For financial advisors who rely on their firms’ marketing support efforts to help them grow their businesses, boutique-style services that offer customized, individual-oriented strategies have long been a source of advisor satisfaction. Now, it appears that bank-owned dealers are catching on to this trend.
This is evident in advisors’ ratings in the “firm’s marketing support for advisor’s practice” category, as the overall average rating rose to 7.8 from 7.3 year-over-year. More specifically, three of the five firms that saw their ratings in the category increase by half a point or more were bank-owned dealers that have invested in providing such services.
The perennial top performers in this category — Macquarie Private Wealth Inc. and Richardson GMP Ltd., both based in Toronto — continue to set the benchmark, as they offer their advisors personalized services such as website development and access to specialists who help advisors develop customized marketing campaigns and materials. It’s no surprise, then, that these two firms have the highest ratings in the category, at 9.4 and 9.0, respectively.
Macquarie advisors laud their firm’s support services as being customized to each advisor. Says a Macquarie advisor in Ontario: “Our marketing department acts as an in-house boutique in which advisors are treated like clients. It allows us to be innovative with our marketing strategies.”
Richardson GMP advisors also praise their firm’s marketing support, which includes personalized websites for advisors, as well as a full range of related services.
“We have marketing professionals who are very hands-on in helping advisors,” says Andrew Marsh, the firm’s president and CEO. “We design client invitations, we organize client events — anything that an advisor would like to delegate to us to get advice and help with on the marketing front, that team does a great job.”
In turn, the bank-owned dealers have acknowledged the demand for such services and have begun to add regional and in-branch marketing specialists who are focused on providing a more hands-on approach. One firm that succeeded greatly in employing such a strategy is Toronto-based ScotiaMcleod Inc., which saw its rating in the category increase sharply, to 8.8 from 5.8 in 2012.
In the past, ScotiaMcLeod advisors expressed the need for more direct marketing assistance, feeling that there was no such support. The firm listened and has since added five regional marketing consultants whose role is to help advisors develop and execute their marketing plans.
“We wanted to create a flexible and supportive system that provides the right tools and resources to make the marketing job easier [for advisors],” says Hamish Angus, managing director and head of ScotiaMcleod: “[The regional marketing consultants are there] for advisors. And in their tool kits, they have everything from brand support or [the ability] to help [advisors] build a brand.”
ScotiaMcLeod advi-sors have embraced the specialists’ support. “Regional marketing consultants get materials back [to us] in 24 hours,” says an advisor in Alberta. “The firm also provides [marketing tools for] client events.”
Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (DS), for its part, is known for investing heavily in wealth-management support. But in the past year, DS has turned its focus toward in-house marketing support. In turn, its rating in this category rose to 8.0 from 7.1 in 2012.
In fact, David Agnew, DS’s CEO and national director, says that marketing support is very important to the firm and it is increasing its focus on the area.
“We help advisors put together advertising campaigns,” Agnew explains, “We [also] focus on prospecting methods, we help them host events and we have a marketing group [that assists advisors in] marketing themselves.”
DS advisors appreciate these efforts. Says an advisor in Atlantic Canada: “I’ve had multiple meetings with marketing consultants, and they’ve offered very specific advice on what I can do to promote my business.”
The other bank-owned dealer that saw its rating in this category rise by half a point or more is Toronto-based BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. In the past, Nesbitt advisors were unhappy with the limited option of marketing templates available and the lack of human interaction. But Bill Brown, the firm’s national sales manager, notes that there is now a marketing portal available, as well as marketing managers who work with advisors in a more hands-on fashion.
“The role of our marketing manager really is to work with [advisors] to help them [within] their own branches,” Brown says. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback coming from investment advisors, in terms of what can be improved from a marketing perspective.”
The introduction of these services has resulted in Nesbitt’s rating rising to 6.6 from 5.7 last year. However, the firm has the lowest rating in the category, which indicates advisors’ concerns have not been fully addressed.
“There is a marketing specialist who has been assigned to our branch now,” says a Nesbitt advi-sor in Atlantic Canada. “But [that person is] more reactive than proactive, [acting] more as a compliance officer who approves our materials than as a marketing specialist.”
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