Kelly Waltrich, Author at Intention.ly - Page 2 of 6

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Author: Kelly Waltrich

How a Fractional CMO Can Lower Your RIA’s Client Acquisition Cost

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

For many RIAs, client acquisition cost (CAC) is a critical business metric. It tells you how much you’re spending to generate a new client relationship, and whether your marketing investments are producing profitable growth.

When acquisition costs start creeping higher, most firms assume they need a bigger marketing budget. In reality, the opposite is often true.

The issue usually isn’t how much you’re spending, but how efficiently you’re spending it. That’s where a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can make a significant difference.

The Real Problem Isn’t Marketing Spend

Many advisory firms don’t struggle because they lack marketing activity. They struggle because their marketing efforts lack strategic direction. They will invest in websites, content, paid advertising, social media, events, technology platforms, and vendors without a cohesive growth strategy connecting everything together. The result is fragmented execution, inconsistent messaging, and wasted budget.

Over time, client acquisition costs rise because firms are paying for activity rather than outcomes. A Fractional CMO helps solve that problem by bringing executive-level marketing leadership without the expense of a full-time executive hire.

Executive Strategy Without Executive Overhead

Hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $350,000 annually before benefits, bonuses, equity, and recruiting expenses are considered. For many RIAs, that’s a significant investment before a single campaign launches.

A Fractional CMO provides strategic leadership at a fraction of the cost, allowing firms to redirect more of their budget toward initiatives that directly drive growth.

Instead of allocating resources toward executive overhead, firms can invest in:

  • Lead generation campaigns
  • Website optimization
  • Content marketing
  • Search visibility
  • Marketing technology
  • Client referral programs
  • Brand development

The result is more working dollars supporting client acquisition.

Eliminating Expensive Trial and Error

One of the most overlooked drivers of high CAC is experimentation without strategy. Many firms spend months testing tactics that were never likely to succeed in the first place. New vendors are hired. Platforms are purchased. Campaigns launch with unclear objectives and limited measurement.

Every failed initiative increases acquisition costs.

An experienced Fractional CMO brings pattern recognition from working across multiple firms, growth stages, and marketing environments. They understand which channels are likely to perform, where budgets should be allocated, and how to prioritize investments based on business goals. Rather than learning through expensive mistakes, firms gain a roadmap built on proven experience.

Faster Results Through Financial Services Expertise

Marketing in financial services comes with unique challenges.

Compliance requirements, regulatory scrutiny, complex products, and highly competitive markets create a steep learning curve for generalist marketers. A Fractional CMO with financial services experience arrives with industry-specific knowledge already in place.

They understand:

  • FINRA and SEC marketing regulations
  • Advisor buyer journeys
  • Wealth management positioning strategies
  • Referral and lead generation dynamics
  • Content compliance workflows
  • Financial services technology ecosystems

This expertise reduces onboarding time, accelerates execution, and minimizes costly compliance-related revisions that can delay campaigns and increase expenses.

Improving Performance From Existing Resources

Reducing acquisition costs isn’t always about adding new resources. Often, it’s about improving the performance of the resources already in place. Many RIAs have capable marketing coordinators, operations staff, agency partners, or business development professionals who simply lack strategic leadership. A Fractional CMO provides that leadership. They align teams around measurable goals, establish accountability, streamline workflows, and create repeatable processes that improve efficiency across the organization. The result is better execution without significantly increasing headcount.

Better Measurement Leads to Better Decisions

Many firms know how much they’re spending on marketing. Far fewer know which activities are actually generating clients. A Fractional CMO introduces the reporting, attribution, and performance frameworks needed to connect marketing investments to business outcomes.

Instead of asking:

“How much did we spend?”

Firms begin asking:

“What did we generate?”

That shift allows budgets to be redirected toward high-performing channels while eliminating activities that fail to produce meaningful results. Over time, acquisition costs decline because every marketing dollar is working harder.

Strategic Leadership Designed for Growth

The goal is to acquire more qualified clients while spending more efficiently. A Fractional CMO helps RIAs achieve that balance by combining executive-level strategy, industry expertise, operational leadership, and performance accountability without the cost of a full-time executive hire.

For firms looking to scale growth while improving marketing efficiency, lowering client acquisition cost often starts with stronger leadership, not a larger budget. At Intention.ly, our Fractional CMO services help RIAs build scalable growth strategies that maximize every marketing dollar and create measurable business impact.

Ready to explore whether a Fractional CMO is the right fit for your firm? Let’s talk.

