As the average age of the population continues to get ever higher, one of the key questions faced by many wealth managers, particularly those who have worked in the industry for several years, is ‘what will my business/client book/portfolio look like in 5-10 years? Many advisers I speak to have clients who are, to put it politely, at the ‘top end of the age range’ and they are very concerned that when those clients begin transferring their wealth to the next generation, they may lose those assets to another wealth manager.
I’m sure you are familiar with the term Generation X (those born between 1966 and 1980) but what about the term ‘Millennial’ or ‘Generation Y’, which is the term given to those born after 1981? LinkedIn recently produced some extremely compelling data about the online behaviour of these affluent ‘NextGen’ clients as far as their financial affairs are concerned. For example:
- They are 5x more likely than other demographic groups to see social media as their hub for financial information in the future
- They are 2.4x more likely to seek content from financial companies on social networks
- Over 50% are willing to consider financial offerings from non-financial brands
It should therefore be apparent that one of the most effective ways to begin engaging with this next generation of clients is online. At a bare minimum, that means an interactive website that is optimised for mobile, plus a LinkedIn profile for every ‘client facing’ member of staff, and perhaps a LinkedIn Company Page, depending on the size of your business. As far as your individual LinkedIn profile and activities are concerned, here are my top 3 best practices for wealth managers to engage with the next generation of clients:
- Your profile should not only be interesting and engaging, but should be visually appealing. Checklist – profile photo; background image; logos for current and previous employers and any educational institutions; attach multimedia e.g. client brochures
- Post content to inform and educate your contacts, DO NOT SELL. Checklist – post a news article of once or twice a week about a topic that will be of interest to your connections; follow-up by looking at the analytics on LinkedIn to see who has been viewing it.
- As a matter of course, connect with your clients on LinkedIn (get their consent first) and then connect with the children of your clients (the minimum age for UK users is 13). Checklist – build LinkedIn conversations into your sales processes; ask satisfied clients to connect; ask your clients to introduce you via LinkedIn to their children.
The list could go on and no but I like to keep my LinkedIn posts fairly short. Hopefully this article has given you a flavour of how LinkedIn can form a core part of your marketing activities in order to future-proof your business.
