Tracking client milestones and automating personalized messages can ensure they resonate with the right client at the right moment.Zerbor/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
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The key to standing out in the world of financial services isn’t just providing sound financial advice – it’s knowing your clients and offering advice at important moments of their lives. This is the bedrock of life event-based marketing, a strategy that allows financial advisors to deepen relationships with clients by aligning marketing with key milestones. Such a tailored approach not only enhances engagement but underscores the advisor’s role as a trusted partner throughout the client’s life.
These milestones – which include buying a home, getting married, having children and retiring – are pivotal as they reshape the client’s financial landscape and emotional world. By understanding the importance of these moments, advisors can anticipate changes in their clients’ needs and priorities, providing advice that is deeply relevant.
The effectiveness of life event-based marketing hinges on personal communication. In a world cluttered with generic messages, speaking directly to a client’s circumstances cuts through the noise. For example, an advisor might send a personalized note or a tailored financial checklist to a client who has just had a baby, demonstrating compassion and an understanding that goes beyond mere numbers.
Technology can help, with modern advanced customer relationship management systems able to track client milestones and provide analytics tools that can predict future needs. Automating personalized communications ensures messages resonate with the right client at the right moment.
Implementing a life event-based marketing strategy starts with segmentation, dividing clients according to life stages and anticipated milestones for targeted communications. Engagement should extend beyond just financial advice and celebrate the milestones to build loyalty. An important component of this strategy is the feedback loop, in which advisors seek and act on client feedback regarding the support provided at those key moments.
Life event-based marketing offers advisors a way to become indispensable partners in their clients’ lives. By leveraging the emotional and financial significance of life’s milestones, advisors not only enhance client engagement but also position themselves as irreplaceable guides through life’s complexities. As the financial landscape continues to evolve, the ability to provide personalized and timely advice tailored to each client’s unique circumstances will become increasingly valuable.
Emily Reed is co-founder and chief executive officer at HeyAdvisor in Toronto.
Must-reads from Globe Advisor this week
The product launches keep coming. How can advisors keep up?
Fund companies release a firehose of new investment products every year – from duplicates of existing products with minor tweaks, to copycats of competitors’ offerings, to wholesale new ideas. How can advisors keep up? While it isn’t practical to review every new product, An-Lap Vo-Dignard, senior wealth advisor and portfolio manager with Vo-Dignard Provost Family Wealth Management at National Bank Financial Wealth Management in Montreal, says advisors need to do enough research not just to tell clients about the products they want to use “but also products we don’t want to use [and] know how to explain it to the client.” Kelsey Rolfe reports.
Financial resilience is the newest training ground for Canadian military members
Developing physical and mental resilience is a big part of the training Canadian military members receive to deal with the stress that comes with the business of war. Yet, relatively little emphasis has been placed on financial stamina for those in the service and transitioning to civilian careers or retirement. Retired Major-General David Fraser, a defence and security sector advisor for BMO, says today’s military personnel have more choices and arguably more challenges, which can complicate financial planning. “Without a trusted advisor, people can get into trouble,” Mr. Fraser says, and that can affect their personal lives and their careers. Brenda Bouw reports.
Stronger risk appetite drove investment strategies this RRSP season
The first two months of the year, when investors choose where to put their RRSP contributions to work, can give a sense of the mood for the year ahead in markets. In comparison to 2023, when investors poured money into fixed income products, risk appetites changed this year as investors put $7.4-billion into equity ETFs. “This suggests to us that investors were feeling quite a bit more buoyant at the start of 2024 than in 2023, when most people were still nursing the lingering bruises from 2022′s brutal year in both the stock and bond markets,” says Daniel Straus, managing director of ETF research and strategy at National Bank Financial Inc. Gillian Livingston reports.
Summer vacation is calling. Here are three ways to ensure clients are taken care of while you’re away
As summer approaches, financial advisors face the challenge of ensuring seamless client service while taking well-deserved vacations. To maintain client trust and satisfaction during these periods, managing expectations before heading out on holiday is essential. “Advisors should add an out-of-office alert to their email signature approximately two weeks before their departure, advising clients of the dates they’re away, if they will have phone or e-mail access, and whether there will be no reply or a delay in replying,” says Melissa Harrell, a financial planner with McRae Wealth Management in Winnipeg. Here are three steps advisors can take.
Also see:
How owning insurance in a corporation can address changes to the capital gains inclusion rate
Investing isn’t about always being right, this advisor says – it’s about not being really wrong
Wealth management firms need a new approach to attract young talent
What you and your clients need to know
Retirees: Is it better to invest in bonds or GICs?
Four years ago, fixed-income investments such as long-term bonds or GICs offered almost no return at all. That changed when inflation soared in 2022. While interest rates are now off their peaks, they still offer much higher nominal returns than they did in 2020. But which should retirees or aspiring retirees choose now: bonds or GICs? Frederick Vettese reports.
Canadian corporate debt soars in second quarter
Canadian businesses went on a borrowing binge in the second quarter. Corporate debt deals totalled $35.1-billion between April and June, financial data service Refinitiv said in a report, nearly doubling the $17.9-billion borrowed during the same period in 2023. The figure represents the second-highest quarterly debt issuance in at least 12 years, surpassed only by the lending frenzy of mid-2020 as companies stockpiled cash in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jameson Berkow reports.
New 30-year mortgages are coming and the devil’s in the details
Last week, two months after the Liberal government moved to introduce 30-year amortization for insured mortgages, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced that it will boost its premium for this type of mortgage by 20 basis points. Starting Aug. 1, Canadian first-time homebuyers purchasing a newly built home for less than $1-million with a down payment smaller than 20 per cent will be able to opt in to an insured 30-year amortization period. The policy was designed to make home ownership more tenable for young Canadians. But the strict eligibility requirements and CMHC’s recent premium hike have cast doubts on the true benefit. Mariya Postelnyak reports.
– Globe Advisor Staff