AcquireUp Now One of Largest Independent Marketing Firm For Financial Advisors

In-person seminar marketing, long a staple of financial advisors’ organic growth strategies, seemed down for the count during the pandemic and the subsequent move to all things remote. Despite the ease and cost savings of holding online webinars, however, many advisors have gone back to hosting live events. 

The rationale is simple, in-person seminars are more effective in converting leads than a Zoom presentation. It’s all about the higher level of audience engagement when presenting face-to-face.

But seminar marketing, like most forms of marketing, has become more sophisticated and tech-enabled to allow advisors to be more efficient, effective, and compliant. There is a growing number of third-party marketing firms that can kick-start an advisor’s marketing program. One that has been in the seminar business for a long time but is reinventing itself for the current digital environment is AcquireUp.

AcquireUp is the rebranded name for the network of companies that includes White Glove, TouchFuse, Acquire Direct and LeadJig. The rebranding consolidates the entities under the AcquireUp banner and positions the company as one of the largest, most capable marketing partners for independent advisors and agents looking to grow their client bases. The new name underscores the firm’s innovative technology and enhanced digital and direct mail seminar marketing capabilities.

I spoke with Greg Bogich, CEO of AcquireUp, about the firm’s growth strategy and what types of new solutions and digital innovations clients can expect to make their seminar and other marketing programs even more successful.

AcquireUp offers financial professionals real-time data transparency. How can they use data-driven insights to not only understand how their campaigns are performing, but who the prospects are that attend their seminars?

Having quantitative data on performance is important as it allows an advisor to measure campaign effectiveness and, more importantly, optimize their future campaigns. That said, having a solid picture of who will be attending your seminar or workshop may be even more powerful. We call it “know before you go,†and it leads to better connections because advisors can leverage specific information to tailor their messaging to better engage their prospects.

Beyond the scale and scope of offerings, what does the combined company allow you to do for your clients?

While our unmatched scale, scope, and experience are impressive, they are just the tip of the iceberg. We offer best-in-class digital, direct mail, and omni-channel campaigns, and our LeadJig platform provides advisors with unmatched transparency in their marketing efforts. Unlike anyone else in our space, we’re also a full-funnel solution, helping advisors connect with more and higher-quality prospects, providing them with training resources to enhance their presentation skills, and a platform to nurture and engage their customers and prospects. And if that’s not enough, we also offer a pay-for-performance option, which provides an extra layer of security.

The team provides off-the-shelf and bespoke campaigns for advisors. Within our highly competitive market and evolving regulatory structure, where do you see the most potential for growth?

We believe that both our ready-made and tailor-made campaigns have tremendous headroom. Today, there are approximately 180,000 financial advisors in the US, and our data shows that only about 10% of them are currently leveraging seminars to grow their businesses. At AcquireUp, we’re all about optionality and meeting the advisor wherever they are on their growth journey.

Sander Ressler is the Managing Partner, Essential Edge & Vice President, Vidiance LLC.