Going independent as a financial advisor is complicated — after all, you’re standing up an entirely new business from scratch. Creating a new RIA involves resolving a lot of thorny compliance questions, ensuring you have a client service plan in place, and creating seamless technology solutions that allow you to compete with bigger firms. As you create your firm’s business plan, you’ll want to make sure you understand your options in these areas, and are able to integrate these different aspects of your business in the way that works best for you.
One area that new independent advisors often neglect is communications. The changing landscape for financial advisors means that independent advisors need to create an aggressive communications plan if they hope to be competitive in a tight advisory market. Both clients and prospects are used to using new communications channels, and the more flexibility you have to reach your clients — and to be seen by potential clients — the better your odds for success and growth. We’ve outlined 3 communications solutions breakaway advisors need as we head into 2022.
Why Do Advisors Need A Communications Plan?
As you establish your new independent entity, communications may well be the last thing on your mind. Ensuring that your business is compliant and your existing clients’ needs are met will be the top priority. However, as you look to expand your business, communication is critical. Making sure you are meeting your clients where they are — that is, communicating with them in ways that work best for them — can make a big difference in client retention and acquisition.
Your communications solutions can also be key as you look to expand and scale your advisory practice. While individual check-in calls and emails might be an effective way to communicate when you have 5, 10, or even 20 clients, making sure that larger lists of clients feel that they have your attention, while reaching out to the universe of potential clients you want to reach, can be impossible to manage as your business grows. Having a communications plan in place early can make later growth a snap.
Email Communication Tools For Advisors
Even as technology advances, email remains the primary medium for business communication. But RIAs and other independent advisors have a lot to think about when choosing a medium for email communication. First and foremost, the email solution you choose needs to meet your compliance obligations, which means it must be secure if it will be used to transmit sensitive or confidential information. Email encryption services like RMail can be used with any number of enterprise email providers, including Google or Microsoft Outlook, and are a must for advisors who will be transmitting private information over email.
Email is useful for more than just basic business communication, though. Your email list can be your best marketing tool, if you use it wisely. Providing regular email newsletters and marketing materials to clients and potential clients is a great way to make sure your clients feel like you’re regularly in contact with them, and to offer them content that they might share with their own networks — your best source of potential clients.
Email service providers, or ESPs, allow you to send personalized email content to your lists of clients and prospects. Using an ESP, you can segment your contact list by category of recipient — for example, sending different types of communications to existing clients, new clients, and prospects — and you can schedule your email communications well in advance, ensuring that your marketing efforts are organized and seamless. ESPs like Mailchimp, MailJet, and OmniSend offer users email templates and allow you to send some number of free emails each month. If you choose an all-in-one CRM solution, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, these features are integrated into the platform, making reaching out to your list even easier. Creating content that adds value to your subscribers is a great and low-cost way to broaden your reach and start to reach potential new clients.
Digital Marketing Tools Help Advisors Grow Their Business
Growing your business in a highly competitive market means getting the attention of potential clients, which means finding them online. Using digital marketing can be a great and low-cost way to find potential clients in the spaces where they’re already looking for information.
Great digital marketing starts with having a compelling, search engine friendly website. You have a number of options in this area. If you’re not sure about your capabilities and don’t want to engage a web developer or digital marketing service, a “plug-and-play” option offered by providers like Squarespace or WordPress can offer you basic functionality and a web presence. As your business grows, however, you’ll want to ensure your website grows with it. Engaging the services of a developer early can help make sure your website is nimble, scalable, and offers the kind of functionality visitors expect. Creating compelling content including webinars, blog articles, and white papers can help drive traffic to your site and pique the interest of your potential client base.
You’ll also want to consider a social media strategy, which allows you to find potential clients in the digital spaces they already inhabit. Tools like LeadPilot, Hootsuite, or hearsay provide scheduling tools for social media channels that allow you to plan your content calendar in advance and maximize your online presence. Many of these tools also offer functionality specific to the financial services industry, to ensure that your marketing efforts remain compliant with all applicable regulations.
As Business Grows, Advisors Should Consider Scalable Specialized Communications Tools
As your RIA business grows, you may consider employing dedicated, scalable communications tools that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of those in the financial services industry. Tools like RingCentral or Broadridge can help you stand up client portals and communications tools that are compliant for use in the financial services industry and allow you to communicate with your clients quickly and efficiently.
Tools that allow flexibility for advisors to communicate with clients in the way their clients prefer are likely to grow in popularity. The pandemic increased demand for video conferencing and alternative methods of communication, and those changes are likely to stick for many advisors and clients, who prefer more efficient ways to talk to clients. Setting up dedicated client portals where clients can check in on their own schedule, offers a sense of control and flexibility that many clients have come to prefer. Adopting scalable tools that grow with your business can help to make sure that your client contact stays consistent, even as you bring additional support staff and personnel on board.
Want to Keep the Conversation Going?
Thinking about making the leap to independence, but not sure if it’s right for you? All of us at Terrana Group welcome the opportunity to consult with you to determine the right platform for you going forward — one that satisfies your long term objectives and is also best for your clients!
Over the course of nearly 30 years, we have consulted on and closed thousands of professional placements for Advisors, nationwide, in most every major city throughout the United States, with client assets transferring exceeding $67 billion dollars. We have built deep relationships with the advisory world’s most sophisticated and notable firms — including Wall Street Brokerages, most Regionals, Boutiques, Banks, Independent Broker Dealers, RIAs and Custodians. Our broad knowledge of those firms and the deals that are currently being offered will ensure that you are being presented with the right firm choice, platform, and the offer which is best for you.
Confidentiality, professionalism, and respect are protocol to our practices and beliefs; we handle each and every step of the placement process with complete communication, keeping you informed while making the process smoother from beginning to end.
We are proud to always be considered as a great asset by our clients because of our proven expertise, many years of knowledge, and acute attention to detail. Financial Advisor Recruiting Services are not all created equal; we guarantee that the TG experience for clients and candidates is always world class.
We are based in Chicago, with a nationwide reach. Let us know you are interested by contacting us today. To get the conversation started, email info@terranagroup.com or give us a call at 312.655.8380 today.
