Sheri Fitts doesn’t mince words.
“401(k) advisors are 10 years behind where they need to be with their digital marketing,” the affable founder of ShoeFitts Marketing said from the floor of Excel 401(k): The Advisors’ Conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon. “They desperately need to do better, but they use compliance as an excuse.”
Part of the problem, she said, is that advisors only see it as posting to various social media outlets, which is cumbersome and time consuming, rather than part of an integrated marketing strategy. Arguing that there are many aspects to “social selling,” they need to realize the value of having appropriate digital resources in alignment with a great marketing strategy.
“We have Grandmas on Facebook, for goodness sake, and we all live and breathe Google,” she emphasized. “The 401(k) advisor’s competition is only a click away, and they have no idea how many people have come to their websites and left. Potential clients will stalk them (not in a creepy way) before they ever contact them, and they’ll move on if they aren’t comfortable with the advisor’s digital presence.”
When asked what should be done immediately to get advisors up to speed digitally as quickly as possible, Fitts didn’t hesitate, and provided four ideas to implement now.
“Forget apps,” she said of the first. “They cost $50,000 $100,000 to produce. Instead, do a simple yet creative YouTube video that is the bomb. You’ll get far more traffic and it will immediately raise your profile.”
She believes websites will remain relevant in the face of newer mobile technology for at least a decade (because someone will always need a digital “home base”), and for that reason her second recommendation was that advisors with smaller budgets “spend it updating their website, rather than producing a brochure.”
She also noted that social properties owned by advisors must now be listed on the ADV, but too many advisors aren’t using them.
“Perform a digital audit and make the intentional decision about which channels you’ll use. Why take a risk with the SEC if you’re not going to use them?”
Lastly, she all but ordered, get “your [rhymes with bass] on LinkedIn. It’s a way to get lots of branch traffic and connections with a little bit of effort. Too many advisors fail to realize how seamless it is.”
Fitts is a speaker, consultant, and “participant advocate who works with financial services organizations to help them leverage marketing, branding, social media and personal connections to compete for and win business.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
