In financial services, the SaaS (Software as a Service) market continues to boom. According to Crunchbase, as of June 2020, there were over 15,000 SaaS companies in the US. With this growing competition, trying to appeal to the masses often means your platform gets lost in the clutter. This is why knowing yourself as a business and knowing your target market inside and out are key.

Start by asking yourself, What’s my unique differentiator? Once you know that, you’re able to pick the right business strategies to reach your ideal client. 

As a SaaS company, your focus is on long-term client retention. You don’t operate on a transactional “one and done” basis, but are looking to build lasting relationships. Traditional marketing doesn’t always work with this model. 

Here are four hyper-digital marketing strategies that you can align to your specific business goals. 

Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a unique growth strategy where your marketing and sales team collaborate to “create personalized buying experiences for a mutually identified set of high-value clients.” For SaaS companies with high-ticket platforms, this strategy is especially useful. 

With ABM, you aren’t starting with lead generation. Instead, an ABM approach focuses less on getting a high number of leads and more on getting the right leads. This is done by identifying the best-fit potential clients for your company. This might mean focusing on local financial advisors or payroll companies that serve businesses with 50+ employees. 

Once you’ve identified this target market, here are some ABM approaches to consider:

• Use an account planning template. This is a great way to make sure your marketing and sales teams are on the same page and the overall plan aligns with your business goals and initiatives. Hubspot offers free account planning templates for download.  
• Attract high-quality clients. Since you aren’t appealing to the masses, this requires a different approach than traditional marketing. For example, instead of relying on email marketing, you might ask a leader from your ideal client’s company to be a special guest on a podcast, video series, or blog.
• Nurture relationships with prospects. This is an essential part of ABM and it will be done over a number of months, or potentially years. You’ll want to focus on providing personalized content and interaction. We suggest always communicating one-on-one when possible. This can be through email, texting, phone call, videocall, or in person. 

Paid Ads    

With these, you’re creating digital ads geared toward your target market. The ads should use the keywords your ideal client is searching to make sure you’re reaching those quality leads. The goal of paid ads can vary from brand awareness to lead generation. Whatever the goal is, you need to drive traffic to a specific place such as the “Book a Phone Call” page on your site or a landing page to get an email address.

There are several different approaches you can take to do this:

• Social media ads. Unfortunately, studies have found organic content is no longer favored by the algorithms of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Now is the time to capitalize on paid ads, as they tend to rank higher. To get the most out of your ads on social media, make sure to set the parameters such as demographics and interests. For example, if your target market is millennials who live in San Francisco and are business owners, make sure those are the people your ads are geared toward. 
• Retargeting ads. These are intended to reach previous visitors to your site who did not take any action (such as booking a discovery call). When that person is on a different site, a relevant ad for your business will appear. It reminds them of your business without having them actively search for it. Platforms like Mailchimp and AdRoll are perfect for running retargeting ads.
• Pay-per-click (PPC). This approach to online advertising involves you paying only when a user clicks on your ad. These ads appear on search engines like Google when users type in keywords relevant to your business. An increasing number of businesses are leveraging PPC ads due to their success rate. According to WordLead, people who click on a PPC ad are 50% more likely to make a purchase when compared to people who click on an organic search result.      

Regardless of the type of ad, remember that everything needs to be aligned back to your business’s strategic objectives. 

Lead Generation Funnels

Creating a lead generation funnel is a key component of your overall  marketing strategy. 

This is your starting point for your interactions with most potential clients. It’s helpful that lead generation weaves into other strategies we’ve discussed, such as ABM or paid ads.  

Right now, emails are the most valued currency in the digital marketing world. Your goal is to get the email address of potential clients with the hope of “funneling” them through to purchasing your platform. 

As you start creating your own lead generation funnels, here are a few components to remember:

• Clear call-to-actions (CTAs). On your website and in your ad copy, these are written directives to encourage someone to take an action. Make sure all your CTAs are straightforward, such as “Start Your Free Trial Today” or “Subscribe Now.” They should clearly express what the person is doing while creating a sense of urgency. 

• Lead magnets. These act as a way to attract ideal clients and move them through the funnel. In exchange for their email address, you’re offering something of value (a downloadable resource, free templates, how-to video, etc.). Just make sure your lead magnet addresses a specific pain point of your target market. For example, if you’re targeting insurance companies that are struggling to digitize their sales pipeline, you might create a download addressing that issue. 

• Drip emails. Once you have the digital currency, your focus should shift to staying top-of-mind. Your potential client most likely won’t buy right away, but you want your business to be what they think of when they’re ready. A drip email campaign is a great way to do this because it provides a steady stream of valuable content to subscribers.  

Sales Cadence

When you have a sales team, this strategy works extremely well. It involves your team coming together, looking at the annual calendar, and designing a sequence of touchpoints to align with major events, such as industry conferences. You will start with the very first interaction and plan out a sequence until the prospect hopefully becomes a client.

