the marketing strategy that you’ve always wanted to create.
In fact, if you’re a financial advisor without a marketing strategy…you are not alone. We recently surveyed more than 1000 top-performing advisors, all very successful in their own right, and found that 86% do not have a distinct, consistent marketing and client acquisition strategy. Furthermore, 72% of this group do not have a clearly articulated Value Proposition (which is a key component of the marketing strategy).
Look...if you are a financial advisor without a marketing strategy (or a weak one), it's not the end of the world. We have observed a number of advisors who do okay without one.
However, it's safe to say that the future landscape for financial advisors competing for affluent clients will be more more....uhhh...."spirited". (Competitive? Dog-eat-dog? Cutthroat?) For the financial advisor who wants to thrive in the new world, having a thoughtful financial advisor marketing strategy will be a MUST.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine growing a profitable, sustainable financial advisory practice without it.
Along these lines, we’ve created a new ClientWise Learning Tool, “19 Essential Marketing Strategies for Top-Performing Advisors.” Feel free to download your complimentary copy.
We trust that this will get you started in crafting the distinctively-clear financial advisor marketing strategy that sets you apart. We'll have more on this in future posts.
ClientWise is the premier financial advisor coach focused on business development and management best practices for financial advisors.