By Kasey Dean, Simplicity Lone Beacon’s Senior Director of Accounts.
In the financial industry advisors across the country are always looking for new ways to bring in more quality leads. I hear financial advisors saying that they need better marketing, more leads, the “quickest” way to get them. What they don’t realize is that there is no “quick fix.” Creating a successful marketing ecosystem takes time, effort, and an understanding of the bigger picture.
Firms who understand that financial advisor marketing is not a “quick fix” to their production struggles and instead commit to long-term strategies see the most success. In this article, I will dive into a case study on a new client who was committed and dedicated to making their marketing a key component of their business.
Understanding the Unique Financial Advisor Firm
Before I go into the metrics behind this financial advisor, it’s important to understand how this firm was situated in their market. While this context may not directly correlate to your business, the underlying themes of challenges and successes will ring true for all financial firms.
Back in 2023, we just partnered with a new client who had offices in two of the most saturated marketing in the independent financial space. They had limited experience with planning and executing events, running digital campaigns, maintaining healthy email database, distributing content, and tracking results. They had built a successful client base but knew they needed help in expanding that base and retaining their current clients. Often, knowing you need help is the first step to success. With our partnership, they not only took the first step but continued to build on their progress to have an incredibly successful year of growth, illustrated below.
2022 vs. 2023 Success Metrics for This Advisor
| Total New Production Increase | 3x |
| Total 1st Appointment Increase | 4x |
| Total New Leads | 3x |
What Led Them to Success?
You’re probably asking yourself: “That’s impressive, but how did they do it?” The answer, while complicated in terms of what was executed, was quite simple in theory. We identified key priorities together and committed to seeing them all the way through before deciding to pick up a new priority. This allowed everyone on the advisor team to see the impact of our combined efforts truly. Looking back on the data and the year we can attribute this growth to the key areas below.
- Solidified Their Financial Advisor Brand
- Fine-tuned the message around why them versus any other advisory firm.
- Built a brand-new site filled with rich content & various interactive submit forms.
- Communicated their brand across site, social, email, and all other channels consistently.
- Executed a Tight Marketing Playbook
- Ran consistent monthly digital advertising campaigns to bring in new leads and re-target existing leads/site visitors.
- Recorded engaging short video content to distribute.
- Communicating with clients and prospects weekly.
- Hosted monthly in-person events (both educational and dinner).
- Implemented automatic nurturing text and email sequences for all new leads.
- Became a Student of the Sales Process
- Implemented lead tracking and benchmarking for all points of the sales process.
- Reduced the total number of meetings to close a new prospect.
- Utilized an online pre-appointment checklist for prospects to fill in prior to 1st appointments.
- Expanded team support (In-House CPA, Office Managers).
The Takeaway
In summary, when reviewing their success, it was not one campaign or one massive change that can be attributed to their achievements. It was concentrated, well-orchestrated improvements over time that led to this success. To run a successful financial firm, it takes discipline and execution to set yourself up for long-term success. Regardless of the size or previous success of your firm, these same principles can help your firm grow and stay ahead of the pack.
About the Author: Kasey joined Simplicity Lone Beacon from the sportswear industry where she was a marketing manager overseeing the strategy, content creation, execution and analysis for New Balance Athletics’ first-ever customer rewards program. She has also managed a million-dollar media budget, creating content and measuring performance for paid and organic marketing campaigns. Kasey graduated from Brandeis University with a double major in Business & American Studies, where she was also two-year captain of the Varsity Women’s Basketball team. In her free time, Kasey enjoys being active and traveling as much as possible.
