Modern Tools, Human Stories: Marketing That Truly Connects with Greg Banasz

What's been going on this past year for you?

[00:00:29] Greg Banasz: In the marketing world, we certainly have a lot of advisors who have expressed an interest in learning more about how they can enhance their practice. And what's fun about it is they really want to sit down and say, what are our advisors, our partners using? What's some of the new technology that exists, and how do we get started?

I love having that open conversation where they, the genuine interest is there before I have to tell them, or I never do, but sometimes they think I'm going to tell them "you have to do marketing" and I don't.

[00:01:02] Doug Heikkinen: So as CMO, you serve a diverse set of over 200 independent advisors across the country that are affiliated with you.

How do you balance the need for a unified Steward Partners brand with unique marketing and needs and preferences of the individual advisors?

[00:01:18] Greg Banasz: Yeah, it's a good question. It's important to differentiate the two. Obviously there's a corporate brand versus an advisor brand. The corporate brand, of course, has its own strategy, which typically for us will attract advisors and teams, to our unique value proposition as a company. Articulating what makes us stand out from the crowd is what the advisors will pick up on and they become general spokespeople for our offering. Because I use a lot of the same marketing resources and tools for the corporate strategy that our advisors use for their individual strategy, there tends to not be a conflict, but almost a nice connection between the two.

So they get to be unique in their own way while using some of the language and some of the identity we use for the Steward brand.

[00:02:10] Doug Heikkinen: So customization and flexibility are crucial in your marketing approach. Can you share any specific strategies you use to help advisors tailor their marketing while maintaining consistency with the firm's overall brand?

[00:02:22] Greg Banasz: Yes. One thing we don't do is offer that marketing in a box strategy. I typically will have advisors who will at least come to me with some sort of goal in mind, whether it's a branding goal, whether it's a communications goal, or whether it's a growth goal. And then we'll try to help them pick out supporting tools and resources, even vendors, that will help them achieve whatever it is they choose to do. Now with such a large menu to choose from, I consider it like a virtual spice rack of sorts. They get to pick and choose what they would enjoy doing or what they would like to do, and then we try to bring it down to a custom strategy for what they want. So it depends, at the end of the day, how much time, energy, and money they want to exhaust.

In many cases, our advisors will say, show me the menu of options that I could choose from that aren't going to cost me anything. Other times they'll say, yeah, give me the opportunity to spend a little bit. And the nice thing about the flexibility is that from, like a website perspective, for example, I'll tell them, listen, the banner, the top and the bottom are mine. Everything in the middle, you can create your own custom environment.

[00:03:45] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. The industry's undergoing a generational shift with millennials and Gen Z, demanding more innovation and digital engagement. How is Steward Partners adapting to the marketing reach and building trust with these younger tech savvy clients?

And some of the conversations I had with your advisors earlier, you are open to a lot of current things.

[00:04:07] Greg Banasz: Yeah. In addition to keeping up with industry trends, interviewing potential vendors, and attending different marketing oriented events, we have several internal partner groups that meet monthly.

I have a next generation advisor group. I have a recruiting group. I have a marketing group. And they're both filled with greener advisors and more mature advisors, and support staff as well. So they not only help me, they give the staff and everyone a voice into what the offering should look like.

So it's not Greg Banasz telling them what they need, it's them telling me this is something we would like to see. So what happens is the partnership really grows and evolves with the help of the partners. They bring us new and innovative tools and vendors and resources that may not have normally been seen by my own process.

But likewise, when they do say we would like to see some new AI tools, or we would like to see some new branding strategies, I will bring in the success stories and the things that are working. And many of those things now are a more modernized approach and a lot of them have technology that's involved.

It's not the old school brochures and billboards anymore. It's all the way down to the QR code on a business card that you can see how many people scan your business card on a monthly basis, or a website that gets uploaded to your phone immediately. So it's, the tech savvy clients are very eager to do certain things, whether it's branding, communication, or growing.

They just want us to keep up with the times and make sure the offering is robust enough.

[00:05:44] Doug Heikkinen: One thing that you mentioned to me before we got on the air here was they help each other, and I thought that was really interesting. How so?

[00:05:52] Greg Banasz: Yeah, it's one of those cases where we have a unique partnership where everyone's kind of rowing in the same direction.

That's obviously the common part of all that is that everyone has equity in the parent company. And what's nice about that is if I have an advisor say in Dallas, Texas, who is doing a lot with branding or website build, and then I have another advisor say outside the market who says, do you have someone who's recently done a website design or website build, or a branding project?

They're happy to show what process they went through and who they worked with. Obviously we have our preferred vendors, but they're very eager to show what projects and what designs that they put in place. So everyone is welcoming the opportunity to say, yeah, I'm happy to share my success and show others what we do.

It's not that, no, it's mine, and hold it close to the vest and saying, it's my intellectual property. You can't have it. You can't see it.

