To Stand Out in the Crowded Financial Advisor Space, Be Original!

Given the upcoming $30 trillion wealth transfer predicted by Accenture, more advisors are turning their sights toward building a younger clientele.  Whether it’s building relationships with existing client’s children or adding new clients, advisors are wise to position for this now.

What can you do to attract younger clients?  It’s not hard to figure out where to reach them—look around and what do you see?  Everyone glued to their phones! Studies show that Millennials check their phones an average 43 Times per day and most are looking at social media.  So it’s no surprise that you need to have a strong social media presence to attract this generation.   That means you’re going to need meaningful content on your website to share on these channels.

This is especially crucial for financial advisors, as studies show that most Millennials don’t trust this industry.

Fortunately social media and content marketing really can help:  according to research by  GroSocial, 82% of millennial consumers tend to trust a brand more when the executives are on social media.

It shows the non-corporate side of things and builds a greater personal connection.   Also, younger investors like to make their own decisions and are wary of businesses telling them what to do.  Instead they prefer to do their own research.  By publishing interesting blog articles,  you are providing helpful, educational content which helps build trust and gets people comfortable with your firm.

So now you know what you need to do; how can you get it right?  And more importantly, how can you differentiate your firm and get the attention you want?

There are many subscription services where you can just login and pick from a list of content that’s pre-made and FINRA-approved. Sounds great, right? Well, yes–you get quantity and convenience, but there’s also a significant price to pay for that.

First off, you’re using it along with hundreds of other advisors.  Since the content is not actually yours, it really isn’t reinforcing your message or your brand.  Instead you may be helping build someone else’s.

Second, search engines don’t like duplicate content.

In fact, Google penalizes you if it sees non-original content on your website and lowers your search ranking.

You won’t be getting the good search engine rankings and visibility that’s vital in generating new leads.

Third, you want to be sure that whatever “voice” comes across in these communications appeals to these new demographics. Communication that works with younger investors is quite different from what most of us are used to. Per April Rudin, founder of The Rudin Group LLC, a financial marketing firm, “Most financial advisors come across like someone’s grandfather, and that’s because they usually are.” Today’s younger investors want to be engaged in an informal, conversational, encouraging way.   For optimal results, you want to put some original content out there and write in a tone that speaks directly to Millennials.

So we’ve established that original content will differentiate your brand and help your rankings and visibility, but who has time to write frequent blog articles? Well, I suggest that you or someone at your firm who enjoys writing make the time, or outsource to a firm that can provide custom, original content with your input.  If you go that route, make sure the firm you choose understands and writes in a tone and style that is attractive to Millennials.  If it doesn’t, you may have original content, but it may not help further your goals.

But get it right, and you’ll be on the road to building client relationships that may be with your firm for many decades ahead.

Jeanne Klimowski is founder of Wavelength Financial Content Inc., a firm that provides marketing content to financial professionals.  Contact us for more information about how our content can help your firm stand out online and achieve your goals.