How Fast Can Intention.ly Help Me Drive New Client Acquisition?

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

It’s one of the most common questions we hear from financial advisors and wealth management firms:

“How fast can Intention.ly help me drive new client acquisition?”

Faster than most firms think, but probably not in the way you expect.

Many advisors approach marketing looking for a quick influx of leads. They want to know when the phone will start ringing, when appointments will fill their time, and when they’ll see a measurable return on investment, and those are reasonable expectations. But sustainable client acquisition isn’t built on quick wins; it’s built on the right foundation.

Growth Happens When the Foundation Is Right

Before any campaign launches, we focus on answering a few critical questions:

  • Who are you trying to reach?
  • What makes your firm different?
  • Why should a prospect choose you over countless alternatives?
  • What problems do you solve better than anyone else?

Without clear answers, even the biggest marketing budget will struggle to produce meaningful results. With them, every marketing effort becomes more effective. That’s why we start with strategy. Whether we’re building a brand, launching campaigns, optimizing digital experiences, or deploying AI-powered marketing tools, every initiative is designed to attract the right prospects, not just more prospects.

The Timeline Depends on the Strategy

Different growth initiatives produce results at different speeds.

  • Paid media campaigns can begin generating traffic and leads within weeks when targeting and messaging are aligned.
  • Website optimization and conversion improvements often create immediate gains by helping existing traffic convert into consultations and conversations more effectively.
  • Content marketing, SEO, and AI search visibility typically require a longer investment horizon but create compounding growth that continues delivering value long after content is published.
  • Brand positioning and messaging refinement may not seem like acquisition tactics at first glance, but they frequently unlock stronger performance across every marketing channel because prospects instantly understand your value.

Client acquisition isn’t driven by a single tactic. It’s the result of multiple systems working together.

Why Some Firms See Results Faster Than Others

We’ve seen firms generate meaningful momentum within the first few months of engagement, and we’ve also seen firms take longer to achieve their goals. The difference is usually readiness, not effort.

Growth picks up quickly for firms with:

  • A clearly defined target audience
  • A compelling value proposition
  • A website built to convert visitors into conversations
  • Capacity to onboard new clients
  • Leadership alignment around growth objectives

When these pieces are already set in place, marketing can move quickly. When they aren’t, our first priority is helping build them correctly so growth becomes predictable and measurable.

Acquisition Isn’t Just About More Leads

One of the biggest misconceptions in financial services marketing is that success is measured solely by lead volume. More leads don’t necessarily mean more clients. The real goal is attracting qualified prospects who align with your ideal client profile and are more likely to become long-term relationships.

That’s why our focus extends beyond traffic generation. We help firms improve the entire client acquisition journey – from brand awareness and website engagement to lead nurturing, appointment setting, and conversion optimization. The result will be better outcomes.

Built Specifically for Financial Services

What makes Intention.ly different is our deep specialization in financial services. We understand advisor marketing, wealth management growth strategies, fintech partnerships, compliance considerations, and the unique challenges firms face when competing in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Our team combines strategic consulting, marketing execution, AI-powered solutions, and industry expertise to help firms create sustainable growth engines rather than relying on one-off campaigns.

So, How Fast Can We Help?

Fast enough to create momentum and strategic enough to make it last. Some initiatives can generate measurable activity within weeks. Others create long-term growth over months and years. The most successful firms embrace both. At Intention.ly, our goal isn’t simply to help you acquire clients faster. It’s to help you build a client acquisition system that continues working long after a campaign launches.

Six Financial Services Podcasts and Shows We’re Listening to Right Now

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

From behavioral finance and advisor growth to WealthTech innovation and investment insights, these are the shows helping shape the conversations driving the future of financial services.

The financial services industry has no shortage of content. Every day, advisors, asset managers, fintech leaders, and marketers are inundated with articles, newsletters, webinars, and social posts competing for attention.

Podcasts offer something different. They create space for deeper conversations, fresh perspectives, and authentic insights from the people actively shaping our industry.

At Intention.ly, we’re constantly looking for ideas, trends, and thought leaders that help us better serve our clients and stay ahead of where the industry is headed. These are a few of the financial services podcasts our team has been listening to lately—and why we think they’re worth your time.

1. The Power of the Ask — Savvy Ladies

Hosted by Lisa Zeiderman, Managing Director of Savvy Ladies, and renowned sales strategist Precious Williams, The Power of the Ask explores the conversations, experiences, and strategies that help women advocate for themselves in their careers, finances, and personal lives.

