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You play a crucial role in helping your clients make important financial decisions. This is why establishing trust and building credibility when connecting with potential clients is essential. The best way to do that is through engaging messaging that not only highlights your expertise, experience, and understanding of the client's needs, but also speaks to them in a personal way.
To create engaging messaging, focus on your audience – their pain points, challenges, and motivations. Demonstrate that you’re a financial advisor that's familiar with and capable of providing the right solutions for someone like them. By addressing their needs in a relatable and empathetic way, you’ll ensure potential clients feel heard and recognized, helping to build a strong foundation of confidence.
For example, use engaging messaging to explain how your services can help clients achieve their financial goals, such as retirement planning, debt management, or investment planning. This messaging also helps educate clients about your firm’s process and approach, further positioning you as a trustworthy partner.
Creating an immediate connection
The first few minutes that a prospect spends exploring a financial advisor's website are critical in establishing a connection. Engaging messaging creates this connection by showing that you understand their circumstances, goals, desires, and dreams, and can help them get to where they want to go.
Think about some of the financial advisor websites you’ve seen. Many contain messaging about the firm’s pedigree with a heavy emphasis on gravitas. Others may be dull, portraying a basic overview of who they are and what they do. These websites are missing the mark. More specifically, they’re missing an opportunity to connect effectively with potential clients and in doing so, lower the likelihood of that prospect reaching out to book a consultation.
The messaging on your website and other marketing materials should focus on the client rather than you and your services. It’s a small shift that makes a big impact. Prioritizing your clients in your marketing means putting less emphasis on "we" and "our" and more emphasis on using “you” language that speaks directly to their concerns. By doing so, potential clients will feel that you are genuinely interested in helping them rather than trying to sell them something.
Implementing engaging marketing
The ultimate goal of marketing is to garner loyalty among existing clients while also attracting new ones to drive growth and profitability for your firm. To implement engaging messaging, follow these tips:
Know your target audience
A target audience refers to a specific group of people who are likely to be interested in a product or service based on demographic and psychographic information such as age, income, interests, and behaviors. Understanding the needs and motivations of your target audience is crucial in creating effective messaging. Conduct market research, survey existing clients, or use focus groups to gain insights into what drives your target audience and how they make financial decisions.
Create an ideal client avatar
An ideal client avatar takes tailored messaging a step further. It’s a detailed and specific representation of the ideal customer for your financial advisor business, considering not only demographic information but also their values, motivations, and challenges. An avatar is a narrow and specific representation of your firm’s perfect client that helps you understand why the customer would want to hire you and what they need from you. Keep this person or couple in mind as you are creating your marketing (e.g. Scott and Sue, the recent retirees who are looking forward to traveling, or Gina, the mid-career divorced executive with teenage children).
Focus on benefits
Focus on the benefits that your services offer to clients rather than the features. If you offer estate planning, great, but how will your ideal client avatar specifically benefit from it? This will make your messaging more relevant and appealing to the right clients. How you speak to a young, single professional about the benefits of estate planning would be different from how you’d speak to the head of a high-net-worth family or a widowed business owner with young children.
Use clear and concise language
Avoid using industry jargon or overly technical language. Instead, use clear and concise language that is easy for potential clients to understand and speaks directly to their needs. You may believe that delving into the complexities of the market in your content makes it seem smart and credible, but it needs to be done in a way that a layperson can grasp easily and enjoy consuming.
Make it visually appealing
Engaging visuals make your messaging appealing and memorable. Incorporate images, graphics, or videos into your marketing materials to bring your message to life. Remember, the primary goal isn’t to showcase your impressive office but to pique the interest of your ideal clients and help them feel seen. Paint a picture of the life they aspire to attain.
The power of “you-focused” messaging
Audience-focused, engaging messaging is a powerful tool to connect with your target audience and build trust with potential clients. By creating marketing copy that speaks to the specific needs, challenges, and goals of your target audience, you communicate in a way that resonates with them on a deeper level and positions you as a trusted and knowledgeable advisor.
Whether through your website, social media, or other marketing channels, using audience-focused messaging makes you stand out in a crowded market and builds a thriving practice that serves the needs of your clients. Take a closer look at your audience and incorporate their perspectives into your messaging for greater impact and success.
Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Just not sure where to start? Our worksheet can help! Get clarity on your specific goals, desires, and needs so you can create a marketing plan that delivers the results you want. Click here to download your Marketing Foundations Self-Assessment Worksheet.
Crystal Lee Butler, MBA is the owner of Crystal Marketing Solutions, a full-service marketing agency dedicated to working specifically with independent financial advisors. Since 2011, she’s helped financial advisors cut through the noise to attract ideal clients and grow their businesses using proven strategies that we use with our clients every day. As your “Chief Marketing Officer,” our goal is to help you grow your business and put time back on your calendar so that you can focus on what you do best: serving your clients.
Read more articles by Crystal Butler
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
