Whether you are selling high end goods or good quality services, targeting high net worth individuals (HNWIs) is a completely different game than attracting prospects in general.
This group are highly skilled, digitally savvy and spend a lot of time online, they’re well-read and extremely selective on which brands they share their personal info’ with and when sharing on social. This article gives will give you the stat’s, insights and actionable steps you can take to generate leads from High Net Worth Individuals.
Communicate Effectively With High Net Worth Individuals
The key to lead generation for High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) is in understanding their behaviour as consumers. A good starting point is to look at the brands they currently buy from e.g. Apple, Aston Martin, Rolex etc. Studying these brands will give you valuable insights into what these individuals expect from their buying experiences and how your brand should match these experiences. The buying behaviours of affluent individuals can be confusing to sales and marketing teams and seem contradictory at times. For instance, they enjoy high-end products but also every-day items. They like traditional values, meeting in person and are very loyal to a brand that has given them a great service. This is where common misconceptions come to play which in turn produce ineffective communications aimed to HNWIs.
Interesting Stat’s on the UK’s Wealthiest Consumers
- 563,199 people sit in the top 1% wealthiest
- 71% are men, 29% women
- Aged 55 years+
- Annual income +£100,000
- 60% work
- Located mainly in London and South of UK
- 62% manage their current account online (1.3% more than the general population)
- 67% check their investments online
- 97% of HNWIs shop for groceries at Sainsbury’s (more than double the number of people in the general population) 90% - Waitrose, 67% - Tesco, 17% - M&S
- UK and Ireland are the most popular holiday destinations
According to CACI Data Lab
“The UK’s richest 1% are more switched on digitally than their peers and many opt for mid-level goods over upmarket alternatives, so brands may need to realign their thinking in order to target to this group effectively.” Says Mindi Chahal - Marketing Week
7 Actionable Steps to Attract High Net Worth Individuals
1. Website
Ensure your website and brand guidelines match the online experiences that HNWIs are used to and expect. Your site must be relevant, clean, informative and interactive. Do not advertise external brands on your site and ensure it is optimised for search engines.
Invest in a fully responsive site - “40% of HNWIs use mobile apps to shop and research online”, according to The Online Marketing Institute
2. Be SEO Friendly
Search engine optimisation is a huge opportunity for brands wishing to target HNWIs;
- 70% use search engines to research before purchasing online – according to Google and Ipsos Media
- 98% access the internet daily and expect digital functionality in many parts of their lives – according to CACI Data Lab
No matter the size of your organisation, you can get your brand noticed without huge costs and ROI is easily tracked compared to traditional marketing methods. Remain honest and relevant online, be selective in the topics you want to rank for and look for that niche. HNWIs are a select audience you need to be found for the search queries they use online and that may not be the most obvious.
Paid Ads (PPC) are an option if you have an ongoing budget or at the beginning of your campaigns before marketing assets have been created. Note the stat’s below on the number of people clicking through from a Google ad at the top of search. Also keep in mind that educated HNWIs are unlikely to trust paid advertising, favouring organic listings.
The average click-through rate for an ad in the first position is 7.94%. An average click-through rate is 2% - AccuraCast
3. Content Creation
Know your demographic; from location to age range, the more data you have about your customers, the better yourLead Generation.
Use topics and clusters and align them with your pillar pages (similar to the traditional ‘keywords’ method) using the terminology that your affluent target audience are likely to use is more likely to attract and hold their attention.
4. Be Visual
The successful luxury brands never forget the power of the senses. When advertising your product/service, the faster you can convey a memory/feeling/dream to your target audience, the closer they are to buying.
5. Customer Experience
Ultimately just being there for your clients as and when it suits them is what they need, along with your high-quality goods/services of course. Clear communication and treating your customers as individuals that matter is also important. Having up to date digital tools available to your prospects is expected from the affluent consumer. If you’re going to leverage online chat, make sure you have the resources to follow up queries when HNWIs post a query. An automated bot won’t cut it in this market.
6. Invest in a good CRM
There are so many CRMs on the market today but when targeting the HNWIs you need one that is easy to segment and organise into workflows. It must allow you to deal with them on an individual basis and enable you to have their details to hand (if a HNWI called you, they would expect you to know all about their previously bought goods etc.). A great CRM also contains historical data from a lead to a customer and beyond as well as being GDPR friendly for your client and you.
7. Social Media Nurturing
This is not a priority digital tool to HNWIs, even though 90% of them use social media. They are extremely selective with who they choose to connect with and the personal information that they are prepared to share. Therefore, nurturing and building trust before connecting is key. LinkedIn is their main channel used for professional connections and investment information.
Brand Expectations of High Net Worth Individuals
As a brand, you need to look, speak and fit the HNWIs high expectations, matching what they are used to seeing. Understand your current customer base to ensure that this is your target customer before creating your personas, segmenting your lists, re-designing your website and building your campaigns etc.
These individuals might raise the bar for businesses with regard to their high expectations but being digitally skilled and online daily, they are easier to reach. Additionally, once onboard HNWIs are loyal to those who’ve given them a positive experience and they are happy to refer you to their friends and colleagues.
