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Good storytelling will make your firm stand out.
Whether you work at an advisory firm serving 100 clients or a multi-national corporation like Coca-Cola, storytelling should be a key element in your marketing. You need to tell a story about you, your firm and what you do that shows how your firm fits into your prospect’s lives.
A great story makes your firm stand out. Many financial advisors struggle with storytelling, which can seem vague or touchy-feely, especially if they’re more comfortable focusing on the technical side of wealth management. But telling great stories is easier than it seems. Here are five tips to you get started.
1. Focus on people
When you describe what your firm does, do you launch into a lengthy, detailed description of your services? Do you ramble on about a fee-only fiduciary model? If so, you’re not telling a good story.
Consider this commercial from Chase Manhattan Bank advertising its private-client services. The ad doesn’t say anything about the specific services the bank provides. Instead, it features two characters (a dad and his daughter) and tells a story about their lives. Then, it inserts Chase into that story. Showing how you make people’s lives better is far more powerful than reciting a laundry list of the services you offer clients.
2. Make your client the hero
Make the client the star of your story. Of course, as an advisor, compliance restrictions make it difficult to share actual stories about clients you’ve helped in your marketing materials. But you can still put the focus on the client, rather than your firm.
Take a look at your firm brochure or website. Do you use the word “we” a lot? Do you spend a great deal of time discussing your firm’s unique process or investment philosophy and bragging about your industry awards or credentials? If so, refocus on your clients and their needs. That doesn’t mean you can’t talk about yourself, your philosophy or your awards. Those are important too – it demonstrates your expertise and builds credibility. But do that in a way that is meaningful for a current or prospective client. Show your clients how you’re going to help them be the heroes in their own stories.
3. Create tension or conflict
Compelling stories have tension or conflict: A problem needs to be solved or an obstacle must be overcome. What problem do you solve for your client? How do you help clients on their life journeys? What fears keep them awake at night – and how can you assuage those fears?
For example, you might be a fee-only advisor. By itself, that may not mean much to a prospective client. But say your prospective client is worried about getting ripped off by unscrupulous advisors (maybe she’s been burned in the past). You can connect with her by telling a story about how you are different in the way you work with clients and charge for your services.
Don’t just say you’re “fee-only.” Explain how this approach helps the client overcome an obstacle in her life (her fear of being taken advantage of) and gets her closer to where she wants to be.
4. Build a relationship
Successful advisory firms have close and enduring relationships with their clients. By telling a great story, you can start building that relationship before your client even walks in the door.
This is the time to talk about yourself. If you have a personal story to share about what led you to your current career (for example, your dad lost a lot of money in bad investments when you were a kid), draw on the emotion of that experience to connect with your audience.
Take the “Our Story” page on the Crimmins Wealth Management website. It shares anecdotes about family and childhood and tells you something about the owners of the firm and what they value. Prospective clients who see themselves in those stories will be more likely to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment.
5. Use more than words
You can tell your firm’s story using words, but that’s not the only tool you have. Incorporate video, photographs and creative design to tell your story and get people engaged (photos and video are far more likely to be shared on social media). Take this webpage from the nonprofit organization No Kid Hungry, which uses text, photos, graphics and a few key statistics to explain the problem of childhood hunger in the U.S. In this case, storytelling is about more than just the words on the page. You can take a similar approach for your advisory firm.
Do you have a great marketing story? Your prospects would love to hear it!
Megan Elliott is the Senior Copy Writer with Wealth Management Marketing, Inc., a firm specializing in outsourced marketing department services to Registered Investment Advisors and fee-only financial planning firms. For more information, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.
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