Digital Marketing Priorities For Wealth Managers – Part One

This is the first in a series of posts about the key issues that wealth managers must concentrate on in regards to digital marketing.

I’ll kick this off by looking at a key element of marketing, which is even more important in the digital age – trust.

First, some questions: Would you trust Jeff Bezos? Would you trust Elon Musk? And would you have trusted Steve Jobs? Maybe, maybe not – your level of trust for these three men is probably based on your personal perception of them.

But let me phrase those questions differently: Would you trust Jobs to design you an amazing device? Bezos to sell your goods online? And Musk to build you an incredible electric car? The answer, from you and anyone else, is going to be yes. Because their track record is incredible – they have shown their absolute ability in their chosen sector to get the very best for their customers. So, each one is trusted. And they have all built a global business empire on the back of that trust.

So, trust is a fundamental element of success.

And it is even more important in the wealth management sector. As nobody is going to give their money to someone they don’t trust. But polls consistently place financiers way down the list of trusted professions – languishing at the bottom along with ad execs and politicians. The public image is of greedy, faceless profiteers. And that is not a good look.

So how – in a digital world where you rarely see people face to face anymore – do you build trust as a wealth manager or private bank? There are three ways you can do this:

Firstly, look at your copy:

The content you have on your website, and in your emails, brochures etc. This needs to be genuine, authentic and truthful – so that it almost reads like a personal conversation. But often the opposite is true, and wealth management copy is just corporate-speak that’s ridden with clichés and financial jargon.

 

Secondly, you can talk about the good you do:

It’s easier to trust a company that exists for a reason beyond just profit – so you must promote your charitable initiatives and community work. If you don’t talk about the good you do, with specific examples, then you create a vacuum that can be filled by critics with an axe to grind. This ties into the ‘why’ of your company, which you should always try and communicate through your marketing. This is far more important than the ‘how’ or ‘what’ of your operation.

 

Thirdly – and perhaps most importantly – you need to choose your figurehead carefully:

Too many wealth managers and private banks have smug, self-satisfied people facing their marketing material. This is a big problem, but easily solved. You need to find honest, helpful faces – the sort that people will trust – to front your marketing.

Put all these things together and you can elevate trust in your firm and overcome the mistrust that so often bedevils the wealth management sector.