[00:06:54] Doug Heikkinen: And they're helping each other because they're all owners.

[00:06:57] Greg Banasz: Right.

[00:06:59] Doug Heikkinen: In your experience, what are the biggest challenges in marketing a financial service firm today, especially when it comes to standing out in a crowded, highly regulated market?

[00:07:09] Greg Banasz: Yeah, it probably goes without saying that advisors and firms need to be unique in the industry, and that's, typically they get described as using bland, tasteless language. Like, we're a financial services firm that caters to institutions, families, and individuals with a holistic financial planning strategy, blah, blah.

The same Wikipedia aids everybody else sees. But compliance, in many worlds, tends to restrict the language and the. words that are deemed promissory or misrepresenting. What I've always felt, and I'm very happy to say here at Steward Partners, that compliance tends to be more of a partner with us.

So, I've always, and our compliance has approached this by saying, listen, we're your partners too. They own the same equity I own, by the way. So they're like, well, instead of us being viewed as the prevention police, it's refreshing when they help you with the language and, instead of sticking to what you can't say and you go back to the drawing board.

No, they'll help us more of a consultative approach to accomplish things. But again, you get back to that Wikipedia example. I took sample language from one of our teams in New Jersey. And, versus just giving the basic wa-wa answer of what a financial advisor or a financial adversary team is, they gave a little bit more of a human description. I'll read right from their website, which says, "we are committed to serve the evolving needs of our clients. We view our client relationships as a partnership where we dedicate ourselves to help them achieve their financial life goals." Now again, even that sounds basic, but then they go on.

"We seek to enhance our clients' lives by helping them proactively plan for their future and act as a trusted resource along the way. We help them live balanced lives and believe their wealth should be managed to last more than a lifetime." Again, some unique language put in there, but it touches people in a more human way versus just, we're financial advisors. We do this, blah, blah, blah.

[00:09:12] Doug Heikkinen: Artificial intelligence is transforming marketing and offering new ways to personalize, automate, analyze campaigns. Should marketers and financial services embrace AI, and how do you see it impacting your work at Steward Partners?

[00:09:27] Greg Banasz: Yeah, and again, I probably won't say anything profound here, but advisors and marketing firms should certainly embrace the AI world, and what they should do and how it, how they should evolve around it.

But the part that everyone should probably know already is that any mundane or robo possible task that can be accomplished by such tools that saves time and money, you should welcome that change. What I can say is this. Creativity, at least to this point in our world, is still in the hands of the marketing firm or the strategist. Combining your ability to be innovative and creative, coupled with the AI, robo-ized, or automated systems, can create an industry leading partner. So again, I think you have to balance where do I use AI and how do I accomplish the creative, the artistic side of marketing that they just can't do yet.

[00:10:23] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. How has your approach to marketing and branding evolved over your career?

You've been at it a while. The rise of digital channels and data-driven strategies. How has it evolved for you?

[00:10:38] Greg Banasz: I believe marketing strategy, at least, in the financial services industry, really need to be divided into three lanes. At the end of the day, there should be a branding strategy.

There could be a communication strategy, and there should be a growth strategy. On the branding side of the equation, I do believe people need to understand how branding guides work. It's something that our industry doesn't really look into much, but it is a very important part of marketing, at least Marketing 101. Everything your team and your practice represents language, color, fonts, imagery.

Consistency is what you need to do and represent yourself. It all needs to be in sync. the next, communication, is what you do and how you do it. Needs to be amplified with things like video, emails, newsletter campaigns. So many things though, that, people are using these days can be tracked.

That's what I like about marketing. Everything is trackable with some sort of analytics tool. But video engagement, when done properly with a talented marketing agency or partner, can provide a level of connection and intimacy that there wasn't three plus years ago. I think many people now feel at times we just heard from you the other day, not remembering that interaction was video facing, because it's getting that good.

[00:11:57] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah.

[00:11:59] Greg Banasz: On the growth side of things, I think there are so many ways to promote and grow with campaigns that can enhance your practice. A few firms are engaging some things like, client testimonials. I hear still this day and age when you talk to an advisor and you ask, how are you growing?

Oh, it's all client, it's all client referrals. Great. How would you love to get a client testimonial on your website? The regulatories, the regulators and the regulatory agencies have said, you can do this. But so many compliance departments said, yeah, it's too complicated. We don't want to go into that.

My compliance department has worked with me to say, we will do this as long as you follow the rules and here are the rules that you need to follow. So you think about ways that you can grow. If you say client referrals is it, then you want to get those folks on your website or some sort of dynamic that shows a client testimonial, that doesn't look too salesy, but at least a nice testimonial and referral chain.

[00:13:02] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. Looking ahead, what do you believe is the future of marketing in financial services? Are there any emerging trends or technologies that you'll think will be especially important in the next five years?

