Rachel Eccles of eMoney Advisor and Alison McCue of ACA Group shared on the latest episode of Marketing Matchup that the quickest way to better marketing is to listen to clients, through advisory councils, surveys after conferences, or a program that puts sales, product and marketing in lockstep.
Why listening and empathy come first
A financial advisor searching on AI for the next piece of their tech stack rarely types “most innovative advisor technology for 2026.” Instead, they frame out a problem and ask for a solution - like a compliance professional who has unexpectedly quit.
For Rachel and Alison, empathy is the ability to put themselves in the shoes of people looking for help and solutions they can provide. Winning attention, whether in AI searches or any other facet of financial services marketing, requires a marketer to know what the customer or prospect is trying to solve.
“I think the quickest and best way to get up to speed in any industry is to get close to the customers and to be really side by side, listening on calls, going to client meetings,” Rachel said. That’s how you find out as a marketer what is going to resonate,” she said.
eMoney is turning steering committees into advisory councils that span several advisor segments, and it is bringing marketing and sales into those councils alongside product. At conferences, the team surveys attendees before and after each show, then calls some of them to ask what they heard.
Meanwhile, Alison is building a Voice of the Client program at ACA that puts sales, marketing, product and client success managers in one room to share what clients raise in quarterly business reviews and at conference booths. ACA’s CEO made client focus clear from day one, including understanding how each client buys differently. “There are everyday new problems that we can solve now,” she said.
Empathy in marketing also requires you to know your limits, Alison said. “I’m very humble in my marketing and how I approach it. And I know what I don’t know. And so I’m constantly looking to learn more,” she said.
That attention to the buyer extends to AI search. ACA has updated every web page to be searchable by AI and is launching its first ChatGPT ad campaign. Rachel said eMoney passed on Reddit a couple of years ago but now, knowing it is one of the most cited sources for large language models, thinks about it differently.
How do you build a marketing team wired for empathy?
No one has a silver-bullet approach to team-building, but both guests said they rely on hiring smart people, trusting them and knowing when to step back.
Alison’s team of about 18 people works across the United States, the UK and India. She hires people who know their area and mostly stays out of their way, stepping in “when they need me,” often to clear a path. ACA works with outside partners because “that’s been the right cost-benefit analysis for us,” and keeps her team focused on digital, strategy and revenue.
Rachel runs a larger in-house group of 45 full-time marketing employees. She does not impose a hierarchy on idea generation. They can come from anywhere, she said, and she wants everyone on her team to know how their contributions cascade up to company goals.
To learn more, watch the full episode of Marketing Matchup below, or find it on your podcast platform of choice.