As you build your sales cadence, here are a few pieces to include:

• Plenty of touchpoints. Traditionally, experts have said it takes about eight touchpoints to make a sale. Between COVID-19 and an increasing digital landscape, we’ve seen the number rise to 10–12 or more. Each touchpoint allows you to build trust and credibility with a potential client and process them through the sales funnel. 
• Variety of mediums. Your sales cadence should not just rely on one channel. Make sure your touchpoints come from different mediums, including paid ads, emails, and personal phone calls. Determine where your target market is most active and leverage those specific platforms throughout the process. If you target millennial financial advisors who communicate mostly through texting, make sure that’s a channel you include.
• Space out interactions. You never want to overwhelm a prospect by reaching out too often This is why aligning your sales process to a yearly calendar is a great starting point. For example, if you’re targeting local banks that are looking to harness the power of the cloud, you might start your sales cadence a week before a major industry conference. Then, the following touchpoints might be spaced like so:some text
  • Day 1: Send a personalized email regarding the upcoming conference
  • Day 12: Send an email that references the conference and pitches your platform
  • Day 15: Send a follow-up email
  • Day 20: Make a follow-up phone call and leave a voicemail if you aren’t able to speak to someone 

With a proper sales cadence in place, you’re more likely to drive leads through the sales funnel.

As you implement these strategies, remember it all comes back to knowing yourself as a business and knowing who you’re trying to reach. Learn more about this from our previous blog post on the importance of target markets.     

After spending years as an educator and classroom teacher, Kristin Hull launched Nia Impact Capital in 2013. Her goal was to bring activism and impact investing into the public markets.

In her professional and personal life, Kristin is dedicated to empowering individuals, families, and organizations to invest in alignment with their values. The ultimate motivation behind the founding of Nia was to help marginalized populations (women, minorities, etc.) grow their portfolios while investing in the economy they want to see.

Watch our interview below.

Resources 

• “Investing and Working With a Gender Lens” 
• “The Money Doula” Blog Post
• “An Investors'​ Guide to Investing for Racial Equity”
• “Diversifying Investments: A Study of Ownership Diversity and Performance in the Asset Management Industry.”
• Kristin Hull LinkedIn Profile
• Nia Impact Capital Facebook Page
• Nia Impact Capital Instagram Profile

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please follow her on Twitter or visit https://www.niaimpactcapital.com/.

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from Financial Services Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends by signing up here: 

Audio Transcription

Lauren Hong (00:00):

So Kristin, it’s really great to have you here. We're excited to hear more about your business and more about your passion as it relates to the space that you're currently working in. So let's go ahead and get started. And do you want to just share a little bit about your background, and we'll go from there.

Kristin Hull (00:21):

Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me Lauren. I'm happy to be here. I am Kristin Hall and I am the founder and CEO at Nia Impact Capital. Nia means intention and purpose. So we are here with intention and purpose, and we build purpose-driven portfolios in public markets, specifically investing at the intersection of environmental sustainability and social justice. And I came to this path with a very strong focus on really wanting to make a difference. I grew up in a trading firm. My dad actually started a trading firm in our garage as I was growing up, you know, as one does in California. And so I had a really early exposure to what it meant to buy low and sell high with high-frequency trading. And yet I went into the field of education because being a classroom teacher felt like an important place to play. It was also a really important place for me to be creative and really understand that change and growth takes place one conversation at a time. And so I'm now full circle. Having sold the family business, I was able to step back and really look at what is needed. And we were able to harness financial markets for financial gain really well. And so now at Nia, we actually have several hats and several lenses. We are harnessing financial markets for environmental sustainability and social justice, as well as financial gains.

Lauren Hong (01:58):

How did you get to that intersection? I mean, there's so many places within that. You could utilize your skill sets within the financial services space. Why that?

Kristin Hull (02:08):

You know, I was starting a charter school in Oakland with a team of co-founders and when we finished buying the building, getting the mortgage, getting loans from the city, working with the city about how to do a playground, adding in, you know, blood, sweat, and tears, as far as labor and building the playground and painting the walls and setting up classrooms. And I had helped work on that project a lot and people looked at me and they said, Kristin, how did you do this? When we were talking about a capital campaign, I realized that I was working with some really smart people. None of them had the financial background I had and I thought I'm really sitting on something. It was my responsibility to share those skills to others who didn’t grow up listening to put-in calls and commodities and options from the backseat of the station wagon. It's hard to just jump into this world.

Kristin Hull (03:09):

And so I thought, you know what, I want to make it easier for women and people of color in particular, but for everybody to be able to get their money out of the bad stuff and put it into the good stuff that will help grow their own portfolios. And then also help people invest into the economy that they want to see, because we really do get the economy we invest into. And so directing our dollars into solutions-focused companies. And in our case, all of our companies have some degree of diversity and leadership. And then we are active with each of our companies to help increase their ability to grow a positive and inclusive company culture. So providing that to the world we felt was really important. And so that's why I founded Nia.

