If you’re a larger firm with multiple financial advisers/planners, you enjoy many advantages over your smaller counterparts. However, you also face unique challenges, especially when it comes to your marketing, including:

• Possessing all the marketing skills needed for success in a small group of people
• Encouraging your advisers/planners to buy into your marketing efforts
• Communicating relevant information to a diverse client bank
• Matching budgets and delivery expectations with capacity
• Managing the expectations of a variety of stakeholders
• Handling much larger-scale projects.

An effective way to solve these issues is by collaborating with a marketing agency that specialises in financial services.

Rather than replacing your in-house team, a specialist agency can:

• Support their efforts to achieve mutually defined goals
• Stimulate more marketing activity to deliver great outcomes
• Offer these six unique benefits a generalist agency will struggle to match.

1. Leverage industry expertise

In contrast to a generalist agency, a marketing agency that specialises in financial services inherently understands the profession, extending that knowledge to you.

• They’ll know what works and what doesn’t, rather than learning on the job
• They’ll know the difference between an ISA and a pension, an adviser and a planner, and active and passing investing, so you won’t need to teach them the basics
• They’ll understand the experience of working in a heavily regulated profession, meaning they won’t make mistakes that will upset your compliance department.

In the wake of Consumer Duty, this last point is a biggie. Having confidence that your marketing materials are compliant saves your in-house team time and potential headaches, while maintaining your firm’s reputation as a go-to, trusted expert.

2. Benefit from wider research

A well-established marketing agency will have plenty of data-driven insights to offer from their years of experience. They’ll know what works with firms similar to your own, and can bring that knowledge to you.

Equally, their capacity to compile research on the wider profession that you don’t have access to – the bigger picture – will enable those responsible for your marketing to lead projects from a far stronger position.

This extends to advancements in technology and the latest trends, such as:

1. How can your in-house team best harness the power of AI?
2. Are there updates to the social media algorithms they aren’t aware of?
3. Do they have the time, skill, or inclination to keep your website up to date?

Of course, there’s also the issue of how dynamic our profession is. Changing market conditions and regulatory updates can be overwhelming to keep on top of in a large firm with a long to-do list.

3. Many hands make light work

Increasingly, we’re seeing in-house marketing teams stretched to the limit. Quite often, this equates to a single marketing executive/manager on a tight budget, expected to perform the role of copywriter, website developer, graphic designer, and social media expert with limited tools at their disposal.

It’s too much, and an agency will have access to a broader range of marketing expertise than most in-house teams can maintain.

For example, your firm could benefit from support with:

• Creating engaging, value-adding, and industry specific content on a consistent basis
• Launching effective social media campaigns that excite and engage prospects
• Designing beautiful assets that fit brand guidelines and look incredible
• Updating your existing website into an online shop window you’re proud of
• Collecting that all-important social proof to evidence the value you bring to clients.

Rather than have their ability constrained by capacity or resources, or accepting sub-par work from someone already on your payroll who isn’t right for the job, collaboration can complement and enhance your existing team’s output.

4. A fresh pair of eyes

Nobody is immune to bias when it comes to their own business, including us!

Becoming wedded to your marketing efforts because “that’s the way we’ve always done things” is common, but can be a significant blockage to growth.

An objective, unbiased, and knowledgeable second opinion can be the spark needed to reignite your marketing strategy and move closer to your business goals in the most efficient way. This might take the form of new ideas, innovative approaches, or technology that your in-house team might not have come across.

Moreover, a fresh perspective can help you avoid making mistakes. Perhaps you’re considering implementing something for the first time, but you’re worried that it might not work? A specialist agency has probably tried it before with another financial services firm so you can learn from their wins and losses, avoiding trial-and-error marketing.

5. Scalability and flexibility

There are times when your marketing efforts might really ramp up, such as when you’re developing your new website or running a targeted paid social media campaign.

You may have just won an award and want to publicise it with an engaging article, but your in-house team are already stretched with ongoing responsibilities. Perhaps you’re attending an event and could do with an eye-catching roll-up banner or business cards, but don’t have the necessary skills or software within the business?

By collaborating with a marketing agency that knows the profession inside and out, you can scale the support your firm needs based on demand without having to explain yourself every step of the way. Having this flexibility ensures you can capitalise on valuable opportunities without overburdening your existing team.

6. The value of community

Being a one-man marketing band (or part of a small team) at a large firm can be an isolating experience, especially if stakeholders, including the business owner, advisers, planners, and compliance, push back on suggestions.

We can’t speak for other agencies, but our first core value is that we freely share our knowledge to help the financial services profession improve its marketing. In short, we’re always happy to offer our data-led recommendations, insights, and experience.

For example, our website is packed full of free, useful resources. Including:

1. Definitive guides – deep dives into a practical topic that will improve your marketing
2. Monthly webinars – Yardstick-only and guest sessions to enhance your knowledge
3. Three new blogs a week – a broad range of subject matter to educate and entertain.

We also offer monthly update meetings to firms who work with us to develop a marketing strategy for their business. During these hour-long calls, we’ll interrogate the data from across our joint efforts, and give your team the space to brainstorm ideas with us – their fellow marketers.

In case you haven’t guessed…

For the in-house marketing departments of many larger financial services firms, we are that specialist, experienced, and well-established agency.

A collaborative relationship will support your existing team to:

• Be more efficient with their marketing efforts
• Focus on the tasks they are truly fantastic at
• Share the burden of projects they’re less familiar with.

To explore how we could best partner with your business, call 0115 896 5300 or email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk and we’d be delighted to have a chat.