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The 52: Not Every Firm Should Niche
Sometimes not niching is the right decision.
Not Every Firm Should Niche
Through our work with financial advisors, we have discovered the easiest way to market is to specialize in a niche. However, not all firms should niche. Here are four situations where focusing on a broad market is the better choice:
Firms in small, close-knit communities with widespread name recognition
Firms where the owner is going to sell to an outside entity in the next five years
Firms that consistently generate enough referrals to achieve annual growth goals
Firms with outside investment that can spend significant money on national mass marketing campaigns
The 52: Sell Solutions, Outcomes, and Transformation, Not Products or Services
Prospects want outcomes, not services.
Sell Solutions, Outcomes, and Transformation, Not Products or Services
Many advisors focus on selling their services, such as investment management, financial planning, and retirement planning. But prospective clients aren’t looking to purchase a service—they want a solution to their problem, a specific outcome, or a transformation.
In your marketing, help your prospects visualize the transformation they will experience after working with you. For example, instead of promoting “retirement planning,” say: “Have a plan so you can stop being afraid of spending your hard-earned money and start enjoying the best years of your retirement.” The second message is not only more desirable to your prospect but something they’ll want to pay you to help them achieve.
The 52: Marketing Strategies for the Introverted Financial Advisor
Being an introvert doesn’t mean your marketing has to be less effective.
Marketing Strategies for the Introverted Financial Advisor
Introverted advisors don’t always see themselves as marketers because so many of the people held up as “good marketer” role models are extroverts. You know them. They constantly self-promote on social media and can be seen at every event, and you feel like they are literally everywhere.
If you are an introverted advisor, this type of marketing can be exhausting. But being an introvert doesn’t mean your marketing has to be less effective. Here are three strategies introverted advisors should follow to be successful marketers:
Strategy 1: Focus on a niche. When you take a rifle, not a shotgun, approach, you’ll find that your efforts spent interacting with people in the niche community will multiply much faster than if you target a broader market.
Strategy 2: Take advantage of content marketing. Content marketing allows your expertise and knowledge to shine, helping you overcome the extroverted characteristics usually associated with good sales and marketing people.
Strategy 3: Utilize digital channels. These channels allow you to network from the comfort of your home or office and give you the opportunity to think before you “speak.”
The 52: Dictate Your Blog
Use Microsoft Word’s dictate feature.
Dictate Your Blog
Do you struggle to write a blog consistently? Consider dictating your first draft. By talking through your article and having it transcribed, your blog becomes an editing exercise instead of a writing exercise.
There are plenty of speech-to-text services available, but it can be as simple as opening a Word document. When the dreaded blank page appears, instead of typing, click the “Dictate” button on the home menu and start talking. You’ll soon find your blog being typed in front of your eyes.
The 52: How to Use Text Message Marketing
Text messages can have impact but are easy to overdo.
How to Use Text Message Marketing
While not widely used by financial advisors, text message marketing (also known as SMS marketing) is of great interest to many advisors. This is because text messages have higher open and response rates than emails.
If you plan to use SMS marketing, a good rule of thumb is to employ it for important or time-sensitive messages such as:
Appointment or event confirmations and reminders
Reminders for documents you are waiting on from a client or prospect
One-time follow-ups after an event, appointment, or download of an ebook or other resource
Outreach during urgent or catastrophic events (e.g., hurricanes, pandemics, 2008-style market crashes)
Upcoming financial deadlines (e.g., quarterly taxes being due, Medicare open enrollment period)
While SMS marketing can be impactful, it’s important not to overdo it. Otherwise, people will opt out or, worse, form a negative impression of you. Make sure to avoid:
Sending unsolicited messages
Promoting your content (e.g., weekly marketing commentary)
Overdoing it (e.g., don’t send a series of texts after a prospect downloads an ebook)
The 52: How Much Does It Cost to Self-publish a Nonfiction Book?