Lauren Hong (03:57):

Well, one of the questions I was going to ask was really about kind of checks and balances and measurability, which I'd love to hear more about, but as you were talking about these companies that you've got that you work with, how are you vetting those and how are you determining if they're a good fit?

Kristin Hull (04:16):

Sure. So I developed six solution themes in 2012, and I worked on those really from systems thinking and just really asking the question, what is needed for people and the planet to not only survive, but to thrive? What are we going to need? And it's everything from renewable energy, because we need to stop extracting from our earth and extracting from our communities. We're also going to need healthcare. And at the time I was working on this in 2012, climate change was certainly on the table for those of us who cared. It wasn't everywhere in everyone's conversation or on the news we did that year. Japan had their first cases of yellow fever. So knowing that tropical diseases previously limited to around the equator, that band was expanding. So what did it mean for our entire planet?

Kristin Hull (05:12):

What would this mean? And so really addressing the solutions was really important. So healthcare, education, affordable and eco housing, sustainable transportation. So really just asking what is needed for people and the planet. So that's how we're vetting our companies. We're looking at their revenue sources to see if they line up with the economy and the inclusive world that we want to see. And then of course there's a lot more as far as the due diligence and getting to know them and do they have a team that can execute on these ideas? And of course we know from the research that diverse and inclusive teams can have more revenues, they can have more products based on innovation. That's one of our investment theses as well.

Lauren Hong (06:01):

Excellent. And then with those pieces, how are you ensuring that you're staying on track? That those companies you're staying with are staying on track to align with that mission? And how did you initially define if there would be a good alignment or not?

Kristin Hull (06:17):

Oh sure. So we have a research team. So we're watching, monitoring, listening to earnings calls, and then we also do engagement with every single one of our companies. And so we are reaching out to them, letting them know why we invested, what we're looking for as far as revenues, looking for growth and then asking them lots of questions. So last year with George Floyd events and everything going on in our country, we asked a couple of questions. We said either we noticed you've made a statement about Black Lives Matter, so can you tell us what you're doing both internally and externally in your community to show that black lives matter? And then if we didn't see a statement, we said can you tell us why there's no statement? And can you tell us what you're doing both internally within your own firms and then also in your communities? And sometimes they would say, well, we did make a statement; we put it on LinkedIn. And we would say, LinkedIn is not searchable and we need to see it prominently on your website. We also need to see it on the hiring page because this really matters. And this is part of the world we need to see. We almost coached a lot of our companies into what we thought as investors we needed to see from them.

Lauren Hong (07:40):

That's really impressive. I also love how you explained the meaning of the company that you founded and then how that meaning seems to be a direct alignment with your day to day, but not only that, who your partners are and how you're holding them accountable. So that whole on-purpose piece of it, driven by passion is something you don't see all the time. So I admire and have thought of what you're doing. I’d appreciate you sharing more on that, too. And then, what do you think is the most unpopular opinion in the industry, specifically in financial services, and how are you addressing it, since it sounds like you are hitting some of these challenging issues head on. You're holding some businesses accountable, for example, with the George Floyd incident, and you were specifically talking with them about that. That's not an easy thing to do to be able to hold those businesses accountable, and that may or may not be well-received. What kind of challenges or unpopular things are you seeing that are happening within financial services and how are you pushing up against the grain with that?

Kristin Hull (08:48):

Sure. So there's so many, I mean, we could count them by the day or by the hour. So just being a woman in finance, you know, there's so few of us and then being an asset manager, I don't know if you're familiar with the Knight study. So the Knight Foundation commissioned Harvard to do a study of diversity and asset management and found that women and people of color didn't even make up 1%. So they actually combined women and people of color asset managers to make us show up on a chart. And so combined women and people of color together are managing 1.3% of the over $70 trillion in our industry. And so we're few and far between, and I mean, it kind of says, look what we're invested into, look at the problems that we have in our economies.

Kristin Hull (09:42):

And doesn't it make sense to have just a few more voices at the table, a few more things. So there's definitely discrimination against women and people of color by this industry. So we're kind of bucking up against that and we're showing people that women and people of color can do this work, and can do it well. We're also talking to our companies, as I said, just about sustainability. We're also really investing into a very concentrated portfolio. So really helping clients move away from the index because the index is our status quo. And so meaning to invest in a little bit of everything, we don't want to be investing in weapons or fossil fuels or any of the huge global problems. Why? So we're trying to show that there's a different way to do this. And so that's something we buck up against, because it's still controversial in this country. I would say in others, particularly in Europe now where they're experiencing some floods as part of climate change, they are very much wanting to connect the dots and get their pension plans out of any status quo or incumbent economy and get them into the solutions. And in the U.S. we're still debating the merits of that.

Lauren Hong (11:00):

And then, because you are seeing things on such a higher level, what progressive changes are you seeing within the industry, whether it's on the business side or investment side. Are you seeing a movement of change?

