Updated January 30, 2020, at 12:34 PM
Change is inevitable.
And this year, that change might be more prevalent than ever for financial professional marketing strategies.
To get you ready for what’s ahead in advisor marketing strategies and tactics, we sat down with some of the experts on our All Points Media team so you’re in-the-know on marketing, design, and content strategies you can expect to be hot this year.
Here’s what they had to say.
1. Integrate Your Marketing Efforts
Own the customer experience from story branding and messaging to education and solutions, to position the client in a state of contentment and success.
Make sure the customer journey is never-ending. By perfecting each call-to-action as a bridge to the next step you want them to take, you’ll nurture and grow the relationship – culminating in a client that needs you to resolve their needs.
You’re not selling, you’re defining the path in which an individual or family can walk through life living their lives to the fullest. Set up your journey to meet them for the goal of helping them live out their legacy.
2. Go Big, Go Bold
This year, the marketing and design trends are going to be big and bold.
Whether it’s the typographic getting thicket, or the colors popping to catch clients’ eyes, there will be a race to see who can stand out visually with bright colors and outlandish fonts.
This then plays into what tools will be used – such as video playing a key role in getting your message out quickly with more engagement than just plain text.
3. Blast from the Past – with a Loud Twist!
Marketing design trends will rear their creative heads in the new year. Building on what the past few years brought us in the world of graphic design, I expect to see 80s- and 90s-inspired designs continue to be a major influencer.
Color! Bold and bright, maybe even “chaotic” color combinations will make loud statements before logos and words. Chaotic color paired with retro shapes and abstract, ‘Dali-without-the-creepy’ elements bring boring graphics to life and without a doubt catch the eye of the consumer.
The insurance and finance industries have a unique opportunity to make waves in marketing as these trends are usually at the opposite end of their marketing design spectrum.
4. Mine Your Database
Most advisors have what we call an “existing database”. It’s full of current clients, past clients, hot prospects, warm prospects, cold prospects, referrals, and the list goes on.
But has marketing to your existing database lacked the luster that it craves? Have you ever really mined that database?
A trend to focus on in will be to pick the low hanging fruit. Identify those in your database that can be brought back to life simply by engaging with them more.
Think of the little things like delivering valuable content or go big by letting a hot prospect see what it’s like being a client of yours by inviting them to a social event.
You have to be willing to engage with those older prospects in order to cultivate new relationships. Create a nurturing process that even the coldest of prospects will warm up to.
5. Video, Video, Video
Video content will gain even more popularity this year. Brief videos can hold attention while relaying pertinent information to your clients and prospects. Seeing you on video will help them feel as if they’re more connected with you versus seeing your picture on a mailer or website.
Video gives a personal touch to your website, email, and social media. They can be pushed out on multiple channels and can inspire content for you to use as a blog post or vice versa. Videos are becoming more search-friendly with their caption options and Google rolling out a video carousel preview in search results.
Personal videos can be sent out to clients or prospects as an introduction to your firm, a thank you for registering for and/or attending an event, office announcements, or an
explanation of what to bring to a first meeting, just a name a few.
6. Personalize Client Experiences
Consumers nowadays receive more messages, through more channels, than they ever have before. And advisors are having to find more ways to cut through the noise of not only direct competition, but also the noise of other industries in general when it comes to digital marketing space.
We’re seeing marketing and advertising undergo one of the biggest revolutions since digital ads were launched back in the 1990s. In order for advisors to effectively reach their target audiences – as well as engage and interact with them – they’ll need to look at taking a more personal, one-to-one approach with their marketing efforts.
An increasing reliance on platforms available under the Google and Facebook umbrellas can help advisors to deliver these hyper-personalized messages that resonate on a more personal and individual level.
7. Fill Unique Needs of Prospects and Clients with Email
The end goal is no longer to simply convert a lead into a client. It’s about maximizing the lifetime value of loyal clients who will come back again and again to your advisory firm.
Email marketing allows you to effectively and efficiently speak to the unique needs and desires of both your prospects and clients. How? Through relevant, personalized content that pulls from the data you already have (perhaps in your CRM). Try segmenting your contact list this year, too. Whether you decide to segment by age, product interests, or marital status – segmented lists with different content will continue to prove effective.
Along with that, try to automate your marketing as much as possible. After all, you’re a busy advisor. Try automating things such as appointment reminders, lead nurturing programs, and promotional emails. Then, put this all together by analyzing your key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the true success of your strategies.
8. Extend the Life of Your Content
In the new year, working smart with your content will continue to pay off.
Being a financial professional, I assume you’re unable to write a new blog post every few days. But when you’re able to sit down and publish that blog, or write that whitepaper, be smart with it.
That means taking that blog from a few months ago and reinventing it into a short video clip to share on social media. Or maybe taking that whitepaper and shortening it into a fun infographic. You can even pull important statistics or quotes from your old content to make new, vibrant social media images to share.
Bottom line: look to recycle your old content and turn it into new, exciting versions of its old self.
9. Media Continues to Transform
Social media has transformed the communication landscape, especially in our industry. Social media is never static. As technology continues to advance, these tools are ever-changing to help you deliver engaging content.
And it’s evident that video content is and will continue to be the “trend” as social networks have adopted video streams and feeds (such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram). “Viewing” has become the new “reading”.
It’s become easier for users to view and push out high-quality videos with a single touch through the accessibility and capabilities of our everyday smart devices. We have already seen organizations taking advantage of ad placements within video feeds and it’s only the beginning…
