The 52: Your First-Mover Advantage Is Slipping Away

Week 45

Your First-Mover Advantage Is Slipping Away

This year, financial advisors were allowed to solicit online reviews from clients on sites like Google and Yelp for the first time. Since then, some independent RIAs have had a unique advantage since they have been able to implement online reviews faster than their competition. This has improved not only their search rankings but also their close rate. But we are seeing other advisors, including national brands, taking advantage of online reviews. If you have been thinking about implementing reviews, your window for a first-mover advantage is quickly closing.

The 52: A Simple Way to Develop Your Marketing Message

Week 50

A Simple Way to Develop Your Marketing Message

It’s not easy to develop an engaging marketing message for your website that sounds different from other financial advisors. In our 15-plus years of working with financial advisors, the easiest way we have found to develop a simple marketing message is to use Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand methodology. If you are looking for one marketing book to read over the holidays, make it this one.

P.S. Kristen Luke is now a StoryBrand Certified Guide who can help advisors focused on a niche clarify their message.

The 52: Get Out and About

Week 49

Get Out and About

During the height of the pandemic, most people limited their in-person interactions with others. And even though the world has since opened up, some advisors have fallen into the habit of avoiding networking activities.

Marketing in financial services is all about relationship, which means connecting with other people. For 2022, instead of prioritizing your marketing around some new online channel, prioritize it around connecting with other people face to face. That could mean going to some new networking events or having coffee with a center of influence. Sure, it may sound old school, but human connection is always a winning marketing strategy.

The 52: Repeat Your Message

Week 48

Repeat Your Message

Last week we talked about the importance of creating a simple message that people can’t help but remember. Once you have crafted that message, the next step is to repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it.

The only way for people to remember what you do to the extent they can repeat it is for them to hear it over and over again. Dave Ramsey became well known because he repeated the same simple message about debt for years. And it worked!

People aren’t paying close attention to your marketing. Even if they are, they still need to hear your message dozens of times before it sticks. So don’t worry about repeating your message too much—there is no such thing!

The 52: Create One Clear and Simple Message

Week 47

Create One Clear and Simple Message

Is it hard for your clients and centers of influence to refer because they can’t explain what you do other than “they invest money” or “they are a financial advisor”? This happens when your message isn’t clear and simple in their minds.

No one is going to do the work to remember a complicated marketing message. It’s your job to create a message that is so simple and unique that people can’t help but remember it—for example, “the financial advisor who helps tech professionals make decisions about their equity compensation” or “the advisor who helps gets your parents’ estate in order before it becomes your responsibility as the executor.”

When you have a clear and simple marketing message, it is easier for your clients and COIs to spread the word about your work.

The 52: Create Content Focused on Your Prospects’ Questions, Problems, and Aspirations

Week 46

Create Content Focused on Your Prospects’ Questions, Problems, and Aspirations

To connect with prospects, you want to let them know you understand what they are thinking and feeling. This means creating content that answers questions they have, solves problems they face, or provides tips to achieve aspirations they desire. It is addressing these issues (not what happened with the stock market last week) that will motivate them to hire you.

The 52: Additional Domain Names Do Not Help Your Search Engine Rankings

Week 45

Additional Domain Names Do Not Help Your Search Engine Rankings

I often get the question from advisors about whether they should buy additional website domains (e.g., WorldsBestFinancialAdvisor.com) and forward them to their primary company domain (e.g., ABCFinancialAdvisors.com) to improve their Google rankings. The short answer is “No!” Buying domains and forwarding them to your company site has zero impact on your search rankings. Instead of spending money on additional domains, you’d be better off creating valuable, original content that answers the questions people search for.

The 52: Your Social Media Posts Should Be About the Client, Not You

Week 44

Your Social Media Posts Should Be About the Client, Not You

Recently, whenever I’m on LinkedIn, my feed is filled with advisors talking about themselves—the awards they’ve won, the new employees they’ve hired, or some other personal story. If you want to use social media as a marketing tool, most of your posts should focus on your prospective client, not you. As Donald Miller says in his book Building a StoryBrand, when it comes to promoting your business, you are not the hero of your story—your client is. While it is OK to brag occasionally, your posts should tell a prospect how you are helping them in their life’s story, not telling them about your life story.

The 52: A Niche May Require a Creative Fee Structure

Week 37

A Niche May Require a Creative Fee Structure

Pre-retirees and retirees are a popular client type for RIAs because they fit well into the AUM model. But when you specialize in a niche, you may find the traditional AUM fee structure doesn’t work for your prospects. For example, business owners who are starting to plan for the sale of their business may not meet your investable asset minimums today but will have a windfall in three to five years. Or perhaps you work with attorneys who are more comfortable paying a retainer because that is how they charge their own clients. When working with a niche, you may need to adopt a creative fee structure to monetize the opportunity your niche presents.

The 52: The Two Best Channels to Promote Your Content

Week 42

The Two Best Channels to Promote Your Content

As you begin to create content, the question is, how do you get people to see it? Social media is often the go-to answer, but most advisors don’t have a large enough network for this avenue to work. Here are two more effective channels to promote your content:

Influencers: Ask the people who already have a network of prospects you want to reach to share your content. An influencer can be a person or an organization your target market follows and trusts, such as centers of influence, publishers, social media influencers, YouTubers, and podcasters, just to name a few.

Search engines: Optimize your content for search engines to help your ideal prospects find the answers to the financial questions they are researching and, as a result, find you.