For this episode, we will answer the following question:

Why spend money on marketing when I have advisors?

Many financial service firms do not have a marketing team or staff, whether it is in-house or external because they already have their advisors to build interest, prospect, generate their own leads and close deals. However, investors have changed the way they shop and the rise of technology is creating opportunities for advisors to do better.

Here are 3 reasons why investing in marketing will benefit your advisors in becoming more effective at their job.

1. Marketing is the frontline

The way that investors shop these days is by doing their own research and educating themselves online before they reach out to a sales advisor. A lot of the information that they find online is marketing content such as blogs, eBooks, tip sheets and videos. Because of this, investing in marketing will help to provide educational content for your potential customers as they do their initial research. As they continue to explore your firm’s marketing content, this will function as an introduction to your firm’s brand, encouraging the start of a potential relationship between them and you.

In other words, when certain prospects are ready to move forward in their buyer’s journey, they will be mindful of your business as they have previously been exposed to your content and may even become a lead for your business.

2. Marketing can filter qualified leads

Not only can marketing drive traffic to the business and generate leads, but they can also help with filtering leads before they are passed down to the advisors.

Advisors love it when they work with engaging, committed and qualified leads. But the reality is that it takes a lot of work to carry out a detailed conversation with a lead, try to learn about their goals and needs, and end up being quite frustrating to spend so much time on them with no results, realizing that they’re not a good fit for your firm.

Marketing can help filter leads by using content to set Marketing Qualified Lead criteria. For example, in order for someone to be Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), they will need to have viewed 3 blog posts, filled out a contact form and explicitly state that they are an accredited investor. If they meet the MQL criteria, they would be passed down to the advisors.

3. Marketing provides content to nurture leads

Advisors are faced with long sales cycles and fierce competition. Waiting and following up with “just checking-in” emails will not be persuasive enough to move a deal forward. This is where lead nurturing comes in. Using content that your firm’s marketing team has produced (blogs, ebooks, videos, etc) to nurture your leads will not only shorten the sales cycle but will also make your advisors stand out from the competition. This is because marketing content provides valuable and relevant help to a contact, answering questions or addressing any doubts that a lead may possibly have.

That is all for this episode. If you have any marketing questions that you would like us to answer related to the financial service world, please send them to podcast@bethinkmarketing.com