The 52: Get Names into Your Marketing Database

Get Names into Your Marketing Database

Lately, I’ve been interviewing financial advisors for my upcoming book about niche marketing. Here is one of the tips shared with me:

“When you first start a niche, get as many names and contact information as possible into your database. Once you build your database, it gets easier from there because you can design campaigns around nurturing those relationships.”

It can take years of seeing your name before a prospect schedules an appointment. When you get those prospects into your database, you start the clock. So as you start your niche, meet as many people as possible (online and offline), get them into your marketing database, and implement nurturing campaigns.

How to Become an Uncomparable Advisor

Incomparable or uncomparable, which are you? That was the question I posed in my last article. It is impossible for a small business to be better than all the competition (incomparable), so the better way to stand out is to be so different no one can compare with you (uncomparable).

When you try to be incomparable, you get stuck in an endless race that you can never win. When you are uncomparable, you win because there’s no one else to race against you. In marketing, when given a choice between being incomparable and uncomparable, you want to be uncomparable.

I have found that the best way to become uncomparable is to own a niche. When you work with a niche, you become an expert in the one problem all the members of your niche face. And everything you create, from your business model to your marketing, revolves around solving that problem.

Because few other advisors, if any, are serving that niche, you become uncomparable. The word about you gets out, and niche members want to work with you. They’re not worried about whether you’re better than other advisors. They know you are the advisor who can help them. This gives them comfort and confidence.

And it gives you success.

Specifically, there are five components that a firm can address to make them uncomparable. These areas are:

1. Niche: The narrow set of clients who all share one specific problem that you solve.

2. Position: The simple message that communicates the problem you solve and the transformation that prospective clients can anticipate.

3. Expertise: The breadth of knowledge and experience you develop that shows you know how to solve your niche’s problem and lead them to transformation.

4. Community: The people, groups, and places where your niche interacts.

5. Business model: The services, process, experience, and pricing you specifically design to solve your niche’s problem.

Using this framework, let’s look at two examples—a generalist advisor and an uncomparable advisor focused on a niche.

Generalist Advisor 

Company name: San Diego Financial Partners.

Target client (we can’t call it a niche in this case): Anyone with $1 million+ AUM within 30 miles of our office.

Position: We are a fee-only, fiduciary advisor helping individuals and families achieve financial peace of mind.

Expertise: We have a team of CFP® professionals to help you achieve your financial goals.

Community: The greater San Diego County region.

Business model: We employ a team-based approach to implement comprehensive wealth management services following the seven-step financial planning process. We charge fees based on AUM.

Uncomparable Advisor

Company name: Aviation Capital Management.

Niche: Commercial pilots who have irregular income streams.

Position: We help commercial pilots stabilize inconsistent income from having multiple jobs and self-employed gigs so that they can stop stressing about money and live more like a normal 9-to-5 person.

Expertise: Not only have we spent 20 years serving more than 500 pilots, but our founder is a former airline pilot herself.

Community: Airports, flight schools, and aviation organizations across the country.

Business model: We offer guidance on the following: funding flight training, minimizing taxes as a 1099 contractor, choosing the right disability insurance, creating cash flow strategies for fluctuating income, and investing in the right retirement accounts. We charge an annual fee of $5,000, paid monthly, which includes managing up to your first $500,000 in investments. We then offer low-fee investment services beyond $500,000.

As you can see, each of these five areas clearly differentiates the second advisor from the first. When you combine the unique offerings in all five areas of the framework, it becomes nearly impossible for another advisor to replicate, thus making the second advisor uncomparable.

You don’t have to complete the entire framework to start seeing success with your niche. Executing on just a combination of the components will get you there. And you will see more success as you implement each additional component and become clearly differentiated from other advisors.

Final Thoughts

By adopting the framework in this article, you move away from being a generalist advisor trying to be “better” than every other generalist advisor. Instead, use this framework to become uncomparable. Establish your company name, niche, position, expertise, community, and business model so that you stand in a field of one. Your marketing will become effortless over time as your ideal clients seek you out. Such is the power of being uncomparable.

