Marketing tips for the robo component of an adviser’s practice

Advisers who add a robo-adviser platform to their practices may be ahead of the curve, but there’s still more to be done — particularly marketing the robo to reach prospects and drive client acquisition.

Advisers need to find ways to market their new tools in order to attract prospects and convince them to become clients. Jemstep, an adviser-facing robo-adviser software provider, has teamed up with marketing agency Trungale, Egan + Associates, to help advisers do just that.

The primary goal of the partnership with TE+A is to maximize web traffic to an automated investment service’s website and generate leads for advisers who are offering the robo platform. Advisers working with Jemstep will have access to email and social media channels to market their digital tools. There will be no additional charge for using either of those marketing tactics.

“Many investment advisers are not specialists at online marketing,” said Simon Roy, president of Jemstep. “We want to make sure we enable firms to get the most out of the platform, and one of the key elements is marketing.”

That is the natural next step after implementing a robo, after all.

“If you’re going to have a robo platform, it only makes sense to include a marketing component — especially for smaller advisers who struggle to get the word out and market themselves,” said Walter Lis, a digital strategist who works with financial advisers.

For advisers who use these digital tools, it’s more than just talking to clients about the functionality of the robo. They can do that simply by explaining that the platform has additional features to check and manage an asset allocation, making those portfolios easily accessible through web portals and apps.

Marketing comes down to where to place the robo-adviser on a firm’s website and how to communicate to clients and get the word out to prospects that these new features are available.

Rick Keaft, senior vice president of business development and marketing at Redhawk Wealth Advisors in Minneapolis, said his firm uses email signatures as a way to market its robo offering. The firm has a link to the robo at the bottom of every email that its advisers send, which also allows executives to track which links generate the most leads.

“It is very easy for the end user,” Mr. Keaft said. “They click on the link attached to the adviser’s email and start going through the steps.”

Jimmy Douglas is general manager of Advisor Launchpad, a company focused on helping advisers provide fresh content for their websites. He said traditional marketing can attract clients to a robo-adviser website or app. Examples of promotional content include an educational e-book, white paper and video.

“When a potential investor is coming across the firm for the first time, if they are providing any bit of information at the very early stage of interaction with them, then it opens the door to a conversation where both sides are benefiting from the very beginning,” Mr. Douglas said.

Still, it’s an uphill battle before robos are marketed more frequently, as many advisers are hesitant to fully embrace the robo movement. Many are afraid that offering an automated investment service could effectively down-sell existing clients and attract mostly low-net-worth prospects.
However, many clients are demanding more comprehensive digital features and functionality, and advisers who are early adopters are embracing new technology to try to cast a wider client-acquisition net.

Mr. Roy said the ultimate goal for a successful robo-marketing strategy is having clients sign themselves up for the investment platform at a convenient time, for example late one weekday evening after work.

“You want to make sure firms have a quality online experience,” he said.

Doing that successfully requires having a clearly defined target audience. Mr. Lis said that’s always the biggest challenge, even more so when clients are at all different stages of their financial lives.

“You have to be able to identify what language to speak with your customer — if you are marketing a robo-adviser, you need to understand that,” he added.

Although there are pressures to adopt a robo platform to keep with the changing times, according to a Corporate Insight study from February, only 5% of the 500 financial advisers surveyed said they saw an opportunity to use a robo-adviser to complement their practices.

In the 2015 InvestmentNews Technology Study, 3% of the 234 advisers surveyed said they currently offer any sort of digital advice. When asked if they plan to offer a robo-advice platform in the next six-to-12 months, 11% said yes.

Sean McDermott, an analyst at Corporate Insight, said that may change as larger firms launch their own robos, such as Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and Vanguard Personal Advisor Services.

“Rather than fearing robo firms — or worse, ignoring them altogether — forward-looking financial advisers should leverage the technology to improve the efficiency and productivity of their practices,” Mr. McDermott said in an email.

“Though we expect adoption to increase moving forward, we’re only aware of a handful of independent advisers that have already incorporated a robo offering into their business,” he said.