Mastering the Art of Acquisition, Retention, and Cross-sell: A Marketing Guide for Financial Advisors

Advisors focus their marketing efforts on finding a continuous stream of new prospects that they can turn into clients. When successful, this is both an effective and lucrative engine for growth in their practice. But, over the long-term, a more comprehensive and integrated set of marketing strategies can be more efficient and produce more sustainable growth.

Quick Answers to Key Questions Covered in this Article #

• How can financial advisors market themselves?

Maximize your financial advisory practice's sales with targeted acquisition, retention, and cross-sell campaigns. Identify your ideal customers and tailor your marketing efforts to their specific needs and interests. Build a strong online presence and use social media marketing to reach potential clients. Network and build relationships with other professionals who can refer clients to you. Impress and retain existing clients with excellent customer service and by regularly offering additional products or services that meet their needs. Utilize technology to automate and track the effectiveness of your campaigns and constantly evaluate and adjust your strategies as needed.

• How can financial advisors retain and deepen relationships with existing clients?

Financial advisors can retain and deepen relationships with existing clients by providing excellent customer service, regularly communicating with clients, offering additional products or services that meet their needs, and staying up-to-date on industry trends and changes.

• How can financial advisors optimize their practice with acquisition, retention, and cross-sell campaigns?

Financial advisors can optimize their practice with acquisition, retention, and cross-sell campaigns by setting clear goals and objectives, measuring the success of their campaigns, and constantly evaluating and adjusting their strategies as needed.

• What role does technology play in marketing strategies for financial advisors?

Technology plays a significant role in modern marketing strategies for financial advisors. It can be used to automate and streamline marketing efforts, track the effectiveness of campaigns, and provide valuable insights and data on customer behavior and preferences.

Discover the key to unlocking your practice's full potential with effective Acquisition, Retention, and Cross-sell campaigns. Read on to learn how to implement these strategies and optimize your practice.

The Art of Attraction: Strategies for Customer Acquisition  #

From a marketing strategy point of view, acquisition is all about how we find prospects and turn them into paying clients. The most effective way to do this in your practice is to build a comprehensive strategy for locating the types of prospects you want to work with and converting them into customers.

In order to ensure that you don’t upset the balance of your practice, you need to find ways to implement your acquisition strategies in the most efficient way possible. 

With so many advisors competing for the attention of potential clients, how can you make sure your marketing efforts stand out and effectively bring in new business? Here are some key strategies for acquiring new customers as a financial advisor:

1. Identify your target audience: The first step in any successful marketing campaign is to clearly define who your ideal customers are. Consider factors such as age, income level, and financial goals when determining your target audience. This will help you tailor your marketing efforts to the specific needs and interests of your ideal clients. For example, your marketing strategy will differ largely if you’re looking to cater to recent graduates who are just starting look into investment opportunities vs experienced executives who already have diversified portfolios.
2. Build a strong online presence: In today's digital age, it's important to have a strong online presence to attract new customers. This includes having a professional website, active social media accounts, and a consistent brand message across all platforms. It's also a good idea to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to help improve your visibility in search results.
3. Network and build relationships: As a financial advisor, building relationships with potential clients is crucial. Networking events, industry conferences, and local community events are all great opportunities to meet and connect with potential customers. You can also reach out to other professionals, such as attorneys or accountants, who may be able to refer clients to you.
4. Introduction and referral campaigns: Invite your best clients to a speaking event and ask them to bring one or two other people who might benefit from your services. This can be an effective way to acquire new customers through the recommendations of your existing clients.
5. Social Media Marketing: Share your expertise across a variety of platforms where potential prospects congregate. Although a single tweet is unlikely to turn a stranger into a client, the steady exposure of multiple social media posts over time is more likely to move a potential prospect down the funnel and make them more receptive to working with you. When looking to build a social media presence, engagement and consistency are key. This means, engage with your target audience as much as possible and make sure you put yourself out there so people begin to recognize your name and expertise. Consistency requires that you frequently publish unique and useful content on the social platforms you choose to engage with. It’s key to note, you don’t have to be super active on all social media platforms. Pick one that you believe your target audience will be most active on (most likely LinkedIn) - use it to make your voice and expertise heard.
6. Offer valuable content: Providing valuable and informative content can be an effective way to attract new customers. This can include blog posts, newsletters, webinars, and other educational resources that demonstrate your expertise and provide value to potential clients.
7. Follow up with leads: Once you have generated a list of leads, it's important to follow up and nurture these potential customers. Direct mail and email nurturing campaigns can highlight an advisor’s expertise and the types of services they can provide. Beyond email marketing strategies, following up with leads can include sending personalized emails, making phone calls, sending texts or scheduling in-person meetings to discuss their financial goals and how you can help them achieve them.

No matter what type of acquisition campaign you decide to implement, the key to success is to use integrated, digital tools that are custom-built for advisors, like CRM and FNA solutions. This will help you streamline workflows, manage activity to keep costs low and preserve time for you to spend in front of clients.

How can financial advisors stand out and effectively bring in new business in a competitive market? #

To stand out and effectively close new business in a competitive market, financial advisors can differentiate themselves by specializing in a particular niche or offering unique services, developing a strong personal brand, and consistently delivering excellent customer service.