Kristin Hull (11:18):

Well, that’s such an interesting question, right? So many of us in every industry are experiencing the patriarchy. And I think everybody in their own industry thinks they have it the worst, you know, certainly Hollywood, they think they have it really bad. And then when you get to financial services, we know we have it really bad. And so just trying to make it clear that this really is for everybody and that we really do need a balance. And so what is it going to take to move to progressive change? It's going to take more balance, definitely at the decision-making table, who's making investment decisions. Who's able to build investment products and launch them, et cetera. Some of the changes we're seeing, I mean, I would say the financial industry is so overripe for being disrupted that I'm surprised it's taken this long.

Kristin Hull (12:07):

We're seeing some interesting fintech solutions. I would say probably the innovation is still ahead of us actually in financial services. We're seeing a few things and definitely, I guess my fear is that we're not seeing actual change. We're seeing a lot of greenwashing and some relabeling of products from some of the larger firms actually constructing a portfolio of solutions-focused companies, they're renaming and rebranding. And so we're definitely seeing that, but I wouldn't call that progressive change. We need to see more actual portfolios constructed with the end in mind.

Lauren Hong (12:48):

Great. And then, what ways do you feel that you're able to stay relevant with all that's happening in the world and ensuring that your company stays relevant with the speed at which everything is moving?

Kristin Hull (13:02):

Yeah, I think what's actually interesting is that we were probably a little bit ahead. We were a little bit ahead of everybody and now, particularly in the social justice movement, and then also our environmental movement is catching up with us. And so we're becoming more relevant all of a sudden, which is really nice. So I'm making time to put out those thoughts and some of those thought leadership things. I think Nia was the first to put out a guide to racial justice investing. And we did that right after the George Floyd protest last year, because we had been investing that way a long time. So it was up to us to really articulate that and put it out in a guide for investors. I would say, similarly, we need to catch up a little bit, we're redoing our website to really make sure that the ways that we're investing are clear and accessible to everybody. And that will just make us that much more relevant.

Lauren Hong (13:58):

That's fine. This is very helpful. Is there anything else that you would like to share that you think would be relevant?

Kristin Hull (14:05):

Um, sure. I think one of our taglines is changing the face of finance, because we really need it and the world deserves that, and welcoming more women and people of color into this industry, as I've mentioned, we're really also welcoming everybody to see themselves as an investor. If you have a bank account, that money is sitting somewhere and it's invested. Women definitely sit on the sidelines more often because maybe they don't really like what's out there or they're confused, or maybe they've been left out of the conversation. So we're really hoping to be that voice, to get women in the game and to have them use their investor voice, because the industry does change with the more of us involved asking for what we want. So I’m hoping your listeners are all considering themselves as investors.

Lauren Hong (15:04):

Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time. It's very inspirational to not only hear from you, but then to see the work that you're doing and to be truly living out the company's mission and holding, as I said earlier, partners accountable. It’s like I said, it's rare to be able to see that and also to be able to hear firsthand. So thank you again for your time today. Greatly appreciate it.

Kristin Hull (15:28):

Thank you, Lauren, for having me.

What is NPS? 

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. Simply put, it is a measurement of your company’s customer service and your clients’ loyalty. Your score is an index ranging from -100 to 100 based on survey responses. 

Why does NPS matter? 

For local financial services companies, your unique differentiator is your high-quality customer service. An NPS allows you to easily gauge how you’re performing in this area. With this knowledge, you’re able to know where to make necessary internal improvements. This improves client relationships and it can also help with employee retention.

We’ve seen our clients use their score to help them scale and grow faster, because NPS is also an excellent resource for referrals. It allows you to identify the clients already most likely to refer you. Now, you’re able to trigger a referral request to the right people.  

How often do I distribute my NPS survey?

This will vary by company based on the size of your client base. 

When deciding this, it ultimately comes down to the type of relationships your firm has with clients. For example, a quarterly NPS survey makes sense for companies with stable customer relationships such as advisory firms. This allows you to get a more frequent pulse on your clients’ feelings toward you and your company, and it gives you time to make any necessary changes or address problems in the relationship.

For institutions that engage with customers on a more transactional basis, such as banks and insurance companies, annual surveys work well since customers might go a quarter or two without interacting with you.  

How do I distribute my NPS survey? 

There are several options for this. Hubspot has a specific NPS add-on that is great if you’re already familiar with that platform. There are also programs such as Survey Monkey or even Google Forms that are easy to navigate. 

When you distribute the survey, you want to make sure to include a call-to-action at the end. This is a great opportunity to ask clients, especially if they gave you a score of 9 or 10, to promote your company, share kind words on your social media, or provide a referral.  

What should my NPS survey look like?

Typically, NPS surveys are broken down into two parts: a rating question and an open-ended question. The rating gives you quantitative data to track over time, but the open-ended question provides you with tangible customer feedback. How you word and structure each part depends on your company, but we strongly recommend keeping all questions simple and straightforward.

