The Securities and Exchange Commission's updated marketing rules for financial advisors will go into effect in late 2022 and were hailed by the industry as a long-awaited step toward the 2021 standards.cent century. The regulations permitted the use of customer testimonials and testimonials and established requirements for displaying performance information within advertising, among other provisions.
This marketing rule has been in the news recently due to SEC enforcement actions. Earlier this month, the SEC fined five of his companies over how they represented hypothetical investment performance. However, some companies are taking advantage of the testimonials permitted by this rule. In his Big Q this week on Barron's Advisor, we asked executives at wealth management firms, “How have you taken advantage of the Voice of the Customer Marketing Rule's provisions?”
Michelle Tigani, Director of Marketing and Communications, Cassaday & Co. Less than a year ago, we introduced a testimonials page on our website. The impetus was that many of our clients provided us with these wonderful, unsolicited testimonials. We call the things our clients send us “love notes.” So we thought, “Finally, we can actually put this to use.” [After building a compliance process], we have posted them on the pages of our website. That was the first part of our campaign. Our main marketing strategy for acquiring new customers is seminars. So we'll be running a pre-seminar slideshow. These testimonials will appear on your screen while your guests enter the room and wait for your presentation to begin. This is kind of part one of our strategy beyond the website.
Future goals include potentially using them in some kind of digital advertising, and definitely using them in email campaigns to trickle in to prospects and people who previously attended seminars and became customers. Things like that. According to Google Analytics, this is the home page of our website, but the impact is not quantifiable. People are definitely interested in it.
Susan Wilkinson, Founder and Managing Partner of Wilkinson Wealth Management: After the new rules were announced, we started talking to our clients and simply asked them if they would be willing to write a review or testimonial. It was very modest. And some of them did. I had them edited and now I mainly use them on my website. We're also expanding our use on social media, where you can use customer testimonials to create and post amazing graphics. These are the two main ways we've used them, and we hope they can be used in other areas of marketing as well. We are still recruiting.
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What we had to overcome was the fear of hearing stories. I was like, “Would you please write something nice about me?” It kind of sounds like you're begging. But you just pick a client with whom you have a good relationship and say, You couldn't do that before, but now you can. That's why we're asking for everyone's opinions. ” When it comes to impact, there is no direct way to know how they contributed to the business. However, people who look at our website can see others saying they have had good relationships and had good experiences with us. There's a lot that can be said about ourselves, but that there will be others on our website, and soon on social media, who will say, “Yes, what they're saying is true.” It's nice to know.
Terra McBride, Chief Marketing Officer, Prime Capital Investment Advisors, said: This is a relationship business and what we most want to share is positive relationships. So our advisor is [The firm has 199 affiliated advisors today—Ed.] I was really excited when I found out about this. Prime Capital's marketing and compliance teams met to discuss options for advisors with this new rule. We've discussed the value of both uncompensated and compensated testimonials, but the easiest first step into this brave new world is to test uncompensated testimonials. It seemed like it was.
When our advisors work with marketing teams on promotional efforts, we mention the idea of including testimonials. We want to do this carefully and ensure that we comply with all compliance requirements. They immediately say: “Oh, I know some customers who would be perfect for this and would be happy to do it. I'll reach out to them.” Compliance walks you through the process step-by-step to make sure you cross all the t's and do everything. Make sure you dot the i's. Advisors use email nurturing services to increase credibility in what they're putting out and to give clients perspective on what it's like to work with that advisor. We have included quotes in our campaigns. Some advisors use testimonials on our website, such as quotes and sometimes testimonial videos. This is a layer you can add to the promotions you put together for advisors. This allows us to step outside the language we use and get to the heart of what our clients experience when working with their advisors.
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