Financial Advisors Are Still Out There Swinging—What Are You Pitching?

Even though I didn’t plan it that way, can we think of this as Part 2 to my last post Fresh Ways to Explain the Financial Crisis? In that post I highlighted some innovative props for explaining what the heck has been going on these last several months. But there are other ways to look at how the crisis is being communicated about, and that’s to “listen in” on what financial advisors are saying to their clients.

In our meetings with financial services marketers lately, we’ve been showing a word cloud that’s a concise look at what’s on financial advisors’ minds. The cloud was created by Bill Winterberg, a certified financial planner, based on a list contributed by advisors prior to a Webinar. (Still with me? Here’s where you can see the full list of How Advisors Are Responding to the Financial Crisis that the below image draws from.)

Marketers will be marketers, God love ya and that invariably means you’re making plans, introducing new funds, promoting three- and five- and 10-year performance standings. So, in our meetings, we try to find a moment to contemplate the word cloud and what it means for the investment product marketer. More than anything right now, clients are what’s on the financial advisors’ minds, and there’s no rest for the weary.

How are the marketing strategies, tactics and OK, even products going to connect with all that?

An easy Twitter search produces an even more up-close-and-personal peek into how financial advice continues to be dispensed. Below is a random assortment of tweets from the last day or so. I don’t know any of these people, but don’t their 140-character reports help make the dynamic real? Around the country today as they do every day, advisors and their clients are trying to work it out.

In this environment, what can help Marketing make the shift it needs to in order to be relevant to advisors and investors? You can. The digital marketer can’t be just about widgets and keyword density. What you know and what you can show your colleagues about using the Web to listen in can help Marketing find its appropriate voice.