Each episode features inspiring guests who share practical advice on leadership, financial confidence, entrepreneurship, and personal growth. The show reflects Savvy Ladies’ broader mission of empowering women through financial education and helping them gain the confidence to ask for what they deserve.

Whether you’re looking for career inspiration, financial guidance, or a fresh perspective on leadership, this podcast consistently delivers meaningful takeaways.

Listen Here

2. Chopping Wealth — Shaping Wealth

Hosted by Brian Portnoy, founder of Shaping Wealth and one of the industry’s leading voices on behavioral finance, Chopping Wealth explores the deeper relationship between money, meaning, and human behavior.

Rather than focusing solely on markets and investment performance, the podcast tackles topics such as purpose, decision-making, well-being, and the psychology that drives financial choices. Brian brings together academics, advisors, authors, and thought leaders to challenge conventional thinking about wealth and what it truly means to live a rich life.

For advisors seeking a deeper understanding of client behavior—or anyone interested in the human side of money—Chopping Wealth is required listening.

Listen Here

3. In The Money — Flyer Financial Technologies

Hosted by Rusty Sommer, CEO of Flyer Financial Technologies, In The Money sits at the intersection of WealthTech, advisor growth, and industry innovation.

The show features conversations with fintech executives, platform leaders, advisors, and strategic partners discussing the technologies and trends reshaping financial services. From advisor workflow automation and enterprise technology to partnership strategies and market opportunities, the podcast provides valuable insights into the future of the industry.

For anyone interested in how technology is transforming wealth management, In The Money delivers a front-row seat to the conversation.

Listen Here

4. A Word on Wealth — Beacon Pointe

Created by the team at Stephens Wealth Management Group, now part of Beacon Pointe, A Word on Wealth focuses on helping investors navigate the financial decisions that matter most.

The podcast covers topics including retirement planning, investment management, wealth preservation, market insights, and long-term financial strategy. Through educational and approachable conversations, the show helps listeners better understand complex financial topics and make more informed decisions.

The podcast reflects the client-centered philosophy championed by leaders such as Kim Waldman and the broader team that helped build Stephens Wealth Management Group into one of Michigan’s most respected advisory firms.

Listen Here

5. Perfectly Integrated — Integrated Partners

Hosted by Matt Ackermann, Chief Content Officer at Integrated Partners and one of the most recognizable voices in advisor marketing and communications, Perfectly Integrated explores the strategies, partnerships, and leadership principles that help advisors build thriving businesses.

Matt’s conversations with industry executives, consultants, and successful practitioners provide actionable insights on practice management, business development, client experience, growth strategies, and the evolving landscape of wealth management.

The show embodies Integrated Partners’ commitment to helping advisors build more connected, scalable, and successful firms.

Listen Here

6. Viewpoints by Hennessy — Hennessy Funds

For advisors and investors looking to stay informed on markets without wading through lengthy research reports, Viewpoints by Hennessy offers timely and accessible insights directly from investment professionals.

Featuring portfolio managers and leaders from the Hennessy Funds investment team, the video series covers market trends, economic developments, portfolio positioning, and long-term investment themes. The conversations are concise, informative, and focused on helping viewers understand what’s happening in the markets—and why it matters.

While technically a video series rather than a traditional podcast, it serves the same purpose: delivering expert perspectives in a format that’s easy to consume and easy to share.

Watch Here

Great Content Starts with Great Conversations

The best podcasts don’t simply share information; they create connection.

Each of these shows demonstrates how financial brands can educate audiences, build credibility, and foster meaningful engagement through authentic conversations. As content continues to evolve, podcasts remain one of the most effective ways to build relationships at scale.

At Intention.ly, we’re proud to work with organizations that are investing in thought leadership, education, and meaningful industry dialogue. These podcasts are excellent examples of how great conversations can strengthen brands and create lasting impact.

Bonus Listen: Don’t Do That — An Intention.ly Podcast

While the podcasts above are produced by some of our incredible clients, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention one project from our own team.

Hosted by Kelly Waltrich, CEO and Co-Founder of Intention.ly, Don’t Do That flips the traditional business podcast format on its head. Instead of asking successful leaders what worked, Kelly asks a more revealing question:

“What would you never do again?”

Each episode features candid conversations with executives, entrepreneurs, advisors, marketers, and industry innovators who openly share the mistakes, failures, bad assumptions, and hard-earned lessons that shaped their careers. Guests have included leaders from firms such as Orion, Nitrogen, Carson Group, eMoney, Shaping Wealth, WSFS, and many others.

