The Hidden Power of Your Branding Statement

Enter the brand statement

One of the ways I help my clients make sure their website communicates their message at the same or better level than they can do in-person is by making sure they lead with a strong “brand statement” on their homepage.

A brand statement is a short, one-line sentence that expresses your prospects needs in a clear, compelling fashion that will attract them to your firm.

Too many financial advisors try to be the “hero” on their website, instead of focusing their message on the pains, needs, and aspirations of their ideal prospect. In other words, the content is written around the firm itself and not on the prospect and his or her story, and his or her needs to survive and thrive.

Let’s look at two RIA websites, one that we will call Typical Wealth Advisors, which is a fictitious firm, based on several real client stories prior to engaging my company, and then some well-crafted brand statements from one of my past clients, Pinnacle Advisory Group.

A tale of two financial advisor sites

I am on the homepage of Typical Wealth Advisors’ website and the headline text on the homepage reads:

As one of the region’s most respected independent fee-only advisory firms, Typical Wealth Advisors has been assisting clients to protect and grow their assets for more than 20 years.

Above this statement is an image of the firm’s team members and next to it are more facts about the firm - the number of clients it currently services and some additional useless facts about the firm.

This advisor brand is the typical approach that makes the firm the hero and speaks mostly about the firm, and not so much about what the prospect wants to hear - how their needs will be met.

You can easily see this when reviewing your own website based on how many “I,” “Me,” “We,” or “Us” words are used compared to “You” and “Your” statements.

On Typical Wealth Advisors’ website, they have 100% I-based statements.

I have audited hundreds of independent RIA websites, most of them do this, and so they, like this first firm, all become just a face in the crowd.

Contrast this with Pinnacle Advisory Group

On the Pinnacle Advisory website’s homepage, they have a series of rotating images called “slides.” The first slide speaks directly to the prospect as the hero of the story. When he or she comes to the site, they read the following:

Maximum cash flow for the rest of your life. Throughout your retirement, OnPoint by Pinnacle will help you maximize your every move.

The background image is a 50s-something couple that is happy and looks like they are enjoying life. They are the focus of the page. Contrast that with the first site that put the “team photo” as the first image that a prospect sees.

The brand statement “maximum cash flow for the rest of your life” is an actual statement of fundamental need that your ideal prospect might say. We can easily imagine them thinking that very thought, “I need maximum cash flow for the rest of my life.”

So we can see here that the prospect is the hero. And we also see that Pinnacle is the guide that will help lead them to fulfill that need. The statement communicates a unique product that only Pinnacle has to offer and it is wide open enough to account for many different issues that could affect maximizing revenue for retirement.

The second slide also does a great job of making the prospect the hero:

Welcome to your retirement. From social security to 401K rollovers, we’re experts at every aspect of retirement planning. We’ll guide you through all of it.

Here the prospect is invited to reach out and hold the goal that they desire—a well-planned retirement. Pinnacle is painting a picture to the prospect by welcoming them to their retirement.

The visual argument of the background image again speaks to the prospect. We see a 50s something couple running in a beautiful field with their dog. An obvious dream scene of many prospects who plan for retirement in their 50s.

The second half of the statement again makes Pinnacle out to be the guide. Donald Miller, the author of the best-selling book Building a StoryBrand, introduces an idea that you and your business need to be like “Yoda” from the popular Star Wars franchise. If you don’t know who Yoda is, just think of any popular movie or book and a mentor or guide character. According to Miller, we need to lead the prospect through every scenario and twist and turn they might face with retirement planning, just like how Yoda leads Luke through his adventures.

Contrast this again to Typical Wealth Advisors, where they don’t make the connection to the prospect in any way, but just speak about being in business for over 20 years.

Conclusion

You want to grow your practice. Part of your strategy must be making sure that your brand statements, especially that first sentence on your website’s homepage, speaks to the needs of your future clients.

Your website should sell your firm and your service offering as good, if not better than you can do in-person. You shouldn’t settle for anything less.

Christopher P. Wendt is president of Midstream Marketing, a digital agency that generates predictable leads for independent financial advisory firms. Over the last 10 years, he’s spent hundreds of hours applying the LeadGen FormulaTM, a proven method helping financial advisors generate more leads. You can reach him at [email protected].

Read more articles by Christopher Wendt