Increasingly, financial advisors are using social media to communicate with clients, share relevant content with a captive audience, and increase their productivity by streamlining client outreach efforts. Some advisors who do not use social media cite compliance limitations as the primary reason. To the extent that they have weighed in, the SEC and FINRA allow financial advisors to communicate [...]
According to a December 2014 Putnam Investments study, 75% of financial advisors use social media for client development, and 66% credit their social media use for gaining new clients. That’s up from 49% in 2013 and represents an average $5.5 million in additional assets. Not unlike the financial planning business, social media is about building and maintaining relationships. Up-to-date [...]
As hard as people try to predict performance, it is very difficult to do. For that matter, even looking backward can be tricky. For example, industry experts sometimes disagree on how best to interpret past performance and risk data for the purpose of evaluating future possibilities. In an article late last year, Advisor Perspectives editor Robert Huebscher concluded that [...]
E-newsletters are an excellent and increasingly common way to connect with existing and potential clients. E-newsletters allow you to showcase your industry knowledge and expertise in order to “confirm the purchase” with your clients. Alternatively, an e-newsletter is a great way to stay top-of-mind with prospects and continue to “drip” on them with your know-how and experience. But breaking [...]
Earlier this year, Pershing published, The Second Annual Study of Advisory Success - A New Age of Client Communications and Client Expectations. The study defines what success means for advisors and highlights key issues facing advisors. This year’s study finds that successful advisors embrace client communications best practices and work to meet their clients’ evolving expectations regarding access to [...]
Recently we posted comments on “what you should know about links in news releases,” describing why links in news releases don’t help boost search-engine rankings of the websites to which they point (e.g., issuers’ sites). We suggested you keep issuing news releases when you think someone might be searching for its content—which is indexed by search engines even though [...]
A must-read article by Morningstar (at this link) shares the results of the annual joint Morningstar/Barron’s survey of how advisors and institutions use and perceive alternative investments. Alternative investments is a “catch-all” investment category that includes hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate partnerships, and mutual funds that seek to mimic these and other types of investments. Many alternative [...]
Whether you are a financial services firm offering retirement plan services, an investment manager with a compelling line up of mutual funds or an investment advisory firm selling to high net worth individuals, you need to clearly and concisely state your value proposition. This is especially important in markets that are commoditized, such as the retirement plan marketplace, or [...]
The algorithms Google and other search engines use to rank and select content are complex and constantly evolving. We are not experts on search but want to share what we’ve learned about the impact on search of news releases, wire services, and links. A few years back, we began helping our clients embed links in news releases in order [...]
Several news stories document the declining viewership of business news broadcast networks, including this Wall Street Journal story from late last year about struggles at CNBC, Fox Business Network, and Bloomberg Television. At the same time, financial online video continues to grow, creating more opportunities to tell your story in a video format. CNBC now produces online video programs, [...]
