why financial advisers need to innovate ... brexit and tweets from donald trump, the us president,...

insight Engaging and marketing to an increasing

number of UK pensioner millionaires

The cost per individual client acquisition has grown by around 50% over the last two years

Challenges or opportunities of meeting your website needs and goals

Your website is the most important information and sales channel you have – are you taking full advantage of it?

the choice of financial professionals NOVEMBER 2019

FINANCIAL ADVISERS FACE INCREASED COSTS TO AQUIRE NEW CLIENTS

HOW FINANCIAL ADVISERS ARE GENERATING MORE REFERRAL OPPORTUNITIES

IS YOUR FINANCIAL ADVICE FIRM WEBSITE FIT FOR PURPOSE?

CONTENT MARKETING n DIGITAL MARKETING n SOCIAL MEDIA n SEO n BLOGGING n BRANDING

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marketing academy insight

WHY FINANCIAL ADVISERS NEED TO INNOVATE FOR AN

AGEING POPULATION

02 insight

FINANCIAL ADVISERS FACE INCREASED COSTS TO ACQUIRE NEW CLIENTS The cost per individual client acquisition has grown by around 50% over the last two years

I t’s a fact: highly engaged clients invest

more, evangelise more about their financial

adviser, and demonstrate more loyalty to

their adviser. At a time when headlines about

Brexit and tweets from Donald Trump, the US

president, and the US-China trade war can move

markets, financial advisers’ clients want to be

certain that their money is being managed by

the best people, invested in the best funds for

their needs, and know that their adviser will be

there to help them through the ups and downs

of the financial world.

With this in mind, providing a high-quality

client experience and regular communication

should be the most important component in your

client engagement strategy. Client engagement

is the process of interacting with clients through

a variety of channels and strengthening your

relationship with them.

Communicating or consuming content For many financial advisory businesses, this

process begins with the first interaction and

extends way beyond the point of investment or

retirement products. In a very crowded space,

financial advisory businesses today need to be

engaging with their clients via social media, email,

their website, blogs, or any other space where

they’re communicating or consuming content.

Increasingly, clients today expect their

adviser to have a much better understanding of

them when it comes to client engagement, but

this is increasingly becoming harder to achieve

with all the regulations controlling personal

data. In a post-GDPR era, it’s still as important to

create personalised client experiences based on

their individual needs. But how can you provide

these while remaining GDPR-compliant?

Delivering the optimum client engagement strategy When a prospective client provides their

information on your website, they usually want

something in return, whether this is a specific

guide they are interested in reading about

(maybe covering ‘Estate preservation’ or ‘How to

take a pension income’) or an offer to attend a

complimentary review meeting with you. The way

you manage this data is crucial to how you’ll be

able to deliver a personalised client experience for

them going forward.

CLIENT ACQUISITION

Abigail Spencer Digital Marketing Specialist Goldmine Media

03insight

To achieve this successfully, you need a

client engagement platform. This is software

that centralises all client communications,

tracks client behaviour, and helps you efficiently

respond to their needs and wants. Client

engagement platforms help you to personalise

campaigns by analysing client data and tracking

industry patterns. You’ll also be able to test

marketing, sales and client service campaigns

to ensure you’re delivering the optimum client

engagement. If you don’t, your competitors will.

Sharing data in exchange for personalised experiences Adopting a platform dedicated to client

engagement will give your business the tools it

needs to increase client and prospective client

interactions. However, you’ll also need a strategy for

engaging with clients if you want your campaigns to

be effective. The cost per individual client acquisition

detailed in the Accenture 2018 Pulse Check Survey

has grown by around 50% over the last two years,

which makes increasing your efforts to retain

existing clients even more important.

The key is to provide every client and

prospective client with a more personalised,

meaningful experience. All the indications are

that most financial service consumers today are

actively willing to share their data in exchange

for personalised experiences, which includes an

increasing shift towards mobile usage.

Smartphone obsession According to Ofcom, the average adult now

spends over three hours a day on their

smartphone. Digital, video, social media and

podcast usage all continue to rise. Moreover,

smartphone usage continues to increase as time

spent on desktop and laptop computers declines.

2008 was the year the smartphone took off

in the UK. With the iPhone and Android fresh

into the UK market, 17% of people owned a

smartphone a decade ago – this has now reached

78%. The smartphone today is the device people

say they would miss the most, dominating many

people’s lives in both positive and negative ways.

People in the UK now check their

smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes

of the waking day. Two in five adults (40%)

first look at their phone within five minutes

of waking up. Similarly, 37% of adults check

their phones five minutes before lights out,

Ofcom reports.

With the increase in smartphone activity,

financial service businesses need to take a

mobile-first approach towards client engagement.

Your websites should provide targeted digital

content that is indexable by search engines and

published across many devices to reach out to

existing and prospective clients to add another

service layer and engagement.

Four elements of client engagement you can’t ignore

Personalised content marketing It is your digital content that helps create

the narrative about your business. Providing

personalised content drives your unique value

and subtly persuades prospective clients to

choose you over your competitors. Personalised

content marketing is a key component that

drives client engagement. It answers the

unanswered questions of your audience and

focuses on their specific wants, emotions,

fears and likes. Regular blogs, articles, digital

publications and email updates relevant to them

will not only educate clients but also further help

in promoting your business.

Website Your website will often be the first touchpoint for a

prospective new client who is looking to discover

more about your business and services. It is also the

primary resource for existing clients to stay in touch

and updated on the latest financial news, your latest

service offerings or any newsworthy information

about your business, whether this is to announce

charitable or fundraising activities, or seminar dates.

Your website can make or break the image of

your business within seconds of a visitor landing

on your homepage. Therefore, it’s crucial to have

a website that’s not only attractive visually but

also user-friendly and mobile responsive.

Apart from standard textual and visual

content, interactive content is another way to

engage with your clients through your website.

Examples of interactive content includes

downloadable guides, factsheets, publications,

calculators and forms for visitors to book a

seminar space or arrange a meeting.

Social media In addition to your website, social media can and

should be used as an extension of your client

engagement strategy via networks like Facebook,

LinkedIn and Twitter. For all financial service businesses,

these platforms present an enormous opportunity for

you to engage with your clients and prospective clients

in a more targeted and personalised way, and to build

a loyal online community.

Through social media, you can connect

directly with your target client personas, share

information, identify new prospective clients,

research influencers and promote content that will

attract more new business opportunities. Regular

monitoring and active engagement on social

media will not only increase your business’ visibilit