Samantha Russell, chief evangelist for FMG Suite and one of ThinkAdvisor's Class of 2021 LUMINARIES in Thought Leadership, is recognized as one of the top marketing consultants in financial services.
Russell helped launch the digital marketing platform Twenty Over Ten in 2016, and the firm became part of FMG Suite — also a LUMINARIES winner — in late 2020.
In her latest Q&A with ThinkAdvisor, the digital marketing expert shares how advisors can win new business and better serve existing clients online with the right strategies and content.
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THINKADVISOR: You work diligently to educate advisors about using social media and other tools to better market themselves. How did you get started in this work?
SAMANTHA RUSSELL: When we started Twenty Over Ten in 2016, we were an unknown entity and needed to prove that we were credible, experienced and knowledgeable. Even though we only offered a website plus archiving platform at the time, I knew we needed to help advisors with their full marketing strategy if we wanted to gain their trust — so we started the Twenty Over Ten blog.
Our goal was to provide great digital marketing advice and tangible, practical tips that were easy to understand and follow that any advisor could use — not just those using our technology.
I wrote about and shared not only the latest marketing tactics, but actually tried them out for our own business and then shared what did or didn't work — the transparency was something that advisors really responded to and the blog quickly gained a following.
As we worked with more advisors, I would share the marketing wins we were seeing with different firms. And because people love real life examples of how others are doing it, it was a hit.
How are these making a difference?
My hope is that the information I share levels the playing field, so that it's no longer just the advisory firms with the biggest marketing budgets that win the most clients. There are so many financial advisors doing good, acting as true fiduciaries and changing their clients lives — and I love that the marketing tips I share allow more investors and consumers to find those great advisors.
I've heard from many advisors over the years who have never gotten a new client from SEO or social media before. But a few months after implementing these marketing strategies, the day comes when a stranger finds them via Google and books a meeting on their website. They are astounded that it actually "works" and so excited all at the same time.
What makes your approach different from others?
An advisor recently wrote to me and said, "I love how you consistently reinforce your marketing tips with data and studies. The combination of tangible, real-world advice mixed with quantifiable data that is backed by third parties makes your suggestions so compelling."
