Increasing numbers of your competitors use financial advisor marketing strategies to produce leads on the Internet. However, there are a couple of glitches that impact their results.
- Many investors seek financial information online, not financial advisors, so they typically read blog articles, watch webinars, and download gated eBooks. They are still valid contacts because their information needs can precede their needs for financial tips. In this case, there is a timing issue.
- Investors’ available assets in relation to your minimum asset requirements may not align. Let’s say you have a non-negotiable minimum of $1,000,000. Any lead with less than that amount is not considered a viable lead.
That hard minimum has another characteristic: The $1M must be liquid and available for investment within 30 days; otherwise, it is considered an illiquid asset. This makes liquidity a big deal when financial advisors use the Internet to produce leads for their services.
Going down another path, most advisors clearly understand a liquidity event, which occurs when investors sell frozen assets that are not available for investment. It has to be sold before it becomes liquid and available for investment. Three frequent examples of illiquid assets (not available for investment) are:
- Restricted company stock
- Private real estate investments
- Retirement assets that are held in 401(k) retirement plans
This can be very frustrating for advisors who know they are talking to wealthy individuals, but cannot meet the minimum asset requirement for liquid assets. The consequence of this conundrum is financial advisors waste a lot of their valuable time talking to wealthy individuals only to find out the investors cannot meet their minimum asset requirement. Are you one of those professionals?
This article will address the liquid asset issue and provide tips that will make the Internet a better source of qualified leads, making digital marketing for financial advisors essential.
Why doesn’t screening for high net worth investors work that well?
Ask financial advisors for descriptions of their ideal type(s) of clients, and there is a good chance they will respond with “HNW” or “UHNW.” This makes perfect sense because HNW should have more assets than non-HNW, and UHNW has more assets than HNW. Remember that there may not be a universal definition for HNW and UHNW.
Assets produce AUM, and AUM produces revenue and income.
One small sidenote: A high percentage of HNW investors may not perceive themselves as HNW because a significant part of their net worth is tied up in illiquid assets they do not intend to sell. Therefore, they have not had the value of the assets appraised for long periods, so they may not know what the assets are worth.
A superior criterion for a match between investors and financial advisors is liquid assets that meet the advisors’ minimum requirements and are available for investment within 30 days.
Are happy investors a type of illiquid investment?
Yes: Tens of millions of investors already have advisors and are happy with their results. That’s because many of them give their advisors credit for the performance of bull markets (2009-2021). For this reason, it will be difficult to pry investors away from their current advisors—this reality makes the investors’ assets illiquid for new advisors.
One tactic worth noting is “trying” to convince happy investors to split their assets, so they are more diversified. Most investors will resist this idea because they do not want to penalize the advisors doing a “great” job.
The same investors who credit advisors for bull market results will also blame them for their poor results in bad markets. 2022 may create a lot of new client opportunities for financial advisors when increasing numbers of investors change financial advisors. In fact, based on our surveys back to the year 2000, the number of investors changing financial advisors can triple in down markets.
Why are life events a superior way to prospect?
In addition to changing financial advisors, several life events create liquidity and a new need for high-quality financial advice investors can trust.
Prospecting on the Internet is a lot easier when financial advisors seek investors who had recent life events that produced substantial amounts of liquid assets, new decision-makers for the assets, and a need for a financial advisor. Ten examples of life events and reasons investors change financial advisors include investors who are:
- Relocating to a new city and want local providers
- Changing jobs that create IRA rollovers
- Retiring and rolling retirement savings into IRAs
- Recently widowed or divorced
- Selling restricted stock in a tech company
- Spouses of someone who suffers a catastrophic health issue
- Selling businesses and retiring
- Inheriting a substantial amount of money
- Unhappy with their current financial advisor
- Do-It-Yourselfers who want help in volatile markets
Why should every financial advisor have an effective email marketing system?
From a financial advisor’s point of view, several of the asset types and the reason they became available is timing. And, like any other marketing system, it is a numbers game. That is, financial advisors have to be in the right place at the right time to benefit when investors switch from information-seekers to advisor-seekers.
This makes the need for a timely, relevant email marketing system of critical importance. It keeps the financial advisor’s name in front of prospects until they are ready to start interviewing financial advisors.
How do financial advisors reach investors online who are moving?
This is an actual situation without the names.
An investor was retiring to Florida with about $3,350,000 of retirement assets. He wanted to connect with some local service providers, including doctors, a dentist, a CPA, an attorney, and a financial advisor. The investor was planning on spending the rest of his life in Florida.
An enterprising financial advisor figured out what keywords this investor might input in search engines and used SEO to obtain page one rankings for the keywords. Then he created a gated eBook about moving to Florida and used SEO to promote it on the Internet.
To make a long story short, the investor found the eBook on the advisor’s website, registered to obtain it, and hired the advisor to manage all $3,350,000.
Case closed – digital marketing works.
