For financial advisor marketing, obtaining new clients and/or retaining your existing clients is a necessary component of keeping your firm afloat. And a fine-tuned sales strategy is the key to making a firm not only survive but thrive.
And while financial advisors operate in a different space than their retail counterparts, that doesn’t mean the most fundamental sales principles don’t apply. Specifically, the journey a prospect (or buyer) takes from their first interaction with your financial advisory firm and all the steps along the way before becoming a client.
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Traditional Stages of the Client Buying Journey
While each industry and business may have a slightly different take on their client or customer buying journey, these are the most widely adopted stages of the traditional client journey:
Awareness
Before someone becomes a prospect for your services, they must be aware that they need them. Let’s say someone wants to retire in the next few years, but they realize that they have no idea what that looks like in terms of their finances. They have an IRA and some investments, and somewhere there’s a 401(k) from a previous employer that they never did anything with. It’s only now that they realize they have a problem and begin the search for a financial advisor.
Interest
Truth be told, a prospect isn’t technically even a prospect if they don’t know your financial advisory firm exists. Until that point, they could easily become a competitor’s prospect, which of course is not ideal.
That’s why it’s critical to be in front of the right audience (i.e., those looking for products and services that you offer) at the right time, with the right messaging and content. This is all part of a comprehensive marketing plan that is centered around creating and distributing relevant and engaging financial advisor content.
Consideration
This is the stage of the client buying journey where the prospect has found your financial advisory firm and is considering using your financial advisory firm because they believe the products and services you provide can help solve the problem they are addressing because of the awareness stage of their client buying journey.
Conversion
In other areas of financial advisor marketing, a “conversion” may have a different definition. An example of this could be when a specific marketing campaign is centered around getting a prospect to fill out a lead form. In that specific instance, the conversion is getting the form completed. In general sales terminology, a conversion is a “sale” or for financial advisors, gaining a new client.
Retention
While it might seem like the conversion is the end of the client-buying journey for financial advisory firms, it would be a mistake to end the journey there. In fact, some may argue that retention is one of the most important aspects of a complete client-buyer journey.
Why? Because getting a client isn’t enough. You also must make sure that the client is happy with your financial advisory firm’s service and offerings to keep that client for the long haul. This can also be where you can turn existing clients into brand advocates who will bring more prospects your way.
Digital Stages of the Client Buying Journey
The importance of the traditional client buying journey above cannot be overstated. They are some of the most fundamental aspects of any successful sales effort regardless of industry.
That said, the way consumers make purchasing decisions has been drastically influenced by today’s technology and the digital environment overall. With these shifts in consumer behavior, the client buying journey has been redefined for digital-focused sales efforts. These digital stages are:
Attract
In terms of digital, this means your financial advisor website and all other places your financial advisory firm can be found online such as social media, business listings, 3rd-party review sites, and online directory sites. Through strong, relevant content and a solid SEO strategy, financial advisors can get their financial advisor content in front of those prospects most likely to convert.
Engage
But it’s not enough to bring prospects to your financial advisor website or social profile. The key is to give them what they’re looking for in terms of content on your website, blog, or even your social feed. To provide the most engaging experience, it’s critical that your financial advisor content is consistent across all channels and provides a clear picture of the products and services you provide, and—most important—how you can help them with their financial goals.
Capture
This step shows the stark difference between the digital client buyer’s journey and the traditional client buyer’s journey. In the traditional journey, this is the point at which a prospect would be converting. However, in the digital journey, this stage is where the prospect’s information is “captured” via a lead or contact form. One of the most effective means of collecting this data is through gated content on your financial advisor website such as a white paper, eBook, or infographic.
Nurture
Once a prospect’s contact information is obtained, the nurture phase of the digital client buyer journey begins. This is a critical phase for financial advisors who in the digital sense typically consists of email outreach, typically in a series, aimed toward converting that prospect into a client.
Convert
While it may seem like it has taken longer to get here on the digital side, it’s simply that the digital client buyer journey is different and should be approached differently by financial advisors looking to add more prospects to their client buyer journey.
And this patience can have a high payoff when it comes to converting. With a digital client buyer journey, there is no need for a one size fits all approach to knowing when to attempt to convert a prospect. With a digital client buyer journey, you have more information on these prospects and their behavior since starting their journey and can use this knowledge to cater the message and timing to their needs.
The Bottom Line
Whether your client buyer journey is traditional, digital, or a combination of both—the most important thing is that you not only have journeys such as these in place but use them regularly to enhance the sales of your financial advisory firm.
