By D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO

At Advisolocity we have had the privilege of designing and re-purposing our fair share of advisor websites.  One thing we have never understood is why advisors view their website as a “set it and forget it” proposition.  I’m sorry but a lighthouse, a sailboat and an older couple walking hand-in-hand on the beach does not a website make.

We encourage advisors to view their website as what might possibly be the hardest working piece of equipment in their office.  Think about the impact your website has on your business: it’s the only employee you have that works 24-7 telling all those who visit about you, your firm and your differentiating proposition.  Your website never asks for a day-off, never calls in sick, and doesn’t require benefits.  Yet, you don’t treat it as the integral part of the team that it is.

It is your firm’s face to the world.  In a nanosecond, which is faster then a Malcolm Gladwell Blink, visitors to your site are making stay, go, ask for more information or never return here again decisions.  We have a rule: in 10 seconds your website visitor has to be engaged.  Within three clicks they need to be able to download white papers, e-books, commentary or whatever your value proposition might be.

Visitors to your website have severe Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).  If you can’t make it simple, make it informative and make sure you tell them how you can help them within the time it took you to read this sentence, their gone.  This is the age of engagement and if your website doesn’t engage your visitors will look elsewhere for engagement.

So what are some of the ways advisors turn their websites into their own worst enemies?

1. Advisor sites are disruptive.  Banner ads, pop-ups, graphics and video may have their place on your website but in moderation.  If a first-time visitor is greeted with a video espousing the virtues of equities and has never purchased an equity product in their life you’ve lost them.  Inform and engage your visitors and you won’t distract them.
2. We don’t want you here. That’s the message advisor website send when they encourage visitors to click on a link to read another article, visit another website or visit a resource center other than yours.   We see it all the time.  Second sentence, instructions are to click this link for additional information, they do, and guest what – they’re gone, never to be heard from again!
3. Most resource centers are like belly buttons – everyone has one! Next time you are reviewing websites count the number that brag about providing access to a set of valuable resources – WSJ, Business Week, Forbes, etc.  What’s unique about that?  In the state of Oklahoma there are 180 RIAs listed. 160 have websites and 40 of those have the same resource center.  Not only does this not add value, again you are inviting the visitor to leave your site.
4. Advisor sites have their own secret code. I can’t count the number of times we review a site that has programming code leaking through the pages.  Not only does this look unprofessional but also what kind of message does that send to the visitor?  Detailed oriented?  Thorough?
5. Stock quotes 24/7. Ask yourself, are you a trader or an advisor?  The vast majority will answer advisor so why provide up to the minute information on individual stocks on your website.  You never refer to it.  Your clients don’t use.   So why make it available to “looky lou’s” – those who spend all their time looking and have no intention of retaining your services.
6. Lack of analytical tools. For an industry that is so measurement oriented it never ceases to amaze us that advisor websites don’t have any analytics attached to them.  At a minimum get Google Analytics so you can at least tell how many visited your site, where they came from and what interested them.

Contrary to popular belief this is rocket science!

Please join us on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 3:00 pm EDT where at the invitation of ProducersWEB we will host a web chat (#prowebchat) to discuss these and other mistakes advisors make with their websites.

That is the title of financial services research firm Corporate Insights update to their 2008 study on the topic of social media in financial services.

The attached video interviews Alan Maginn, Senior Analyst, Consulting Services and asks him to answer these four questions:

• How are financial services firms using social media?

• How are financial services firms handling customer service in regards to social media?

• How are financial services firms using Twitter?

• How are financial services firms using Facebook to interact with clients and prospects?

While I appreciate Alan’s comments, and they are appropriate, he may have overlooked the widespread adoption and use of social media by mid- to small-sized asset managers and the robust adoption and use of social media in the RIA and Independent Financial Advisor space.  At DBJ Associates we have seen a tremendous curiosity and adoption of social media by our clients over the past two years, a trend that shows no sign of abating.  In fairness, I have not read the Corporate Insights (www.corporateinsights.com) 300-page study where in fact this might be discussed.

I would welcome your comments.

Will money managers soon be showing their customers more love?

With pressures from outside the industry, most notably from banks, I believe the answer is a resounding “yes.”

My view is as the customer service benchmark is being raised outside of the industry, money managers too will find themselves held to a higher standard by investors and advisors.

Part of the pressure is coming from the rise of mobile technology, especially the sudden ubiquity of iPads, and this weeks introduction of the new iPad2 which are conditioning people to expect instant access to information 24/7.    