The result is a refreshingly honest podcast that delivers practical wisdom without the polish—helping listeners learn from other people’s mistakes instead of making them themselves.

Listen Here

Why It’s So Damn Hard to Hire Great Marketers

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

I’ve been hiring marketers for 20 years across brand, product marketing, creative, and demand gen. I’ve never seen an era where it’s harder to separate real skill from a well-rehearsed pitch.

Today’s candidates are polished and well-packaged, but finding someone who can deliver is a different game entirely. Here’s my evolved checklist for cutting through the noise.

Start with the Non-Negotiables

  • Hire by referral first. The single best predictor of marketing success is a trusted referral from someone who has watched the candidate do real work. No resume or interview answer comes close as a filter.
  • Check real references. Not personal contacts, but people they’ve worked for or alongside. Ask about the quality of their work, their collaboration style, how they left the role, and whether that person would hire them again. Strong marketers leave strong reputations behind.
  • Build a hiring SWOT team. Don’t let one person own this decision. Assemble a small internal team with each member evaluating a distinct dimension:
    • Culture: Will they mesh with your values and working style?
    • Skill: Do they have the technical and strategic depth the role demands?
    • Collaboration: Can they work effectively across teams and with clients?
    • Strategy: Can they think at the big-picture level while executing the details?

Define the categories however they make sense for your firm. The principle is checks and balances. Marketers are often charismatic and persuasive by nature. That’s not a flaw, but it means a single interviewer can get swayed in ways a team won’t.

Dig into Skills and Mindset

  • Demand results fluency. They should speak specifically about the campaigns they’ve run, the products they’ve launched, and the measurable outcomes at every funnel stage. Vague answers about “driving awareness” or “supporting the team” are red flags.
  • Ask to see the work. Live campaigns, strategy decks, messaging frameworks, creative deliverables. Have them walk you through the thinking from brief to execution to outcome. How they narrate their own work tells you as much as the work itself.
  • Test MarTech fluency. What platforms have they genuinely mastered? How do they connect tools into a full campaign motion? What are they actively learning right now? Marketers who aren’t building new skills are falling behind.
  • Gauge learning appetite. Who do they follow? What do they read? What events or communities are they plugged into? If they can’t answer those questions with any specificity, they’re not keeping pace.

Assess How They’ll Operate in Your Environment

  • Give them a live problem. Throw a real challenge at them. Don’t just ask what they’ve done; see how they think when they don’t have a rehearsed answer ready.
  • Ask about a fast pivot. Request a specific example of a time they had to change course quickly, whether due to a market shift, a compliance issue, or a campaign that wasn’t performing. How someone handles that moment reveals more than any success story.
  • Look for analytical grounding. Can they interpret data and move on it? Ask them to walk through how campaign analytics shaped a specific decision. Marketers who can’t connect numbers to action are a liability.
  • Evaluate their writing and presentation directly. Don’t just ask about communication skills. Read their samples. Watch them present. Marketers need to translate complex ideas into clear, persuasive language. 

Hiring is Part Art, Part Science

Even with all of this, I still miss on roughly 20% of hires. But starting with referrals, running down real references, and bringing in a team that covers every angle has moved my batting average considerably.

If you’re struggling to find your next great marketer, tap my network. I’m glad to interview candidates on your behalf or connect you with trusted talent in the space.

The Shifting Balance of Sales and Marketing in Financial Services

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

Over the past decade, the ownership of the business development funnel in financial services has been fundamentally changing. What was once a sales-dominated process is now an increasingly marketing-led one, and the shift is far from over.

2015: 75% Sales, 25% Marketing

A decade ago, sales teams owned the lion’s share of the funnel. Marketing focused primarily on the front end: building brand awareness, producing collateral, and creating general market presence. Once a lead entered the funnel, sales took over entirely. Pipeline management, nurturing, and closing were almost exclusively sales’ responsibility.

Marketing’s job was brand, thought leadership, events, and PR. Sales handled prospecting, relationship-building, opportunity creation, and closing. The rough split was 75% sales, 25% marketing.

The practical implication: marketing was a cost center with a support role, while sales headcount drove revenue. Sales leaders held budget authority, and firms built their org structures accordingly.

2022: The 50/50 Inflection Point

Fast-forward to a few years ago when the picture changed considerably. Marketing became responsible not only for brand but for generating qualified opportunities. Digital campaigns, lead scoring, content marketing, and marketing automation meant firms could now nurture prospects to the opportunity stage before handing them to sales.

