Lifelong client relationships are the lifeblood of the financial advisory industry. As advisors, you often emphasize expertise in a specific demographic of client, and important words like differentiation, segmentation, and personalization are continually talked about in terms of how you appeal to them. Personalization, when not executed efficiently, can be detrimental, from causing low profitability, to putting a strain on team members.
One way financial advisors can create personalization at scale as a part of their growth efforts is through technology. According to a study conducted by PWC’s Digital Services group, marketers that provide personalized web experiences acquire double-digit returns in advertising response and marketing performance, and the reason behind it is relatively simple; About 80% of consumers are at greater odds of purchasing something that has been personalized to them or their needs.
Personalization at scale can accelerate your financial advisory firm’s growth through increased client engagement, as well as give you valuable insight into the preferences of your clients and prospective clients. Obtaining this information allows you to offer your clients a unique and specifically tailored experience that they are more likely to find appealing and relevant.
Why Should You Be Using Personalization?
The financial advisory industry is already fighting an uphill trust battle. Most traditional marketing is viewed as persuasive, with about 40% of consumers stating that most promotional marketing tactics don’t provide anything interesting or action worthy. Personalization, on the other hand, adds meaning and value because it intimately connects with your potential clients’ goals. It is the act of dynamically creating a tailored experience across various channels in a seamless manner.
Financial advisors have an excellent opportunity to utilize advances in technology, including data and analytics, to create experiences across moments, channels, and buying stages that speak directly to your clients’ needs, values, and goals. However, many financial advisors are not equipped with the time or the knowledge to deliver on this potential. After all, your focus is on your clients’ financial wellbeing. But optimizing personalization can be hugely beneficial, and this guide for financial advisors will show you exactly how simple (and important) incorporating personalization can be.
3 Ways Financial Advisors Can Adequately Use Personalization
Relevancy and consistency are crucial components to personalization. To do it right, financial advisors must start with actionable data, as when you deliver a personalized experience, the context will matter. Before you implement personalization tactics, evaluate the strength of your foundation and make sure you have a solid plan designed for utilizing, analyzing, and collecting data. To set the foundation for personalization, financial advisors need three key factors:
1. Content distribution
2. Data discovery
3. Automated decision making
Content Distribution
Content distribution is the act of dispersing content to online audiences via various owned, earned, and paid channels. Owned distribution includes web properties that belong to you, such as your newsletter or social media profiles; earned distribution includes content shares or article contributions; and paid distribution includes anything with a price tag attached to it, such as pay-per-click or sponsored content.
While a financial advisor may have excellent personalized content, it means little if your desired audience doesn’t know it exists. To choose the right content distribution strategy for your financial advisory firm, you must first identify your target audience, audit your content, and then select your content distribution channels based on what aligns with your audience’s preferences and behaviors. Be sure to take advantage of your owned distribution channels, including your blog and email, as these are often relatively inexpensive to optimize.
Data Discovery
Data discovery is excellent at sourcing and uncovering valuable insights about clients, including their needs, interests, likes, and dislikes. Since it is a complex process, businesses tend to limit the data used and focus on the one that’s easiest to procure. For financial advisors, it’s your CRM system which can be a gold mine for data.
The first step is to determine what data will be important to your personalization project and ensure that data is entered consistently and accurately. Integrating additional technology apps to support your CRM is equally as important, for example email marketing tools, surveys, polls, and scheduling apps.
These systems can help find valuable and convenient insights, such as the type of information clients are engaging in on a regular basis, convenient times of day to connect, and specific triggers in their lives.
With marketing automation add-ons, you can then alter the design and content on your website and emails based on the demographics and preferences of the reader.
Automated Decision Making
Automated decision making can be created through a personalized landing page. This is where you can advance brand awareness into conversion. In marketing, there isn’t a single “one size fits all” approach. It’s about creating the one that best fits your client’s needs, and, as such, should be designed with a unique set of keywords and calls to action that resonate with potential clients.
A standard landing page achieves about 4.33% growth in digital conversion rate, whereas a direct response landing page (one that elicits immediate action) can generate about 13.03% in conversion rate. This is done by featuring a specific action on your landing page and connecting that action to an automated journey that adds value to your client and increases your conversion rates.
Final Thoughts
When properly implemented, personalization can be an extremely powerful tool that can help your financial advisory firm reach its target demographic more quickly and efficiently, generate interest in offered services, and, ultimately, convert prospects into clients. At Beyond AUM, we know that the right plan coupled with the proper technology can make a big difference in achieving personalization at scale. Our tailored growth and marketing strategies directly influence your target market segments and offer complete guidance and support throughout the technology selection. To learn how Beyond AUM can incorporate personalization into your plan, get in touch with us today.