Pandemic Prospecting Requires Multi-Channel Approach
If you’ve spent the last four months focused on helping existing client navigate the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and tabled trying to gain new clients, your RIA firm isn’t alone.
Fidelity Investments’ recent survey of financial advisors about their client approach during the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that many firms put prospecting on a backburner while they adjusted to working remotely and serving existing client needs. Two-thirds of advisors surveyed in May said they reduced their prospecting activity during the first few months of the pandemic.
It makes sense that during this unprecedented time, financial advisors would focus on helping current clients make sense of the financial impact of COVID-19. As advisors were fielding calls and emails, many were adjusting to working remotely for an extended period of time.
However, as we’ve shared before, it’s important for RIAs to be thinking beyond their current situation and toward the future. For your business to grow and thrive, you will need new clients. You won’t always be as busy as you are right now, as you adapt to the fallout from COVID-19.
The Fidelity Survey found some financial advisors had more success prospecting than others during the pandemic. Here are three key takeaways from the survey’s findings:
1. Advisors who used a multi-channel approach (email, phone and video) reported more success. Nearly two-thirds of advisors reported average or above-average results when they used the multi-channel approach. Of those advisors who used email alone to prospect during this time, the same number reported below-average results.
2. Age plays a role in what prospecting tools are used. Those under the age of 35 were using more digital prospecting tools and were more likely to use a combination of video, social media and email.
3. Advisors repeatedly turned to video for prospecting. Fifty percent of advisors under age 35 and 40 percent of those age 36-54 used video for prospecting during the pandemic. Video conferencing tools like Zoom or GoToMeeting provide an easy and affordable way to keep in touch with clients and connect with prospects face-to-face while still practicing social distancing. The survey notes that RIAs anticipate using video conferencing tools more often with clients going forward. Pre-pandemic, seven percent of client interactions occurred via video versus 14 percent occurring via video today.
It will be difficult to find success if you rely on just one marketing channel to reach prospects, and that’s especially true during a global pandemic. Repetition is critical to staying top-of-mind. If you are only focused on one channel, you won’t have enough touchpoints to increase visibility and drive revenue.
We help our clients develop multi-channel marketing plans that include email, web, print, video and social media. Sharing your firm’s message across various platforms increases visibility and accessibility, and it helps to keep your firm top of mind. We advocate for using multiple channels for marketing no matter what is going on in the world.
A multi-channel marketing plan that supports business develop is essential for gaining new clients, as is being able to pivot your message and delivery channels when the unexpected happens, such as a global pandemic.
If you need help creating and executing a multi-channel marketing plan, contact us today. You can also see how we’ve recently helped our clients here.