As a financial advisor, you may already know why specialization produces superior results. We hope you already serve one or more market niches that define your preferred types of clients.
If you don’t serve particular niches, we recommend developing some that are based on your current clientele. It’s extremely important to tailor your marketing based on your current niches. Then you can use digital marketing to reach those niches that represent your future clients.
There’s more to it than just mentioning a generic type of investor - for example a retiree. For best results, it should always be a narrow focus so your audience knows you are experienced working with investors that have their characteristics. For example, you work with business owners who are selling their companies and retiring.
Why is niche marketing so important?
Unless you’re part of a big firm, you probably already know that a broad approach to prospecting doesn’t work on the Internet. For example, you are seeking HNW or ULHW investors. That is not how most investors think of themselves, nor is it how they use the Internet when they seek financial advice and services.
Major firms have big digital marketing budgets that enable them to market to several online personas at the same time. This type of marketing would be cost prohibitive for most smaller firms. Hence, the smaller firms have a bigger need to be focused on niches where they have specialized expertise that produces competitive results.
In fact, the smaller your firm’s resources and assets, the more important it is to narrow your focus to one or a few target markets.
Why does this work? A high percentage of investors are seeking financial advisors who work with investors like themselves. They believe this specialized knowledge will benefit them financially. In other words, what you learned working in a niche will produce tangible benefits for them.
It is also a rational form of marketing. Smaller RIAs cannot serve everyone, so it makes sense that they are more specialized than say a wirehouse that has thousands of advisors who work with everyone. You might even say this is the definition of a boutique that works with a limited number of investors who have similar needs and goals.
Are you providing information or creating leads you can convert into revenue producing clients?
Once you have identified who your potential clients are and what they need the most, it’s time to think about how they use the Internet to find what they are seeking. We can boil this down to the keywords they use to initiate searches.
More specifically, what messages on which platforms are they most likely to use to find what they are seeking? These questions are essential for niche marketing success for financial advisors.
Investors want financial experts they can trust. They want advisors who work with investors like themselves. Their similarities can include asset amounts, current circumstances, and goals.
In other words, you have to be very good at communicating your value proposition to a niche audience that has very specific needs. They have to believe you are their best choice for the financial advice they need to achieve their goals. Anything less will not have the impact you are seeking and there is a good chance you will be excluded from their search processes.
A growing inventory of astute blog articles can put you on the map. Consider them an important part of your digital marketing foundation that can be expanded upon using social media.
The best articles should be informative, but not overly technical. The ideal topics will be financial pain points that impact large numbers of investors in your niches. You want investors to start depending on you for information that helps them make better financial decisions.
The specifics of blogging as a marketing tool are numerous enough to merit another day’s discussion. You’ll need an editorial calendar, to begin with, and eventually you’ll want other blogs linking back to yours.
Financial Advisor Digital Marketing: How Narrow is Your Focus?
A blog should only be the beginning of your overall digital marketing efforts. We’ll get into types of content in a minute. First, at the risk of beating a dead horse, you really need to know the interests and concerts of your niche(s).
Most, if not all of the kinds of content you produce should be guided by your niches and their pain points. Solutions for their pain points will be what causes them to contact you.
Next, it is important to think about ways to reach your niches. What keywords do they use? Are they more responsive to video? How important is social media? Do they search for service providers and information using mobile devices? All of this information is important because it has a major impact on your results.
For example, sharing infographics on Pinterest could be a savvy way to promote your financial services. The idea is to meet them where they spend their time on the Internet. The easier you make it to find you the better.
Showing up in search engines is only the beginning. Your goal is page one, two, and three and page one is the real goal.
Obviously, your message is important, but taking the time to present it through a content medium that your ideal prospects are comfortable with can lend a credibility boost. It’s a subtle, nonverbal way of saying that you understand them and their needs.
How important is your content marketing strategy?
Now, as promised, we’ll move on to content: Are you producing any? Does it meet all of Google’s requirements for higher page ranks? In case you are not familiar with Google requirements it will consider the answers to these questions:
- Are you a consistent producer of new content? Weekly or monthly?
- Is all of the content original?
- Are the articles 1,000 to 3,000 words?
- Are your blog articles connected to pillar pages?
- Is the quality good enough that people actually read it?
- Have you considered the use of video?
As a rule of thumb, it’s probably wisest to start with a blog. The reason why is that it’s much easier to base scripts off blog posts than vice versa.
Let’s say that you decide to start a podcast and you already have several months of blog posts. In a pinch, you can convert some of those into podcast topics.
Regardless, if there’s a topic you haven’t covered in its entirety, a podcast can complement the blog article while emphasizing the most important points.
You can always go more in-depth on a podcast subject in a blog post.
Graphics, like explanatory charts, can be great for social media. You just want them professionally done so they create great first impressions.
Conclusion
You don’t cut corners when you produce financial plans for your clients. You should not cut corners when you implement a digital marketing strategy. The competition is too intense.
Need help? Consider talking to a digital marketing agency that specializes in working with financial advisors. That is our niche.
