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In a perfect world, advisors would spend their time meeting with clients, giving great advice and prospecting for new business. However, advisors often are small business owners, which means you have responsibilities outside of these core functions. On any given day, you might manage information technology, human resources, marketing and more – tasks that likely weren’t in your professional training or in your natural skill set.
When you lack the time and expertise to execute marketing initiatives, it is time to add a skilled marketer to your team. So, how do you ensure you hire the most qualified candidate to support business growth?
Look for these five factors in marketing director applicants:
1. B2B marketing strategy experience. Marketers can learn your industry on the job from colleagues, training and other professional resources. It isn’t necessary for them to have worked in financial services previously – although it’s certainly a plus if they have! You need someone who understands business-to-business marketing strategy. Although you might consider your practice a business-to-consumer entity, the strategies for effectively marketing an advisory firm align more closely with a B2B approach. That’s because the financial services sector has a long, logical, process-driven sales cycle, and you should care more about generating leads within in your niche than increasing broad consumer awareness of your brand. (This article does a great job explaining the difference in B2B and B2C marketing strategies.)
2. Tactical excellence. As an in-house marketer, applicants should have a broad skill set to implement marketing plans across multiple channels. Marketing strategists who work at agencies (rather than in-house) are often highly specialized and have access to robust teams to execute a plan. But solo practitioners must know a lot about different marketing tactics. Look for candidates with public relations experience, exceptional writing skills and strong knowledge of digital channels like social media and search engine optimization. Their competence should inspire confidence, but even the best marketing directors need the freedom to outsource to the pros when a tactic is out of their depth.
3. Emotional intelligence. As with any good employee, applicants must possess an emotional intelligence that enables them to work well with others, to collaborate and to lead a team if necessary. But this skill – often known as ”EQ” – is arguably more important in marketing candidates than other positions because they must be able to understand, empathize and connect with your audience. Internally, they are the voice of your clients, and identifying clients’ goals, challenges and objections is critical to marketing an advisory firm successfully.
4. An affinity for art and science. Everyone thinks marketing is a “creative industry” – and it is. Your marketing director must be in tune with how words and visuals affect perception of a brand and be able to find inspiration all around them. However, effective marketers are as much scientists as artists – analyzing data, adjusting what didn’t work and digging into operations to find opportunities for improvement. Although this article refers to chief marketing officer roles specifically, it outlines what the best marketers deliver: They “sit at the forefront of change within their organizations, driving technology investment, innovation, customer experience, new-product development, and the shaping of purpose, values, position and culture.”
5. Adaptability. Marketing is an evolving field. New technology and changing consumer behavior require that your firm be willing to adapt, and often, your marketing director leads the charge. Hire someone self-motivated and teachable because they’ll need to proactively seek better ways of doing things. Provide them with an environment that fosters connection and the sharing of ideas, which are critical to innovation according to Steven Johnson’s book Where Good Ideas Come From.
Marketing is an essential ingredient in growing advisory firms. It doesn’t merely increase awareness of what makes you different. It establishes confidence in your ability to do the job and brings new prospects into the pipeline, but only with the right strategist at the helm.
After 10 years working for marketing agencies, Christine Golden became the director of marketing for Wymer Brownlee Wealth Strategies where she led the firm’s strategic marketing planning, content creation, PR and digital marketing initiatives. In 2019, she became chief marketing officer of SigniFI Advisor Group – a consulting firm headquartered in Oklahoma City but serving financial advisors across the United States. SigniFI provides practice management, client experience and marketing execution to add strategy and scale to driven advisory firms.
SigniFI Advisor Group members offer securities through Avantax Investment ServicesSM Member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Avantax Advisory ServicesSM Insurance services are offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Read more articles by Christine Golden
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
