Written by: Samantha Russell
Regardless of which platform you use to market your business, there are always trends that financial advisors can use to boost their marketing success rate. Trends help financial advisors stand out against competitors, produce new ideas and opportunities, and draw attention to your business.
So join us in covering the top marketing trends for financial advisors in 2023 and see how they can help you grow your advisory.
Top 6 Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2023
1. The Growth of AI in 2023 and Beyond
With the emergence of AI and the tools that follow, such as ChatGPT, many companies are integrating AI into their marketing. Whether it’s using AI to respond to customer questions before transferring them to a real person, having ChatGPT write scripts for videos, or managing/tracking metrics, it’s easy to see that AI is continually evolving and improving to not only perform more accurately but to respond in an almost human-like manner. Before, you could tell if something was written by a person or a machine, but that line continues to blur. In 2022 alone, it was found that around 35% of companies were using AI to some extent.
Understanding the capabilities of AI is crucial. While it will never truly replace human intelligence, AI can help boost productivity by providing ideas and a starting point when creating marketing content. It can be used to create idea lists that advisors can work off, provide marketers with important information and sources for their content, and even generate images based on years of data.
AI will continue to evolve as people continue to research and fine-tune its capabilities. And though it may be a trend right now, in the future, using AI for marketing could be the norm.
Many of our tools at FMG incorporate AI. For example, FMG’s “one-click” AI-powered social media tool helps clients create personalized captions when sharing content on social media. This “one-click” feature will enable advisors to create marketing content that reflects their unique voice across all channels while complying with industry regulations.
2. Prioritizing Social Responsibility
It’s important to consider our business’s current and future impact. Whether it’s ethical with sensitivity towards social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. There is an ever-greater demand for businesses to produce a positive impact on the people and places around them. Business isn’t just about the bottom dollar anymore, but a matter of wise decision-making that affects people’s futures.
Social responsibility is something anyone and everyone should do. Some ways you can make your advisory socially responsible is by:
- Create a business code of ethics that highlights employee conduct
- Help protect the environment by monitoring your environmental impact and adjusting to ensure you’re following environmental best practices
- Support organizations/charities that help in your local community or are related to your business
- Be sure to avoid any harmful or misinformation when marketing, and be honest and fair to help reflect your company’s integrity
3. Cutting Down on Video Length
Video content has been a staple in marketing, with 91% of businesses using video as a marketing tool. The problem that advisors may be running into is choosing between short-form or long-form videos. In the past, long-form videos held more popularity because they could provide viewers with lengthy, insightful views of a chosen topic. But the same can’t be said anymore, as more and more internet users flock towards short-form video content. In fact, it’s been found that 73% of consumers prefer to watch short-form content when learning about products or services.
This can be especially found on TikTok, a video streaming and sharing social media platform. Hosting over 30 million daily active users, TikTok has made a name for itself by allowing users to submit and share short-form videos that viewers can like, comment, and engage with, making it a social media powerhouse. Along with TikTok, YouTube has been rolling out its Shorts feature, allowing users to post short-form videos directly to the site, being shared in its own special algorithm.
Financial advisors should hop on the short-form video trend to help boost their marketing prowess. We recommend creating video marketing consisting of both long and short-form video content to ensure that you’re reaching a new audience without isolating your old one.
If you need some examples of short-form video ideas you can use as a financial advisor, here are 6 to get you started:
- Product/Service Teasers
- Influencer Advertisements
- Brand Challenges
- User-Generated Content
- Behind-the-Brand Videos
- Educational Videos
4. Potential Comeback of Experiential Marketing
Experiences are an important part of life, whether it’s your first time going on a roller coaster, celebrating a birthday with loved ones, or attending a fun event. People enjoy experiences as it helps create memories and get them thinking. That’s where experiential marketing comes into play, this enables audiences to step into immersive and amazing experiences, whether that’s held at a physical location or enjoyed on AR/VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) platforms.
One recent example of this is Apple’s new augmented reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro. Apple held an experiential event where they invited influencers and media to test out their new AR headset, allowing them to experiment and play with the features of the headset. Thus, allowing those who participated to go back and write articles, record videos, and share their experiences with the headset with their audiences. Spreading the word of the headset and getting people excited for its release.
For financial advisors, experiential marketing doesn’t have to be a complex series of AR or VR experiences. They can be as simple as events, demos, retreats, or unique experiences that fit the advisory. It doesn’t have to be an expensive event, but just a memorable one that gets people interested in your product/service. Or if in-person isn’t your thing, you can host online experiences that connect everyone via technology. Host online webinars, internet classes, and much more. All that matters is that it’s marketing that gets people involved and gives them a chance to participate in something unique and memorable.
5. Mobile Messaging
Every advisor knows the experience of communicating with clients and potential prospects, sometimes it goes smoothly and other times it doesn’t. Whether that be due to weak phone signals, an unending game of phone tag, or other barriers stopping you from best communicating with clients. What’s taking over now is mobile messaging and other alternative means of communication. In fact, 3.3 billion people use messaging apps on mobile devices, and it’s only going to continue to increase.
SMS or texting is a very popular choice because it allows clients or prospects to easily opt in or out of contact. It’s usually as simple as texting a single word or phrase. Texting allows advisors to explore new areas of information to send out when compared to phone calls. They can now send out images or infographics that provide useful information but are easy to grasp and understand. No more explaining over the phone about certain statistics, just send an infographic through a text.
Instead of playing an everlasting game of phone tag with clients, try some of these alternative means of communication:
In addition to texting, there are also many other forms of alternative communication. On most social media, there are options to message one another, this is a popular choice for advisors who are social media savvy as it allows them to quickly communicate and engage with clients. Want to be a little more personal? Try a video call that allows each participant to see and hear each other, creating a more intimate and engaging experience. Or if you just want to send some updates or information, try email. It’s quick and easy, and almost everyone has an email account.
6. Emphasize Emotions Over Logic
It used to be that a lot of businesses ran on the idea that logic always trumped emotion. Emotional decisions were thought of as a negative that impacted the bottom line, but that’s not the case anymore. That’s because demonstrating humanity and generosity is an evergrowing importance in the industry. Look at companies that add humor or warmth to their marketing message and promotions. Brands today should take a look from within and as “How can we help? What is our part in this?”
Instead of leading marketing material with hard facts and cold statistics, use humor, empathy, and emotion. This will give you more leverage than plain logic-based marketing will. But the important thing is to be distinctive because every other financial advisor is using the same method of communication. Find what makes you different and use it to stand out amongst your competitors.
Related: 5 Email Subject Line Types Proven to Work for Advisors