Marketing across generations has become increasingly important in recent years. As seniors head further into retirement, the baby boomer generation begins to retire and the millennial generation starts accumulating wealth, advisors must learn to reach investors during a variety of life stages.

A study conducted by Pershing shows that $12 trillion in assets is currently undergoing transfer, and $30 trillion is expected to be transferred in the next 35 years. The study also states that only 3% of clients said their advisor inquired about meeting their children, and only 17% of clients with children said their adult children worked with their current advisor.

These numbers point to two critical deductions:

1. There is an enormous amount of wealth that will be transferred in the near future.
2. Many advisors are not taking steps to ensure that when the wealth is transferred, they will retain the accounts.

Understanding A Multi-Generational Audience

Staying connected not only with your current clients, but with their children, and even grandchildren, is essential.

Establishing trust early on and marketing across generations of clients can have a lasting impact on the future of your practice. Don’t wait until younger clients start inheriting wealth before marketing to them — by then it will be too late.

Before implementing any marketing tactics, however, it is important to understand the varying characteristics and behavior of each major generation.

9 Ideas For Cross-Generational Marketing

Below are some ideas for cross-generational marketing that include digital marketing, practice management, and event marketing:

1. Email Marketing
   Ask your clients’ children to opt in to receive emails from you containing practical financial tips they can use.
2. Multi-Generational Meetings
   Have your clients’ children sit in on a meeting to help them understand the importance of financial planning.
3. Social Media
   Create social media accounts and post frequently. Make sure your clients know that you are active on social media and encourage them to visit your pages, as well as share your content. This will help their children recognize your digital efforts and feel more comfortable interacting with you.
4. Hire Gen-Y
   Hire a younger advisor into your practice who will appeal to clients’ children, as well as help you understand more about new technology and marketing to the next generation.
5. Educational Webinars
   Host educational webinars your clients can share with their children to promote financial literacy across generations.
6. Family Dinners & Picnics
   Invite families out for dinner or a picnic. Nothing helps people bond quite like good food, and gathering around a table for dinner can help younger clients feel more at home with you. Consider hosting dinners at your home quarterly for large groups of clients and their families to create an even more intimate atmosphere.
7. Volunteering
   Organize a volunteer project that the whole family can get involved in. This will help you get valuable face time with older clients while appealing to their younger, millennial children by displaying your social consciousness.
8. Go Green
   Convert your practice into a completely green office and send out marketing material to clients and their children letting them know of your change. Include re-usable water bottles or calendars made of recycled paper that adults and kids can use. This will help clients’ children remember your green initiative and associate positive feelings with your brand.
9. Unconventional Events
   Invite clients to an unconventional venue such as a concert or sporting event. This setting is more casual and can lead to deeper relationships.

Meeting the needs of clients across multiple generations is becoming essential for ensuring the longevity of independent financial practices across the country.

Sources:

“Meet the Millennials: Five ways to attract the next generation of clients” (2014, Feb 23). InvestmentNews. Retrieved from: http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20140223/REG/302239990/meet-the-millennials-five-ways-to-attract-the-next-generation-of

“Pershing Study Finds that Advisory Firms Need to Rethink Their Multigenerational Planning Offering to Adequately Prepare Clients for the Looming Wealth Transfer” (2014, May 1). Pershing LLC. Retrieved from: https://www.pershing.com/news/press-releases/2014/pershing-study-finds-that-advisory-firms-need-to-rethink-their-multigenerational-planning-offering-to-adequately-prepare-clients

Jones, M. (n.d.). “Generational Marketing: Harvest The Whole Family Tree” Investopedia. Retrieved from: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/08/generational-marketing.asp

Russell, E. Why Work When You Can Shirk?: Worker Productivity in an Experimental Setting. Journal of Applied Business & Economics; 2010, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p104. Retrieved from: http://www.na-businesspress.com/JABE/Jabe112/EngelWeb.pdf