Financial advisors face a ‘cliché crisis’ in marketing

As wealth management firms jostle to distinguish themselves in an increasingly crowded market, many hamper their own prospects by resorting to industry clichés like “goals-based,” “personalized” and “holistic.”

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That’s the conclusion of public relations and marketing firm Gregory following an AI-assisted review of the websites of the firms listed in a CNBC ranking last fall of the top 100 financial advisors. Gregory’s analysis ranked the sites on a 10-point scale: 10 for sites with the most original language and 1 for those that were most cliché-ridden.

The average score was a 5.86 — meaning most firms are “producing copy interchangeable with any competitor,” according to Gregory’s rubric. Only six firms had a score of 8 for marketing that Gregory called “truly distinctive.” The highest score, 8.5, was given to three firms.

Joe Anthony, the CEO and owner of Gregory, said there was a time in the wealth management industry when advisors breaking away from large Wall Street brokerages could distinguish themselves by using terms like fiduciary, fee-only and “client first.” But today, registered investment advisors deriving most of their revenue from asset-management fees are much more common, and so are the words used to describe them.

By directing attention to some of the most common industry clichés, Anthony’s goal is to have wealth managers at least recognize that what they’re saying may not be as distinguishing as they first thought.

“We call it a cliché crisis,” he said. “Because if you look across these websites, it’s like, how many firms really are even trying to sound different? It’s almost like they all agreed, ‘OK, let’s make sure that none of our competitors is saying something that we’re also not going to say.'”

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At the same time, Anthony acknowledged that some of the terms his firm lists as cliché are unavoidable. Advisors registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, are legally required to state their fiduciary duty to always put clients’ interests first.

The trouble, Anthony said, is that too many firms seem to think such obligatory phrases are sufficient to distinguish them from competitors. 

“‘We have the fee-for-service business model. We operate as a fiduciary.’ That’s not the story that makes you stand out,” Anthony said. “It’s almost like saying, ‘My car has a steering wheel. It has a gas tank.’ OK, great. Oh, wait, that car drives itself? Now that is interesting.”

Anthony recommended firms take all the “table stakes” words and phrases that they have to use to meet regulatory requirements or describe the basic functions of their business and consign them to a little box or other separate section on their websites. The same goes for lists of credentials — all the certified financial planner, chartered financial analyst and chartered financial consultant marks — that many advisors boast.

Anthony said firms can move away from hackneyed language in part by remembering to always lead with the distinct services and expertise they offer clients. Online marketing should “minimize the talk about the firm and all your credentials,” Anthony said.

“A firm might say, ‘We help with retirement-income planning for every person,’ or convey the general idea, oh, they help me plan my income. … Would the average person think, ‘I need to go find a retirement income planning specialist’?”

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Angela Giombetti, the chief marketing officer at the large RIA Wealthspire, said she no longer views a website as the main way for a firm to differentiate itself. Wealth managers should instead consider producing podcasts, market commentary, white papers, webinars, videos and posts for social media and other third-party sites.

To avoid an impersonal facade, Giombetti recommended letting advisors talk directly to the public.

Giombetti said a potential client may be thinking, “I respect this brand. I’m interested. I’ll consider them.” 

“But ultimately they’re going to do business with a person,” she said. “You want to do business with somebody you like and who you feel sees you and hears you and relates to you.”

So why do so many firms rely on clichés? Giombetti said it’s partly because terms like “fiduciary” and “holistic” are unlikely to run afoul of strict industry regulations on what advisors can and can’t say in their marketing.

“And we’re committed to doing right by our clients,” she said. “That’s a badge of honor. I do think, though, that there is a tiny bit of safety in that. And it’s easy. And frankly, if you asked me five years ago, I would have said that probably worked.”

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The difficulty of standing out in AI-driven, zero-click web searches

Now financial advisors, like everyone else trying to get noticed online, have to contend with AI. 

Unlike traditional search engines, large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini don’t necessarily answer user queries by looking for sites jam-packed with keywords related to a given search topic.

That means loading up a site with financial-planning clichés is no longer a guaranteed way to bring clients browsing for a financial planner to your website. AI systems instead give more weight to sites that can establish authority in their field.

Anthony at Gregory said one way to do that is through client testimonials and third-party endorsements recently allowed under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s marketing rule. Another is by getting quoted in news articles or video or audio clips.

“It’s the social proof that comes from being interviewed in the media, whether you’re going to do an article or a video about how to survive divorce financially or whatever else might be a topic,” Anthony said.

Marketing language that works for financial advisors

Anthony recommended firms add what he calls “non-static content” — a video, client testimonial, blog post or other new information — to their sites at least once a month. Gregory’s review of firm websites also cites examples of language that works well.

Boston-based Birch Hill Investment Advisors, for instance, received a special nod for having a website with the lowest cliché count among all the firms surveyed. Its site includes the provocative question: “Your wealth is yours today. Whose should it be tomorrow?”  

The Gregory review also gave high marks to wealth managers that devised original phrasing that would be hard for other firms to copy. One case in point: Indianapolis-based Woodley Farra Manion sums up its investment ideas with the phrase, “Noah did not start building the Ark when it was raining.”  

“No competitor can use that line. No algorithm can generate it. It is specific, visual, and unforgettable,” according to the Gregory analysis.

Anthony said Gregory has an open invitation to firms outside its initial review to submit their websites to be ranked on its cliché scale. So far, 20 wealth managers have acted on the offer.

It’s not always easy being big

Anthony said newer, small firms may have an easier time distinguishing themselves. Startup founders can lean into their own interests, characteristics and experience and focus on serving clients with the same traits. 

It’s when they try to grow that they often succumb to the temptation to try to be everything to everyone.

Rather than sticking with, say, an initial focus on musicians and athletes, advisors end up saying, “We also work with construction company entrepreneurs, and we work with tech executives, and we work with divorced couples,” Anthony said.

It’s not wrong for firms to add to their service offerings, he said.

“But when you have a wider base, then you have to make sure everything you say feels like it makes any sense to all the different people you’re serving,” Anthony said. “It becomes a challenge.”