Financial advisor marketing can be a tricky beast, for a number of reasons. Selecting a financial advisor is a big decision for an investor—after all, investors trust you with their livelihood, their retirement, their children’s education, their ability to purchase a home, and so on. If an investor is putting that much skin in the game, their emotions may tend to run point, well ahead of factual considerations.

And while you may be able to grow your business based on word-of-mouth and referrals, you can’t use them in your own marketing materials, which shuts down what would otherwise be an effective avenue for prospecting.

Finally, some people still simply don’t want to talk about money. So you carry a double burden: not only must you convince them that they should, but you also need to convince them that you are the person to talk to.

Marketing for financial advisors is difficult, but it certainly isn’t impossible. 

The first step to effectively developing a marketing strategy is to understand where you are now—a piece of advice that may sound familiar, because it’s a critical starting point for investors, as well. 

Do you have a strong social media presence but little-to-no email marketing campaigns? Maybe your website is outdated, or you’ve seen success holding webcasts but haven’t translated that content into a blog. Understanding where you are now helps to determine what’s working and what isn’t, as well as where you have the most room for improvement.

Next, identify the roadblocks you’re facing. For most financial advisors, there’s a trifecta of barriers to implementing a successful marketing program: Time, experience, and resources. More than likely, you’re already bogged down with daily operational tasks, not to mention the time you spend nurturing your current client relationships. That doesn’t leave many hours in the week to focus on marketing efforts.

Add lack of time to lack of experience and lack of resources—unless you have the capital to hire a marketing team or outsource to a third-party agency—and you’re probably left cobbling together a marketing strategy between client appointments. Not ideal for developing a strong, well-thought out program with robust, continuously updated content and campaigns.

That’s where Orion comes in. 

Market*r, our brand-new marketing platform, combines professionally crafted, customizable marketing campaigns built around timely financial planning topics with best-in-class execution technology. It’s the only marketing solution in the industry designed specifically to drive engagement through financial planning.

Interested in finding out how Market*r can help you solve growth and engagement challenges? Sign up for a personalized demo! 

When our team set out to create a unique marketing solution for financial advisors, we knew it was critical to marry our marketing expertise with the challenges exclusive to our industry. During our research and development, we kept the following in mind:

  • Data tells all. It should be the driving force behind any and every marketing decision. We built Market*r to make it easy for advisors to access and act upon reporting and analytics.
  • Nothing goes as far as a personal touch. The campaigns in Market*r are designed to be completely customizable, so your firm can inject them with its brand voice, personality, and value proposition.
  • You can’t substitute experience.Trial and error is often the best way to find out what works, so access to a team with more experience than you—such as our marketing consultants—often improves the outcome of any initiative.
  • There’s a formula for everything. It’s not as simple as x + y = leads, but there is a right way to approach financial advisor marketing, and we’ve put it to work for you in Market*r. 
  • Creative, unique content is king. Marketing is about standing out, and to do that, you find a way to tell your story in a different way. We’re here to help.
We firmly believe in the power of Market*r to drive growth and engagement for your firm—but like any other solution, there are ways to truly make the most of the tool. Following these five best practices will enhance your experience and empower you to capitalize on the most new opportunities.
Market*r Best Practices
1. Set Your Profile

Your very first step in Market*r should be setting up your profile by connecting the key branding elements of your firm, such as your logo, contact information, and social media profiles. Anytime you kick off a marketing campaign, this information will automatically pull into the assets you’re looking to leverage

2. Connect to Orion Planning

Advisors using Orion’s planning tool will want to populate the workflow campaign links that will be used as Calls-to-Action for your campaigns. This ensures that when a client or prospect engages with your campaigns, they can seamlessly take part in a self-directed planning workflow where they identify financial goals, connect their accounts, and view success projections. From there, they can also request or schedule an appointment with you.

3. Streamline Your Marketing Tech Stack

Less is more, especially when it comes to financial advisor marketing. Think about it: you’re already working with a host of solutions to run your daily operations—reporting, billing, compliance, trading, and so on. Why add more to your tech stack when you can streamline your efforts and create a more seamless, intuitive experience? What’s more, by creating, deploying, managing and measuring your content from one place, rather than juggling other email send tools and content providers, you gain a more holistic picture of your marketing success.

4. Take Advantage of Customization Capabilities

Spend time making the most of the customization in order to best tell your story – our campaigns are professionally pre-written and designed, but they’re built to give you as much customization ability as you want. This is so you can best tell the story of your unique brand and illustrate what your value prop brings to the table.

5. Try New Things

Marketing strategies for financial advisors are dynamic, not static, endeavors. As our world changes, it influences both best practices in our industry and investor behavior as a whole. What works well for six months may no longer resonate depending on what’s happening in the media, in the stock market, in the economy, and so on. Use that fluidity, don’t fight it. Access new campaigns, plug in different assets, spend more time on social channels, or focus on email marketing. Tap into your data to determine where you need to pivot, and use your resources to do so.

Ready to get started with Market*r? Get in touch with us today, and we’ll schedule your personalized demo! 

 

1399-OAS-5/26/2020