Snappy Kraken, the financial advisor marketing technology provider, has announced the launch of a marketing platform designed to help advisors take advantage of data-based marketing strategies to boost organic growth.
The solution, known as the Marketing Hub, works by integrating content, communication and contact activity into one interface for advisors, according to Robert Sofia, founder and CEO of Snappy Kraken.
“The Marketing Hub is designed to bridge the knowledge gap, enabling [advisors] to zero in on the most effective activities that will drive growth for their businesses,” Sofia said.
By using the platform, advisors can identify opportunities to build relationships, book appointments and win referrals. It also provides specific recommendations for which actions to take next with which clients or prospects.
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During a time when the high-tech industry faces workforce reductions, startup companies recognize that business feasibility is crucial for survival. More and more they are turning to advisors for informed guidance.
Amid high-tech industry layoffs and the imperative for efficiency, marketing and sales departments must demonstrate their ability to generate revenue efficiently, despite workforce reductions and aggressive budget cuts. These changes are driving management teams and boards to shift their focus from survival to prosperity.
Increasing manpower during this period serves as a narrative of inefficiency. This is where the concept of “quiet hiring” was born. It is necessary to use two kinds of service providers if you need more brains but cannot increase the number of people – freelancers as executors and freelancers as strategic advisors.
The Rise of the Marketing Advisors
Marketing advisors are external consultants who work with the company’s marketing leader or one of the founders to inject knowledge and experience into the organization and accelerate its success.
By doing so, the organization maintains its brain IP as internal knowledge, which allows it to establish a growth strategy, grow effectively, and ensure the business’ sustainability.
Usually, the advisor meets with a specific point of contact from the company for a few hours each week, but is available 24/7.
It is the marketing advisor’s responsibility to assist, accelerate, and clarify the marketing efforts outlined by creating and developing marketing strategies, growth strategies, GTM, organizational structures, OKRs, R&Rs, marketing P&Ls, establishing/managing/expanding organizational structures, and creating rituals and communication between teams and departments.
However, it’s crucial to note that the advisor’s effectiveness lies in their ability to empower the organization beyond their direct involvement. By instilling effective work methodologies and cross-departmental decision-making processes, they contribute to sustainable growth, even in their absence.
In some cases, the marketing advisor may also serve on the board. Nonetheless, their primary mission is to cultivate and fortify the marketing leader’s persona within the organization, creating a commanding figure capable of steering marketing initiatives effectively.
Which companies can benefit from marketing advisors?
The answer – all types of companies and startups.
Early-stage startups that have already generated website traffic and converted paying customers or have the founders’ understanding, need, or ability to integrate marketing insights into their products. Following that, they must develop and execute a Go-to-Market strategy, but first realize that they must learn marketing hands-on.
In such cases, a marketing advisor can help them frame, define, and refine their marketing plan as well as guide them through all the stages of planning, research, launch, feedback, and optimization. Through the knowledge and experience gained in the company, its leaders will be able to create a stable marketing and sales department.
In advance-stage startups, where marketing must increase its business contribution and build and empower the marketing leader, a marketing advisor can accelerate their efforts. These startups need to improve their marketing efficiency and implement profitable growth strategies, hence a marketing advisor may come in handy.
Mature startups and companies looking to expand their product portfolio or penetrate a new market or country without the necessary knowledge and experience. Think of a B2B company that wants to expand into the B2C market and vice versa. Or a company that wishes to do global localization, but doesn’t have the knowledge to do so. The marketing consultant can perform surgical work to accelerate the company’s strategy and tactic development processes by working closely with the designated marketing leadership teams.
Here are 6 globally known marketing advisors rising stars
- Elena Verna, Global Growth Advisor
Elena is a growth solopreneur who has served in growth leadership roles for major tech companies. She has advised many businesses, including MongoDB, Veed, Krisp, Clockwise, Similarweb, to name a few. Furthermore, she is a Program Partner at Reforge, creating courses for PLG, Growth Leadership, Experimentation, and Monetization.
Elena began her career in analytics, using her data superpowers to take on growth leadership roles across product and marketing. Throughout her career, she has specialized in B2B and product-led growth strategies, enabling businesses to establish reliable and lasting growth models. Recently, she transitioned to a solopreneur role, offering advisory services, interim leadership, course development, speaking engagements, growth workshops, and newsletter expansion.
