Effective marketing strategies for going RIA

One of the hardest things an advisor can face when going RIA is creating an authentic brand and finding the right marketing strategies to build awareness and attract clients to their firm.

First and foremost, advisors should be focused on creating a website, where in the first five seconds of clients landing on the page “they will know who you are, what you do, and who you do it for,” says Samantha Russell, chief evangelist at FMG Suite.

“Answer those questions very explicitly so that it makes it easy for people to know if you work with people just like them? The more specific you are, the easier it's going to be to create messaging that attracts that audience.”

The second strategy should be crafting a personal brand. Asking questions like, what do you want to be known for, what kind of brand you’re looking to have and how you can weave personal stories into all of the firm’s marketing will allow people get to know you as a person, Russell says.

“Once you’ve figured that out, you can start crafting social media posts or other types of content and email campaigns.:

Russell points to not having an email list as a failure for several advisors.

“Email is the one of the most effective ways to convert prospects and leads,” she said. “By having their email, you can create a newsletter or a weekly email. Every week, send all the people that are on that list who are not yet working with you an email that just has helpful information in it like estate planning or ‘Here's what you need to know and take action on by the end of 2025.’”

“Have a plan,” asserts Joe Mooney, managing director, advisor engagement and enterprise development at Concurrent. “Think before you type, especially when it comes to comments and know who your audience is.”

Posting about events that the firm is doing and posts that are thematic or philanthropic tend to do well and drive engagement with prospects, Mooney added.

Russell also advises how beneficial it can be to implement case studies' into a firm's marketing. It's a main benefit of being an RIA, since many broker-dealers still don't allow for case studies to be used. 

“Use case studies, and put them everywhere,” she says. “One thing we have really found is that people want to envision themselves being helped. If you use stories, you're going to really resonate over facts and figures. Case studies allow people to picture themselves getting their problem solved.”

Another benefit of including case studies as a marketing tool, notes Russell, is being able to repurpose them in multiple places like a social media post, an email campaign or making a video.

Rather than thinking about what tactics can be used for marketing, Russell suggests figuring out what about the business is marketable.

“Let's say you offer tax planning and estate planning in house. That's something that's really marketable,” she says.

Additionally, having a niche can also help with one’s branding as Ashley Russo, founder of Russo Wealth Management says. Because she focuses on a niche, “having that level of knowledge around stock and taxes, has created its own branding.”

“There's very few women in this space and there's very few folks that are licensed to have that level of knowledge to be able to handle all of that strategically,” said Russo. “It created its own machine.”

Advisors who are serious about scaling and growing their firm, Russell believes they have to be willing to “outsource the things that are going to take too much time,” pointing to content creation and scheduling and sending emails.

“Only you can meet with clients,” she added. “When it comes to content creation, you can outsource a lot of content creation, but only you can get in front of the camera and make the video. Make a list of ‘What are the things only I could do?’ and focus your time there.

“Outsource everything else that you can.”

In the end, Russell believes comparing the business to a magnet.

“The mistake a lot of new business owners make is they don't want to repel anyone, they only want to be in attract mode,” she says. “But when you're trying to attract everyone, you end up attracting no one because your message has to be specific in order for it to resonate.”