Marketing Yourself Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

In this category you will find blog posts with practical tips how to better market yourself as a financial advisor.

The Halo of Ringlets

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself, Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments

I hope by now you’ve done a business plan. A business plan is how you’re going to hit your goals. You’re driving from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, you’re going to pass mile markers along the way. Those are your goals.

Inside your business plan has to be your marketing plan. It’s not enough to go in the morning and hunt, kill and eat.

Listen to this audio podcast or read the transcript below to hear the ‘halo of ringlets’ analogy and an idea on narrowing down and attracting your target market or markets.

‘Why Should I Do Business with You’: Crafting a Compelling Response to a Prospect’s Critical Question

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For every financial advisor, the question, “Why should I do business with you?” hangs heavy in the air during initial consultations, whether spoken or not. It’s a pivotal moment, a crossroads where trust and value must intersect to convince the potential client to take the next step. While tempting to launch into a self-promotional monologue, a nuanced, client-centric approach is critical to unlocking that coveted “yes.”

It’s crucial to understand that a prepared, cookie-cutter approach, such as reciting your value proposition, won’t work. Every prospect is unique, so it’s essential to adapt your approach based on their specific circumstances and needs using the following framework:

How to Write a Highly Effective LinkedIn Summary – Examples for Financial Advisors Included

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It’s well established that LinkedIn is a vital platform for financial advisors to showcase their expertise and connect with potential clients. Advisors who use LinkedIn agree that the social media platform plays a key role in building connections and expanding their opportunities for finding potential prospects.

We’ve discussed LinkedIn’s important role in generating leads and how to use it effectively for prospecting. We also covered the five grave LinkedIn mistakes advisors make, including giving short shrift to their LinkedIn Summary. In fact, a poorly crafted LinkedIn Summary can render your profile unreadable, causing anyone looking for a financial advisor to move on to the next profile.

How to Attract Emerging Affluent Gen Z and Young Millennials in their 20s

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Financial advisors with any ambitions of growing their practices in the next couple of decades can’t ignore the emergence of Gen Z as an economic force. Though the estimated $143 billion in assets held by Gen Z is dwarfed by the trillions held by millennials, Gen Z workers are expected to outearn millennials as soon as 2030. They will be more educated and more ambitious than their generational predecessors, and they will be starving for financial advice.

The challenge for financial advisors is that while even today, the members of Gen Z are looking for financial advice, most prefer to find it through social media, the internet, and their parents or friends, according to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

The good news for advisors is that the same study found that 71% of Gen Z investors are receptive to working with financial professionals, counting them among the most trustworthy sources of financial information, second only to their parents.

The critical issue for any financial advisor hoping to attract young clients is whether they are perceived as someone who can be trusted to serve them in the manner they expect.

Financial Advisor Branding—Elements to Focus On

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One of the most significant challenges facing financial advisors trying to grow their practice is it takes time, resources, and a well-conceived marketing strategy to get their stories out to the right audiences. While it involves strategically utilizing digital marketing and producing targeted and relevant content, the path must be paved by building a solid brand and reputation.

5 Reasons Financial Advisor Webinars Fail

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During the pandemic, advisors seeking to gather and engage with targeted audiences had no choice but to take their show online. For those who studied and implemented the best practices of webinar marketing, the results have been excellent, producing waves of new prospects at a fraction of the cost of in-person seminars.

In this post-pandemic environment, webinars continue to be highly effective when done right. For people seeking financial information, attending online venues from the comfort of their homes or offices has become much more preferable than in-person seminars.

While putting on a webinar can be as easy as creating a PowerPoint, uploading it to a presentation platform, and making a link available, there is no guarantee of success. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why financial advisor webinars often fail. Here are five such reasons.

Niche Marketing: Narrowing Your Focus to Attract More Quality Prospects

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In recent years, the commoditization of investment advice has forced an increasing number of financial advisors into offering more comprehensive financial planning as a way to add more value to the client relationship. As a result, the financial planning space is becoming much more crowded, making it difficult for financial advisors to stand out.

That is why many practice management consultants recommend that financial advisors establish a niche to more quickly build their businesses, focusing on a more targeted market they can dominate rather than a broader market they can vanish in. The key to differentiation in a crowded field is to become more focused and specialized to become recognized as the best-of-breed for a specific type of clientele that can be served profitably and effectively.

Successfully crafting a niche is not without its challenges, and most advisors avoid attempting it for fear of narrowing their field of prospects. However, any advisor who has found success in a niche will tell you that, while you may narrow your field of prospects, you increase the likelihood that a higher percentage of prospects in the niche will choose to do business with you.

Conducting Client Research to Boost Prospecting Results

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Highly successful advisors have long determined that the traditional shotgun approach to prospecting using blast emails no longer works. They have found that prospecting with a more targeted approach, focusing more narrowly on clearly defined ideal client types based on a readily identifiable market segment or niche, increases both efficiency and results. These segments or niches are identified by demographics, businesses, careers, interests, or shared financial concerns that distinguish them from others.

We’ve written about the many advantages of niche marketing, including the more efficient use of resources, the ease of establishing one’s authority within a niche, and the built-in networking apparatus of well-connected clients residing in a niche.

However, the most significant marketing advantage is the ease of conducting research to gather intelligence about your market. Through market research, you can uncover critical information enabling you to develop more effective communication methods that appeal to your target market while honing your value proposition to touch their pain points.

For Highly Ambitious Advisors, Influence + Credibility = Thought Leadership

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Becoming a thought leader enhances your personal and professional stature within your industry and community, making you much more appealing as an authority and person of influence. When an advisor is viewed as a true thought leader, they attract the attention of influential clients who use their influence to refer other influential people.

As previously discussed on the blog, content is the key to building influence. Producing compelling, thought-provoking content delivered through your website, a blog, and emails, is how you establish your authority in the field. The more it is viewed, the more influence you can build, which is where social media comes in. Posting your content on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites expands your potential audience and builds your online influence.

But that’s just the beginning. While influence is critical, without credibility, it can be fleeting. Blogging and social media engagement are essential for building thought leadership, but when you can share your thoughts in high-profile settings you gain invaluable credibility.

Why Blogging Is Your Path to Achieving Thought Leadership

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For advisors competing in a crowded industry, achieving thought leadership is becoming essential for those who want to stand far above others in a crowded field. Why? Because thought leaders are viewed as people of influence with recognized expertise, credibility, and strong reputations – traits that have become table stakes for advisors hoping to attract the attention of high-net-worth clients.

Though it takes time to achieve thought leadership, the return on whatever investment of time and resources can be unparalleled. Fortunately, in this digitally wired world, you have tools that can accelerate the journey. If you have a couple of hours a month to devote to writing, blogging can be your most effective marketing activity.

Today, more businesses than ever are pointing to blogging as their most important inbound marketing initiative. And the vast majority of businesses report that their blogs have led to increased visibility, notoriety, and business development. Financial advisors are finding that blogging is an affordable way to establish themselves as a high-profile authority and a credible source of financial information in a highly competitive arena.

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