Most likely you already have many marketing ideas—but are they working in today’s environment for financial advisors? Here are five easy-to-implement strategies that are working right now to attract new clients and fans, expose your brand, get people talking and differentiate yourself.
1. Yes, it’s true—referrals are still #1
With all the digital innovations in marketing and the countless ways we can reach prospects, most new business for financial advisors continues to come from referrals. Research backs this up and likely many of your best clients found their way to your firm through referrals as well.
But do you have a system or process for generating the best new clients and attracting them to your firm? If you don’t, you’re not alone. Instead of thinking you need to uncomfortably ask for referrals, consider why most people get referrals in the first place and how you can focus on upgrading those traits.
Are you and your team really listening to your clients? In the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author references a study that investigated why some medical surgeons never get sued. When looking at surgeons and their practices, the study found that the surgeons who didn’t get sued spent, on average, three minutes longer with each patient. During those three minutes, the surgeons reportedly just listened. Interestingly, if something went wrong, the patient still sued, but it was the internist, radiologist or someone else who was targeted, not the surgeon. The patient actually liked the surgeon. When the surgeon listened, he or she was silently yet clearly telling the client, “I think you’re important enough for me to take a few minutes to hear what you have to say.”
The fact is, we don’t sue people we like. By the same token, we are quicker to do business with people we do like. And we refer others to those we like. Can we deduce then that if we are good listeners we will gather more referrals? When we looked at top performing practices, it’s probably not a coincidence that we found more than 50 percent of every meeting is spent listening!
There is no doubt you have been and will continue to listen to your clients. But perhaps a little extra focus in this area with your team will bring much desired results.
2. A strong value proposition closes more new business
Your ability to clarify your value proposition feeds directly into your ability to get your prospects to say “Yes.”
Describing your value clearly should be something that you can do anytime. It should be direct, simple and understandable to grab the attention of your prospects.
The key to standing out cannot be a blanket statement that targets, for instance, everyone within the United States who needs investment services. You could, of course, focus on everyone, but it would require an incredible marketing budget to get the kind of exposure and name recognition that would lead to becoming a nationally known entity for investing.
Here is a proven value formula for differentiation that will help you stand out:
- Focus your message on a target. Focusing on everyone with more than $1 million to invest is not a target.
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Describe what they want that you offer. What does your target market truly desire?
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Share how you are different from most. You don’t have to be different from everyone, just offer a key differentiation.
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Have a story that proves it! Give an example of what you do.
Telling your story
Below is a statement from a financial advisor. He works with many different types of target markets and people. However, when he is talking with a business owner, this is what he shares:
We are a financial advisory firm that specializes in working with business owners. To date, we have helped more than 60 business owners successfully sell their business and move on to the next phase of their lives.
This statement is targeted and attention-getting for his target market, business owners. It works because he is stating something that they truly want. Marketing to the masses is fine for some, but ineffective for most. Focus on grabbing the attention of the person right in front of you.
3. Your online reputation should be as good as you are in real life
If you knew that your best prospect was going to look at your LinkedIn profile next Thursday and make a decision on whether to see you based on what they read—would you change it?
Today, nine out of 10 people will search for you online before meeting with you—including your referrals. Why? Because they can (and should) conduct some due diligence about you and your firm first. Think about it—people go online when they are considering a new refrigerator so, of course, they go online for even more significant things.
The problem begins if they can’t locate you online or if what they find is not up to date, clearly stated, or does not communicate the benefits of you and your firm. Even worse, what if the information they find online doesn’t match the perception they had of you when they were referred?
Don’t give your prospects a reason to pause. That pause may result in not converting a hard-earned referral into an appointment and new client. Ask yourself, does my online presence match who I really am? Does it tell my story? Google yourself today and find out what others see.
4. Events are still working!
Here are some successful and unique events that have been attracting new business over the past 12 months:
- A Tesla showroom for a reception and viewing of the newest electric cars
- Cooking class and dinner: learning to cook Paleo
- Private tour of a professional sports team facility
- An evening for women at an auto mechanic’s shop: learning what you need to know so you do not get taken advantage of by auto service and oil change shops
- A workshop on how to find and collect antiques
- Wine tasting event
- Whiskey tasting event
- Casino night (using fake money—no real gambling)
- Grandparents workshop: an overview of the top trips, games and electronics that can be enjoyed with grandkids of all ages
- Vacation night: an overview from a travel agent on the top 10 trips for those over age 65.
The key is to choose something so interesting that your clients will bring their friends. That way you can meet new prospects, have reasons to follow up and begin forging new, profitable relationships.
5. Posting relevant content to attract your target markets
Engaging people through social media, your blog and your website are important ways to stay in front of your prospects and drive them to your firm. However, it is critical to consider everything you post on social media. The effective accomplishment is not just that you have posted something, but how interesting your posts are to your target audience. When in doubt, evaluate whether your posts are generating interest and interaction by looking at your analytics.
Here is a quick checklist before posting new content. If you cannot answer “Yes” or “I believe so” to most of these questions below, it probably will be better to skip the post.
- Will people be interested in this post?
- Does it provide value to the reader?
- Will they hit the “like” button?
- Will they comment on the post?
- Will they want to click and read?
- Will they share it?
Content is relevant if it is timely and/or of particular interest to a target group of people or niche audience. For instance, your content could include:
- A topic oriented to a particular segment, for example:
- A video on a timely market-related or niche-focused topic
- Charitable- or philanthropic-oriented information
- Event-oriented—either a local event in your community or something you are hosting
- Relating to people in your office.
I think you will agree that these five are not necessarily surprising and mostly doable. The key is—they really work! The question is—what will you upgrade during the rest of the year to change the results of your marketing?