More than half of the 414 advisers surveyed at the end of 2023 said they were struggling with client acquisition, according to research from Fidelity Institutional. While 42% said marketing and business development were a top priority, there was little agreement on implementing and evaluating different strategies.
In response to the data collected, Fidelity has created a digital “Growth Center” available to any advisor interested in learning which techniques and technologies can make research faster and more effective, improve client engagement, and scale processes.
Unveiled Monday, the web-based portal offers more than 50 guides, white papers, e-books, digital learning modules, worksheets, videos and more. It includes step-by-step processes like growing referrals, getting actionable feedback and customer segmentation, and information on successful talent strategies and technology tools that can support all stages of the customer lifecycle.
The content is grouped into three levels that reflect different stages of creating a comprehensive organic growth strategy, according to Rohit Mahna, head of client growth for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Management Services.
“Are you still in the early stages of research? Are you beyond that stage and looking to deepen customer relationships? Or are you at a later stage and looking to turn the numbers up or down, which is our third stage around scale and optimization,” Mahna explained. “The bottom line is we're trying to go wide and deep.”
According to Fidelity research, 64% of digitally empowered advisors agree that they are able to grow their book of business faster because of their firm's marketing and business development tools and processes compared to their non-digital peers. -digital (28%).
“For a firm that may be struggling with building several key generations and still in the early stages, this pillar of perspective will be helpful. But once you get into that, we've been very thoughtful about how we bring that content together in a cohesive and logical way,” Mahha said. “Advisors can find content to help them find and nurture prospects, to create the brand, develop the right PR strategy and be really thoughtful about the events, which we all know are really important. There's also content in referrals, we have a lot of best practices for that.”
Mahna said advisers want more than just thought leadership. They are looking for actionable steps and benchmarks against which they can compare progress. To that end, Fidelity has included action guides, checklists and calculators that firms can use to assess their positioning and progress.
They're also looking for guidance on marketing and talent strategy, and how to think about the role of technology, all of which are included in the materials.
“There's a lot of great growthtech content out there,” Mahna said. “I think what's most important for firms that really want to achieve their growth goals is that they have to have a technology strategy that generates revenue — and that's about more than just becoming more efficient in the middle and back office. It's about doing more digital marketing and helping drive investment conversations and ultimately helping advisors interact with clients in a more personalized way, because that's a positive force on the side of incomes.”
Mahna said the center will evolve with the industry landscape and advisor feedback. He admitted that the freely offered service could have the added benefit of attracting new customers, but insisted it had little to do with its development.
“We went into this with the goal of supporting the larger community by taking these best practices and sharing them,” he said. “The center is not closed; it's really meant to provide a one-stop shop for anyone to access this kind of information, whether they're a Fidelity client, an RIA, or even individual investors who want it.