This is the first in a series of FMG Suite review posts evaluating the popular financial advisor digital marketing platform.
A few weeks ago, the president of a wealth management firm I work with asked me for my impressions of FMG Suite, an online marketing platform built especially for financial advisors. As a consultant who specializes in helping financial advisors with digital marketing, this was well-trodden ground, so I thought I would gather my thoughts into a series of FMG Suite Review blog posts. Since there’s a lot to say on the matter, I’m going to break my FMGSuite review into a few posts, each addressing a different aspect of the offering. This week, we’ll kick things off with the services component.
Advisor Opinions
I started my research by asking a few advisors about their experience with FMGSuite.
My first question was why these advisors it over the others. The consensus here was simple: they’re the biggest and best-known of the four or five vendors approved by their back office.
Next, I asked whether they were satisfied with it. Responses here ranged from ambivalence to marginal dissatisfaction, with much of the negative opinions focused on services, and the onboarding experience in-particular.
Fulfilling the Need?
FMGSuites’ services are mostly centered around onboarding and initial setup and design – things most financial advisors need help with. But there seems to be a gap between what the average advisor or wealth management firm can do themselves, and what FMGSuite delivers. Not a complete surprise, because product companies often fall short on the services front.
Here’s an example: I noticed some content and display issues on the interior pages of a client’s FMGSuite site, and he offered that he only received help from FMGSuite on setting up his homepage, even though he had purchased the highest level of onboarding assistance. Clearly, he needed more help.
Sure, there’s a bit of caveat emptor here, other than deciding that he wanted the “best” of a handful of options approved by his broker-dealer, I don’t get the impression that he spent lots of time researching options – but what financial advisor has the time to become an expert in web development?
Marketing vs Reality
In FMGSuite’s defense, they do face a challenge in describing their products and services to their target buyer: if they’re highly detailed, they’ll likely confuse their target buyer – but if they oversimplify, they’re leaving a lot of key information out.
Perhaps financial advisors could use some help in evaluating their options.
Stay tuned for next week, where I continue my FMGSuite review with an analysis of their SEO offering.