There’s been a recurring theme lately here at Advisor Evolved on our marketing strategy calls (free to all AE clients).
A lot of people have been asking lately — “Chris how can we market to High Net Worth (HNW) households??”
So today I’m going to walk you through some strategies that will 100% help you attract and retain these unicorn clients.
But first! I need to dispel some misconceptions and educate you on a few things.
Actually wait….before I do that…why do you even want HNW clients? Pretty obvious right — high premiums = high commissions, AND, they don’t shop nearly as often because they aren’t worried about $300 annual rate increases. They’re not even worried about $600 rate increases — especially when they see the value in the relationship and coverage.
They lose more than that a year in their couch cushions. They spend more than that a week on Caramel Lattes from Starbucks (overrated IMO).
Little Carson and Asher spend more than that per week in Pokemon cards.
Kylie and Madison spend more than that in a week on Dagne Dover bags and mani/pedis.
Okay, I’m here all night folks. I digress….
All jokes aside (sorry Carson) here are some things you need to know about HNW insurance marketing…..
Forget about SEO
Number one — you will rarely (or maybe never) attract HNW clients with a content + SEO strategy.
Why? Because HNW households are not problem-aware. They think their State Farm “Silver” package that has a Jewelry limit of $2500 is just fine.
Bottom line — they are not searching for “high net worth insurance” in Google because most, if not all of them don’t even know it’s a thing, and don’t know how bad they need it.
Here is proof of that — only 150 search queries per month nationwide (which is basically zero in the grand scheme):
So that does this mean for insurance agencies who are trying to acquire HNW households?
Well, if your plan is to fire up a landing page on your website with a bunch of HNW keywords, and sit back and wait for wealthy households to find you in Google, you’re going to be sitting for a long time. In fact, your ass just might get stuck to the chair!
Bye bye SEO. Hello digital door-knocking.
There are two critical steps in marketing to HNW households….number one:
You need to make them problem-aware
This is by far the most challenging part of marketing to HNW households. Educating people is hard, and it takes work.
You need them to understand that they are in serious danger with that “Silver” package. HNW peeps are like a lot of other insurance consumers in that they don’t read their dec pages or policies.
They don’t know what holes exist in their insurance policies.
The conditions and exclusions. The limitations. The ACV on their roof because their Farmers agent was trying to shave premium to save the renewal.
They don’t know that their detached 4 car garage is only insured for $30,000. And why is that? You guessed it — because their Coverage A is underinsured too. LOL. Rich folks don’t know what they don’t know about insurance just like many other insurance consumers.
Bottom line — you need to scare them a little bit so they understand why they need you, (and much better insurance).
You need a case study or comparison of that “Silver” package vs. your AIG/Lloyds/Chubb contract so they understand the critical differences between your HNW contracts and the Allstate legacy policy they’ve had for the past 10 years.
You need to take your message to them
Once you have your case studies and marketing message ready, you need to take both to their doorstep.
How? With paid traffic. Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads.
You need to relentlessly pound HNW zip codes and cities with ads that direct these people back to your case study or QuoteVid. You need to build a consistent flow of awareness and scarcity. If I were you, I would fire up several different types of ad campaigns and literally never turn them off.
You need to let people know who you are and how you can help them, and stop waiting for them to find you.
Run so many ads, they get sick of seeing your brand and face.
Also, you should run “pin drop” ads in a 1-to-5 mile radius around country clubs, marinas, and high end auto dealerships like Mercedes, Tesla, Porsche, etc.. (i’ll explain how in the video)
Ad Headline Ideas
You could have a separate ad campaign using an image of a Tesla, and run the ad on top of the Tesla dealership. “Are you a Tesla owner? Click here to make sure you’re not wasting money on the wrong auto insurance.”
Here’s another headline you could use for the cities you market to: “Do you own a home in CITYNAME? Find out why 80% of homeowners in CITYNAME are wasting money on the wrong insurance! Clear here to see how we’re fixing this major problem in CITYNAME!”
Here’s a sneak peak at some targeting and audience creation tips for an AE client (we built them a totally separate website/brand):
For the sake of time, I didn’t take you through every single step in the process, but you get the idea.
You need HNW referral sources
One of the other strategies that needs to be deployed is, you need to build a list of realtors, lenders, financial advisors and high end auto salesmen in the locations you want customers. You should email, call and/or text them to build a referral relationship so they can hand you HNW households on a silver platter.
Free Resource: here is a great article I saved several years back that his still extremely relevant for networking with financial advisors. No opt-in necessary, just click here to download it.
When you first get started with HNW marketing, your referral partner relationships will bare more fruit than your ad campaigns, so take this part seriously.
So how do you build your lists? Literally just Google “realtor in CITYNAME” and start clicking on profiles and links to build your list (or hire a VA to do it for you — I’ve used UpWork for this personally). You could also run a search in LinkedIn for this as well.
Then you simply rinse and repeat for lenders, car dealers, marinas, financial advisors, and anyone else who is regularly in front of HNW individuals. Don’t be afraid to get creative here. There are many other referral relationships you could foster with people like suit tailors and CPAs.
You need to become one of them….sort of
Successful people who have money, huge houses, and awesome cars want to do business with likeminded and similar people. It’s like a secret club, and you need to find a way to belong. Yes, HNW households can be boujee..! Surprise!
This doesn’t mean you have to run out and buy a Tesla, get plastic surgery, or join a country club. It does mean however that you should create a secondary brand, website, and social profiles that match the demographic (we built that site of course) you are trying to do business with. New metal business cards (because those things are so awesome) as well as really well put together pamphlets to hand out.
Your online brand needs to look the part, and guess what, so do you. Your physical appearance/hygiene/attitude matters when interacting with this demographic. Remember they want to do business with people like themselves, so you might need to play that game a little bit.
Meeting a NNW prospect for a lunch meeting? Skip the golf shirt and wear a suit. Let them know you’re serious about this.
You need to offer a HNW customer experience
So lets assume you follow the instructions in this article and start getting some HNW clients. What now?
Your on-boarding process and customer service needs to be outstanding. Don’t have a welcome kit yet? Get one and blow their mind with some nice swag after they become a client. Take pictures and even video of their house and property and store it for them in case of a claim.
Be proactive.
They’re not going to move their account for a $300 annual increase but they still expect you to reach out, and most of them are going to want an in-person meeting, or at minimum a phone call or two. These are not people you should let renew without getting some touches on them. They have a lot to protect and you need to take the relationship seriously.
We have several Advisor Evolved clients/agents using our QuoteVids tool for this exact purpose — sending recorded renewal videos to their clients (all fully branded to their website). This has been proven to increase retention and provides a customer experience they’ve never seen before.
Conclusion
I hope this article can help you in some way. As you can see there are some steps involved in marketing to a HNW demographic, but this isn’t rocket science.
The benefits of working with HNW clients are substantial, from higher commissions, to lucrative referral relationships, as well as writing commercial insurance and other lines of business they might need. It also allows you to build a strong book of business with fewer customers, which means less overall service.
Are you planning to market to HNW clients? Let us know what you’re doing and whats working!