Explore Social Media’s Powerful Techniques for Financial Advisors

On August 23, 2010, In Financial Services Social Media Marketing, By Bruce

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

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Advisolocity a Transformational Distribution Resource Needs Your Help

On February 17, 2010, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By:  D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

Over the past year, we have talked about the transformations taking place in investment distribution. 

I am certain you are viewing first-hand one of the major changes in wealth management – the shift of resources from traditional marketing to social media and networking. 

This resource shift is sure to accelerate as marketers and compliance officers now find common agreement. The release of FINRA’s 10-06 ruling has removed the last impediment to utilizing the cost-efficiencies and creativity of social media programs. A new social media marketing compliance lore will soon be coming into existence.

I’m pleased to announce that my colleagues and I are almost ready to launch our new site – Advisolocity.

Advisolocity is a transformational distribution resource designed for this present moment. Advisolocity – which stands for advisor velocity – is a collaboration of creative marketers, investment distributors, as well as social media and technology specialists.

Advisolocity is dedicated to supporting the business development efforts of advisors, money managers and other service providers who are endeavoring to attract and retain a greater share of investment assets.

Your comments to me have proven invaluable in the past and I would welcome a chance to ask your opinion of our exciting new effort. Here are two of our sample pages:

As a way of saying thank you for your time and comments I would like to provide you a copy of our latest white paper:  “One-2-One: How social media will allow you to conduct a thousand conversations at the same time”.  You can register and receive the white paper by clicking here: http://bit.ly/a4FiM9  If you prefer and would rather not go through the registration process – we are concerned about protecting your privacy – send me a request at: bruce@dbjassociates.com 

Thanks for your help and we look forward to your comments.

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How are RIAs approaching social media?

On January 16, 2010, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By:  D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

With hope and fear. If they can publish a few blog posts, advisors can extend the life of a public relations story nearly effortlessly. With social media and its ability to generate attention inexpensively, it’s hard not to consider it.

 The difficulty comes in when you ask an RIA what they are willing to pay for it. An RIA must opt for at least a minimal, consistent effort to communicate their subject matter expertise to their prospects.

So, while the vehicles underlying all that publicity are almost free, the talent to assemble content and distribute it is not.

And that’s the rub: RIAs need to make a commitment to reach out and sustain an effort to attract new prospects into their loop. Whether an RIA is ready to take the deep dive into social media, he or she needs to answer four questions.

 

  1. Do I like the idea of using nearly free marketing tools to attract prospective clients? This one is easy: “Yes.”
  2. Should I “do-it-myself” — or recruit professionals to help me? The RIA must decide whether they want to take time away from client-facing activity to master the web’s ins and outs. Caveat: Do-it-yourself errors can be a deal breaker.
  3. Am I committed to spending some money? RIAs don’t have to commit to hefty retainers, but they do need to commit  somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000 initially to dedicate to professional resources.
  4. Am I willing to experiment a bit, journey into unknown territory?  I have found that this is the most important question for advisors to answer. An experimental sense of social media’s possibilities is the key. There is no locked in blueprint for how to proceed. Social media strategies are a trip through a new frontier; the efforts are flexible, motivational and engaging when done well. And, if you make a mistake, they are pretty easy to correct.

 

Why is it that a prospect who won’t return an advisor’s phone call won’t hesitate to connect with that advisor on LinkedIn? Why is it that a prospect will unsubscribe from an advisor’s newsletter and then immediately start following that same person on Twitter?

I think it’s a matter of control: individuals like to pick and choose what they want from a service provider and who they want to have a conversation with — and that includes RIAs.

But advisors cannot join the conversation if their potential prospects don’t know where to find them.

 

 

 

 

  

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Six Suggestions for Getting Your Mutual Fund “Discovered” in 2010

On November 19, 2009, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

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

 

Numerous articles have been written lately on the massive rebound of stocks beginning on March 9, 2009.  Most mutual funds have enjoyed a nice performance rebound as well.  If your mutual fund is one of those enjoying this rebound in performance “How do you get “Discovered” in 2010?”

For that answer I turned to Dan Sondhelm, SunStar Strategic.  Dan specializes in preparing and getting asset managers in front of the appropriate media outlets to tell their story and go from “undiscovered” to discovery. 

Dan was quick to point out that most mutual funds with significant assets grew as a result of proactive selling activities – an individual fund is rarely “discovered” on its own. With more than 10,000 funds available to investors and their advisors, competition for share of wallet is fierce with 80-90% of fund flows going to the top 20 firms.

Dan’s 6 Comprehensive Suggestions to Getting “Discovered” in 2010:

  1. Have a written strategy.  Dan’s first suggestion is you start by developing a written strategy. Most mutual fund companies fail to get discovered because they haven’t reduced to writing their strategy to capitalize on their good fortune. 
  2. Have management buy-in.  Ensure you have buy-in from management and a commitment to the resources it will take to implement your strategy. Lack of buy-in, ample resources and accountability will make or break your program.  Predetermine an “owner” for every initiative, how the initiative will be tracked and how will success be measured.
  3. Continue your commitment to excellent performance.  Review your pricing model.  Ideally your product should be priced below 1%.  Also, evaluate the channels you are selling your products in to make sure you are maximizing your efforts and capital commitment.  No need to try to be all things to all people.  Focus, Focus, Focus.
  4. Make sure your products are on the major platforms.  Being on the Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity and Pershing platforms are important but not enough.  Establish relationships with the “gatekeepers” (e.g. research, key accounts, marketing, event planning, etc.) and make sure that you understand how each of these groups functions and although they separate in title, how are they interrelated. These platforms, at a cost to you, provide marketing opportunities throughout the year.  A strong relationship with your account manager will assure that you are alerted to the opportunities for proprietary mailings, sponsorship opportunities at local and national events in advance allowing you to make the most out of the opportunity. Leverage daily and weekly sales data provided by the platforms to communicate market, investment, performance and business building approaches to those RIAs that are supporting your sales effort.
  5. What’s your story?  Value shop, growth shop, GARP, disciplined or highly disciplined are not sellable stories.  Bring it to life. What makes your strategy different than your competition? How do you select stocks? What are interesting themes in your portfolios? What good decisions did you make?  
  6. Telling your story.  Provide timely information on your Web site. Regularly post themes about your fund and the good decisions you made. If your site doesn’t allow you to add timely information, upgrade it. Advisors won’t come back if there is nothing new. Engage the media. Let the financial press sell you. Then leverage the third-party endorsed reprints in your other sales and marketing efforts, in print and on your Web site. Be accessible. Advisors want to be able to communicate with the portfolio manager directly. Quickly respond to RIA calls. Showcase portfolio managers in quarterly Webinars, than post the event to your Web site. Drive RIAs to your Web site with a monthly Email marketing program to tell your story. Strategy and performance are just two key areas for content. Others include news media reprints, promotion of upcoming Webinars, attendance at an advisor conference, etc.

Thanks Dan for your time and insights.  As me, Dan would appreciate any comments you might have regarding his suggestions and would welcome any additions.

To read the full context of Dan’s blog “New Year’s Resolution: Get “Discovered” in 2010” please visit: http://www.fundfactor.net.

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