What Does a Marketing Director Actually Do at a Financial Firm? Let Me Explain.
When people find out I work in marketing at a financial advisory firm, I usually get a bit of a surprised look. Not because it’s weird for a firm to have a marketing person, but because it’s kind of a departure from where I started. I came up in purely creative work, an art degree, agency life, the whole thing… so landing at a financial firm probably looks like a strange left turn. I promise it makes sense. Eventually. Keep reading.
My background is creative direction and design, mostly on the ad agency side. Years of figuring out how to tell a story (visually as well as verbally) that resonates with the right people.
Here’s a confession though. For a long time, “advertising” and “marketing” felt like kind of dirty words to me, even while I was out there doing it. It has this whiff of someone behind a curtain, always working an angle, thinking five steps ahead about how to get you to buy something whether you need it or not. And once you start noticing it, it’s everywhere. The ad before your video. The influencer’s “totally unsponsored, I swear” review. The sale that is somehow always ending this weekend, every weekend, forever. It’s exhausting, honestly, and I didn’t want to add to the pile.
I took this job because I realized it was different . Not the version of marketing that’s trying to talk you into something. More just an honest, no-tricks version of amplifying the actual magic our team of finance pros pulls off every day. My job is to help maintain the relationships we already have with clients in whatever way I can, and to get the good word out to the right people who could genuinely benefit from what we do here. That’s it. That’s the whole job description, dressed up a little.
At Napier, that plays out in our weekly newsletter, blog posts on topics our advisors think you should know about, and our monthly market update. In an industry where your personal life and your personal human details drive so much of your financial picture, it seems only fair that you get to know a bit about us too. Some days it’s design work, an infographic or a one-pager, always chasing the goal of “easy to read” over “thorough but nobody’s finishing it.” It’s ensuring a consistent tone-of-voice and visual “look” across all our social media, blog posts, website, and more. And some days it’s event planning like our 11th annual Jimmy Fund Fund golf tournament is coming up on September 22nd! (You can learn more about the golf event here, and consider donating to the great cause here.) And if you’ve got an idea for a fun client event, tell me. I have a running list and I’m always looking to add to it.
None of it is about making Napier look impressive for the sake of looking impressive. At the end of the day, our number one goal is to help people. The fact that the clients we serve also happen to be kind, intelligent, interesting, and generous is no accident. We’re very selective about who we bring on, and our team makes a point of being available to every client whenever needed for as long as they need. You won’t find anyone here juggling fifty clients a day and doling out the bare minimum. That’s not how we roll. Because of the introductions that you’ve bestowed upon us, we hire ahead of the curve and always have capacity to bring on new clients.
I’ll also mention, on a personal note, I work part-time these days so I can spend more time with my two most demanding clients, ages 4.5 and 3. Raising my family and getting a front-row seat to them experiencing the world is my number one priority. Time with my kids is my version of wealth right now, and Napier doesn’t just say they value what matters to you, they build a job around it. That tells you something real about how this place operates. So no, I don’t just make the brochures, though sometimes I do. Mostly, I make sure Napier’s work reaches the people it’s for, in a way that makes sense, and hopefully never feels like a pitch.