2. Yam Regev, Global CMO, Marketing Advisor
Yam has had an impressive career journey, becoming the owner of a worldwide web marketing agency and generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue. He has also led marketing teams in various stages of startups, from early to hyper-growth, overseeing hundreds of marketers and budgets in the tens of millions of dollars.
As well as co-founding a startup that was acquired by a public company, he has advised startups of all sizes, stages, and verticals on developing profitable growth strategies, comprehensive GTMs, and building scalable marketing organizations that contribute significantly to the company.
Additionally, Yam works closely with top-tier venture capital firms and accelerators to expedite their portfolio companies’ success.
3. Eric Siu, Founder @ Growth Marketing Agency – Single Grain
Eric Siu, the founder of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency, is a prominent figure in the industry. He hosts two highly popular podcasts, Marketing School and Leveling Up, with a combined monthly download count exceeding 2.1 million. Throughout his career, Eric has played a pivotal role in helping renowned companies in the tech industry.
Furthermore, Eric leads an exclusive marketing mastermind group, bringing together 100 top professionals in media, marketing, and business for biannual gatherings in Miami and Beverly Hills. In addition to his podcasting and consulting work, he is also the author of “Leveling Up: How to Master the Game of Life.”
Eric also speaking around the world on various topics such as marketing, SaaS, and SEO. Additionally, he also is an investor in promising companies in the wellness industry, and is also an esteemed member of YPO and TED.
His advisory roles extend to tier-1 companies in real estate, tech, and food.
4. Kathleen Booth, Startup advisor, marketing leader, and podcast host
Kathleen Booth is SVP of Marketing and Member Experience at Pavilion, where she leads the company’s marketing, sales and customer success teams. Named by TopRank as one of the 50 Top B2B Marketing Influencers, she is an avid LinkedIn creator on topics relating to marketing and entrepreneurship (read more of her insights on LinkedIn at #KathleenHQ).
Kathleen began her career in marketing as the co-founder and CEO of Quintain Marketing, a nationally-known digital marketing agency and HubSpot Platinum Partner. After 11 years as CEO of Quintain, she sold the business and went in-house as Head of Marketing (SVP, CMO) for several high-growth B2B tech companies looking to transition from start-up to scale-up.
Outside of work, Kathleen is a Board-level advisor to several tech startups, a frequent public speaker on topics relating to digital marketing, and a passionate advocate for entrepreneurs.
She currently serves as Fractional CMO to Proto.ai, and an Advisor to Smallworld.ai and HealthSherpa.
5. Amit Lavi, B2B Marketing Advisor
Amit Lavi has carved quite a niche for himself in the B2B marketing scene. He’s not just someone who’s worked with big names like Facebook and Google, but also co-founded a standout B2B marketing agency in Israel that works with a wide range of startups across a variety of tech domains, crafting strategies that truly connect with their audiences.
He holds a degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, providing him with a unique global perspective that complements his experience in marketing. What makes him truly stand out, though, is his deep tech insight. It’s this blend of tech-savviness and marketing expertise that’s allowed him to help B2B tech companies, both locally in Israel and internationally, navigate the digital landscape so effectively.
6. Cara Hogan, Marketing Leader and Startup Advisor
Cara Hogan is a marketing expert and startup consultant with a primary focus on the synergy between hardware and SaaS technology within the B2B sector. Her experience spans various industries, including weather satellites, computer vision, air quality, and analytics. Cara holds a journalism degree from Boston University and has spent five years working in newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Globe.
Since then, she transitioned to roles in rapidly growing startups and currently serves as the VP of Marketing at ShipIn Systems, contributing to the transformation of the global shipping sector through AI advancements. In addition, Cara also advises startups on how to build a brand identity alongside a strong demand generation strategy to engage audiences and drive sales. Outside of her professional endeavors, she is a surfer, a rock climber, and a mom.
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“All things remote inspections, return to the office and the definition of branch offices.”
Those are the three topics that Kayte Toczylowski, the vice president of member relations and education at the brokerage industry’s regulator, said “come up in pretty much every meeting I have with member firms.” Her words came during an interview with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority CEO Robert Cook on the second day of FINRA’s annual conference this week in Washington D.C.
But work-from-home questions in wealth management don’t apply only to the nearly 3,400 brokerage firms that FINRA oversees directly. Remote work issues remain subjects of intense interest for people of all stripes in the wealth management industry, including more than 35,000 investment advisors registered with the SEC.