Be prepared to spend $20K-$60K if you want to be a published author.
How Much Does It Cost to Self-publish a Nonfiction Book?
In her guest post, “Why Self-publishing a Nonfiction Book Is So Dang Expensive,” book-writing coach Stacy Ennis reports that her clients spend anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000-plus publishing their books. Many spend around $20,000 to $60,000.
Self-publishing is supposed to be cheap, right? But when you factor in all the tasks and people required to “self-publish”—such as book coaching, content editing, copyediting, proofreading, cover design, interior book design, copywriting for marketing materials, ISBN, e-book conversion, audiobook production, website design, marketing, and publicity— you can see how the price tag adds up.
The good news is, most advisors who publish a book will make back their investment many times over. Not through book sales but through the many doors a book opens for them: speaking engagements, new clients, and more.
In other words, “a book is worth a million dollars in revenue.”
The 52: “Marketing Is Far Too Important to Be Left to the Marketing Department”
Want your marketing to be successful? Take ownership!
“Marketing Is Far Too Important to Be Left to the Marketing Department”
This quote from David Packard, Co-Founder of HP, sums up the importance of marketing in your business.
The most successful financial advisory firms I have worked with over my career have been highly engaged in their marketing. While they hired marketing professionals or internal staff to help guide and implement their strategy, the companies’ leadership always took ownership.
Many advisors don’t like marketing and would prefer to outsource it and forget it. But marketing is the lifeblood of your business. It’s how you bring in revenue and grow your business. While you should hire experts to help you, always be engaged in your marketing. That is the best way to guarantee marketing success.
The 52: Plant Seeds in Your Content
Help your audience envision working with you.
Plant Seeds in Your Content
When writing blogs, creating videos, presenting to groups, or recording podcasts, lay the groundwork to encourage your audience to hire you. Do this by planting seeds throughout your content that help your audience envision working with you.
For example, when presenting, you can drop phrases like:
“When I implement this cash management strategy for my clients …”
“If we were to work together, we would create a cash management plan for you.”
“A new client hired us just last week to solve this exact problem.”
You’d be surprised how many people who consume your content don’t know that you are accepting clients. Overcome this by planting seeds throughout your content to make it clear you work with people just like them and are accepting new clients.
The 52: Don’t Bad-Mouth Other Advisors
Paint yourself in a good light, not your competition in a bad light.
Don’t Bad-Mouth Other Advisors
You probably don’t bad-mouth your competitors by name, but have you ever said something to the effect of “Some advisors will sell you an annuity you don’t need,” or “Widows are vulnerable to predatory financial advisors"?
When you disparage other advisors, you plant a seed of doubt for all advisors, including yourself. How does the prospect know you aren’t a predatory advisor? They don’t, and you may end up scaring them into inaction.
Instead of painting your competition in a negative light, paint yourself in a positive light. For example: “We find that 9 times out of 10, there are better, less expensive options for our clients than annuities, which is why we don’t recommend them.” Or: “Our clients choose us because they want a financial advisor they can trust to look out for them during this vulnerable time.”
The 52: "Never Confuse Movement with Action"
Spending time on marketing with no results? Here’s why.
"Never Confuse Movement with Action"
This quote from Ernest Hemingway serves as a warning for how to spend your marketing time. Action is the process of doing something to achieve an aim,[1] while movement is the process of moving.[2]
In marketing, action comprises activities with clear outcomes, like calling a center of influence, pitching a topic to present to an association, or following up with a prospect. Deliberate action takes you closer to your goal and produces tangible results.
Movement, on the other hand, is going through the motion of low-impact activities such as changing minor wording on your website or writing superficial comments on social media posts. Because movement fills your time, it can deceive you into feeling satisfied that you took action, but the truth comes out when you don’t see results.
If you aren’t getting the marketing results you hope for, ask yourself, are you confusing movement with action?
Sources:
1. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/movement