For the rating portion of your survey, the standard practice follows this format: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?” For those in financial services, you can make the question more specific to you by replacing “business” with “firm” or “wealth management services.”

You also have the option to ask for a rating regarding individual customer service representatives. Start by asking them to select from a pre-created list of employees or fill in the name of the person they worked with. Then, you can pose a similar question regarding how likely they are to recommend this person to others. 

The open-ended portion simply asks your clients for specific feedback regarding their answer to the rating question. This can be as simple as, “Please explain your rating from above.” This is also a chance to personalize the question to your company or the type of feedback you’re looking for. For example, “How can we improve your experience with our firm?”   

How do I figure my NPS score? 

Your NPS score comes solely from the responses from your rating question. You can determine your score using a simple calculation:

1. Determine the number of detractors (those who gave a rating of 6 or below), the number of passives (those who gave a 7 or 8 rating), and the number of promoters (those who gave a 9 or 10 rating).
2. Determine the percentage of detractors and promoters. 
3. Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to give you your NPS score.

For example, if you have 10 respondents and 20% of them are detractors and 60% of them are promoters, you would follow this formula: 60%-20%=40%. Take off the percentage, and your company’s NPS is 40. Remember, it’s possible for your NPS to be a negative number, as scores range from -100 to 100.

What do I do with my NPS results?

Once you get the data back and figure your score, you will have a better grasp on what’s going on at the ground level of your company. The results show you how your firm is performing with clients, and you are able to look at the open-ended responses for real feedback. If multiple responses praise your onboarding process, you know to keep that system in place. However, if multiple clients responded that they had difficulty navigating your website, you know it might be time to reevaluate your site’s usability.   

If you format your survey to gather this specific data, you also have the option to look at each customer service representative’s individual NPS. This can be a valuable tool for employee feedback.

How do I know if my NPS is good or bad?

What’s most valuable about your score is that it’s specific to your business and client base. In the financial services world, most of the information out there is comparing big banks or national wealth management firms, which is not necessarily useful information for midsize, local companies.

General NPS guidelines suggest that any score above 0 is “good,” since that means people are more likely to recommend your company than not. Anything above 80 is then considered “world-class.”

You’ll want to look at organizations similar to yours in size and client base to best determine a good benchmark score. Companies such as NICE Satmetrix generate yearly reports that provide insight on a range of markets and industries.

Can I promote my NPS? 

A primary purpose of NPS is to give valuable insight into how your clients feel about your company. However, if your industry allows the sharing of your score, then yes! Share away. Your NPS can be a great addition to marketing collateral. You will want to make sure to provide a brief explanation on what NPS is, since not everyone is familiar with it.

Whether or not it’s included in your promotional material, we suggest sharing your NPS internally, especially if you have a positive score. This boosts employee pride, but it also gives you the opportunity to reach for a higher score. Using existing data, you’re able to set benchmark goals for your company to achieve. 

At Out & About, we help clients navigate how to use NPS and would love to help you do the same!

What kind of methods do you use in your marketing efforts? SEO? Social media? Blogging? There are many different tactics you can use to spread your campaign, but one tool with a clear benefit is email. According to the Harvard Business Review, the average person checks their email 15 times a day! Keep reading to find ways to better use email to reach your prospective and retain your current clients.

Answer Financial Questions Before They’re Asked

Mass email marketing is a perfect platform for sharing answers to trending queries straight to those with the same concerns. Sending a bimonthly newsletter with the latest tips and related blog posts is great outreach that is relevant to your audience. By sharing these contributions, you will be seen as a reliable source of quality information, which can help develop leads and clients. 

Automate Your Emails to Confirm and Remind

One of the secret powers of email marketing is automation. Using workflows, certain actions can automatically trigger prewritten emails to be sent out. One easy example is an email confirming a subscription to a newsletter or service. According to WordStream, 74% of consumers expect a welcome email as soon as they subscribe to anything. Workflow triggers can range from signing up for a mailing list to clicking on a downloadable form, scheduling a meeting with a staff member, and more.

Cue Internal Actions Using Workflows

Prewritten emails are not the only thing that can be achieved through email workflows. Workflows can also trigger internal action, such as sending a notification for a financial advisor to call a potential client who is interested in more information or reminding them to check in on a client on retainer. 

Use Segmentation to Focus on Specific Audiences

It’s important to remember that the person on the other side of the screen is still a human, and craves curated, relevant content. One way of accomplishing this is by segmenting your audience into subgroups. Examples of subgroups can include geographic location, professional industry, age, annual income, and interests—all information that can be gathered with a simple form during signup. If a new tax law is introduced in California, use your segmenting abilities to target California residents and direct them to a tax advisor in their area. This appeals to Californians without being irrelevant to those living in other states. 

