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The worldwide financial services market is expected to reach $26521.67 billion by 2022 according to the newly completed “Financial Services Global Market Report 2020”. The report was prepared by The Business Research Company, a market research and intelligence company. Financial services include activities such as lending, investment management, insurance, brokerages, payments, and fund transfer services.
One segment of the overall financial service industry, investment or wealth management, is poised to see significant growth in the coming decades as Baby Boomers and Millennials approach retirement age in ever increasing numbers. The United States (US) segment of asset management accounts for over 60 percent of the world’s $28.2 trillion retirement asset market.
The top of the sector is dominated by Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and other well-known entities, but the typical investor gains access to financial investment products through nearly 300,000 employed and independent personal financial advisors in communities across the US. As more and more companies jettisoned costly contributory pension programs for 401k plans, greater numbers of middle and upper middle-class workers found that they, for the first time in their lives, had greater responsibility for managing their own investment and retirement assets.
Today, nearly 99 percent of Americans choose to manage their own investment portfolio; amazing considering the complexity and volatility of financial markets today. With only 1 percent of the market being served by professional managers, the future for exponential growth is looking bright, but marketing, even to a potentially staggering level of opportunity, will require time, money and personal effort by financial advisory firms in order to attract and ultimately close prospective new clients.
Most small and mid-size firms revolve around a single business owner, who initially commits increasing number of hours to implementing a marketing process to establish brand awareness, initiate customer engagement and establish a lasting culture of trust between advisor and client. As the firm grows, the marketing process continues to demand time and attention from the firm’s principle member.
With more potential clients comes more competition. The time when financial planners could easily communicate a unique proposition is gone. Today, emerging wealth managers need to clearly define a market niche and differentiate themselves from all others in the arena. Identifying a distinct market niche and creating a brand message of differentiation becomes increasingly more important as a firm grows. Effective connecting with those prospective customers requires full utilization of creative marketing tactics and available communication channels.
All business is about building relationships. Connecting with others who may share like goals and objectives can open opportunities for attracting new customers but building relationships that result in increased clients can take time, requiring an offer of a benefit to others without expecting immediate business in return. The same can be true about using referrals from existing customers who may or may not be adept in sharing your brand message and ultimate value. The “old school” social interactions once thought to be critical to forming loyal and extended relationships have been eroded by all the pervasive hyperbole over the advantages of high-tech anything, but a fast, efficient and user-friendly website and web-based social networks are demonstrating how technology can truly revolutionize communal conversations.
The goal of any marketing effort is to create a reliable and effective way for any financial advisor to build a successful practice. A recent Kitces Research Report “suggests that perhaps the primary reason that advisory firms struggle to serve mass affluent clientele and the broader population is not because it is cost-ineffective to service them, but that it’s too cost-ineffective to market and gain a scalable number of them as clients in the first place!” The research suggests that client acquisition costs are substantial, at nearly $3,119 per client.
Julie Gareleck, Founder and CEO of Junction Creative Solutions (Junction), an award-winning strategic agency committed to creating high marketing impact solutions, says, “A financial advisor’s time and effort becomes more valuable as a company grows. The principle wealth manager must increasingly focus the organization’s efforts on delivering on clients’ expectations. Junction has assisted more than 30 financial industry clients since its founding. Our experience in developing and initiating successful strategic and comprehensive marketing plans for the financial market is well-established. As we move into a dynamically evolving economic time, the right message and the right marketing strategy are critical to success.”
For more information on how Junction’s talented marketing professionals can help you develop a successful digital marketing strategy in the dynamic and expanding financial industry, call 678-686-1125 today.