Marketing’s role expanded into demand generation and MQL-to-SQL conversion. Sales shifted toward opportunity management and closing. 

The split reached rough parity, but most firms didn’t adjust their headcount or budget to match. Sales teams remained better funded, even as marketing took on a significantly larger share of the work, a misalignment that created real organizational strain. Marketing teams doing 50% of the funnel work were often still resourced like they were doing 20%. 

2028: 75% Marketing, 25% Sales

Looking ahead, the trend line points to another major inflection, particularly in technology and service firms. As more touchpoints become digital and buyers conduct more of their research online or via AI before ever speaking to a salesperson, marketing will increasingly take prospects almost all the way to the buy.

This doesn’t mean salespeople will become obsolete, but their role will become more specialized. Marketing owns full-funnel engagement: awareness, consideration, decision-making, and near-purchase. Sales closes high-intent leads, handles complex negotiations, and manages strategic account relationships.

The projected split: 75% marketing, 25% sales.

What This Means for Financial Services Firms

If you’re still operating like it’s 2015, follow these four steps:

  1. First, audit your funnel ownership. Map out who is actually responsible for each stage, from initial awareness through close. Many firms discover a significant gap between their formal org chart and the reality of who does the work.
  2. Second, align budgets to that reality. Firms that still fund their teams based on a 75/25 split in favor of sales are structurally misaligned with how buyers now make decisions. Resources should follow work.
  3. Third, plan for the shift now rather than react to it later. Even if your firm hasn’t fully moved toward marketing-led funnel ownership, the buyer behavior driving this change is already here. The firms building scalable digital touchpoints today will be better positioned when the shift accelerates.
  4. Fourth, rethink the sales role itself. The best salespeople in a marketing-led model are relationship specialists and deal closers, not prospectors. Hiring, training, and compensation structures should reflect that.

We’re not here to diminish great salespeople, but we do want to call attention to the reality that the buyer journey has evolved substantially. The roles and budget allocation decisions of 2015 no longer map to 2026 market conditions. The firms that adapt earliest will carry a durable competitive advantage.

Are You Earning the Right to Ask? Why Short-Term Marketing Wins Create Long-Term Risk

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

Recently, I hosted a webinar with Sheryl O’Connor, CEO of IncomeConductor, focused on the importance of building trust with prospective clients, and how to do so in a world where generic AI content is stripping firms of what makes them unique and relatable.

One idea kept resurfacing:

Are you earning the right to ask?

  • For demos.
  • For meetings or phone calls.
  • For event attendance.
  • For attention and engagement.

Too much marketing today skips straight to the ask, assuming prospects know who we are, understand what we do, and owe us their time simply because we showed up in their inbox or LinkedIn feed.

They don’t.

And I can say this with confidence because I see it every day.

What Firms Ask Us For

At Intention.ly, 99% of companies that come to us are chasing those accelerated wins.

They want:

  • Leads now
  • Quick wins
  • Lower cost per meeting this quarter
  • Campaigns that “start working immediately”

To be clear, we’re very good at delivering that. We can generate demand fast. We know how to activate channels, sharpen CTAs, and create near-term momentum.

But we’re also upfront about the fact that if that’s all your firm is doing, you’re not setting yourself up for long-term success.

I’ll show you why using stories from two firms I recently talked to. 

Company A: Chasing the Quick, Cheap Lead

The mindset: “Get us leads now. We can worry about brand later.”

What their marketing looks like:

  • Cold outbound emails pushing demos
  • Paid campaigns optimized for clicks rather than audience fit or relevance
  • Feature-heavy content
  • Positioning that sounds like every competitor: “Streamline your workflow and save time”

The experience for prospects:

  • They see the company’s name for the first time in a cold pitch
  • They have no context for what makes this solution different from the five other tools they saw this month
  • They’re being pushed to book a demo before understanding if this even solves their problem

Short-term reality:

  • They generate 60 demo requests a month
  • The marketing dashboard shows green arrows for short-term success metrics
  • Leadership feels momentum

Long-term reality:

  • Only a few of those demos are qualified prospects
  • Cost per qualified lead continues to climb
  • Sales cycles drag on for months because trust and education happen entirely in the sales process
  • Brand awareness never improves

Because they continue to prioritize short-term attention over long-term success, they’re trapped in a cycle of paying more for the same attention, forever renting demand instead of owning it.

Company B: Laying the Foundation First

The mindset: “Let’s add value and earn attention before we ask for it.”

