Building Trust and Brand in Wealth Management: Insights with Erin Moyer

Laura: And we would like to welcome Erin Moyer from Laird Norton Weatherby.

Erin: Thank you for having me on this.

everybody can relate to, I'm [: 00:01:00

Erin: I hope so.

Laura: So let's get into it a little , Erin, how did you get into marketing?

Erin: Well, interestingly enough, I started off in internal communications. Well, I started off in many other pathways, but my first communications job was in internal communications at Washington Mutual. And when you are communicating to 65, 000 employees, it really is marketing in a lot of ways. And so that was my entrance into this field.

And , through being in financial communications, I knew someone who asked me if I had an interest in shifting over to a firm that really was mostly doing client communications and starting to dabble in PR. And that was I don't know how, but I've been here for 17 years. And during that time, we've really expanded.

And so now I do all internal and external communications for the firm.

Laura: Wow. And you are all over the nation now.

offices throughout the [: 00:02:00

Laura: Well, it sounds like you're doing things. Right?

Erin: We're growing, so I'm hoping that we're helping that in some ways. Yes.

Laura: That's awesome. So let's talk about your ideal customer right now

Erin: Our real specialty is helping families with multi generational wealth. And so that, that can look like a lot of things, but really you, Would likely have at least 10 million in investable assets to begin working with us. And what we can do for you is work out all of the, you know, investing is kind of the baseline of what we do.

of your resources. When you [: 00:03:00

Laura: Yeah, you want to invest that, right? So if you had a 10 million media budget or advertising budget, what would you do?

Erin: Well, you know, it's interesting. I come from an industry that is often suspect of paid media and at the same time wants brand recognition in a very busy marketplace. Organizations that we consider there are competitors, like a large banks, private wealth firm, the public does, even if we see ourselves as something different.

promoting content marketing.[: 00:04:00

So, , you know, you can put a lot of effort into creating amazing content that really illustrates expertise, which is. A huge part of how you build trust with potential clients, if they don't know your name, they're not going to your website to find it. And so if I had, you know, 10 Million to put down there, I'd really love a sophisticated content marketing promotion plan to accompany the work we're doing in that thought leadership.

Laura: Yep. , to ensure that this is being seen. 'cause everybody's making great content, but measure how it's working too.

Erin: That's exactly right. And I think that there are places where the right eyeballs would be that that we can. Could do some very strategic placements with, I think,

Laura: Yeah.

Lisa: Erin, you mentioned, , the priority of brand recognition and also that you recently went through a rebrand. , what is your strategy to manage that?

well, at the moment, we are [: 00:05:00

And sometimes when you have recent mergers and a new brand that can open some doors to be able to tell that story, um, and then we, you know, we, we definitely do , Page search, right? So on our, our current new name, our old names of the old companies, that sort of thing. So the people still continue to find us.

And, , we are looking to build out a content marketing , paid media plan. Actually, I don't have 10 million to spend on it, but it is, it is where we're thinking of going to continue getting the name out there. We're also looking at doing maybe, , a speaker's roadshow. And

so, Also looking at how we promote that to get the right audience?

t is thinking about could we [: 00:06:00

Laura: Name an example of a partner.

Erin: A law firm estate planning attorneys, we often get referrals from these centers of influences and I would say attorneys are a great source for us. And so that could be a potential partnership where we look at 1 of these firms and have a panel discussion on a topic, including someone and they're inviting people as well.

Laura: absolutely. Maybe you should start a podcast.

Erin: We thought about that. I, I might have to pick your brain out if you are doing this technically because it's very slick. I'm very impressed by the way.

Laura: Oh, good. Well, thank you.

Lisa: So you mentioned, , getting leads from referrals, is that your main source at the moment? What marketing strategies do you use right now?

Erin: You know, the main, [: 00:07:00

Right? And so we do campaigns that are kind of educational campaigns. Paying newsletters to our list of, um, third party, if you will, girl sources, and we often are sending a newsletter or communications to our clients that, you know, it's got a button at the bottom share with a friend. We're, we're putting articles in there that we hope they will pass along to.

Um, Whether that's a webinar [: 00:08:00

Laura: Yeah. I think about the amount of trust and , that recognition and I mean, obviously referrals are everything. Like my best clients are referrals.

Lisa: It reminds me a little bit of the luxury car brand strategy around paid media, right? Most people aren't going to buy a Lexus because they saw a 30 second ad on TV, uh, but someone who bought a Lexus last week will feel really good about it after they see the ad, right? It's more about retention. Yeah,

a trust company as well as a [: 00:09:00

And that actually makes me think about a strategy. We have used paid media in the past where we are highlighting partnerships with our community partners. So, we might be doing a campaign that has our logo on it, but we're really showcasing our wonderful community organizations that we've partnered with.

And, um, you know, we get that. Brand Halo of association with these wonderful organizations, and they're thrilled to have their names out there promoted, whatever, whatever their particular mission is put out into space. And I think that's a great way to make your existing clients feel really proud about being a client.

gy, but how do you show ROI, [: 00:10:00

Erin: Yeah, I mean, it's super, it's super hard. I mean, that's one of the beauties of digital. I love how easy you can track digital, but not everything we've done, especially the community stuff has been digital. And so ROI is really hard to prove. It is one thing that I think about when we ever do. Print campaigns, or even radio campaigns, just trying to be in alignment with the business development department and ask, you know, please try to collect any information about why they walk through the door because you're maybe not the The number 1 reason, but maybe they got that referral 6 months ago, and then they heard something on NPR, if you will, and decided that, you know, what I've been meaning to do something.

month process from the time [: 00:11:00

to go.

Laura: What the heck do I do now?

Erin: Yeah.

Yeah.

Laura: Well, I hate when that happens and 10 million falls in my lap,

Erin: it is. It's very stressful. You'd be surprised.

I'd like to find out. I'd like to find out. But apparently I hear it's kind of stressful. You do feel a sense of responsibility with that. For sure.

Laura: absolutely.

Lisa: Well, before we let you go, I do have 1 final question. If you could go back in time and talk to yourself at the beginning of your career, what's 1 piece of advice you would give?

ing. It's okay. If something [: 00:12:00

And I think, , there's a lot of time spent on building cases that could be quickly solved with a small bit of spend and test and move on. If it doesn't work,

Laura: agree

trust your intuition too. Right. Like Yeah, I'm sure. Intuition, , you've studied your own market a ton and so what, what you think might work. Really might, and you don't have to dump the entire budget into just dabble and see what comes out of it. You know, that sweet spot about spending enough to make sure you've truly tested.

Erin: It's not always easy, but , if you do give it a decent shot, you often are not wasting those resources, even if it wasn't the exact right strategy.

Laura: I love it.

Lisa: Well, this was amazing. Thank you so much for joining us.

Erin: Thank you so much. I really appreciate being asked to participate. This was really fun.

a: Absolutely. Thanks, Erin. [: 00:13:00