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In recent years, the commoditization of investment advice has forced an increasing number of financial advisors into offering more comprehensive financial planning as a way to add more value to the client relationship. As a result, the financial planning space is becoming much more crowded, making it difficult for financial advisors to stand out.
That is why many practice management consultants recommend that financial advisors establish a niche to more quickly build their businesses, focusing on a more targeted market they can dominate rather than a broader market they can vanish in. The key to differentiation in a crowded field is to become more focused and specialized to become recognized as the best-of-breed for a specific type of clientele that can be served profitably and effectively.
Successfully crafting a niche is not without its challenges, and most advisors avoid attempting it for fear of narrowing their field of prospects. However, any advisor who has found success in a niche will tell you that, while you may narrow your field of prospects, you increase the likelihood that a higher percentage of prospects in the niche will choose to do business with you.
Finding the right niche
The first challenge for financial advisors is identifying a niche they can confidently pursue – one in which they can effectively differentiate themselves as an advisor with the special skills, understanding, or affinity needed to serve that particular niche. You can look for groups of people who can relate to you when you’re being yourself. You can build a niche around your passion or whatever you like to do. That allows you to put your personality into it and attract people who share the same interest.
Using digital assets to build a niche
The second challenge is building a credible presence in a niche that establishes you as an authority with recognized value to offer. At a minimum, that requires that you have a digital marketing apparatus in place that includes a quality website and an email marketing component. Establishing legitimacy in any market is nearly impossible without a quality website, and email marketing is still a cost-effective way to cultivate prospects and clients.
Building authority and visibility in your niche
The most effective way to build authority and visibility in a niche is with a blog. Posting relevant and timely content on a blog creates opportunities to engage with your niche market and build thought leadership. With blogging, you can tailor your content to attract the type of clients you want. It’s also a way to communicate with your clients and continue to provide value.
Digital marketing experts agree that a blog with high-quality content is the key to establishing yourself as an authority in your market. If writing is not your thing, hiring a writer who can provide weekly or monthly blog posts is well worth it.
Making the most of media
Advisors can build credibility and stature in their niche through interactions with the media. You don’t have to appear on national cable programs to make the media work for you. In fact, making appearances or being quoted in local media is more likely to catch the attention of your local target market.
Any advisor can reach out and build relationships with local media, including local news and radio shows to the extent they could be invited for an appearance or asked for a quote. Getting quoted in local papers and magazines is nearly as good as an appearance because you can point to them from your blog or website. Anything you can do to increase your credibility and stature will enhance all your marketing efforts.
Putting it all together
Prioritizing any one of these marketing components—a quality website, email marketing, an active blog, and media interaction—can help launch you into a niche. However, putting them to work in concert can create a multiplier effect for getting calls, click-throughs, or emails from qualified prospects in your niche. For example, your media interactions can point to your blog where people can get more information. Your email marketing can point people to your media interactions, and both of those components point people to your website, where they can respond to a call to action.
Creating such a marketing apparatus can take time and resources, but your return on investment can be astonishing. The best approach may be to build it incrementally, starting with a quality website and adding components from there. Or you can get there faster by enlisting the help of a digital marketing expert—another significant investment but well worth it.
Once firmly entrenched in a niche as an expert and authority, you can put this marketing apparatus on autopilot to create an endless stream of prospects, with an increasing number coming from referrals.
Related: Developing a Business Process for Your Advisory Business