Financial Advisors, Be Original to Stand Out in the Crowd

There’s an upcoming $30 trillion wealth transfer predicted by Accenture. So, more financial advisors are turning their sights toward building a younger clientele. Whether it’s adding new clients or building relationships with existing client’s children, advisors are smart to position for this now.

But, what exactly can you do to attract younger clients? Of course, it’s not hard to figure out where to reach them—just look around. What do you see? Everyone glued to their smartphones! Studies show that Millennials check their mobile devices an average 43 times per day, mostly to look at social media. So it’s no surprise that you will need a strong social media presence to attract this generation. That means you’re going to need interesting content on your website to share on these channels.

This is critical especially for financial advisors, since studies show that most Millennials don’t trust this industry.[blockquote type="center"]Fortunately social media and content marketing can help. According to research by GroSocial, 82% of millennials tend to trust a brand more when it sees the executives on social media.[/blockquote]These social media channels allow companies to showcase their non-corporate side and foster a greater personal connection with readers. Also, younger investors like to make their own decisions and don’t like corporations—or really anyone--telling them what to do. Instead they prefer to research things on their own. By publishing interesting and educational blog articles, you are providing content which helps build trust and gets these potential clients comfortable with your firm.

So now you know what you need to do…but how can you get it right? And more importantly, how can you differentiate your firm from the rest?

Well, there are many subscription services where you can login and find plenty of content that’s pre-made and FINRA-approved. Sounds great, right? Well, yes--you do get quantity and convenience, but at a pretty steep price.

First, you’re using that content along with hundreds of other advisors. Since the content is not really yours, it won’t be able to communicate much about your brand. Instead you may be helping build someone else’s.

Second, search engines don’t like duplicate content.[blockquote type="center"]Google penalizes you if it sees non-original or “boilerplate” content on your website and lowers your search ranking.[/blockquote]You won’t be getting the high search engine rankings and visibility that’s vital to generating new leads.

Third, you want to be sure that whatever “voice” comes across in these communications appeals to the younger generations. Communication that works with younger investors is quite different from what has been used in the past. According to April Rudin, founder of The Rudin Group LLC, a financial marketing firm, “Most financial advisors come across like someone’s grandfather, and that's because they usually are.” Today’s younger investors want to be engaged in an informal and conversational way. For best results, you want to put some original content out there and write in an encouraging tone that speaks directly to Millennials.

So we’ve established that original content will differentiate your brand and help your rankings and visibility, but who has time to write all those blog articles? Well, given its importance, you or someone at your firm who enjoys writing should make the time. Or, outsource to a firm that can provide custom, original content with your input. If you go that route, make sure the firm you choose writes in a tone and style that is attractive to Millennials. If it doesn’t, you may have original content, but it may not further your goals.

But do it right, and you’ll be on the road to building client relationships that may be with your firm for many decades to come.

Wavelength provides financial wellness and educational content for the financial services industry. We now offer Custom Blog Content for those who don’t have the time or resources to handle this internally. Visit www.wavelengthfinancial.com for more information.