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What’s Missing From Your Marketing?

4 Key Areas You Might Be Overlooking in Your Financial Planning Practice
woman with a yellow shirt thinking with her hand on her chin holding a pen in a business setting.

Some financial advisors are happy with where their practice and revenue are at, they are growing well from referrals alone, or they have their marketing down pat. For those who want to increase growth, or who want to start out on the right foot, there are four key areas of marketing that you can evaluate, tweak, or audit to help ensure your efforts add quick value to your financial planning practice.

  1. Know Your Story
  2. Be Found
  3. Hone Your Client Experience
  4. Reinforce Growth

 

 

  1. Know Your Story

    This is one most advisors or advisor teams miss. You should be able to answer the questions:

      • Why would a potential client want to use me/my practice?
      • What makes me or my practice relatable?

    Knowing the answer to these questions will help you tell your story and help you identify your value proposition. Every business, let alone financial planning practices, should have a value proposition. Why should this person choose you and not the advisor down the street?

    Lastly (if you haven’t already), define your business values. This can be extremely helpful knowing that what your clients value is what your business also values. Not only can this make marketing a bit easier when choosing what to market and how to message, but it also makes client alignment easier as well once you start to generate leads.

    Knowing your story is always relevant. It is consistently everywhere – as you talk to people, on your website, marketing kits, socials, etc.

  2. Be Found

    Part of being found is defining your audience. You need to know who is going to find you, or who you want to find you. Think about who needs your services the most or who are you best at serving. Also, ensure you look up HOW your ideal audience searches and finds services. Depending on the type of person or age, they may only use social engines, or search engines.
    Next, if you want potential clients to be able to find you in their time of need, you need to be findable. This is something many financial advisors miss. Think through, for what you want you want to be found for. If it’s financial planning, or special needs planning (etc.) ensure those words appear on your digital assets. How do you think they’ll find you? Ensure you have those digital or physical assets created, correct, and current. The most common are:

      • Website
      • Social
      • Community Spaces (Digital or Physical)

    Merely existing does not mean you can be found (think of it as treasure with no treasure map). By taking a quick moment to evaluate these items, you will set yourself up for success or make improvements to your current performance.

  3. Hone Client Experience

    Take time to examine your client process. You can do it with a fine-tooth comb, or a quick overview. Either way, do you have a process for how someone transfers from a lead to a client? Document it and look for improvements. Then, determine how you stay in touch with them throughout the year. Is it a repeatable, and knowable process? Usually, the touches you make throughout the year are going to be through marketing or communications. Are they branded? Do they align with your practice values? Elevating the client experience and anticipating clients’ needs through their service journey can create opportunities to leverage surprises and delight techniques can increase client retention but also increase referrals leading to growth.

  4. Reinforce Growth

    Asking for client referrals can feel awkward, but if you plan it out in advance it can feel more natural. “If you know someone who may have questions about how to navigate today’s environment or just need a second opinion, I’m happy to help”.

Professional referral relationships can be helpful as well. Professional referrals should work both ways. If they refer someone to you, you refer people who might be a fit for them. Ensure you trust the other professionals and that you have a similar client base to ensure the referrals are going to be a better fit. It’s also helpful to talk to them about who they serve. Ideas for professional referrals are:

    • CPAs
    • Attorneys
    • Insurance Agents

 

These four areas are great places to start if you need to evaluate your marketing or if you’re just beginning to run your own financial planning practice. Interested in learning more about other Advisor Solutions from Focus Financial Network? Reach out to us, we’d love to connect with you.

 

 

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