What their marketing looks like:

  • Consistent thought leadership addressing real problems their audience faces
  • Educational content that demonstrates deep understanding of the market
  • Stories showing honest results, including challenges and timelines
  • Positioning rooted in a clear point of view that differentiates them

The experience for prospects:

  • They encounter the company’s content multiple times before any outreach
  • When a sales email arrives, they already understand what the company believes
  • They reach out to book a demo because they know how the company can solve their problems

Short-term reality:

  • They book far fewer demos initially
  • Leadership trusts their process rather than changing gears to drive short-term wins

Long-term reality:

  • Within months, most demos come from inbound requests
  • Sales cycles compress dramatically because prospects are bought in by the time they talk to sales
  • Cost per qualified lead drops as brand awareness grows

They’re generating more pipeline while spending less on acquisition. Their content qualifies prospects before sales gets involved.

The Difference Compounds Long Term

Fast forward five or 10 years, and the difference becomes impossible to ignore.

Five or ten years out:

  • Company A is paying more than ever for the same leads
  • Their CAC keeps climbing
  • Growth depends entirely on budget, not brand

Meanwhile:

  • Company B is generating demand at a fraction of the cost
  • Their content, credibility, and reputation do the heavy lifting
  • Their marketing works even when spend slows

One company is still asking for attention. The other has earned it.

Are You Building for the Next Quarter or the Next Decade?

The firms winning long-term aren’t doing it with louder messaging or cheaper leads.

They’re doing it by earning attention before they ask for it. They publish ideas that challenge how their market thinks and take clear, unequivocal positions. They demonstrate credibility before demanding time so that when they finally make an ask, it doesn’t feel like an intrusion.

Ask yourself: Are you willing to invest in building trust, or do you want to keep buying short-term engagement?

The brands that will dominate 10 years from now are laying the foundation right now. If you want to be one of them, let’s talk.

AI Is Rewriting the Buyer’s Journey, and Most Marketing Funnels Aren’t Ready

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

Executive Summary

AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are fundamentally changing how buyers research, compare, and choose financial services providers. The traditional marketing funnel is compressing, and brands that fail to adapt risk becoming invisible before prospects even know they exist. Three priorities should guide your next moves:

  • Optimize for AI inclusion, not just search rankings. Structure your content so AI tools can identify, summarize, and credit your expertise. Publish substantive insights rather than keyword-driven filler.
  • Make your brand easy to cite. AI condenses information ruthlessly. If your differentiators aren’t clear and distinct, they disappear. Create accurate, current content that machines and humans can reference confidently.
  • Measure what matters now. Traditional metrics like page views and click-through rates don’t capture AI visibility. Track whether your brand appears in AI-generated recommendations and curated lists.

This article was originally published in Citybiz on January 15, 2026: AI Is Rewriting the Buyer’s Journey, and Most Marketing Funnels Aren’t Ready | citybiz

The way people buy has changed completely.

Your future clients aren’t using Google for short searches or browsing endless review sites. Instead, they’re talking to ChatGPT and Gemini, asking complex questions that used to take days of research to answer.

This fundamental behavioral shift is reshaping the funnel that marketers and business leaders in financial services have spent years optimizing.

What’s really happening? What does it mean for your strategy? And what can you do right now to stay visible, relevant, and chosen?

Let’s take a closer look at the modern buyer journey:

Stage 1: From Search to Conversation

Buyers used to start with simple Google searches: “Best CRM for RIAs.” “How to market to next-gen investors.”

Now they open ChatGPT and ask layered questions. “Which CRMs integrate best with Orion and support advisor-client collaboration?” “What marketing strategies help advisors grow with millennial investors?”

And even if they are asking Google these questions, AI summaries offer instant insights without ever sending users to your site.

Top-of-funnel traffic is shrinking, and traditional SEO is losing its grip on discovery.

Use it to your advantage: Optimize for AI inclusion, not just search rankings. Structure your content so AI can easily identify and credit your expertise. Publish deep insights rather than keyword filler. AI rewards clarity and authority over fluff, so approach your thought leadership content as training data for both humans and machines.

Stage 2: From Exploration to Curation

Buyers used to explore different options after discovering their problem. They visited review sites like Capterra and G2, scrolled through your pages, and compared features with your competitors.

Now they ask AI to compare options for them. “List the top five marketing agencies for financial services.” “What are the best advisor tech stacks for client engagement?”

AI delivers a shortlist. If you’re not on it, you never enter the buyer’s awareness.

