What is your RIA marketing strategy? If like many financial advisors, you consider your target market to be everyone, then it is time to take another look. Although it might sound enticing to cast a wide net when looking for clients, in reality, this is not the case. In fact, trying to reach everyone will lead to missed opportunities with your most interested investors or worse--offending busy consumers with unwanted marketing and damaging your reputation. The good news is that you can easily adjust your focus and streamline your efforts in order to ensure you are getting far more bang for your buck. This is done through target marketing and If you have not taken the time to define your target market, here are some tactics you can employ right now.
Stand Out In The Crowd
In the crowded financial sector, differentiation is key. Today the way for a financial advisor to shine in a sea of competition is to resonate with your desired audience. Speaking to the right audience is a sure-fire way to make yourself heard and get your firm noticed. After all, reaching your most-interested prospects starts with knowing exactly who to talk to. When you have this important question clearly defined for your firm, it will help determine your marketing strategies from messaging, tone, and offers to market channels and placement.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
To determine who it is you are best equipped to serve, ask yourself what are your strengths and unique selling points. Is there anything that makes you different from the competition, such as special services, offers, or location? These honest answers can paint a clear picture of who you will best serve and define your market. You should also consider your current clientele. Which investors are your favorites? Not just the clients that are satisfied but also those that are well-suited to your style and naturally a pleasure to serve. Now think of your clients that are not so easy or satisfied and try to identify the ways that they are not a perfect fit. Utilizing data findings and marketing tactics can further help you pinpoint who exactly will benefit most from your firm’s offerings.
Hit The Bullseye
When you take the important step in defining your firm’s ideal target market, it will not only help you attract new clients but also develop better relationships with them. Whether it be young professionals with student debt, baby boomers with social security concerns, small business owners, or niche markets based on industry or culture--there are a lot of opportunities to specialize and become an expert for the market you define. Specify the type of investors you represent in all of your messages as this information goes a long way in creating consumers who are informed, confident, and inspired to invest with you. Speaking honestly to your target market should also include listing pricing and minimum requirements because no one wants to waste time or be surprised by roadblocks down the line.
Channel Your Efforts
Once you have defined your most beneficial target market, focus all of your marketing efforts on them by using relevant language, offering appropriate products, and selecting the right media channels to deliver your content. This is the way effective firms build a marketing strategy aimed at the most interested and profitable groups. It means you are doing everything within your power to not only speak to the interested investors that are right for your firm, and you are also going a step further by ensuring your content is relevant down to the way it is delivered. Consider the fact that different audiences consume media in different ways. While young consumers may prefer their information via specific social media sites, other segments have been found to prefer content-driven sources like informational websites and email offers. When you start discovering more about your specific target, it becomes clear how best to talk to them and which platforms are best to reach them. There are tools to help you determine what characteristics and interests your target audience has in order to better know what they want and how they want to receive it. The following categories of consumer data can shed light on key takeaways that when utilized in your marketing can make the difference between success and failure.
Demographics
Includes details such as age, gender, education, marital status, and more
Psychographics
Characteristics like values, interests, personalities, and lifestyle
Business/Industry
Occupation categories including income or net worth
Geographic Definitions
Location specifics such as city, region, area code, and neighborhood
Dazzle Them With Visuals
When marketing to your target audiences it is important to determine how they view themselves and how they want to be viewed. For instance, when marketing to a retired segment, think outside the box as generalizations and stereotypes have no place in your messages. Include images of active people, couples and singles both. In addition, aim for the people in your images to be approximately 10 years younger than the age of your market because this is how your audience identifies and these are the images that will resonate, rather than tired stereotypes that may offend. When you use images in your marketing that your viewers relate to, you will earn their trust and their business.
Talk The Talk
In all of your writing use language that the target audience is familiar with and can relate to. This may sound obvious but too often specialists in their field tout their expertise without regard to the fact that their target audience may not be as well-versed. Consider your target and how they will best understand the information you are trying to convey. Will they respond to quick and easy-to-grasp charts and graphics or will they appreciate longer text, side by side comparisons, and real-life case studies? Learning more about your target can help you format your content and ensure you include the words and phrases they know and understand. Your writing should not be filled with industry jargon or confusing acronyms but rather, written at a level that is appropriate for your audience. The bottom line is, if you want your audience to be moved, inspired, or persuaded by your message, then your message must be relevant--including the very words you choose. This is a delicate balance where your writing must convey a professional tone and also be at an appropriate level, peppered with words and examples unique to your target. If you would like to ensure your messages are resonating with your audience in every possible way, a digital marketing expert with professional copywriters on staff can help you take your content to the next level. Marketers with expertise in consumer segmentation have the data and the writing chops to help you draft, edit, and finesse your messages to hit the mark.
Plan To Succeed
If you would like to identify your firm’s target market and shine a light on overlooked opportunities, an expert in marketing for financial advisors can help. When you enlist a professional that specializes in financial advisor marketing such as Paladin Digital Marketing, you can identify your best clients and get strategies targeted specifically to them. By analyzing current market data, competition, and new trends Paladin Digital Marketing will determine your most beneficial target audience and provide related strategies to build your firm’s success.
