Marketing Strategy Changes with Scale

In the book The 1-Page Marketing Plan, author Allan Dib states that marketing strategy changes with scale. He poses the analogy that it takes a much different approach and investment to build a skyscraper than it does a small investment property.

The same concept can be applied to marketing a multibillion-dollar-AUM RIA versus a $100 million-AUM RIA. Yet many small RIAs look to the largest firms in the industry to replicate their marketing strategy.

Large firms spend money on national TV, radio, print, and digital advertising because they have the money for it to make an impact, and the cost is a drop in the bucket for them. Small firms that try this, even on a local level, will blow through their annual marketing budget in weeks and have nothing to show for it.

Instead of trying to imitate the outsized competition, RIAs should pick a strategy that matches the stage and size of their business.