Scoop, a company that helps business clients with remote work arrangements, reported this month that only 20% of financial services firms require their employees to be in the office every work day. The survey, conducted through a poll of 251 industry firms, found that 41% of respondents allow their employees to spend some of their work time away from the office. That’s despite headline-grabbing pushes by industry giants like JPMorgan Chase to insist employees start coming back in.
‘I don’t know how much better your life can be’
For many financial planners, the new ability to work from home brought on by COVID-19 marked a welcome change from their grinding routines. Chris Ward, the founder of EntryPoint Wealth Management in Edgewood, Kentucky, said that before the pandemic, he spent at least an hour every day commuting to and from his former employer in nearby Cincinnati, a financial services firm he declined to name. When traffic was bad, the drive could take an hour and a half.
He left that job in 2020 to form EntryPoint, which he runs out of an attached garage at his home. Ward said the change has allowed him to work when he feels most energetic and productive — often 7 a.m. to noon instead of the usual 9 to 5. He has an agreement with a separate office whose address he can use for mailing and marketing purposes.
Many of his clients, who tend to be older, still prefer to meet in person. So he’ll arrange to sit down in a local coffee shop. Ward said he can’t really see any drawbacks to his new work arrangements.
“I don’t know how much better your life can be,” he said. “I wish this is something I was inclined to pursue sooner rather than later.”
As entrenched as hybrid and fully remote schedules may now be in the wealth management industry, nothing comes without a tradeoff. From possible alienation from clients to compliance headaches, employment at a distance has its own pitfalls.
Here are some tips and practices that other industry representatives and experts have adopted in the past three years to make remote work work for them:
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Advisors have many options when it comes to marketing their business online. The key is choosing one that can maximize client recruitment and lead to achievement of a firm’s strategic goals.
Over 40% of advisors landed more clients via social media marketing and nearly one-third plan to increase their website spends in 2022, according to a survey by Broadridge Financial Solutions. Having a defined marketing strategy is associated with more positive business outcomes, the study found, yet only 28% of advisors have one in place.
Read: In scramble to comply with SEC marketing rule, advisors wrestle with ambiguities
For Lou Calabrese, chief marketing officer at the wealth management firm Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, social media, email marketing and a website are the main digital marketing tactics advisors have to invest in. Calabrese said advisors should be spending around 10% to 15% of their time on marketing strategies.
“This is your way of getting new businesses in the door other than the traditional waiting like referrals, introductions from clients and centers of influence,” Calabrese said.
The survey found that 30% of advisors plan to increase marketing spend over the next 12 months, especially on websites and social media. Currently, advisors spend around 3% of their business revenue on marketing, while chief marketing officers report an average marketing spend of 8.7%.
“It’s a loop,” said Rebecca Hourihan, founder of 401(k) Marketing, a marketing firm in San Diego for retirement plan advisors. “Advisor shares an email, social media post or content marketing, and then people like it, comment and share it and that loops back to that advisory firm in the form of referrals, happy clients, more favorable introductions and easier time to meet in person.”
Read: Marketing trap: SEC warns new advisors of their compliance shortcomings
Scroll down the cardshow to see tips and tactics from marketing experts on how financial advisors can grow their businesses.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
After a successful career in advertising, Erika Williams decided it was time for a change. She went back to school to get an MBA at the University of Chicago, and eventually, in 2012, she got a job at Wells Fargo as a financial advisor. It was the very job she wanted.
Erika is Black–and being a Black financial advisor at a big bank is relatively uncommon. Banking was one of the last white collar industries to really hire Black employees. And when Erika gets to her office, she’s barely situated before she starts to get a weird feeling. She feels like her coworkers are acting strangely around her. “I was just met with a lot of stares. And then the stares just turned to just, I mean, they just pretty much ignored me. And that was my first day, and that was my second day. And it was really every day until I left.”
She wasn’t sure whether to call her experience racism…until she learned that there were other Black employees at other Wells Fargo offices feeling the exact same way.
On today’s episode, Erika’s journey through these halls of money and power. And why her story is not unique, but is just one piece of the larger puzzle.
Today’s show was produced by Alyssa Jeong Perry with help from Emma Peaslee. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. They also assisted with reporting. It was edited by Sally Helm. Engineering by James Willets with help from Brian Jarboe.
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Music: “Record Breaker,” “Simple Day,” and “On the Money.”
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