Foster Relationships with Valued Connections

Automation doesn’t mean your outreach becomes more impersonal. In fact, automation creates opportunities for customization and personality. Consider sending out birthday emails to clients. This is a great way to make a person feel seen and connected to your company. While this is a simple way to incorporate data, the sky's the limit! Remove people from your lists (or add them to new ones) as their interests evolve and they change age brackets. For example, parents aren’t saving for college after their children graduate, but they might be interested in saving for retirement instead. 

Do You Need More Convincing? 

Clearly, email marketing is a valuable tool for current and prospective clients. Here are even more reasons why you should revamp your marketing strategy to capitalize on email marketing:

• Email marketing meets your audience where they are.
• Email is the most accepted way to communicate with your target audience.
• Email is a great vessel for inbound marketing tactics.
• Email marketing is a great way to collect usable data.

Ready to Take the Plunge?

Email marketing is a valuable tool to reach your target audience, and luckily, there are resources available to get started. Three tools to begin crafting your emails and workflows are HubSpot, MailChimp, and Constant Contact. Offered at various price points with different available features, one of these is bound to fit your company’s needs. Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts on building your email lists and creating newsletter templates.

How do your prospective clients learn how new tax policies affect them? What about the different ways you can help them save and invest? Likely, they get this information from online content created by industry experts, which is where you come in.

As a financial services business, here are four reasons you might be interested in creating custom content for your brand:

• Custom content helps foster organic growth.
• Creating resources increases SEO and leads.
• Quality content improves brand perception.
• Content demonstrates available services to those needing guidance.

Custom content helps foster organic growth

The end goal of creating content should always reflect back on your business goals. When recruiting reliable clients, content creation will help you build trust and respect. According to Demand Metric, content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing. While it’s always good to have a diverse amount of marketing methods, custom content creation should always be one of them. 

Creating resources increases SEO and leads

Everyone wants to be at the top of the search engine algorithms. When your company provides free, valuable resources such as a blog post on updated tax benefits, it boosts your rankings. This means potential clients looking for information can find you. After benefiting from your free help, they will be more likely to invest in your services.

Quality content improves brand perception

When online content creation serves your potential clients, they are more likely to view you as a guiding resource, not an aloof corporation. Furthermore, demonstrating your skills and ability in the financial services field is a great way to set yourself apart as an industry leader and expert in your specialization. 

Content demonstrates available services to those needing guidance

After a life-changing financial event, potential clients may be confused as to which options are available to them. By writing social media and blog posts, you demonstrate what you are capable of in an approachable manner. Custom content creation can serve as your menu of advice and reassurance. 

Excited to get started?

Here are some great resources to learn more about creating your own custom content. If you’re worried about legalities surrounding the financial services industry, this will help you stay creative while following strict compliance regulations.

Learning the ins and outs of intellectual property (such as copyright and trademark) is an empowering step in business. While it initially might seem overwhelming, this knowledge will allow you to grow and scale your business with confidence and peace of mind.

What Exactly is Intellectual Property?

As defined by the World Intellectual Property Organization, intellectual property (IP) is creations of the mind protected by law. This ranges from literary and artistic works to designs, names, and symbols used in commerce. IP laws refer to national and international laws in place to protect and enforce the rights of creators and their IP.

What are the Benefits of Knowing About Intellectual Property?

Preserve brand recognition

Trademarking prevents confusion for current and potential customers. You want to make sure your logos, layouts, color schemes, and everything else that makes your brand unique are protected. With this protection, you’re able to stand out from possible replicators and make sure your message remains original to you and your firm.

Prevent SEO damage

Unfortunately, in our digital world, people commit what’s called “cybersquatting.” This is where they buy a domain name with your trademark in order to ransom it back or divert your customers. This can damage your SEO ranking and lose prospects. Knowing how to protect and defend your IP is the best way to ward off cybersquatters.

Know the difference between infraction and fair use

Understanding IP rules allows you to push your creative limits. You can let yourself be influenced by others, while being aware of what is an infraction and what is fair use. For example, facts are not able to be trademarked, but many design elements are.

What are You Doing to Protect Your Intellectual Property? 

Understanding how to protect your IP is not something small and mid-sized firms can afford to ignore. You want to be sure you are protecting your original innovations while not infringing on someone else’s. Consider doing trademark searches to ensure you are not violating an established trademark. You also need to register and enforce the protection of your intellectual property to benefit yourself, your business, and your customers.

Where to Get Started?

Luckily, there are several resources available to break down and explain IP, such as a free certification from HubSpot Academy for those with a HubSpot membership. Through the 25-minute training, Intellectual Property Training for the Solutions Partner Program, users can learn IP foundations, strategies for compliance, and additional resources for use in their own marketing and sales strategy. As a HubSpot Certified Partner, we are more than happy to support clients in setting up their Hubspot membership to get started. 

Learning intellectual property is just one component of digital marketing. Just as you want to keep up-to-date about changes to IP laws, you also need to keep an eye on emerging digital marketing trends. Find out more here.

