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Wealth Advisor and RIA Marketing -Growing Your Business

Mar 15, 2023 9:45:21 AM

Lead generation marketing methods are evolving rapidly, thanks to the digital shift that happened when we all had to learn to work from home. The old forms of outbound marketing, such as events, direct mail, TV, and print ads, have become a somewhat outdated and cost-prohibitive way to convince a prospect to check you out. We'll explore best practices for wealth advisor and RIA marketing to help you develop the techniques to reach your target market.  

As with any service-based business, registered investment advisors and wealth advisors need to focus on growing and keeping their client base. But they also must keep a keen eye on compliance, knowing that all content is considered advertising by the advisor and must comply with the relevant and ever-changing federal or state advertising rules.   

This balancing act is often accomplished with the help of a trusty compliance officer and a marketing team specializing in the financial services industry. Unfortunately, most financial advisory firms spend 1-2 % of revenue on marketing.   

This probably worked during the days of TINA (short for there is no alternative- to stocks), when interest rates were low, and investors poured their money into stocks. But the RIA is no longer a novelty, and investors are searching for alternatives in a very crowded landscape. Adapting your marketing approach to include inbound marketing can attract new clients and increase revenue.  

A recent study on marketing strategies found RIAs favoring client referrals, COIs (centers of influence), and networking 93% more than any other method. More emphasis should be placed on digital inbound marketing in a growing field with lots of competition. It is a relationship business, and connecting and building trust is paramount. Inbound marketing focuses on building that trust by speaking to your ideal client's wants, needs, roadblocks, pain points, motivators, and goals.  

Building your brand 

Stepping into inbound marketing can feel a bit like sailing in uncharted waters. Here are some steps you can follow to get started targeting your ideal client:

  1. Create Your Brand - This task should zero in on knowing your audience. Identify your target audience by defining and understanding your potential clients' fears, questions, and investment goals. Build your story by answering those questions and addressing those fears. This will help you identify topics that resonate with them and build authority.  
  2. Build Your Message -You cannot build a website, write a blog, craft an elevator pitch, or shake hands with people without a compelling "pitch." Build content to convey your message. "When it comes to attracting new clients for your RIA firm, content is KING. According to research conducted by Demand Metrics, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads" -Advisor Guidance -6-10-22  
  3. Share Your Content - Get to know the many marketing channels and choose more than one to get the word out. Channels include written, verbal, and visual communications like infographics, videos, podcasts, and blogs shared on social media, email campaigns, and webinars.   
  4. Give it Time - Show up regularly to your chosen marketing channel. It takes time to build the interest and trust required to convert a stranger into someone who relates to you and feels you are trustworthy.   
  5. Adjust Your Strategy- A potential client's path in a content-based strategy is often defined as a funnel. This funnel usually follows three phases: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Each of these steps is guided by a marketing plan that includes multiple distribution channels. You can adjust this funnel based on feedback and reporting (CRM). 

Feedback can be metrics based - click-throughs, impressions, shared content, downloads, SEO, and organic traffic; or qualitative - comments, email replies, or answers to questions. Again, give it time but don't linger too long on something that gets unopened or unclicked. You can't improve what you don't measure. This step works.  

Financial planning and wealth management are valuable and needed. It shouldn't have to be aggressively sold - people should come to you. Instead of making the hard sell, attract with content.   

Give your future clients ways to find you by producing valuable and helpful content that points them to you and your services. Step away from the selling mindset and move into an attraction mindset. Build a digital marketing plan and give it the time it needs.

We engineer and manage customized SMA portfolios for Wealth Advisors and RIAs, so they can spend more time growing their businesses.

As a business owner, the rigorous day-to-day management of client portfolios can take the lion's share of your time. We monitor markets and adjust our risk-managed strategies to protect client portfolios. So, you don't have to.

Vineyard Global Advisors offers a range of investment strategies designed to allow participation in the market's growth within a dynamic, risk-managed framework that seeks to offer protection during significant market declines. Our goal is to take the emotion out of investing and give our clients greater peace of mind by generating steadier returns over time. 

View Our Investment Strategies                 Connect with a Vineyard Advisor

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