Such initiatives are not unknown in investment distribution. It’s something asset managers have been trying to teach through value-add programs — to be more sensitive to the clients’ needs as I mentioned in a recent Hannah Glover article for Ignites.  It’s time for asset managers to apply the same standards to both advisors and investors.

As firms study and adapt to the new world of enhanced customer service, they should not overlook creative and cost-efficient solutions that are close at hand; especially social media blogs and networks that offer financial marketers a convenient and inexpensive way to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

To gain a basic knowledge of how you and your firm might begin to understand this social media phenomenon better I invite you to download an Introduction to Social Media which I co-authored with Jeffrey Young from Huntington Bank.

Discover how to complement your lead generation efforts with social media’s powerful contact capture techniques

Join us tomorrow on the BrightTalk channel at 1pm EST


Easy-to-use, low-cost social media programs are helping smaller fund managers and advisors stand out in a crowded market.

Advisolocity’s John Drachman and Zach Hedges open their social media case book tomorrow to show you how increasing numbers of investment professionals are putting the Internet to work by establishing fresh thought leadership themes, expanding their presence and measuring the results.

Join us at BrightTalk to reserve your place, August 24, 2010 at 1pm EST.  Please cut and paste to your browser: http://academy.brighttalk.com/best-practices/where-social-media-meets-client-acquisition.html

By D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, Advisolocity

Social media agency Advisolocity was invited this week to join a new leadership council that aims to cultivate and communicate the best practices of a growing number of social-media minded investment marketers, service providers and financial advisors.

The SocialTurns Council is made up of specialists from the fields of compliance, marketing, technology and financial services.

As one of the group’s founding members, Advisolocity joins industry leaders:

• Pat Allen, Principal, Rock The Boat Marketing
• Debbi Corej, VP of Compliance, Prudential
• Julie Gebert, AVP of Compliance, Cambridge
• Kip Gregory, Principal, The Gregory Group
• Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, Advisolicity
• Kristen Luke, Principal, Wealth Management Marketing
• Christina L. Nelson, Senior Editor, Financial Planning Association
• Stephanie Sammons, CEO, WiredAdvisor
• Stephen Selby, Director of Regulatory Services, LIMRA
• Pete Chiccino, EVP and CIO, The Bancorp Bank

The rationale for the group includes the following excerpt from its mission statement:

“Social media has so much to offer the financial services industry yet education, awareness and questions are holding it back. Our hope is that by bringing together industry experts, passionate users and those standing on the sidelines that we will be able to accelerate the adoption of social media.”

A group spokesperson added, “In the last few weeks we’ve invited users to sign-up for the preview and the reaction has been tremendous. To date we’ve had almost 500 users join SocialTurns from 13 different countries and the discussions are off and running ranging from enterprise social media adoption, to FourSquare, to employee guidelines.”

As president and CEO of Advisolocity, I would like to personally invite you to join the pre-release of SocialTurns.com. The site will go live to the public soon and I would like you to have a chance for a first look at the community and to join the conversation. Simply e-mail me here for a user name and password.

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, DBJ Associates

Connecting is the new Closing – Engagement the new Goal!

Many firms have asked us: with the prevalence of dedicated manager research and due diligence teams at home offices and even dedicated manager research at the branch level are separate resources beyond relationship management professionals and wholesalers needed to call on this segment?

The answer may not be additional resources but how the resources are deployed in the field.  As gatekeepers get tied down with researching new managers and talking to existing ones on their platform, they simply don’t have the time to talk to those outside their immediate frame of reference.  Firms hurt themselves by continuing to press for face time at the home office and by not taking their gatekeeper research strategy on the road.

If you trust recent research by Cerulli which states advisors place a significant amount of weight on gatekeeper research and that 86.8% of wirehouse advisors said that the managed accounts platform was a significant factor in any decision to switch sponsor firms then firms should be crafting a field strategy which benefits the advisor.

One such strategy is for firms to identify Centers of Influence “COI” at the Regional and branch level and craft strategies that will help them meet their critical objectives.  Remember, these in-the-field “COI” meetings are where the money is.  Something which seems to have taken a backseat as firms placed added emphasis on the home office gatekeepers.

Regional “COI” meetings should focus on the COIs critical objectives.  Once determined firms can craft strategies which compliment the COIs objectives and work “with” them to accomplish both these goals.

Advisor meetings should focus on their business model, client profile and their portfolio structure needs.  Once these are discussed and determined, firms can now position their product.  All managers will benefit from this strategy but “undiscovered” managers may benefit the most as they now have the opportunity to explain the merits of their product in the context of the advisors strategy.