Use it to your advantage: Make sure your brand exists in AI’s data ecosystem. Create accurate, current information that’s easy to summarize, and sharpen your differentiators. AI condenses information ruthlessly, meaning if your story isn’t distinct, it vanishes. Build brand authority so your name appears organically in AI-curated lists.

Stage 3: From Research to Prequalification

Prospects used to engage early. They downloaded guides, requested demos, and used your website as a learning tool.

Now they arrive fully informed. They’ve already asked AI to create customized requirement lists, budget ranges, and feature comparisons tailored to their firm size and tech stack.

You’re seeing fewer demo requests, not because interest is down, but because AI does the early education work. By the time prospects reach you, they’ve already decided what they need, and they know who can provide it.

Use it to your advantage: Shift your efforts down funnel from lead capture to lead conversion. Prepare for highly informed buyers by creating detailed comparisons, use cases, and technical insights that influence how AI defines your category. Train your sales team to go deeper, faster. Today, first calls are about validation, not discovery.

Stage 4: From Evaluation to Justification

Teams used to build business cases through spreadsheets, internal reviews, and long discussions.

Now they ask AI to build the case. “Compare the ROI of hiring a fractional CMO versus an internal marketing team for a $2B RIA.”

The buying cycle is fast and narrow. Once AI forms a preference, it shapes the buyer’s narrative before your proposal even arrives; winners close quickly, and others disappear.

Use it to your advantage: Differentiate early. Make your unique value simple enough for AI to articulate and humans to understand. Provide case studies, benchmarks, and ROI models that support internal justification. Build quantifiable proof points that strengthen your inclusion in AI-generated recommendations.

The New Funnel: Smaller at the Top, Smarter at the Bottom

The funnel isn’t dead, but AI has significantly compressed it.

Buyers still move from awareness to decision, but the journey is faster, filtered, and heavily automated. You’re no longer competing for clicks; you’re competing to be included in the conversations that shape perception and preference.

Your marketing must evolve from lead generation to credibility engineering. You need to become the obvious, trustworthy answer in a machine-mediated world.

Your Five-Step Roadmap

  1. Audit your digital footprint. How clearly do your differentiators appear when AI summarizes your brand?
  2. Reframe your content strategy. Build for interpretation over consumption. Create data-backed insights that machines and humans can cite confidently.
  3. Equip your sales team with smarter tools. Help them meet informed buyers with richer insights and personalized guidance.
  4. Measure visibility differently. Track inclusion in AI results, not just page rankings or clicks.
  5. Lead the conversation. Be the voice shaping what the next generation of advisors and fintech leaders learn from AI.

Think AI Algorithms Over Ad Spend

Your next wave of growth won’t come from outspending competitors; it’ll come from out-teaching the algorithms that guide your audience’s decisions.

AI changes what people believe about you before they ever visit your site. Shape that story early and you won’t just survive the shift; you’ll be the brand AI recommends.

About Kelly Waltrich

For 20 years, Intention.ly Co-Founder and CEO Kelly Waltrich has been championing the role of marketing in the financial services industry. As former Chief Marketing Officer at eMoney Advisor and Orion Advisor Solutions, she built powerhouse marketing teams from the ground up, developing the engines that would fuel the highest periods of growth for both firms.

Waltrich designed the strategy behind several successful rebrands, acquisitions, and product launches, including spearheading the development of two advisor marketing products, while creating unmatched overall brand visibility and helping to turn company executives into industry thought leaders. Through forward-thinking demand generation, PR, and product marketing, she created a consistent inbound pipeline for both firms, driving CAC down and SOV up. Her exceptional leadership and innovative approach earned her recognition as CMO of the Year by WealthManagement.com.

Today, Intention.ly represents the culmination of every lesson Waltrich has learned in her tenure as a marketing disruptor. Under her leadership, the growth engine design agency has experienced remarkable growth of its own, serving 100+ fintech and financial services firms while establishing itself at the forefront of AI-powered marketing innovation. Waltrich conceptualized and brought to market Intention.ly’s groundbreaking Advisor Brand Builder initiative, a generative AI solution that revolutionizes how financial firms approach brand development and marketing strategy.

Named one of 2025’s Top Women in Wealthtech and serving as an advisor to several high-growth tech firms, Waltrich continues to shape the industry’s marketing evolution. She’s also a frequently requested contributor to major trade publications and host of the “Don’t Do That” podcast, which has struck a resonant chord across the fintech, financial services, and tech leadership communities by delivering unique “what not to do” lessons from real-world leaders.

