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AUM growth is strong now, but you must prepare for a bear market in the future.
For many registered investment advisors, life is good. The market is at a record high. Investors have more disposable income and a stronger sense of security. They are coming off the sidelines and jumping back into the markets. (Whether that is a smart decision is another story.) For many firms, the challenge has shifted from how to market and increase revenue to how to recruit and attract talent to service all of this new business.
Too often, I see firms pull back on their marketing when capacity becomes an issue.
While rapid and unintentional growth can be just as harmful as unintentional shrinkage of your business, don’t cope with added business by ignoring your marketing. Getting your marketing flywheel spinning takes a lot of momentum, and you don’t want to it to come to a halt just to have to start it again when new clients aren’t so abundant.
Even if you don’t have the capacity to take on any more clients until you add staff, here are the marketing strategies you should be following today.
Deepening relationships with clients
If you have an influx of new clients you can barely find the time to manage, it is easy to ignore your existing client relationships. However, it is the strength of those existing client relationships that dictates how your business will fare in bear markets.
Here’s what you should be doing now:
- Develop or refine your client touch-point schedule to make sure each client enjoys a comprehensive client experience.
- Show your appreciation through special events or token gestures.
- Conduct client surveys to see where there is room for improvement, then taking the necessary actions to enhance your services.
Developing relationships with centers of influence
Developing referral relationships with centers of influence (COIs) is a long-term process that can take several years before bearing fruit. Start building those relationships now while business is booming, so that you have another channel for producing clients in a few years when the markets may not be as bullish.
Here’s what you should be doing now:
- Identify which professions are potentially a source of referrals.
- Develop a nurturing process for each COI.
- Identify existing COI relationships and nurture them.
- Use LinkedIn or networking events to meet new COIs and nurture them.
- Develop marketing materials specific to COIs to differentiate your company from other firms.
- Develop and implement a follow-up process for COIs who refer prospects.
Develop an emergency plan
Today, the markets are strong, the economy is growing and recent international and national political news has had only short-term repercussions on the economy. But if 2008 taught us anything, it was that we must be ready for surprises. While you hope you never have to use it, develop your emergency marketing kit so that you are prepared in the event of a catastrophe.
Here’s what you should be doing now:
- Develop systems to communicate quickly with your clients and contacts. Keep your client-relationship management system up to date with contact information and implement technology such as mass-email marketing or video-conference-call systems. The key is to be able to address your clients, prospects and COIs within 24 hours of an incident.
- Develop communication templates for clients, prospects and COIs so that you are able to address bad news quickly and provide reassurance. Your templates should be adaptable to different situations, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, market crashes, political unrest, rapid inflation or the outbreak of war, just to name a few.
- Develop articles or presentations you can use to educate clients about the negative ramifications of investing based on emotion and fear. These materials should remind clients of the importance of following the long-term investment strategy you established together.
Consistently implementing a solid financial plan and investment strategy in spite of fear, greed or other emotions yields the best long-term results for your clients. In the same way, implementing a consistent marketing strategy year after year in spite of the emotions you may be feeling will yield the best long-term results for your business.
Kristen Luke is president and chief executive of Wealth Management Marketing Inc. and co-founder of The Mercato, an online marketplace featuring do-it-yourself tools, templates and training for financial advisors. Follow her on Twitter: @KristenLuke.
Read more articles by Kristen Luke
AUM growth is strong now, but you must prepare for a bear market in the future.
