Samantha Russell

It would be hard to find a more energetic marketing director for an adviser-tech startup than Samantha Russell. An avid fitness enthusiast, hiker and reader, as well as the mother of two young children, Russell, 34, is excited to talk about the “digital referral shift” that is transforming adviser marketing. “Referrals are still the best way for advisers to build business, but now that happens differently,” she said.

Prospects search online to find a personal solution and get to “know” advisers through their content. Russell’s company — whose name is a play on “20/20 vision” but denoting even greater acuity — creates and monitors its own content for advisers. It also manages adviser-created content and provides digital tools so that advisers can manage their inbound marketing in an effective and compliant way.

Her 5-year-old firm, co-founded and led by her husband, who is a software developer, has 30 employees and serves about 40 RIA firms and 60 broker-dealer advisers, some on an enterprise level. When not overseeing content for advisers, Russell creates material for two blogs, videos and webinars that her firm uses to market itself. “We need to practice what we preach,” she said.

– Evan Cooper