Big names in the insurance industry come with big budgets. In 2019, Geico and State Farm spent $1.62 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively, on advertisements alone.

How can local insurance companies compete?

The secret: social media campaigns.

By leveraging the power of social media, mid-sized insurance companies can increase brand awareness and generate quality leads. Here are three campaigns to consider implementing:

Testimonials. These are more than just kind words from a satisfied client. Testimonials are social proof of your company’s success and credibility. This is a great way to reach prospects without a sales pitch. Let the unbiased voice of your existing clients tell your audience they need life insurance and do the “selling” for you. 

You might include your most recent Net Promoter Score or pulling existing testimonials from your social media, website, or Google My Business page.  

When running a testimonial campaign, here are best practices to follow:

• Prioritize the visual element of social media. Spend time and/or resources creating a quality graphic for your post that aligns with your brand. Here are some templates to consider for inspiration.
• Don’t feel as if you need to include the entire testimonial, especially if it’s lengthy. Choose the most impactful sentence(s) highlighting what’s unique about the services you offer—like your stellar customer service or wide variety of coverage.

Testimonials do more than provide high-quality content for social media; they can also be used in marketing collateral such as brochures, blog posts, and white pages.

Promote company culture. What differentiates mid-sized agencies from the big guys is the personalized care your team provides. Highlighting your company’s culture demonstrates an authenticity the big guys with hundreds of employees don't have. 

By company culture, we mean a composition of your mission, goals, and values combined with the overall tone of your office. What is it like working with you? Strictly professional? Warm and inviting? You get to decide and communicate that to your audience.  

Here are a few content ideas to consider:

• Share photos of your whole team or highlighting individual team members. 
• Leverage employee-generated content by having them post to their own social media, such as LinkedIn.
• Give a “behind-the-scenes” look to followers, such as office celebrations or team-building activities—fun posts that provide prospects with a humanizing view of your company.

Use paid ads for your target market. Large insurance companies like Geico and State Farm pay for expensive TV spots and keyword ranking, but your advertising budget is better spent on targeted social media ads. This should be done in addition to organic (or non-paid) posting. Unfortunately, several third-party studies found the algorithms on platforms like Facebook and Instagram no longer prioritize organic content like they used to. This makes paid ads necessary to stay top-of-mind.

To create quality lead funnels, you want your advertisement to be seen not necessarily by a ton of people, but by the right people. Social media platforms allow you to set specific parameters for your ad, such demographics and interests. When creating your paid ad, here a few key details to remember: 

• Make sure your ad is visually enticing to your target market. You want to “stop the scroll.” For example, an engaging infographic comparing your company’s insurance rate to a competitor gets your audience’s attention while providing valuable information.
• Be clear about what you are offering (services, a consultation, webinar, free download, etc.).
• Include a strong call-to-action (“Learn more” or “Contact us”). 

Once you determine the best campaign for your company, it’s time to start leveraging social media to extend your marketing reach (without spending a billion dollars). 

For more tips on balancing social media marketing with compliance concerns, check out this helpful post.   

We are looking for a digital maven to join the Out & About team as the Digital Marketing Assistant. This part-time position will include day-to-day administrative duties, PR research and outreach, scheduling content, updating design files and projects as assigned. To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter and portfolio to hello@outandaboutcomm.com.

Primary Responsibilities:

• The idea of working with a creative team — virtually — sounds like an amazing experience to partner and learn from others who love their craft.
• No task is too big or too small. You take initiative to learn new tools and solve problems.
• If handed content and assets, you could go to town creating web pages, blog posts, and email layouts in HubSpot, WordPress, MailChimp or similar tools. 
• You know enough about Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop to be dangerous. You can navigate your way around design files to edit and update them. If you have a question, you know Google knows the answer.
• You are passionate about social media. You utilize scheduling tools like CoSchedule, HubSpot and more. When you schedule social posts, you have a keen eye for detail to ensure that there aren’t errors, typos and that the post is timely. You love seeing each post go out and for it to be as optimized as possible.
• If given a task to research the nitty gritty for PR contacts, to uncover award opportunities, or dig into the details -- you dive in. You understand the importance of reliable research, and how it helps to inform decision making.
• You love reaching out to the media and following up to PR opportunities. You keep a clean inbox. Your response time is wicked fast.
• You are inspired by workflow challenges to better enhance the end product. You geek out about automation and integrations. The unknown is welcomed. You are always up to take the initiative and learn something new. 
• You can work well under pressure. You get a task that needs an edit to polish it off, and you say “I got it!”
• Bottom line, you’re up for jumping in to learn and get your hands dirty on projects big and small. 

Educational Level:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, preferably in graphic design, marketing or journalism.

Related Experience:

• 1+ years of hands-on experience with tactical marketing projects from development to execution.

