“I need to upgrade my advisor marketing program and I need a business case.”

Many wealth and insurance believe that their current advisor digital marketing program needs an upgrade starting with the website management tool they either built in-house or purchased within the last 5-8 years. Trends in digital marketing such as the increase in adoption of social media, email marketing and a better understanding of web analytics from advisors are demanding the need to modernize and integrate the digital marketing tools that advisors are using.

The need to upgrade older platforms are generally obvious to the marketing professional seeing as they are immersed into the world of the latest and greatest digital marketing technologies. The biggest challenge implementing an upgraded program initially begins with selling it to management, where knowledge of such trends are not as common and rightfully so. As such, justifying the increased investment profile requires a much more diligent business case process. After all, that’s the language of executives and to sell it effectively, you need to speak their language.

A typical framework that we use in collaboration with potential financial services organizations looks like the following (note: most of this should theoretically apply to you even if you are not in the financial services space but in a regulated industry like law):

• Can upgrading our current platform increase revenue?
• Will implementing this upgraded platform reduce my expenses?
• Does the new platform increase customer satisfaction with our advisors and overall organization?
• Does the new platform increase advisor satisfaction with our organization?
• Will implementing this platform reduce our regulatory risk?

The key to solid business case framework is formulating a business case that is holistic. Yes, the almighty dollar is 100% the most weighted aspect of the business but other areas like customer and advisor satisfaction also play a role. More importantly, implementing a platform that increases regulatory risk will also never past the initial litmus test.

If you’re considering a project of this nature in your visible future, we’d love to help you develop a solid business case across all of the digital marketing tools you are considering. To start a conversation with us, simply fill out the form below!