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About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing consulting firm that positions Registered Investment Advisors and their employees as experts in a niche, making them uncomparable to other advisors. 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. This article is an excerpt from her upcoming book, due out in 2023.

Incomparable or Uncomparable, Which are You?

Incomparable or Uncomparable, Which Are You?

You are certainly familiar with the commonly used word “incomparable.” Google’s English dictionary defines it as “without an equal in quality or extent; matchless.”

But you are probably less familiar with the uncommonly used word “uncomparable.” Though your spell check and most popular dictionaries may fail to recognize the word, Vocabulary.com defines it as “such that comparison is impossible; unsuitable for comparison or lacking features that can be compared.” [1]

What's the difference, and why is it important to you? Because the difference can make or break your marketing strategy.

The easiest way to think about the difference between these two words is: “Two or more things that can’t be compared with each other are uncomparable. Something that is so good that it is beyond comparison is incomparable.” [The Grammarist]

This distinction is key as you think about the way you differentiate your business. Are you incomparable (the "best"), or are you uncomparable (so different no one can compare with you)?

I find most financial advisors think they are incomparable … the best, or at least better than their competition. When I ask how their firm is different, I get the answer of how they are better than other advisors. Usually, it sounds something like “We actually provide comprehensive financial planning” or “We get to know our clients personally.” 

That sounds great, but the "we do it better" marketing approach has problems such as:

A prospect can’t determine that you are better. Whether a prospective client decides to work with you or someone else, they lose any point of comparison. They can never feel absolutely certain that they have picked the "best" advisor.

You can’t maintain being better. Let’s say you are better than other advisors, maybe even the best. What will it take for the competition to surpass you? One additional service? One more meeting per year? Being the best becomes a neck-and-neck horse race. You are under the constant stress of needing to improve to stay ahead of the competition.

The movie Something About Mary demonstrates the exact problem with trying to be better. In this scene, Ted, played by Ben Stiller, picks up a hitchhiker, and they talk about the hitchhiker’s business idea:

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?

Ted: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the exercise video.

Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7 ... Minute ... Abs.

Ted: Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you’re going.

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin’ there, there’s 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

Ted: I would go for the 7.

Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.

Ted: You guarantee it? That’s—how do you do that?

Hitchhiker: If you’re not happy with the first 7 minutes, we’re gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That’s it. That’s our motto. That’s where we’re comin’ from. That’s from “A” to “B.”

Ted: That’s right. That’s—that’s good. That’s good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you’re in trouble, huh?[2]

When you compete on “better,” you are essentially 7-Minute Abs just waiting for 6-Minute Abs to be introduced to the market. 

When you position yourself as better, you have decided to play your competitors’ game. You are saying, we are just like them, only better (for now). 

No small business can expect to be better than everyone (i.e., the best). The better way to stand out is to be different. When you position yourself as unique, prospects can’t compare you to any other advisor. You claim leadership in your space because there is no one else to compare you to. In other words, you become uncomparable.

How do you become truly different from your competition? How do you become uncomparable? The short answer is you own a niche.

You become an expert in solving one problem for one type of client, and you build your business model to uniquely service the needs of those people. 

You focus on developing and promoting your in-depth expertise with a narrow set of clients—an expertise that is not offered by most other advisors. As a result, prospects seek you out because you specialize in solving problems for people just like them. 

When given a choice between being incomparable and uncomparable, you want to be uncomparable. The first option keeps you in an endless race against the competition that you can never win. With the second option, you take the victory because there's no one else to race against you. When it comes to marketing, be different. Be uncomparable.

Sources:

[1] https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/uncomparable.

[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129387/characters/nm0005558.

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About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing consulting firm that positions Registered Investment Advisors and their employees as experts in a niche, making them uncomparable to other advisors. 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. This article is an excerpt from her upcoming book, due out in 2023.

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.