RIA aggregators and platforms have experienced unprecedented growth in recent years and now account for more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM).1 But such growth has led more firms to flock to the model, leaving you with a serious challenge: how do you distinguish your platform amongst dozens of competitors, all fighting over the same high-value advisors?
The answer is using marketing to boost your message and build your brand – and this article will show you how. We’ll look at eight different channels that have proven results for RIAs looking to acquire new advisors with a valuable book of business, based on our experience helping one platform generate $2.2 billion in new pipeline across a single year.
But first, let’s address some initial scepticism: why would you even need eight different marketing channels?
Traditional growth strategies within financial advisory circles have focused on in-person networking and referrals secured through centers of influence (COIs). But while those methods still drive results, a new landscape is emerging where advisors increasingly use the internet to research RIA aggregators and explore their professional options.
Imagine a single browsing session:
These are all opportunities to reach them and promote your platform. RIAs that want to beat the competition must seize all of them – and deliver a single, coherent message and brand image that resonates with their audience and builds trust.
The latest Kitces report finds that the fastest-growing firms are more likely to:
So, let’s explore how you can follow those findings – and drive faster growth by expanding your marketing channels.
The following channels drive reliable results for RIA aggregators and RIA platforms:
Webinars are among the most popular marketing channels – yet appear to be heavily underutilized by RIA aggregators. Many advisors will happily spend an hour learning about a topic that will help them improve their practice, making webinars the perfect opportunity for your platform to position itself as a trusted guide and source of expert insight.
It’s important to note that webinars require patience and discipline. Many firms instinctively want to use webinars as a promotional tool, but this almost always backfires. Your target advisors are likely time-poor and will only attend an event they believe will actively help their careers. Nobody wants to spend an hour watching a glorified sales pitch!
Avoid this by focusing on topics that add real value to advisors, such as advice about practice management, operational efficiency or growth - all of which can easily tie back into your platform offering without raising too many eyebrows.
Expert Tips:
The average advisor will use Google during every stage of their process of researching and selecting an RIA aggregator. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your firm to appear at the top of those searches and become an integral part of that process, ultimately building trust and becoming the “go-to” option when they decide to make the leap.
For example, you might produce a series of blogs that explain how different RIA models work, as this is a topic with which many advisors will struggle. They would then discover your content during their research and start engaging with your firm, maybe by subscribing to your newsletter for more updates or downloading a piece of content. This principle applies across the entire marketing funnel, meaning you could potentially reach new advisors who are actively looking for an RIA aggregator.
Note: Our complete guide to RIA SEO covers the full range of techniques you can use to rank for the terms for which your target advisors search.
Expert Tips:
Paid search allows you to skip the queue and simply pay Google to list your website at the top of search rankings. This is particularly useful for firms that are less well established and may not want to wait several months for their SEO content to start ranking organically.
The only downside to paid search is that you must be very careful in managing your budget. Much of the process becomes automated and must be manually altered to avoid bidding on keywords that are irrelevant or simply not producing a strong return. We always recommend our RIA clients start small with such campaigns and slowly build upon what works over time.
Expert Tip:
When we talk about organic social, let’s be honest: we really mean LinkedIn. Roughly 90% of financial advisors use the platform3 – and many are actively using it to seek out professional advice or options for their future progress. This makes it the perfect space to promote your platform and connect with advisors on a personal level.
While it’s possible to drive leads through LinkedIn, its primary value is more reputational. Most advisors today will check out your profile when considering whether to connect with sales or join the platform. Having a strong network and clear engagement signals trustworthiness and will ultimately help move the deal forward.
Expert Tip:
LinkedIn Ads are a great way to benefit from the platform’s popularity before you have built an organic following. Using advanced targeting options, you can serve eye-catching ads to your ideal advisors with a relatively high level of precision, and use that attention to promote your brand at every stage of the marketing funnel.
Your ads could promote downloadable assets, promotional videos, or simply urge advisors to learn more about your platform or book a meeting. This makes LinkedIn ads highly versatile and a great way to amplify specific campaigns or support a larger marketing strategy.
Expert Tips:
Gated content is any high-value asset, such as an infographic, eBook, or whitepaper, that advisors want so much they will give you their contact details to access it. This is a powerful lead generation tactic for RIA aggregators because gated content typically relies upon industry expertise, and firms tend to have that in abundance.
For example, one RIA aggregator we’ve worked with drove great results using a growth guide that explained how advisors could build their practice. Not only did the guide provide real value for the advisors who downloaded it – but it also allowed the firm to subtly position their platform as offering the various features advisors need to grow.
Expert Tips:
Joining an RIA aggregator is a potentially career-changing decision for advisors, and they therefore take a good deal of time considering their options. Warm email is a great marketing channel to maintain engagement throughout that process, helping you nurture leads and stay top of mind when they are finally ready to take the plunge.
There are many ways to approach this – from running a weekly newsletter to deploying strategic campaigns that promote your services. But all are relatively efficient due to the low cost of email as a channel.
Expert Tip:
Cold email is far from the most reliable marketing channel, but it can be surprisingly effective at connecting with new leads, especially for aggregators that target advisors at specific firms. This is because your emails can lean directly into the most relevant pain points advisors at those specific firms experience and showcase exactly why your platform offers them a better deal.
Our experience suggests cold email must be highly strategic – it should never be the foundation of a lead generation strategy – and deployed sparingly to avoid harming your platform’s reputation within the industry. But like warm email, the costs of cold email are extremely low, and landing even a single new advisor based on the channel would likely repay all your efforts multiple times over.
ProperExpression is a full-stack digital marketing agency that helps RIAs drive faster, more efficient growth. Our team offers expertise across the entire digital marketing spectrum, allowing us to leverage the exact mix of channels your target advisors respond to – and attract more advisors while reducing acquisition costs.
One client recently drove $2.2 billion AUM in new pipeline in a single year. Want to spend 15 minutes with our CEO to immediately assess whether you could achieve similar results?