When it comes to presenting a public image and marketing any type of wealth management firm or advisory practice, it should come as no surprise that credibility is important.
In fact, authenticity is the future.
For Wealth Management firms, including Broker-Dealers and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) looking to grow their business, the playing field has never been more open—or more level. The digital age we’re living in has simplified the process of finding prospective clients, learning more about their wants and needs, and engaging with them in new ways that are more personal and seemingly effective over their lifetime.
A firm’s success in these endeavors will be determined less by the size of its budget, and more by its ability to embrace change. With the spectacular growth of social media paired with the seemingly unlimited sharing (and sometimes oversharing) of personal information, firms (and advisors) are at risk of falling behind if they fail to embrace the idea of “pro-personal” marketing and branding.
Continue reading for a look at the ever-evolving marketing landscape, and the five wealth management marketing trends advisors and firms should follow in order to optimize their success and ultimately win the hearts, minds, and wallets of clients for the next decade to come.
1. Personalizing the Customer Journey
As both client and prospect engagement becomes hyper-personalized, firms and advisors will use defining life moments as their marketing advantage. Successful firms will be aware of the special moments and significant milestones in their clients’ lives, such as:
➜ Sending children to college
➜ Retirement
➜ Anniversaries
➜ Birthdays
➜ Buying a home
➜ And more
Each of these major life events can serve as a touchpoint to provide relevant, informative, and educational content to clients.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms that offer a bird’s-eye view of the client and their activity with the firm will provide marketers with insights into the client’s life and how they interact with the business’ content. From there, marketing professionals can then create a unique plan that speaks directly to each individual, enabling firms and advisors to build trust.
2. Using Data to Make Informed, Customer-Focused Decisions
In 2022, there is substantially more data available regarding customers than even just a few years ago. And in the next decade, we can expect these client data points to expand and grow exponentially.
This data—and the people it represents—will play an important role in how marketing success is measured and met. However, as the magnitude of data grows, continuing to manage it will become increasingly more complex.
To simplify the process while effectively using this new information, marketers will need to consolidate customer data points in order to make informed, customer-focused decisions. Many financial advisory firms will need to build and adopt hybrid systems over the next decade.
By simultaneously using CRM and data management platforms, firms and their advisors will be able to build increasingly more comprehensive and complex audiences based on the extracted data.
3. Increasing Customer Engagement Through Real-Time Interactions
Real-time engagement and interactions have already become common practice, so it’s safe to assume this will continue to be a common expectation from clients—even from smaller advisory firms.
As investors/clients come to expect real-time encounters, firms and advisors will need to put the client first by:
➜ Responding in a timely manner
➜ Opening the channels for conversations to occur
➜ Caring about what their clients actually say
➜ Finding the right “place” to engage in conversations
➜ Connecting channels dynamically, in which messages and content in one channel are based on actions in another
While the above may seem somewhat cliche or even as if we’re pointing out the obvious, putting each of them to practice and baking them into your marketing and communications process is easier said than done. However, when done right, this gives your clients faith and confidence in your ability to go above and beyond their needs—and that’s where the magic happens.
4. Artificial Intelligence Will Support the Customer Journey
While many companies have been slow to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI), often due to steep implementation costs, the technology is quickly gaining momentum and being used widely across the financial services and wealth management industry. Financial advisors and RIAs—who have already been hit by industry changes—are at serious risk of being left behind if they refuse to embrace Artificial Intelligence in the years to come.
Avoiding AI adoption can pose a tremendous risk to firms, especially those working with tech-savvy Millennials and Generation X clients. These younger generations expect their advisors to work with them on their terms, and their stance on that remains quite clear.
It’s important to note that meeting clients’ expectations of personal, real-time interactions is no small task. And it’s often one that’s beyond the capabilities of firms and advisors. AI is a key tool in meeting the new higher standards that firms are being held to.
Ultimately, Artificial Intelligence will enhance advisors’ analytical capabilities and automate several mundane tasks, reducing back and front office costs across the board.
5. Navigating an Accelerating Adoption Curve
As the technology landscape and digital experiences continue to evolve, it’s critical for firms to stay dynamic. By being able to adapt to new trends and technologies, firms and advisors can continue to remain ahead of the curve and top of mind to their clients.
However, while new technologies prove to be beneficial, they also carry significant risks which often include considerations around resource allocation, implementation time/costs, as well as the creation of data silos. It’s critical for firms to ensure the right systems and integrations are in place that allows them to pull and sync key data points in order to optimize customer journeys and experiences.
Centralized and integrated platforms aren’t just beneficial for marketing to new and existing clients—they’re table stakes for back, middle, and front office functions across the board.
Looking Ahead
Technology solution providers like FutureVault provide Broker-Dealers, RIAs and financial advisory firms, Family Offices, Credit Unions, and more with the solutions—and confidence—to stay ahead of the curve and gain a competitive advantage by offering a highly personalized experience via Personal Life Management digital vaults. An experience that connects all levels of the organization together, within one secure and single source of truth, like never before.
Request a personalized demo today to learn how we’re successfully improving compliance, driving operational efficiencies, and helping front, middle, and back-office teams scale through secure document exchange and digital vault solutions.