Try to schedule as many of these meetings as close to month and quarter end as possible.  This is when firms are armed with their most current portfolio information and it syncs with the COI and advisors reporting cycle to their clients.  Firms providing timely and accurate portfolio information, articles of interest and thought leadership pieces versus market commentary will distinguish themselves from the rest.  A portfolio manager as a resource is also welcome after the initial strategy sessions have taken.

Lastly don’t ignore the role technology plays in training and delivering your message.  As budgets continue to shrink, COIs and advisors are turning to those firms providing them with webinars and streaming video which help them understand the finer points of your investment process and how it benefits their clients.

Don’t get me wrong, the home office is important but in times like these it may make more sense for firms to focus their budget where the money is – in the field.

Visit us at www.advisolocity.com for a FREE copy of our latest white paper: “One-2-One: How to have 1000 client conversations at once,” and to access additional FREE information from our resource center.

For Financial Advisors, trusted communicator is job one

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates 

Brokers and advisors are the most trusted sources for providing accurate information on investments, followed by friends or family, according to the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer. CEOs landed dead last as least trusted.

Highlights from the survey include:

• Financial performance now scores at the bottom as a trust factor.
• Transparency and honest practices took the number one spot
• Most trusted financial institutions: Local banks were number one, followed by mutual funds and insurance companies

With all of this good news, trusted advisors may still not feel like cheering – especially when confronted with constrained marketing budgets.

“Even though resources are scarce, advisors with a story to tell can still create news,” Advisolocity’s John Drachman said recently. “From free interactive press releases, to white papers and webinars, there are many cost-effective ways to engage customers and prospects that do not cost that much.” The present moment may represent a historical opportunity for advisors.” He added, “Five short years ago their trustworthiness hovered near the bottom of The Barometer.”

What should you do now? Here are Five Things FAs and Advisors should be doing to benefit from this shift in sentiment:

First, they are evaluating their current communications strategy – With so many sources of communication available to your clients today it is imperative that you evaluate and leverage as many as you can.  FINRAs recent clarification around the rules governing social media provides a completely new opportunity to leverage. Don’t let your own lack of expertise in this area prevent you from leveraging these valuable resources – seek professional guidance and input.

Second, evaluate your “customer engagement strategy” – This used to be referred to as customer service but in the new world of communication it’s about “engagement”.  Today’s customers view frequent and honest communication as the most important factor by which they judge financial services firms.  How does your current engagement strategy match up?

Third, evaluate the resources and strategy you have allocated to your marketing programs and branding campaigns – Industry estimates show the number of clients receiving comprehensive financial planning will increase by 20-25% over the next year or two.  What are your strategies for establishing and promoting your brand?  How much time are you devoting to client acquisition and retention? 

Fourth, evaluate your resource allocation to the “Emerging Markets” – I’m referring to the next generation of investors, those between the ages of 25 and 34. This is an often ignored demographic for a variety of reasons but 75% of this group say FAs and Advisors are who they first turn to for financial advice.  This may be that “once-in-a-career” opportunity to make significant inroads into this group assuring future growth for your firm.

Fifth, evaluate what differentiates you from your competition – are you using all the tools at your disposal?  Successful FAs and Advisors will leverage both traditional and on-line communication applications.  To enhance “customer engagement” they will leverage market commentary and portfolio manager market overviews in building their financial planning practice. Have you clearly articulated the advantage working with you brings to your clients in terms of achieving lifestyle and financial goals?

Future success and growth of your business will come from a combination of increased interest among investors in fee-based financial planning models, and how well FAs and Advisors position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-career opportunity.  Those assessing their business model as outlined above will certainly stand a better chance of success than those adhering to the status quo.

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s slightly relaxed oversight standard for interactive blogging in the money management world means tweets are here to stay, according to John Drachman, writer and creative director for The Drachman Group, Inc., and Advisolocity, a social media forum for advisors.

“This is something to cheer about,” Mr. Drachman added.

According to FINRA, if a blog is used to engage in real-time interactive communications FINRA would consider the blog to be an interactive electronic forum that does not require prior principal approval.

“The social media compliance solution has always been about the blog,” Mr. Drachman said. “Entanglement and adoption, which address where the content comes from and when a firm adopts it as its own, are easily avoided when the content is free and interactive.”

Save product discussion for a firm’s web site, he suggested. “The interactive blog, on the other hand, is a real-time conversation about a firm’s ideas.”

Mr. Drachman said that all of the attention being paid to FINRA this week has resulted in increased call volume, which has prompted the release of Advisolocity’s first white paper: One-2-One, How Social Media Lets You Have 1000 Conversations at Once. He invited financial professionals to register here and download their complimentary copy of the paper directly from the Advisolocity blog.