Millennials, meaning those born between 1981 and 1996, present advisors with a significant opportunity to capture the next generation of clients. As the oldest millennials reach their 40s, they may be looking for advice on how to maximize their incomes and investments while minimizing their debt. If you’re a financial advisor marketing to millennials, you’ll need a solid plan of action to get their attention — and their business.
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Financial Advisor Marketing to Millennials: Paths to Success
If you ask millennials what their biggest life goal is, 46% would say that it’s financial independence and stability. At least, that’s according to the CFP Board’s 2024 Millennials’ Financial Milestones study. Meanwhile, 84% of millennials say there are financial topics they need professional advice on, but 71% have yet to seek it, according to Intelliflo.
So how do you get millennials as clients? The following tips can help.
1. Put Yourself in Their Shoes
The first rule of financial advisor marketing to millennials is knowing where they’re coming from financially. Consider these statistics.
- Millennials represent the largest share of homebuyers (38%); 75% of younger millennials and 44% of older millennials are first-time buyers.
- They also carry the highest average mortgage balance of any generation, at just under $300,000.
- Millennials owe more student debt on average than other borrowers; the typical millennial has $40,438 in student loans to repay.
- They owe $6,642 in credit card debt, making them roughly as indebted as baby boomers.
- The median annual salary for millennials is around $65,000, while the national median household income is $80,610.
- Millennials are three times more likely than other generations to change jobs.
- Younger millennials have a median net worth of $35,110, while older millennials have a median net worth of $210,800.
- Twenty-two percent of millennials haven’t saved anything for retirement.
Are these things true for all millennials? No, there are high-net-worth and affluent millennials out there, but it’s difficult to pin down the exact number. While these clients may be ahead of the game when it comes to retirement and building wealth, they may face similar challenges in terms of managing mortgage, credit card and student loan debt.
Wealthier millennials are also more likely to change advisors. More than one-third (36%) of millennials with more than $1 million in investable assets reported being likely to change firms in the next year, according to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study, suggesting that advisors may have to work harder to retain them.
Understanding where the millennial clients that you want to work with matters when shaping your marketing strategy. Your messaging should be tailored to speak to the pain points they need help with the most.
2. Get Digital
Many millennials came of age alongside the rise of the digital era, and social media/internet use is part of their daily lives. If you want to market to millennials, you need to share your messaging where they are, which means having an online presence.
A well-rounded digital footprint includes a search engine optimized (SEO) website, branded social media accounts and an email list. Among millennials, the most popular social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, in that order.
How do you build a digital marketing presence to attract millennials, apart from being on the platforms they use? It’s all about three things: content, consistency and engagement.
Good content is compelling, triggers emotions and is designed to spark conversation. You can experiment with different social media content formats, like:
- Surveys or polls
- Quizzes
- Open-ended questions
- Videos
- Infographics
- Livestreams
Creating a posting schedule or content calendar can help build consistency so that your followers are routinely checking in to see what’s new. And you can foster engagement by replying to comments and including a call to action that encourages your followers to share your posts.
3. Try Seminar Marketing
Online seminars are another way to get millennials interested in what you have to say on a schedule that fits their needs. You can create an evergreen seminar on a topic that your ideal millennial client is most interested in and use social media to promote it.
For example, here are some ideas you might consider for seminar marketing:
- Navigating Midcareer Job Changes (Without Derailing Your Retirement Plans)
- FIRE Your Job: How to Retire Early and Become Financially Independent in Your 40s
- Should Your Retirement Plans Include Social Security?
- Protecting Yourself Financially While Caring for Aging Parents
- Building a Crisis-Proof Financial Plan: How to Minimize the Impact of Inflation, Recession and Market Volatility
Virtual seminars give prospective clients a chance to learn more about you and what you do, without being subjected to a hard sell. You can include a CTA at the end encouraging millennials to call or email you to set up a chat.
4. Communicate Their Way
Every generation is different when it comes to how they like to communicate. Millennial clients may be more receptive to emails or texts than they are to phone calls. Using lead magnets is one way to capitalize on that and build trust.
A lead magnet is a free offering you deliver via email when someone joins your email newsletter list. Lead magnets, like seminars, can be tailored to address specific topics your ideal clients are interested in.
Once you have a millennial prospect on your list, you can follow up with an email campaign. Drip campaigns, for instance, let you “feed” subscribers a series of emails that are designed to tell them more about you and what you do. It’s a way to soft sell while nurturing the relationship and developing a rapport.
Also, it’s important to understand what kind of reassurance millennial clients may be looking for. Millennials are more likely than older generations to experience financial stress or anxiety over money worries. Understanding that can help you adopt a tone and use wording that calms their fears and instills confidence.
Bottom Line
Many millennials recognize the need for professional financial advice, they may just need some guidance on how to find it. If you’re a financial advisor marketing to millennials, these tips are meant to offer insight into how to approach them effectively so you can convert them from prospects to clients.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
- Marketing is a pie with many slices. Yours may include email marketing, social media, a website and digital ads. All of those can help attract new clients to your firm, but if you’re looking for a new way to conduct outreach, you might consider partnering with an advisor marketing platform. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service that financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
- Any time you’re talking about financial advisor marketing, you also have to talk about compliance. The SEC’s marketing rule outlines what registered investment advisors can and can’t do or say when promoting their businesses. Reviewing these guidelines and recordkeeping requirements can ensure that any marketing efforts you undertake are fully compliant.
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