Insights - Business Intelligence for Financial Services | GK3 Capital

How Long Will It Take To Get Inflows Using an Inbound Strategy

Written by John Gulino | Nov 9, 2022 3:00:44 PM

Our clients who have adopted a digital distribution strategy will tell you that the Inbound sales and marketing process that drives inflows is incredibly powerful and effective. They’ll also tell you that implementing Inbound:

  • Is going to take you longer to begin generating inflows than you want it to
  • Is not a magic bullet. It is a mindset and requires commitment from the top down
  • Is the BEST option you have in competing for advisors’ business in a digital-centric world

So, if you are looking to ramp up your distribution efforts to boost inflows, my recommendation is to start today!

The Landscape Has Changed (Forever)

You know only too well how challenging it is for your internal and external wholesalers to reach and have meaningful conversations with advisors. Rather than take an internal wholesaler’s call or meet with their external counterpart, advisors now prefer to research online for investment strategies and solutions to their challenges. 

With a world of information at our fingertips, studies show that most of us spend seven hours a day online, with 2.5 of those hours on social media. It’s been estimated that by 2050, 80% of all B2B interactions will occur in digital channels. So, if you were hoping the traditional wholesaler-advisor relationship would return to the good times of yesterday, don’t count on it.

Inbound Refresher

As a reminder, Inbound is the step-by-step process for growing your business in a digital world because it aligns with how people make decisions today. In a world where your prospect is online 7.5 hours a day, 2.5 hours on social media, and 52% of the time connected through a mobile device, Inbound provides the roadmap for engaging, educating, and converting those prospects into clients.

People often think Inbound is a passive approach for generating business. It’s not. Inbound is an active framework that includes all the tactics and strategies needed to align with today's digital buying process, including those tactics that are commonly considered “outbound.”

When you follow an Inbound methodology, you leverage the digital signals that you generate through content marketing, email, SEO, SEM, paid advertising, and social media marketing to identify, prioritize, and connect with the right people at the right time, with the right message using outreach from your sales team.

The entire process falls under the umbrella of Inbound, and it’s that Process that we use in a digital distribution strategy. In addition, for the Inbound process to be successful, you will also need to consider the other two critical pillars of digital distribution:

The Right Technology

Your technology stack should integrate your data sources, website, social platforms, and marketing automation/sales enablement software with your CRM. 

The Right People

Your new wholesaling team will include members skilled in online advertising, social media, content marketing, data analytics, and sales enablement. 

Collectively, your process, people, and technology will drive your digital distribution strategy. 

No Time to Waste

Hopefully, you appreciate the need to move quickly in transitioning your distribution strategy to a digital-centric model that advisors now prefer. And while a retooling effort of your distribution will require time, there are several actions you can start today. Begin with these:

  • Audit your website to ensure it is your number one salesperson. To do that, your site needs to proactively answer your prospects’ and clients’ questions and be engineered for conversions. Most websites I see are nothing more than online company brochures.
  • Create more content! How much? As much as possible in as many different formats as possible.
  • Promote and amplify your content to reach a broad audience of the targeted personas you’ve developed using an omnichannel (SEM, SEO, Paid and Organic Social Media, etc.) approach instead of just email.
  • Analyze and measure the effectiveness of content and continuously refine and improve your content.

If you would like to hear more about how you can transform your fundraising, register for our 5-part video series, Grow Your AUM with Digital Distribution.