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We’re not going to pile on to the endless lists of things to do for marketing. Instead, we’re sticking to our principles and reminding you of things we tell you all the time – because they work. We’re still in a unique re-set for financial advisor marketing as the digital marketing model adjusts to the wide adoption of video and the mainstreaming of tech automation tools. The advisor business isn’t like anything else, and it comes down to a delicate balance of a human-centered service that can be powered by and streamlined by automation.  Here’s our top principles for 2023.

Principle 1: Founder-Led Is Even More Important Now

We don’t think brand channels will be replaced, but with personal brands at a peak now, in many instances, you’re going to see individual handles/channels/emails lead the way on the comms front for all types of company sizes, and you may not even see brand channels. If your CEO or team isn’t out there pushing the message publicly from their individual channels on social as a core part of your marketing strategy, you’re wasting time and energy.

A caveat: on Instagram, it’s a mix. You want a business channel, but you still want your reels and posts to feature you.

Principle 2: Video-Shorts, Quick-Stats, and Threads Will Be Prioritized in all Channels.

If TikTok has done one thing, it’s highlighted how important it is to have well-edited, short-form clip content for social. Longer-form content is still where the gold is on deep-engagement, but you have to ensure for social you have quick (well-edited) clips, data points, charts, threads, etc., teed up to drive your social strategy. 

This also means that you have to have the systems setup to cut down larger pieces – blogs, podcast, videos – into shorter pieces. The best way to do this? Creating templates. We cover those here.

Principle 3: Client Experience Automation Has to Be Intentional

In a world of chatbots, hold lines, and submission forms, people are (finally) realizing the gold for small brands is in client service. But as you scale, client servicing is a scale challenger.  You have to build a well-thought-out client experience engine to combat this.

This means automating with intention. We’re going to see so many brands aim to roll out the Apple effect in the new year.

Some ideas:

– A set of welcome emails that welcome someone to any brand, practice, or firm

– Setting up client forums/channels to enable easy communication vs. ticket submission

– Creating client-only digital workshops and sessions

– One-to-many client-first video series

Principle 4: Data-Driven, But Homegrown is Key

Trust your own data, talk to your clients more often outside of a sales context, lean into putting out good content at a high volume and measure your own performance. Ignore the third-party data and the “research” reports.

Segment your email lists, track your sends, and double down where you see interest. Look at your social stats – what type of content gets interaction? How are people behaving on your website? If you’re running ads, pay attention to your creative, your content, your questions. What’s working? What’s not?

The Bottom Line

You’ve seen the stats on the wave of asset transfer that’s coming. You know volatile environments put money in motion. This year growth and transformation are the themes. Creating a well-oiled marketing machine that is scalable and requires a management amount of effort from you has never been easier. Stick to the principles.