Is Your Marketing Actually Speaking to Your Prospects?
Over the last 6 months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about segmentation in wealth advisory firms—what works, what doesn’t, and why so many well-intentioned efforts quietly stall.
One of the most common issues I see is this: prospects and clients are receive the same emails and materials.
They are grouped together. They receive similar communications. They’re placed into the same campaigns. And over time, the messaging becomes generic—because it has to be.
But prospects and clients are solving very different problems.
Different Needs.
A prospect is trying to answer questions like:
Can I trust this firm?
Is this firm credible?
Do they understand my situation?
Are they the right long-term partner?
A client is thinking about:
Am I being proactive?
Am I getting good guidance?
What do I need to tackle next?
Do they really know me?
Am I on track?
When both groups receive the same content, neither feels fully understood.
Prospects don’t feel nurtured.
Clients don’t feel prioritized.
Why I Have Been Focused on This
I have been working on a simple framework I call the Minimum Viable Segmentation Sprint. My marketing genius calls it, “MVSS”. Looks at me go!
It’s built around one core idea:
Start small. Start clean. Start with something that can actually get used.
Instead of trying to build a perfect system from day one, the goal is to create a clear framework. MVSS does that.
Segmentation Isn’t About Technology
This is another misconception.
Better segmentation isn’t about buying new software.
It isn’t about more dashboards.
It isn’t about complicated workflows.
It’s about clarity.
Clarity about:
Who you are serving
What stage they are in
What matters to them right now
How you stay meaningfully connected
When firms do this well, something interesting happens.
Communication gets easier.
Outreach becomes more relevant.
Teams feel more confident.
And nothing feels “forced.”
A Practical Starting Point
Most advisory firms don’t need more ideas.
They need something they can execute.
That’s why I’ve been focused on building lightweight, practical segmentation models that teams can actually maintain and use week after week.
Not perfect.
Not overbuilt.
Just solid, repeatable, and useful.
If your firm has great relationships and strong data—but feels like communication could be more targeted, more consistent, or more intentional—segmentation is often the place to start.
And it starts with one simple step:
Treat prospects and clients differently.
Because they are.