[00:13:14] Greg Banasz: Yeah, I do think it's, this is maybe even going backwards versus looking forward. I think we need to start with the advisor voice at the end of the day.

Asking what they need and what they want. Backing into an offering that focuses on this basic concept. Marketing offerings should be built by advisors, for advisors. It's a great place to start and allow your team or your marketing group to explore new tools and options to introduce to your advisors.

What I'm a big fan of is putting together focus groups and panels, which we do. I was telling you earlier about, we do this once a month where we have multiple teams that we meet with. We get honest feedback. If you listen to advisors and they say, I want to grow or I want a brand, and you start writing with, Hey, you need to do this, you need to do that, they're going to shut down.

But finding out what they truly have a level of interest in, will help them connect. But I will say, if there's one thing that sticks out to me most, it's the lack of attention and interest people are giving to how much the website represents. I know people in marketing who are quick to say, listen, marketing is not just a nice website and a pretty logo.

It is not. I do appreciate that. But I will say so many times, many of the websites that I've seen when I'm talking to recruits or new advisors are just meh. They're not really dynamic. They don't, they try to say too much. There's, it's too wordy. It's not really to the point. And, when I see one that actually does pop, when I see one that does have a nice first impression and they've taken the time to review the language, review the color imagery, create that little brand guide I mentioned earlier, and implement it into that website design and make sure that's the communications hub for everything they do?

I think you're off to a good start because really, I don't care if you have the greatest referral strategy or center of influence campaign or great client communications. If you're directing them back at the end of the day to a meh website, it's going to fall short. You're going to lose them.

[00:15:27] Doug Heikkinen: Do you think some advisors, when you say, I don't wanna do that, or I'm not interested in that, they don't know what they can do?

I had a number of advisors in here today doing podcasts and they were all fantastic. So is it some of that? Like, I could be good at that, but I don't know I can be?

[00:15:45] Greg Banasz: Yeah. That's why I start with that genuine interest quality. So I'll give you an example. I have advisors saying, Greg, I really need to communicate my brand better.

I need to get out more. Maybe it's a, did you know newsletter or it's something in an email campaign I could put to my prospect line versus my existing clients. But they'll tell you, I have no interest in social media. In my household, it's a four letter word. Maybe something bad happened, maybe it's not something they're interested in.

So you avoid social media as part of the solution. So that's why I say, Hey, are you interested in this? Because if they say something like, Hey, I've never done a podcast. I've never done an interview, I've never done any media engagement, but I've seen other partners here do it. And they tend to market it properly, they communicate it well. I think what you and I can probably appreciate is, marketing at the end of the day starts with quality content. And if you don't have quality content, it's just you're showing off the same thing everybody else is doing, or it falls short of your atte your intended agenda or goal.

So if you've got original content, you've got unique content, your voice, those kinds of things, it's great. And, but I like to find out what people like to do because if I start to push them down a direction that they're not genuinely interested, they won't keep up with it.

[00:17:13] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. And the best way for advisors to start with content is, what are your clients asking you?

What are the questions? Yeah, answer those. And then you start your content library.

[00:17:23] Greg Banasz: Yes.

[00:17:24] Doug Heikkinen: Finally, last question. What advice would you give to other marketing leaders and financial services who are trying to balance innovation with tradition and the needs of both of their advisors and their clients?

[00:17:37] Greg Banasz: Yeah, I thought about that question, and I, that's, I hate to say it, but I get back to the same thing. You have to listen to your advisors. You have to find out what they want, as they express to you what they're interested in. You can begin to introduce new products, new technology, new resources, but it really has to begin with what the advisors want. The, some of the newer technology that I am seeing is really good video content these days. I think a lot of people, as I mentioned earlier, are getting used to just doing some sort of video or some sort of video engagement, but the ones that do it well are the ones that speak to their clients from time to time and say, yeah, I just talked to you the other day. And don't realize that No, you didn't talk to me, I sent you a personalized video, I sent you some sort of video engagement. So I'm seeing more and more of advisors jump on the video bandwagon so to speak.

Lastly on the, the AI and the technology and future trends, I'm seeing some really interesting stuff come out that will help you score clients and relationships as well as scour public websites to see more intel or more information they can get to you. I like the idea of all the data you could possibly have and do something with it, but I also like to see them take that content and keep score all along so it, whatever they can do with data and data metrics and data science and keeping score and tracking some sort of analytics, it's probably your best bet. But certainly as far as trends go, video is starting to really take hold of our industry quite well.

[00:19:39] Doug Heikkinen: That's great, Greg. Always insightful. Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:19:44] Greg Banasz: Thank you, Doug.

[00:19:46] Doug Heikkinen: To learn more about Steward Partners, please visit stewardpartners.com. We are on all social media platforms @Advisorpedia. Please give us a follow. For our producer Tory Miller and everyone at Advisorpedia, thank you so much for listening.