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Written by: Sophie Brown
Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry Maguire pleaded with his client “ Help me, help you ” (it’s the last part of the “up-at-dawn, ego-crushing siege” lines. Love it!). It’s this same philosophy that will enable you to take all the hard work you’ve put into your consumer-focused campaign and effectively repurpose it across the adviser channel.
So you’ve spent weeks developing a killer communications campaign that engages consumers. You’ve analysed your target audience, conducted some really interesting research and churned out more media release drafts than you care to remember.
The question is: how can you leverage this material to speak to your other key target audience - advisers?
Creating content that addresses advisers' needs means keeping them engaged and interested (remember not to bore your audience), but most of all it means giving them information and tools that help them be more effective in their jobs.
1. Understand your audience
Advisers’ primary purpose is to provide clients with sound financial advice that enables them to make smart financial decisions and reach their lifestyle goals. In order to do this, financial advisers need to stay informed across a broad spectrum of topics, from changes to superannuation legislation following the Federal Budget, technology as a disruptor to their client relationships or a facilitator of mundane tasks, practice management and everything in between.
In terms of client-facing issues, Research from Hartford Funds in the US listed the top seven issues that keep advisers awake at night, from market volatility to client anxiety around increasing risk. Therefore, they are seeking content that will help them to help their clients (just like Jerry Maguire!). By showing you understand advisers, you’re on your way to being a brand of choice.
2. Utilise the research
Consumer-focused communication often involves undertaking large amounts of research and data-collection on consumers including their behaviours, attitudes, hopes, dreams, needs and desires. This information needn’t only be used for your consumer strategy. If there’s one thing advisers value, it’s information on their clients. Using the research you amassed, narrow down to specific statistics in order to avoid creating generic ‘fluff’ and allow you to help advisers better understand their clients.
Let’s use the Financial Planning Associations’ annual Financial Planning Week as an example. The FPA’s research showed that whilst one in two Australians (51%) are thinking more about their future than they did five years ago, more than two in five Australians (63%) have not mapped out a financial plan to turn these dreams into reality. These stats tell advisers there is latent potential to help consumers with their financial roadmaps. And by recognising this gap, advisers can orientate themselves to attract and help people thereby being better able to deliver value to clients, the community and their own businesses.
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3. Repackage and repurpose
Once you’ve scoured through the research and extracted the appropriate data, it’s time to package it up and ensure it is seen by the right eyeballs.
If your aim is simply to reach and inform advisers, trade media is a great outlet through which to do so. Trades are a trusted source for financial services content and are easily accessible online. In a win-win exchange, trade journalists react well to interesting research when it comes to finance, so this is a great channel to utilise.
If you’re trying to reach advisers and provide them with information they can relay to their clients, straight forward financial tips can be translated into listicles and infographics. These are also sharable forms of content that can be utilised across different platforms and shared with colleagues and clients across channels. More complex issues can be presented in longer-form pieces of content, such as whitepapers. Thinking through how your audience might consume and share your content will guide you in deciding the best format.
There are so many opportunities to leverage your consumer-focused communication material with advisers. All it takes is a bit of research and putting yourself in your audience’s shoes.