Join Laura and Lisa as they sit down with Erin Moyer, Marketing Director at Laird Norton Wetherby, to explore the intricacies of marketing in the financial sector. In this 10-minute episode, Erin shares her journey from communications to marketing leadership, the strategies behind her firm’s recent rebranding, and the challenges of reaching ultra-high-net-worth clients. Discover valuable insights on content marketing, lead generation, and the importance of trusting your instincts in the ever-evolving marketing landscape. Perfect for marketers looking to gain a deeper understanding of wealth management marketing.

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Chapters:

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Join Laura and Lisa as they sit down with Erin Moyer, Marketing Director at Laird Norton Wetherby, to explore the intricacies of marketing in the financial sector. In this 10-minute episode, Erin shares her journey from communications to marketing leadership, the strategies behind her firm’s recent rebranding, and the challenges of reaching ultra-high-net-worth clients. Discover valuable insights on content marketing, lead generation, and the importance of trusting your instincts in the ever-evolving marketing landscape. Perfect for marketers looking to gain a deeper understanding of wealth management marketing.



Chapters:

• Chapter 1: Erin's Journey into Marketing (0:00 - 2:30) Erin Moyer, Marketing Director at Laird Norton Wealth Management, shares her career path from internal communications at Washington Mutual to leading financial communications and marketing.
• Chapter 2: Ideal Clients & Strategy (2:30 - 5:00) Erin discusses targeting multi-generational wealthy families and balancing brand recognition with skepticism of paid media, highlighting content marketing as key to building trust.
• Chapter 3: Rebranding & Content Marketing (5:00 - 7:30) Erin covers the firm’s recent rebrand, emphasizing earned media, paid search, and content marketing, along with plans for a speaker's roadshow to engage the right audience.
• Chapter 4: Marketing Reflections & Career Advice (7:30 - 10:00) Erin reflects on the importance of client referrals, the challenges of measuring ROI, and offers advice to her younger self on trusting instincts and embracing experimentation.

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Links and Resources:

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• Subscribe to our newsletter here
• Lisa Wekellis on LinkedIn
• Laura Szczes on LinkedIn
• Double Z Media Website
• Double Z Media on LinkedIn

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Transcription:

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

Erin: Thank you for having me on this. 

Laura: Absolutely. We're happy to have you here. , we love having marketing directors on because that's who our audience is. And so. You obviously have some little nuggets that everybody can relate to, I'm [00:01:00] sure. ,

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.

Erin: That is correct. We have 6 offices throughout the [00:02:00] nation that come about through both organic opening of offices and through recent mergers that we've had.

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.

But really, our strength is in doing all of the estate and financial planning and cash flow work, and then thinking about generational work, setting up trusts for children, grandchildren, And philanthropy into the community, and so it is how to steward all of your resources. When you [00:03:00] have likely more than enough for your lifetime.

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.

And so, you know, there's this tension between thinking you don't need to advertise, but needing brand recognition in a very crowded market who spends a lot of money. And so , I think of a place that, . Is a comfort level for our folks at our firm who aren't used to thinking about marketing is in 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?

Erin: well, at the moment, we are [00:05:00] developing a kind of a long range strategy. You know, there's 1 thing to build a new brand, but you actually have to launch it as well. Otherwise, it's just a bit of a vanity play for yourselves, but, what we're currently doing is a lot of earned media work. Um, so trying to get out and tell our story.

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?

A lot of it is thinking about could we [00:06:00] have partners, , in different places that are great referral sources that can bring their audience to this road show. We're, we're working all of that out. I'd love your advice.

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] the main source of business for firms like ours are 1st of all. The client refers to you, so the people that you work with are happy. They tell their friends. The 2nd, 1 is through those professional contacts like the CPS and attorneys and our philanthropic advisors. They often send our name to people, but all of that still needs both green.

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.

Family members or, or their contacts. You know, money is one of those things that people don't talk about that much. So we want to give them something that's easy to pass along. Um, Whether that's a webinar [00:08:00] invite on a topic that they think would be of interest to a friend, but they're not going to bring the topic up on their own necessarily, but articles or Invitations and events can be really helpful for for opening that conversation of oh, this is who we work with as our Wealth advisor and you know, they're really this thing you're struggling with

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,

Erin: It's huge. I mean, our clients stay with us for decades and lifetimes off. And, you know, we're a trust company as well as a [00:09:00] registered investment advisor. So, some of them are born clients and die clients. You know, I mean, that's my longest trust. Last. So, so, um, retention is a huge part of our business and that feeling great about being our client.

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.

Lisa: It's an incredible strategy, but how do you show ROI, [00:10:00] right?

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.

People hate doing anything with money. Moving your accounts is not an easy thing. So, our sales cycle calls it that really, but our, our. It sounds like it can be an 18 month process from the time [00:11:00] someone even first contacts us to when they actually make the move. Often it's faster because most of the time it's, it's when there is a life transition that people are finally willing 

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?

Erin: I think I would tell myself. To trust my instincts more, um, I think, , I have spent a lot of effort making sure I was proving a case beyond a shadow of a doubt instead of experimenting, testing and learning. It's okay. If something [00:12:00] doesn't work out. You can roll that out as an option moving forward.

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.

Laura: Absolutely. Thanks, Erin. [00:13:00] 

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