Four-Corner Marketing
commonwealth.com
For Advisor Use Only
37
Revamp your website.
One way to appeal to a younger
audience and demonstrate your technological savvy is by
having an interesting and dynamic website. Not only do
you want to maintain a bank of educational resources
(we’ll talk education in a bit), but you also want to be
sure the topics are relevant to your audience. You might
consider dedicating separate sections of your website to
different client demographics. Perhaps that junior advisor
you hire can maintain a suite of material for younger
investors, while your section of the site remains focused
on your more sophisticated and higher-net-worth clients.
Other website elements to consider are the graphics and
images. Do they convey a more conservative firm or one
that’s modern? Do you have pictures of older couples
only, or do you show a range of ages? There are ways to
bridge varying tastes, but only you can figure out what
works with your brand and audiences.
Most important, however, is that you keep your site content
fresh. As I alluded to earlier, the millennial audience is
rather addicted to the web, so if you’re not updating your
material regularly, they’ll go elsewhere to find someone
who is. This is where having a junior advisor or support
staff to continuously develop or procure content can save
you hours of time.
If you don’t already use it, you can find information about
EasySite—our website program that has built-in, stay-fresh
features to keep your content evolving—on COMMunity
Link
®
at My Practice > Technology > EasySite.
Use social media.
Social media
must
be a key component
of any marketing plan to reach younger investors. Period.
Not only does it present the ability for these prospects to
share news about you with their network of “friends,” but
it also creates a perception that you are current and relevant.
Moreover, as social media advertising grows (I’m thinking
of Facebook ads here), you may find new ways to target
prospective clients that feel less disruptive to their daily
lives as they live and breathe the social media ether.
It’s easy to stay fresh if you have a younger staffer or advisor
taking on this role. You can find resources to help you
establish your social media presence on COMMunity
Link at My Practice > Marketing > Building Your Brand >
Website, E-Mail, & Social Media Marketing.
Educate, educate, educate.
On the whole, millennials
don’t want to be told what to do; they want to learn about
what to do and then receive support—and validation—in
doing it. Although they are online frequently researching
information, what they find may be incorrect (especially if
they’re using Wikipedia as a “credible” source!), or they
may have so much data that they simply can’t make any
decision, which is where your guidance will be vital. In
addition to having an educational library on your website,
you may want to have a junior advisor conduct educational
webinars, podcasts, or seminars. He or she may even write
a blog or e-newsletter, or contribute to an academic
institution’s courses to gain credibility as an educator.
Because you will likely be dealing with inexperienced
investors, you’ll want to keep topics basic, focusing on
personal finance matters, for example, such as:
•
Saving versus investing
•
Budgeting
•
Managing student loan debt
•
IRAs and 401(k)s
Marketing Resources on COMMunity Link®
Use our marketing planning tools at My Practice >
Marketing > Overview > Annual Marketing Plan to
customize your approach. The five-step process walks
you through how to create a written plan—and
you’ll also find an implementation calendar to keep
you on track.
Although these investors may not have
the level of investable assets of your
more mature clients (yet), they are set
to be the recipients of the largest wealth
transfer in history.