General/Special Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to work quickly and efficiently under pressure with strong communication skills.
• High attention to detail when making edits and reviewing documents.
• A self-starter who has a genuine passion for marketing, excellent judgment, and an efficient work ethic.
• Basic understanding of Adobe Creative Suite, social media, scheduling tools, WordPress blog, HubSpot marketing tools, and email marketing tools.
• Fluency in Google Docs and Dropbox.

We talk a lot about women in business, and the slow but steady increase of women in business. But what about women specifically in the financial services industry?

According to data from the CFP® Board, only 23% of the nearly 90,000 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals are women. In other areas of the industry, we see a higher representation of female employees. For example, according to a report by McKinsey & Company, women hold over half of the entry-level insurance jobs in the U.S.

Unfortunately, regardless of the area within financial services, there is a common place women are missing: at the top. A study by Deloitte Center for Financial Services looked at the financial services industry as a whole (banks, insurance, payroll, wealth management, etc.) and found while women make up more than 50% of the overall workforce, they hold only 21% of leadership roles.

The reasons for this discrepancy vary. A 2014 report on behalf of the CFP® Board’s Women’s Initiative (WIN) examined why women might be lacking in the industry. The author of the report, Eleanor Blayney, CFP®, found women have a general lack of awareness of financial planning. Her research also showed that when it specifically comes to becoming a CFP®, many women have misperceptions about the profession and certification process. This coincides with her findings that there is still gender discrimination and bias within the financial services industry, which likely results in women feeling unwelcomed or unsupported.

These barriers present a real opportunity to continue to increase the representation of women in financial services. In the industry, women not only have the chance to create success for themselves, but they are then able to guide other women along the way. This can be in the form of mentorship or a professional relationship, such as advisor/client.

Not surprisingly, the female market is filled with untapped potential. A study done by Boston Consulting Group found 73% of women are unsatisfied with their financial services providers and 71% are unsatisfied with services they receive from investment, insurance, and credit card providers. That means females in the industry have the opportunity to provide quality care and services. As a result, the more positive experiences women have in financial services will likely lead to an increase in the number of women who seek careers in the field.

At Out & About, one way we contribute to the diversifying of the industry is through the stories we share on our On Purpose spotlight series:

• Danielle Chuckran shares her innovative approach to the disconnect between sales and marketing in wealth management. Learn more about Danielle and her approach here.
• Marianela Collado, CEO and senior wealth advisor at Tobias Financial Advisors, started keeping her personal books and buying stocks at 15 after watching her parents struggle financially. Learn more about her story here.
• Sheena Gray works to train industry leaders to equip them with the tools to create an inclusive work environment. Learn more about how she does this here.
• Meredith Benton, founder and principal of Whistle Stop Capital, believes firm transparency is key to diversifying the financial services industry. Learn more about how her own company does this here.

If you’re interested in reading about more amazing women in the financial services industry, check out our On Purpose series here.

Cameo Roberson, founder of Atlas Park Consulting, helps financial advisors and independent advisory firms build a way of doing business before “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” becomes the norm! After two decades in the client service trenches of advisory firms, she launched Atlas Park in 2018. Since then, she’s assisted in the development of over 1,000 workflows/processes across 30+ US-based fee-only and fee-based advisory firms. Cameo helps her clients create simplicity + process to grow revenue using a five-step roadmap that shows how to get everything done by having systems in place. Cameo is an editorial contributor for US News & World Report, Financial Advisor section, member of the FPA Silicon Valley, and Northern CA regional delegate for Females & Finance (F&F).

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please visit Cameo's LinkedIn page.

What is one practical thing a company can do to market to a broader audience?

Find a niche group you want to work with. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but when you try to reach everyone, you appeal to no one. By targeting your ideal clients, your voice becomes louder, and you can cut through the noise. We're all bombarded with messaging. Too much of it and we shut down. If you can pinpoint your solutions to an ideal group, others will hear your message, too. This can position you for more business!

How is your company positioning itself for success long term?

Strategic, intentional networking. No one is successful in isolation. I am building relationships with service providers who also serve my ideal clients. I know what I'm good at and want to be a solid resource for my clients. By building relationships with professionals who my clients will need, I position Atlas Park as a strategic collaborator.

How does your company envision the future of the market you serve?

Consumers will continue to seek out qualified financial advisors for direction and the demand for these professionals will increase. It's a great time to build a business that can meet the demand, given professionals’ growth goals. Aspiring financial planners will have good job prospects in the coming years. One key area I see as an opportunity for growth is advisory firms taking the time to well-define, execute, and improve their business operations. No longer are firms tied to geographic location to work with clients. The sky’s the limit for firms that acknowledge and then build the right infrastructure to expand their reach.

If you enjoyed this spotlight, please share this post and follow the links below.

Website: atlasparkco.com/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cameoroberson

Twitter: @atlasparkco

Facebook Page: @atlasparkco

Instagram: @atlasparkco

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from FinServ Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends in finserv by signing up here: