Wall Street wealth management giants like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, and USB Group are now holding financial seminars for the children of their wealthiest clients, according to a report by Reuters.

Boston Consulting Group reports that millennials will control 16% of the world’s wealth by 2020, and these firms are targeting the richest of their young prospects in hopes that in future years, they will return for wealth management services. Financial advisors may want to do the same…

There is a huge opportunity for anyone who works in the financial planning industry to follow the major wealth management firms’ lead and start educating millennials on personal finance. A great start would be to research financial topics that apply to and are important to the younger generation.

Millennials have both different obstacles with and different attitudes toward money that you must consider; a staggering amount are indebted from taking out student loans and they witnessed the 2008 recession, so people in their 20’s and 30’s are more wary about investing than their parents were.

This makes it a tough sell for financial advisors but it means taking a different approach, both in product and marketing, in order to secure the next generation of clients. Education will play a key role for successful advisors because millennials will need hard evidence to convince them to use their services.

Seminars have long been proven to be the most efficient way for financial advisors to educate prospects. They give you the opportunity to discuss the topics your audience truly cares about, gain their trust, and plant the seeds of future business relationships. Once you adapt your content for the financial needs and concerns of millennials, the challenge then is to adapt your marketing. Here are a few brief tips on marketing financial planning services to the younger crowd:

Marketing To Millennials

Use Social Media

For your baby-boomer clients, social media marketing may not be the most useful channel, but when targeting millennials it is essential. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great places to share educational materials that get possible clients interested and get them familiar with your name/brand. Social media is also useful for running targeted advertisements for your seminars; you can target your audience based on age, location, occupation, etc to make sure your message is getting in front of the right eyes.

Combine Print and Digital

Direct mail is traditionally the go-to marketing channel for getting seminar registrations. Combining your mail campaign with an online landing page for event registration will help make the experience more convenient for your millennial prospects. They will be more likely to enter a link into their smartphone’s web browser than to call a 1-800 number or mail back a registration form.

Update Your Website

Most likely the #1 thing that turns off millennial consumers in search of financial advice is an ugly, outdated website. Make sure that your website is clean, contemporary, and fully functional to ensure that you aren’t losing young potential clients to competitors with sleeker sites. With the next generation of wealthy Americans soon to be seeking financial advisors, it is imperative that you begin educating them now. If you need assistance in marketing a financial seminar for millennials, call Plum Direct Marketing for a free consultation to assess your goals for a marketing campaign. If you’re interested in putting our “Marketing to Millennials” tips to the test, we offer social media packages, direct mail campaigns with digital integration, and custom website design.

Source: Dilts, Elizabeth. “Wall Street Banks Take on Summer School: Investing 101 for Rich Kids.”Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 3 July 2017, https://www.reuters.com/