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Finance is perceived as the driest and most boring industry on the face of the earth. So it’s no surprise that financial advisors whine about their failure to get anyone’s attention on social media. Yet this creates an amazing opportunity for the wise ones. Advisors who present themselves differently, even slightly, will succeed at getting noticed by their clients and prospects.
Here are the five things advisors should avoid to get investors to pay attention to them online.
- Boring titles
This is the #1 reason why social media fails in any industry.
Just like the subject line of emails dictates which ones you open and which ones you delete, the title of a blog or social media posting is what gets the click.
Here’s an example.
“How to choose a financial advisor” is tired and overused. Before you publish an article, do a Google search and see how many times people have written on the exact same thing. This title is also self-serving. I know that this article is just to point to all the reasons you should hire the author as your advisor.
A better option: “The Six Types of Financial Advisors and how to know which is right for you.” Now this gives more information and there aren’t as many articles on this because the author actually has to do research and leverage creativity.
Or, even better: “Five Mistakes that Affluent People Make When Hiring an Advisor.” Affluent people will read this if they are interested in learning about what their peers are doing. But again, it’s not that easy to write. You actually have to survey affluent people and find some evidence to back up what you are saying.
Another possibility: “How To Make Sure Your Advisor Isn’t the Next Bernie Madoff”
- Irrelevant content
Many advisors feel that in order to show value they need to predict the market, pitch products, boost about past trades or discuss their firm.
In reality, this type of content should be avoided at all costs, especially if you are marketing to generations who are wary of product-pushing advisors who “don’t get them” such as the Millennials.
Plus, think about how it makes your poor compliance officer feel when you and the 100 other advisors in your office submit articles about how 2017 is the year to buy Facebook stock. You’ll never get that article through compliance because the CCO is too scared of losing his/her job if you’re wrong.
As I’ve said before in my other articles, you’ve got to serve the reader with the content you produce. Give them the gift of knowledge that truly empowers them and resolves an issue that they deal with regularly.
Another way of saying it is, “treat their symptoms, not their problems.” Here’s what I mean.
Going back to my previous example, most people don’t get grays hairs over the worry of how to select a financial advisor. But they do worry about the symptoms of not having the right one, namely:
- Not having phone calls responded to when you have an important question
- Not being a big enough client relative to the other clients in the practice to command enough attention
- Losing a great deal of money in a market crash
- Having money stolen
- Getting suckered into paying hidden fees
- Having your information stolen from the advisor’s office or file server because they didn’t have adequate protection in place
By Sara Grillo, read the full article here.
