The 52: Turn Down Business That Doesn’t Fit Your Niche

Turn Down Business That Doesn’t Fit Your Niche

Recently, I interviewed several financial advisors for a book I’m writing about niche marketing. Here is one of the tips shared with me:

Turn down business that doesn’t fit your niche as soon as you can. Working with only niche clients makes everything easier. Not only does your marketing become easier, but you can also streamline your business operations.

The 52: Use Google Search to Brainstorm Blog Topics

Use Google Search to Brainstorm Blog Topics

When brainstorming topics for your blog, jump over to Google to find common topics people are searching for. Start by typing in a general term (e.g., tax planning) and hit Enter. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see searches related to your initial term (e.g., tax planning methods, types of tax planning, tax planning strategies, objectives of tax planning, tax planning 2022, importance of tax planning). Use these topics for future blogs, and incorporate the same terms into the title and content of your blog to help improve your search rankings.

The 52: An Advisor Directory Focused on Niches

An Advisor Directory Focused on Niches

Advisor directories like NAPFA’s Find an Advisor, FeeOnlyNetwork, and FPA’s PlannerSearch can be a cheap, passive way to get unsolicited leads. The problem is these listings are generally zip code based, so they aren't great for people focused on a niche they serve nationally. For advisors who fall into this group, there is an advisor directory site for you: Wealthtender.com! Now prospects can choose an advisor who specializes in working with clients just like them rather than just picking a generalist close to their home.

P.S. We don’t have any financial incentive to promote Wealthtender, but they did give us a discount code to share with you. Use the code KALEIDO for 50% off your first two months of any subscription plan.

Year 3 Niche Marketing Plan for Financial Advisors

In a previous blog, I discussed the fact that it can take three years of a focused niche marketing strategy before an advisor will reach the level of exponential growth.

In year one, you talk to everyone you know in your niche and establish credibility through content marketing. In year two, you increase your content marketing, establish lead capture mechanisms, and use online strategies to drive leads.

Year three is typically when your efforts finally gain traction. Here is what to focus on in your year-three marketing plan:

1. Host Live or Virtual Events

Hosting your own events, whether in person or online, requires a large mailing list to get people to attend. By year three, you should have been building your list long enough to have enough people that you can host an event.

If your niche is primarily made up of local people, host live events. If your niche is nationwide, then do webinars or other virtual events.

The key to these events is to make them specific to your niche and their interests. Avoid generic topics that would appeal to any audience.

2. Write a Book

Writing a book is a huge undertaking, but it can be the piece that finally propels you to the status of expert. By year three, you should have two years of experience working with your niche and enough content to write a book. If writing is not your thing, you can hire ghostwriters or a service like Scribe Media to write it for you.

Once you have your book, give it away for free to everyone in your niche. You’ll never sell enough books to make up for the time and money you invested, but it takes only a handful of new clients resulting from the book to get the ROI you are looking for.   

3. Sponsor Events

If there are events such as conferences or trade shows that attract your niche, this is the time to sponsor them or reserve a booth.

This step is by no means a requirement. In fact, if you are getting speaking engagements, you probably can skip this step altogether. But event sponsorships can be a good way to show your niche you are committed, engaged, and invested in their community.

4. Niche Down

After two years of working with your niche, you may find a subset within the niche that is an even better fit for you.

For example, if you work with divorcing women, you may prefer divorcing women who still have kids in the house and want to keep the home until they are off to college. Or maybe you work with business owners, but you really add value to business owners in professional services.

This is where you niche down and become more specific. This added specificity will help you stand out even more. Once you niche down, refine your website, marketing materials, and content to reflect this new subset of clients.

Final Thoughts

The first year lays the foundation for a successful niche marketing strategy, and the second year builds the framing. In year three, you begin to reap the rewards of your efforts and propel your business forward while making refinements along the way.

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About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing agency that helps transform Registered Investment Advisors and their employees into experts in a niche, making it easier for them to stand out from the competition and attract ideal clients. Over the past 16 years, Kristen has consulted with hundreds of financial advisory firms and shared her marketing expertise via industry conferences and publications nationwide.

The 52: Recycle Your Content

Recycle Your Content

It’s difficult to create original content—blogs, videos, email newsletters, etc.—week after week. To save time, repurpose popular content you’ve already created. Review your marketing analytics and see which content has the most traffic, clicks, or views, and reuse or re-create that same content. One easy way is to reverse the tone—turn positive into negative. For example, take a “Top 10 Retirement Planning Tips for Business Owners” blog and turn it into “Top 10 Retirement Planning Mistakes Business Owners Make” by adapting the same content as a negative.

The 52: Use the Book-Writing Process as Marketing

Use the Book-Writing Process as Marketing

I picked up this week’s marketing tip from Dr. Travis Parry, author of Achieving Balance.

Writing your own book can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool once published. But there is marketing value even before you even write your first word.

Use the book-writing process to interview people in your niche. Asking people to be interviewed for a book is an easy ask when “cold calling.” Once you interview someone in your niche, you can ask for introductions to other people you should be interviewing. You can continue to stay in touch by having them review what you wrote for accuracy. And you can send them a book when it is published.