One of the most important initiatives that can help financial advisors grow their business is building a strong, reliable brand. This includes creating a professional website, establishing a consistent brand message, and regularly publishing valuable content that showcases their expertise. This also ties into delivering excellent customer service – going above and beyond the needs of the client. Providing excellent customer service can help financial advisors stand out and build their personal brand.

The Pros and Cons of Acquisition Campaigns  #

The risk involved in implementing acquisition focussed marketing campaigns is that they tend to be expensive, and the conversion rate tends be low. This means it could take a lot of time, money and effort to find prospects, and only a few are likely to become new clients.

However, without a pipeline of new clients, your practice stops growing and over time may fall into decline. To avoid the pitfalls sometimes associated with acquisition campaigns, it makes sense to key on strategies that have higher conversion rates (such as obtaining introductions and referrals), while finding efficiencies in your direct mail and social media efforts by automating as much of the workflow as possible.

You could, for instance, use your CRM’s filters and tags to help find prospects more easily, save time by using pre-defined direct mail and email templates, and streamline your workflows by using the activity management tools to book events and schedule meetings. 

Client Retention: The Key to Sustainable Growth for Financial Advisors #

Customer retention refers to the ability of a financial advisor to keep their customers over time. It involves developing strong relationships with current clients by providing added-value that motivates them to continue working with you.

Having said that, the degree of emphasis you put on retention over acquisition is related to where you are in your career as an advisor. Newer advisors who are still building their client base will naturally need to be more focussed on acquisition campaigns, whereas, once you are more established a natural migration towards retention tends to occur.  

Customer retention is important because it can lead to increased profitability and customer loyalty, as retained customers are more likely to come back and recommend your practice to others. Doing a good job at customer retention reduces the pressure to relentlessly hunt for new clients, keeps revenues predictable and costs low.   

Here are some strategies financial advisors can use to retain their customers:

1. Leverage segmentation tools to understand where to channel your energy: One of the keys to effective client retention is to build a service strategy using your CRM’s segmentation tool. Identifying your ‘A’ and ‘B’ clients enables you to create customized Service Level Agreements so that you can act proactively vs reactively. Although you will, of course, offer great service to all clients when they need it, segmentation allows you to identify your top clients and implement strategies for delivering even more value to them on a regular basis. 
2. Provide increased value to those top clients: Added value, which will help build client trust in your services, can take many forms. It may include creating a network of collateral professionals— other advisors and service providers you can introduce to your clients when a client has a need to be filled (like accountants or lawyers.) Or you may offer them value-added content in the form of blogs, articles, webinars and case studies that inform and educate about topics that are important to your clients. In many cases, advisors conduct regular seminars and speaking events for their top clients—giving them the opportunity to learn from experts in fields that they are interested in.  
3. Provide excellent customer service: One of the most effective ways to retain customers is by consistently delivering excellent customer service. This includes being responsive, transparent, and going above and beyond to meet the needs of your clients. Always remember that the true point of emphasis when seeking to retain clients is to make sure you always meet their expressed needs. It’s no use providing awesome added value if your client is dissatisfied because their core insurance and investment needs are not being met, or they find the process confusing or frustrating for any reason.  
4. Ask for feedback: Asking for feedback from your clients can help you identify areas for improvement and tailor your services to better meet their needs. It can also show your clients that you value their opinions and are committed to providing them with the best possible experience.
5. Reward loyalty: Recognizing and rewarding the loyalty of your long-term clients can help to strengthen the relationship and encourage them to continue doing business with you. This can include offering special promotions or discounts, or simply expressing your appreciation for their business.

Maximizing Cross-sell: The Benefits and Best Practices of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling #

For insurance and investment advisors, the term cross-sell describes how effectively you are able to meet multiple needs for your clients. It comes down to how many products and services you can provide for each client—and that means it’s a measure of your ability to cross-sell and up-sell.  

Cross-selling refers to the practice of selling additional products or services to a current customer. Upselling involves selling a higher-priced or upgraded version of a product or service to a current customer.

What are the benefits of cross-selling and up-selling for financial advisors and their clients? #

Most industry studies show that, on average, advisors only sell just over one product or service per client. This means there’s a large opportunity for most advisors to reduce costs and effort, meet more client needs, create great client experiences—and increase revenue.

It’s no secret to anyone in the industry that it’s far easier and more cost-effective to sell to current clients than it is to find and convert new ones. And, meeting more needs, will positively impact your clients’ sense of the value you provide, improving client retention.  

For financial advisors, cross-selling and upselling can help increase revenues by offering additional financial products or services to existing clients. This can help financial advisors grow their business and maintain a strong client base.

For clients, cross-selling and upselling can help them diversify their investment portfolio, which can reduce risk and potentially increase returns. In addition, upselling can help clients access more advanced financial products or services that may better meet their financial needs and goals.

What are some best practices for cross-selling and upselling? #

Some keys to increasing cross-sell through effective cross-selling and up-selling include:  

1. Segmentation: Use your CRM’s filters to identify cross-sell candidates in your client base—especially those with upcoming conversion dates and policy renewals.  
2. Personalize the recommendation: Conduct client review meetings with likely candidates and review their financial needs analysis to uncover all the cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Customers are more likely to consider a suggestion if it is tailored to their specific needs and interests.
3. Manage all activities effectively: Make sure to capitalize on all of those opportunities by tracking them in your CRM and using it to manage the necessary follow-up activities.