This article discusses the appropriate uses of automation in financial advisor marketing. It recommends automating lead generation activities and communications with large groups. However, it advises against automating relationship-building activities like small events, social media engagement, and milestone communications which benefit from personalization. The article suggests automating processes to facilitate personalized experiences for clients. Overall, it argues that while automation has its place, personalization is important for building strong advisor-client relationships in an increasingly automated world.

1. of
Financial Planning®
EXPANDING THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE FINANCIAL PLANNING PROFESSION
July 2013 | Vol. 26 | No. 7
www. FPAnet.org/Journal
COVER STORY
Should Planners Bypass the
Bypass Trust? | 28
10 QUESTIONS
Greg Friedman on Successful
Mergers, Data Nirvana, and the
Future of CRM | 16
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
A Little Less Automation, a Little More
Personalization | 20
CONTRIBUTIONS
End the Charade: Replacing the
Efficient Frontier with the Efficient
Range | 42
A New Way of Thinking about
Employer-Sponsored Health Care
Coverage Strategies | 48
Using a Simplified Deterministic
Model to Estimate Retirement Income
Sustainability | 56
CE EXAM
Earn one hour of continuing education
credit in this issue | 68

2. 20 Journal of Financial Planning | July 2013 www.FPAnet.org/Journal
MarketingPRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
A Little Less Automation, a
Little More Personalization
by Kristen Luke
E
verywhere you turn these
days, there is a technology
or service that can help you
automate your marketing. Terms like
turnkey, automated, streamlined, and
systematized are the buzz words in
financial adviser marketing. Although
every adviser is looking for ways to be
a more efficient and effective marketer,
it’s important to ask, are we taking
automation too far in the interest of
time and convenience? Are we auto-
mating our way out of relationships?
The adviser-client relationship is a
deeply personal one. When a client
comes to you to discuss his or her
finances, it’s not just about how they
should invest their money. It’s about
providing reassurance that their family
is going to be okay. It’s about helping
them achieve their lifelong dreams.
It’s about making them face their fears
and issues surrounding money. It’s
about the most important issues your
clients face in life. Your marketing
should reflect the personal nature of
this relationship and that may preclude
you from automating all aspects of your
marketing.
Marketing automation is not a bad
thing in and of itself. And many times
it makes sense to automate aspects of
your marketing. Automation provides

3. 22 Journal of Financial Planning | July 2013 www.FPAnet.org/Journal
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
a quick and efficient way to reach large
numbers of people. It reduces the
chance you or your staff will drop the
ball with a client or prospect, and it
provides a way to frequently stay top
of mind with your contacts with little
effort on your part. But oftentimes it is
generic and fails to create a connection
with a prospect or client. So when
should you automate and when should
you personalize?
When to Automate
As a general rule of thumb, marketing
automation should be used for lead
generation activities, when dealing
with large numbers of people, or when
it facilitates a personalized experience.
In other words, automation should be
used for those activities where relation-
ship-building is not the primary goal.
Here are just a few examples of when
marketing automation makes sense.
If you are
hosting a large event (anything more
than 15 people) or a public workshop,
you should automate this process as
much as possible. Schedule email or
print invitations to go out at regular
predetermined intervals. Use an
online registration system or a toll-free
reservation line to register attendees.
Send automated emails or use a calling
service to remind registrants about the
event. When dealing with large num-
bers of people at once, systemization
and automation is a key to executing
successfully.
If you have a call to action on your
website for someone to fill out a form
to download a resource such as a white
paper, ebook, or other tool, it is a
good idea to automate the follow-up
marketing messages. You will find that
many people downloading these tools
will not be qualified for or interested in
your services. It is better to automate
the follow-up emails so you can better
spend your time elsewhere, and let
those who are truly interested in your
services reach out to you.
Using RSS feeds and scheduling tools
such as HootSuite or Buffer to post
original content you have created or
have found interesting to your various
social media profiles helps facilitate
an otherwise time-consuming process.
It’s also smart to schedule messages in
advance if you know you are going to
want to promote an upcoming event
such as a workshop, TV appearance, or
radio show. This way you won’t drop
the ball on promoting these things
when you get busy. It also makes sense
to schedule the automatic posting of
content in advance to ensure consistent
interactions throughout the month.
When Not to Automate
It’s important not to automate those
aspects of marketing that are truly
relationship-building activities. Here
are a few examples of when you should
focus on the personal touch.
If you are hosting
a small event (fewer than 15 people),
such as box seats at a sporting event, a
table at a charity ball or gala, or tickets
to the opera, you should pick up the
phone to invite your guests, or at the
very least, send a personal email. You’ll
find your response rate will be higher
than that of a mass invitation and it
helps deepen the relationship.
To
stand out in social media, you have to
be different in some way. Setting up
automatic feeds of canned content is
not going to get you noticed. Create
and post personalized content as often
as possible, such as original articles,
photos, and original videos. Add your
own commentary to your profile
statuses as appropriate and engage
in one-on-one interactions with your
followers, friends, and connections.
When a client
or prospect reaches a major milestone
such as retirement, a wedding anniver-
sary, or significant birthday, you should
take this opportunity to send a card,
flowers, a gift, or even a phone call
with a personal message. Avoid using
generic cards, gifts, and messages that
could apply to anyone just because it is
more efficient and convenient.
Automate the Personalization Process
Although individual interaction is a
key component to adviser marketing,
even personalization can benefit from
some automation. Focus on creating the
processes to facilitate a personalized
experience as much as possible.
One example is to set up reminders
when a client is approaching a major
milestone so that you can reach out to
them individually. Another example is to
create a high-touch client on-boarding
process that uses standard communica-
tion templates that also allow for
some customization for each client or
prospect. Keep good notes regarding
the interests and preferences of your
clients so that you can personalize your
processes.
Automation is an important aspect
of marketing and should be used as
often as appropriate and as long as it
is effective. The technology and the
tools are available and you should take
advantage of them. Just don’t become
overly impressed with automation and
turnkey solutions.
At the end of the day, financial
advisers are in the relationship business
and the one thing marketing automa-
tion can’t do is build relationships. As
the world around us becomes more
automated and less genuinely personal-
ized, you have the opportunity to use
personalization as a way to stand out
from the crowd.
Kristen Luke is president and CEO of Wealth Manage-
ment Marketing Inc. (www.wealthmanagement
marketing.net), a firm dedicated to providing market-
ing strategies and support for independent advisers.
Marketing