This interview method will get you in front of dozens of potential clients long before your book becomes its own marketing tool.

The 52: Are You a Cover Band or an Artist?

Are You a Cover Band or an Artist?

In their book Become Known for a Niche You Own, the Category Pirates use a great metaphor to describe the value of those who niche:

“There are a total of zero cover bands in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Anyone who has made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame became known for a niche they owned. Notice how differently the world values musicians who write their own music versus musicians who play covers.”[1]

I bring this quote to your attention because I find a lot of financial advisors fear focusing on a niche because they are afraid it will lessen the value of their business. In reality, by niching, you’ll be seen as more special and as a result more valuable to your audience.

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1. Category Pirates, Become Known for a Niche You Own: Why Legendary Writers Use Languaging to Design New & Different Categories, 2021, Kindle Edition.

The 52: Being Better Isn’t Better. Being Different Is Better

Being Better Isn’t Better. Being Different Is Better

When I ask firms, “How are you different?” I get similar answers:

• We have better customer service.

• We offer better financial planning.

• We have a better investment strategy.

But there is a problem with differentiating yourself as being “better”: It is easy for someone else to swoop in and be better than you.

This approach means a constant race to be the best. When you differentiate on being better, another firm can easily dethrone you by offering slightly better customer service or adding one more financial planning discipline.

When competing for clients, being better isn’t a sustainable strategy. Instead, be different in some defendable way (e.g., have a niche specialization) because it is hard for the competition to also be different in that same way.

The Year-One Niche Marketing Plan for Advisors

Year 2 Niche Marketing Plan for Financial Advisors

In my last blog, I discussed the fact that it can take three years of a focused niche marketing strategy before an advisor will reach the level of exponential growth. In year one, you talk to everyone you know in your niche and establish credibility through content marketing. In year two, you continue those efforts and layer on additional ones:

1. Develop an Ebook or Other Lead Capture Resource 

After you consistently blog for a year, you’ll find you are generating more traffic to your website. Since not all those visitors will be ready to do business with you, you’ll want a way to capture their names and email addresses so you can nurture that relationship until they are ready.

The simplest way to do this is through a PDF resource like an ebook or checklist. You can also consider an on-demand webinar. The important thing is that the resource is something that your niche will value and that you offer it in exchange for their email address.

2. Expand Your Content

Once you are in the habit of consistently creating blogs, you want to expand your content. If you like to write, you can continue writing blogs but add longer, more in-depth content. If that is not an option, increase the number of blogs you write each month (say from two to four).

This is also the time to consider developing videos to enhance your blogs or as a standalone. You can also consider hosting a podcast and inviting people associated with your niche community to be guests. Or you can start designing interesting infographics for your niche.

Only expand your content if you can consistently execute it. If blogging is already enough for you, stick to that one thing.

3. Guest Everywhere

In both years one and two, it is important to get in front of your niche as much as possible. This means looking for opportunities to be a guest speaker at live or virtual events, be a guest on podcasts, and contribute guest articles to websites or publications.

When you have an opportunity to leverage someone else’s network, you take it, no matter how insignificant. These opportunities not only build your credibility but also lead to additional opportunities.

4. Optimize Content for Search Engines

If you consistently write blogs in year one, your website will probably start to rank for some keywords your niche is searching for. In year two, you can make a more deliberate effort to optimize your content and overall website to drive more search traffic.

Search engine optimization is a pretty technical concept, so I would recommend you hire a company like Advisor Rankings to help you with your SEO efforts.

5. Utilize Ads

Year two is when you may want to use ads to expand the reach of your content. For example, you might promote your lead capture resource or the content you are already posting on social media to a wider audience using paid advertisements, usually called “promoted” or “boosted” posts.

You may want to advertise in highly targeted niche publications and websites. And if enough people are searching for your service on Google (e.g., financial advisor for dentists), you might consider using Google search ads.

Ads can complement your SEO efforts. The key to success is that your ads must be highly targeted to your market with a message that resonates with your niche.

6. Build Your Center of Influence (COI) Network

In your first year, you talk to anyone you can think of associated with your niche. In year two, it’s time to implement a deliberate and systemized effort to meet new centers of influence and nurture those relationships for referrals. It can take years of relationship-building to gain the trust required for COIs to provide a referral. Starting these efforts in year two will pay dividends in future years.     

Final Thoughts

If the first year lays the foundation for a successful niche marketing strategy, the second year builds the framing. In year two, your efforts get more sophisticated as you expand your reach through a lead capture resource, new content formats, guest opportunities, search engine optimization, ads, and COI networking.

Your diligence may already be paying off as you gain traction with your niche market, which increasingly looks to you for guidance on their financial problems.

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About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing agency that helps transform Registered Investment Advisors and their employees into experts in a niche, making it easier for them to stand out from the competition and attract ideal clients. Over the past 16 years, Kristen has consulted with hundreds of financial advisory firms and shared her marketing expertise via industry conferences and publications nationwide.