By Laura Stover

Leveraging Marketing for Practice Success

In a world where attention spans are shorter than ever, the battle for prospects’ hearts, minds, and eyeballs begins and ends with branding, marketing, and differentiation as well as presenting value for free these days. Creating a following – on or off social media – requires sustained time, attention, and money.

Consider influencers such as the great Rush Limbaugh. Whether you agree or disagree with his politics, there is no doubt that he succeeded in developing a unique brand that commanded audience loyalty over his entire career.

Building a successful financial advisory practice is all about knowing your industry, understanding your client’s needs and delivering service that exceeds expectations. To succeed in today’s financial advisory marketplace, you must define a specific brand and support that brand through marketing across the platforms where your clients and prospects operate.

The path to a sustainable brand runs through specialization, which makes it easier to develop expertise and market that expertise to your clients and prospects. In fact, financial consultants with a niche, versus financial consultants who are generalists, possess clients with 25 percent more investable assets and higher net worth, according to Kitces Research.

Developing a distinctive brand also depends on specialized educational credentials, a named and trademarked financial planning process, a defined marketing process, and an outstanding client experience. When you master these steps, you create a well-oiled advisory machine that retains clients and attracts new clients.

Develop a Niche If you’re currently more of a generalist than a specialist, it’s worthwhile to consider what target audiences you serve and which one of those niches presents the biggest opportunity for growth. Picking a niche and becoming laser focused on that niche means that you will become closely associated with that niche and the services that you provide within it.

Once you determine your niche, ensure that all of your marketing and messaging is consistent and clear, relating back to your specialization and your target audience. Having a niche helps you stand out and also helps you get your messaging right.

That’s because it’s actually much more work to be a generalist than a specialist, even though that seems counter-intuitive. When you are a generalist, it is too easy to try to be everything to everyone, which inevitably creates messaging that is too broad.

Branding – both on the practice and personal level — is about becoming an authority on yourself and your practice. This means having a clear understanding of who and what you are, what you stand for, who you’re talking to, and the unique value you bring to the marketplace. Your brand is your identity.

Pursue Education Today, more than ever, financial consultants are highly educated. Many have certifications or advanced degrees such as an MBA. Certifications such as the CFP®, RICP, RFC® , MRFC®, ChFU®, and CLU® are highly respected and create more credibility with your audience.

Many university certificate or executive education programs, especially from Ivy League universities such as The Wharton School, Columbia, or Harvard, can help you improve your management, entrepreneurial, financial, or practice skills. I found my entrepreneurial class with The Wharton School highly valuable.

Be aware that these programs require an investment of time, energy, and tuition. From my Wharton experience, I learned how to present myself in a more convincing and compelling way on video, gained an understanding of the importance of key performance metrics, and developed an understanding of copyright, trademarks, and intellectual property.

Consider what areas of expanded knowledge would help your business and search for programs that not only meet those needs but align with available time, energy and budget.

Establish a Named Process If you’re like most consultants, you have a financial planning process that is unique to your firm. Take this process, name it, and then trademark that name.

A specific, defined named process is what differentiates the individual consultant – especially individual RIAs – from the big box brokerage firms. Once you formalize your process, you can create flow charts on your website and in your marketing materials which will further enhance your credibility.

Back to the Rush Limbaugh example – there was no one better than Rush at studying, knowing, and polishing his message to the point where he could speak on the radio about it for three hours, unscripted, every day.

Ensure that you have a defined, polished, researched message based on research that you can clearly communicate to your clients and prospects. This message should be reflected in your elevator speech, website, and marketing materials.

Define your Marketing Process I was once at a conference where the speaker said: “You are a marketing company first, and a consultant second.” As your practice grows, your marketing must grow with it.

While there are different levels of expansion within marketing your practice, your ultimate goal should be to grow to dominate. Dominating your market means being everywhere by utilizing tactics such as search engine optimization, Google ads, backlinks, and a wide variety of content.

To ensure that your marketing is as focused and as intentional as possible, define your marketing goals and process. That means measuring the results of all your marketing efforts and creating campaigns to achieve specific objectives.

A strong online presence is essential to build authority and credibility, including audio, video, and written content. In connection with my radio show and podcast, Retirement Talk, I send out a weekly newsletter that is available free to my audience. To become a thought leader, you need to push out a stream of consistent content. Draft the concepts, then outsource the writing and proofing to an experienced writer.

Your website is one of your most critical branding and marketing tools. Hire a good designer and customize it as much as possible around your named financial planning processes. Too many consultant websites are generic and lack definition. Consider creating webinars to attract new clients and host them on your website as a free resource for prospects and clients. Produce videos with your iPad or iPhone that can be posted to your social media accounts.

A strong presence in the communities in which you operate also helps with your marketing efforts. Local marketing can include sponsorships, charitable endeavors and giving back. Find an activity that resonates with you and you will find it personally rewarding as well as financially rewarding for your practice.

Other activities like sending handwritten notes, hosting client appreciation events, sharing behind-the-scenes events at your firm through live channels on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter,

Instagram, and other channels and retargeting names on Facebook help you stay ahead of the curve. Eventually the right message will hit at the right time.

Leverage your firm’s CRM to ensure that no prospects slip below your radar. Use quality email drip campaigns to nurture prospects and move them down the funnel.

View marketing as an investment rather than an expense. Avoid generic branding campaigns and inconsistent marketing efforts. Analyze and diversify your marketing funnels based on actual data.

Your marketing strategy will directly determine how many people you see, how many appointments you set and how many clients you get.

Build an Outstanding Client Experience If you want to become one of the top financial consultants in the United States, you must constantly over deliver. Give every one of your clients an incredible experience. Offer them value at every turn, and before you know it, they’ll become raving fans. Those raving fans will then bring more clients who are just like them, to you. Invest in the culture of your firm to create a consistent, exceptional client experience. Every one of your staff members should be fully trained in understanding your methodology and how to deliver optimum value whatever their function.

Build out your firm so that you can handle as many of your clients’ needs as possible in house. For example, my firm has a tax subsidiary that provides tax advice to my clients, which is a big differentiator. Most consultants have to refer their tax business to outside experts.

The Bottom Line Your success as a consultant directly correlates to how many people you meet. Building your business doesn’t happen overnight, but if you invest consistently and thoughtfully, your time will come. Execute in areas where others aren’t willing to go, such as marketing, that will ultimately attract the types of clients that you want to help, allowing you to dominate your market.

“If you want to become one of the top financial consultants in the US, you must constantly over deliver. Give every one of your clients an incredible experience. Offer them value at every turn, and before you know it, they’ll become raving fans.”

Laura Stover, RFC®

Laura Stover is CEO of LS Wealth Management LLC and owner of LS Tax LLC Bryan and Defiance OH.

She is host of The Retirement Talk podcast redefining wealth show. She has been a contributor to Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and many news outlets. Investment advisory services offered through Optivise advisory services, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. LS Wealth Management LLC is a registered trademark and separate entity.

www.lswealthmanagement.com

1“Kitces Research on Advantages of Niching in Time Use, Planning Approach, Pricing and Productivity,” Kitces.com, Aug. 24, 2020, https://www.kitces.com/blog/kitces-research-financial-advisor-nicheproductivity-revenue-time-use-efficiency-pricing-models/