Intention.ly is born from Waltrich’s passion and persistent belief that when it’s done right, marketing is the accelerant firms need to transform their growth trajectory. Through cutting-edge AI innovation and proven strategic expertise, she continues to disrupt an industry ready for transformation.

The Antidote to Templated Advisor Marketing: Introducing the Enhanced Advisor Brand Builder

Posted on by Kelly Waltrich

Today’s advisors are being asked to do more than ever.

They’re expected to be planners, investment experts, business operators, compliance specialists, and growth engines all at the same time, with marketing as another box to check on an already overloaded list.

Advisors don’t ignore marketing because they don’t care. But it’s difficult to master, time consuming to manage, and easy to get wrong when they’re already juggling a full plate of responsibilities.

Shortcuts become more appealing. Templated websites, do-it-for-me content, and cookie-cutter messaging that may capture the “what” but never gets to the “why” feel good enough.

But none of those things accomplishes what marketing does: answering the question of why someone should choose you over everyone else.

Worse, we’re now in a moment where AI can generate endless amounts of that “good enough” marketing. 

Websites look polished.

Content sounds professional.

And almost everything feels exactly the same.

If a firm hasn’t clearly defined who they are, what they stand for, and how they’re different, AI will happily flatten their message into something interchangeable. Advisors are increasingly relying on brand identities that do more to help them blend in than stand out.

A Different Approach to Advisor Marketing

Building a brand that cuts through the noise requires thinking, clarity, and consistency, not another template or hero image with a sailboat.

Advisor Brand Builder marries an upfront investment in time and authenticity with backend execution speed to first capture what makes a firm truly unique, then carry their voice and value prop through every necessary marketing asset and piece of branded collateral.

The process pushes first to articulate what makes them different, who they serve, and why their approach matters. 

That work is non-negotiable. It creates the clarity firms need to communicate effectively in the market. It shapes their visual identity, their messaging, the brand assets they use every day, and the content they publish.

Clarity of voice, vision, and value powers a cohesive and authentic brand experience.

The Pieces of the Branding Puzzle: What ABB Delivers 

Advisor Brand Builder bridges the gap between personalization and speed. The platform generates a brand, website, and content ecosystem uniquely aligned to each advisor’s positioning, services, and audience. ABB’s output is then refined by our team of agency experts, ensuring advisors receive high-quality work at a fraction of the traditional time and cost.

  • A unique visual identity, not a template. The platform delivers a customized logo, color palette, typography, brand patterns, and imagery that reflect your firm’s philosophy and audience. You’ll receive multiple logo concepts to choose from, all generated by AI and refined by human designers.
  • Strategic messaging that captures your value. You’ll get a complete messaging platform including your tagline, boilerplate, value proposition, differentiators, service descriptions, and individual bios. This becomes the foundation for everything else.
  • A website built in seconds, not months. With the press of a button, ABB uses your brand messaging and assets to generate a fully responsive, brand-aligned website. What traditionally takes months of discovery, design, copywriting, and revisions is compressed into an instant, launch-ready digital presence. Our creative specialists then refine it further.
  • Launch-ready brand assets. You’ll receive professional business cards, custom email signatures, social media profile graphics, presentation templates, and business stationery. All generated based on your strategic inputs and ready for real-world application.
  • A 12-month content engine mapped to your brand. Rather than producing generic content, ABB builds a strategic content calendar mapped directly to your brand pillars and services. You’ll also receive channel-optimized monthly content packs delivered straight to your inbox and ready to deploy.
  • Content optimized for AI search. Your brand is structured to be cited in AI-generated search answers. This includes SEO-optimized Q&A pages designed to capture traffic from people seeking authoritative answers in your niche.

Built and Backed by Financial Services Marketing Leaders

What sets ABB apart is the combination of AI capabilities and human oversight.

The platform is engineered by the industry’s top marketing leaders, who understand the language, competitive landscape, and nuances of financial services. It’s trained on FINRA and SEC rules, which cuts down on revisions and potential regulatory hurdles, and every output is reviewed by our agency team to ensure it’s polished, compliant-aware, and strategically sound.

Rather than replace human strategy with automation, ABB eliminates friction through AI and technology before the Intention.ly team adds a layer of expert refinement. 

Advisor Brand Builder gives advisors what the industry has failed to provide: a way to build a truly differentiated brand and then actually use it, without turning marketing into an ongoing burden.

Ready to learn more? Take a closer look here.