Personalization: What, Why and How

Personalization is the heart of what we do at Content 151, so I always have my ears peeled for what the industry is saying about it. And so far in 2022, the industry has a lot to say. Here’s a recap of everything I’ve learned, said, and shared about personalization so far this year.

Part 1: T3 and WealthManagement.com

I first noticed the drumbeat in early May at the T3 Advisor Conference outside of Dallas. At the opening session, Advisor Engine’s CEO gave a presentation about how critical personalization is to the client experience. After that, personalization was everywhere. There’s been a shift toward personalization in the industry for some time, but in many ways, COVID-19 accelerated that push. So it makes sense that this first wave of conferences post lockdown put a spotlight on that shift.

Why did COVID-19 accelerate the shift toward personalization? Because you aren’t competing against other advisors when it comes to winning and retaining clients. You’re trying to keep up with the entire landscape of products and services that your clients use. THAT is your competition. I wrote about this in a recent newsletter, and expanded on it in an article for WealthManagement.com. Here are some of the highlights.

“Netflix? Personalized recommendations. Facebook? Targeted ads to reflect your interests. Amazon? Remembers everything you bought, liked, or mentioned to your second cousin at a birthday party three months ago. In other words: People expect personalization and customization.”

Expanding on that: Even big banks are getting in on the personalization game. Online and mobile banking are the norm, and big institutions recommend personalized products based on your customer profile or purchase history. Broker/dealers make personalized education recommendations based on your interests and trading. If you’re trying to win over a client who encounters this type of service all day, every day, it’s going to be critical that you figure out how to create a customized experience that’s scalable.

“One of the easiest ways to improve your communications is through segmentation. Segmentation is what it sounds like: Grouping your clients into different segments.”

Think about the most common reason you tune out emails from companies. Unless it’s the kind of business that spams your inbox, the biggest reason most people ignore an email from a company is that the email doesn’t apply to them. Financial advisors who have a diverse clientele can easily fall into this trap. That’s where segmentation helps. If the president forgives student loans, you want to email all of the clients you have that could benefit from such a move, and add your expertise to the discussion. But if you send that same email to retirees, it’s going to seem like you don’t know your clients very well.

Often times you can create these segments using whatever CRM system you have right now. For instance, Redtail offers both keywords and tags as a way to segment clients. So do systems like WealthBox or all-in-one providers like Advyzon and Orion. Speaking of CRMs, client portals are another great way to customize.

This is one area where I want to expand on what was in the Wealth Management article. I had a few people reach out to me to ask which software provides the best portal experience. My simplest answer is: The one you use. You want clients to log-in to a ONE portal as a central hub for your practice. That is only going to be a good and engaging experience if you are also updating that portal on your end. So the best answer here is to use what you have.

If you aren’t already using software with a portal option, I asked a number of advisors what their preference was. The bulk responded that they preferred using planning tools for their client portals, and then supplementing that information with performance reports. Several advisors recommended both Elements and Right Capital respectively. If planning and performance are BOTH central to your practice, Advyzon, Orion, BlackDiamond and the like all offer portals. However these can be pricey platforms if you’re ONLY looking for a great portal experience.

Part 2: Personalized portfolios and Future Proof Festival

The final part of my Wealth Management article looked at personalization through the lens of investing and portfolio management. A growing number of people—particularly Millennials, but really anyone—wants to align their money with their values. The challenge is: What values? Not only is ESG not a very trustworthy or accurate measure of the values it espouses, it also takes a very specific view of different social and environmental issues. In the real world, the line around values is much vaguer. For instance, a hunter might be concerned with both conservation and gun ownership. A devout Muslim might want to find Sharia-compliant investments (in other words, no gambling, alcohol, tobacco, weapons, or financials, since interest is outlawed). There are dozens of examples, since values are often as unique as the person holding them.

I made a few recommendations, and pointed out that a good place to start is by discussing the client’s existing investments in the context of their values.

But I can do better. I’m also helping Advisor Circle with the marketing for Future Proof Festival. As part of that, I’ve gotten to do preliminary interviews with a number of their speakers, and these speakers have some incredibly innovative ways to make portfolios more personal. For instance, Tumelo is using shareholder voting to help move the needle on important issues. The company alerts advisors (who can then alert clients) about upcoming votes at the companies they’re invested in, so they can use those votes to make a difference. There’s also Your Stake, which analyzes how a portfolio preforms against different value criteria. Are your investments collectively green? Are the the companies you have stakes in diverse and representative, and in what way? Because you’re inputing the values, it’s a custom approach to values-driven investment management.

Those are just two examples. If this is a topic you’re interested in, I cant recommend this fall’s festival enough. Come join us on the beach!

Part 3: Webinars and Advisor Websites

If that weren’t enough to highlight how important personalization is going forward, consider my friends at Advisor Websites. Their two most recent webinars focused on personalization—one on the client experience and one that looked specifically at how personalized, creative content can help you stand out. I am biased toward the second webinar, since I was one of the panelists. But it touched on the importance of unique content and marketing that not only grabs people’s attention, but showcases who YOU are and why you’re different.

There were a dozen phenomenal tips, so I encourage you to watch the full webinar. (The other guests are fantastic: Sheryl Hickerson of Females and Finance, Francesca McLin, who leads content strategy at Snappy Kraken, Advisor Websites CEO Graham Turner, and Mariner Wealth’s Head of Marketing Christa Spencer.)

I do have one favorite tip, though, which I’ll share here: professional photos. It’s really easy to find a reason not to do a photo shoot for your firm. They can be expensive and the vast majority of us are not comfortable on camera. It can also feel self-centered or awkward. But let me ask you this: Which of these images tells you something about the service provider?

If you take only one thing away from this entire post, let it be this:

No one in the history of the financial services industry has ever looked at an Adirondack chair and thought, “YES. THAT is the advisor for me. This person GETS me.”

Clichés are cliché for a reason: A picture is worth a thousand words. And a good branded photo shoot can tell a person a lot about your vibe and your values.

What goes into a good branded photo shoot? The photographer should ask you questions about your business and what adjectives you would use to describe it, and you. For instance, with Content 151, I told Mariya Leona that I wanted to convey both creativity and expertise. I wanted to show that I understand finance, but that I’ve never been much for tradition and like to think outside the box. We planned outfits and locations accordingly. Which is how you end up with me in a pencil dress and a laptop working while sitting on my counter. If you had to apply adjectives to that, I’d bet there’s a certain amount of both professional and totally not professional that might apply. And that was exactly the point.

The vibe you get on a client call with me is the same vibe that photo portrays. And that’s something that you can easily create for roughly $1,000 (though prices vary depending on location, photographer, shoot specifications and more). Even if you don’t want to pay for a professional photoshoot (and if you can’t yet tell, I really think you should), PUT PHOTOS OF YOU AND YOUR TEAM ON YOUR WEBSITE. People connect with people. They don’t connect with logos or tranquil landscapes. And frankly, they don’t connect with stock images either. But real people? Yes. Even better if you’re doing real or relevant things.

Because ultimately, personalization comes down to the personal. And that applies to YOU just as much as your clients. To quote Investopedia Editor-in-Chief Caleb Silver (also a Future Proof speaker and my boss at CNN a previous life): “It’s called personal finance for a reason.”