Personalize or Perish: Why Personalization Is Key for Financial Advisors

Personalization is key to compete in a crowded marketplace.

While personalization was once a “nice to have,” providing a personalized experience has become essential to remaining relevant in a competitive marketplace where clients expect more than ever.

For financial advisors, the stakes are even higher. As investors are increasingly turning to new robo technology or passive index-based investing, what can really make a difference is the ability to provide an elevated service offering. And by making technology your ally, it may be easier to capture business in a way that is scalable and allows your practice to appeal to a wider investor group. Customers today are gravitating toward brands that they feel understand them at a deeper level and pay attention to their specific wants and needs.

There’s proof in the numbers:

- A survey from Evergage1 found that 98% of marketers felt that personalization helped them advance customer relationships and 88% said that they perceived a measurable lift in business.
- McKinsey & Co.2 asked 60 shoppers to create mobile diaries of their personalized interactions with various brands. Their #1 takeaway? Give consumers relevant recommendations they wouldn’t have thought of themselves.
- Research from the Boston Consulting Group3 shows that brands that create personalized experiences by integrating advanced digital technologies and proprietary data for customers are seeing revenue increase by up to 10%.
- Data from Accenture4 revealed that 44% of consumers are frustrated when companies fail to deliver relevant, personalized experiences.

So how can an advisor contextualize messaging, experiences, and investments to delight their prospects and clients? Evolving your digital conversations with data can make all the difference. Collecting, analyzing, and effectively using information about consumer preferences, interests, and behaviors may help you create proposals and portfolios that resonate with your target audience.

Sounds Like a Hassle...

Small practices without extra staff, time and budget should still be able to benefit from personalization. That’s where technology comes in, enabling advisors to:

- Easily and cost-effectively gather information from investors that can help build proposals and portfolios that will be in line with clients’ wants and needs.
- Find prospects that are a great match with your personality through our personality assessment. -Deepen relationships and drive loyalty by understanding existing clients better and making suggestions that will help them feel understood.

In the end, consider your own experience and expectations as a consumer. The quicker and more effectively a trusted consultant can anticipate your needs and get you what you want and need, the more likely you are to work with that person or service and give them more of your business.

The Personality Framework

The TIFIN Personality framework evaluates a person’s financial personality in four dimensions:

Purpose: Investing to find a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.

Integrating ESG, impact investing, religious or other themes into portfolios.

Security: Investing to provide physical security and peace of mind.

A risk-adjusted growth lens that helps investors derive a sense of security.

Touch: Linking investing with a desire for meaningful relationships.

Investors who prefer to take a hands-on approach to their portfolio and build a close relationship with their advisor through frequent communications.

Viewpoints: Investing to gain the intellectual satisfaction of getting things right.

Investors who seek emerging trends that are shaping the future and express their world views through investments.

1- Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/02/18/50-stats-showing-the-power-of-personalization/

2- Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/what-shoppers-really-want-from-personalized-marketing

3- Source: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/retail-marketing-sales-profiting-personalization

4- Source: https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-consumers-turn-off-personal-data-tap-as-companies-struggle-to-deliver-the-experiences-they-crave-accenture -study-finds.htm

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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