The Online Marketing Institute has shown it takes between 7-13 touches with a client before you make a sales-ready lead. One of the best ways to create enough touchpoints is to publish content online. This content can come in different forms, including articles, social media posts, podcasts, videos, emails, and other content.

For businesses, the content published has to be relevant and relatable to the target audience, while simultaneously promoting the brand. It’s also an opportunity to feature the benefits of a product or service, and carve out a niche amongst competitors.

One of the best ways to accomplish these digital marketing goals is for a business or professional to demonstrate their expertise in their particular industry or domain. Sharing your expertise with others can be a key component to your firm’s growth. As outlined below, this can market your business in a way that connects you with more people, fortifies your brand, and ultimately expands your business.

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How Demonstrating Your Expertise Helps Grow Your Business

Highlighting knowledge in your industry accomplishes myriad marketing goals. It helps:

• Connect you with your target audience: People seeking out answers and knowledge on topics you cover will be able to find you through a Google search or via a social media platform like LinkedIn. This can expand your network organically, meaning without spending money on expensive ads.

• Set you apart from competitors: If you’re publishing relevant content when your competitors are not, you become more visible and a known authority in the industry. As Michael Kitces states in “Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Oct 2—3),” “While digital presence is the pipeline through which a firm can reach its potential clients at any time, relevance is what actually draws the eyes of those clients and separates a firm from its competitors.”
• Improve your SEO ranking: Google prioritizes sites that demonstrate “expertise,” “authoritativeness,” and “trust,” which is known as E-A-T. Demonstrating your expertise in your digital marketing helps meet these criteria. It’s also more likely to bring visitors to your site (further improving your ranking) when the content provides relevant answers to financial questions your target audience may have. 
• Build trust with prospects: As mentioned above, consistently publishing content on financial and other relevant topics helps to build trust. Not only will this help with your firm’s SEO ranking, but it also helps close more deals. When trust is already established, this potential psychological barrier is eliminated in the dealmaking process. Maria Kalyadina confirms this in her article “Ways to Build Your Expertise, Authority, and Trust to Boost Your SEO,” stating, “Creating high-quality content on a variety of topics related to your industry is key to building authority and trust among your customers.”

• Shape your brand: Demonstrating your expertise can help shape your brand by informing the public who you are, what you do, and why you’re better than competitors. When you can provide the best answers to their financial questions, you become the hero of their situation.

• Increase your visibility: Publishing relevant content through social media, on your website, and through email, campaigns help increase your visibility. Not only can you expand your network through avenues such as social media platforms, but you can also increase your referral rate by staying top-of-mind with current clients.

• Close more deals: Increasing your visibility will have a domino effect on closing more deals. By consistently publishing content that demonstrates your expertise, you make it easier for prospects looking for your type of services to find you. When potential clients come to you—rather than you approaching them—it becomes much easier to close.

• Demonstrate the benefits of your services: Every piece of content you publish is an opportunity to showcase your services. While the main point of an article, post, newsletter, or other pieces of marketing material is to provide value for the reader (otherwise, why would they read it), you can still include one or more benefits of your services in the content. The point of most content from businesses is, in fact, to make it mutually beneficial to both the business itself and the end-user—e.g. you provide topical answers while simultaneously demonstrating your company’s value.

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How to Market Your Expertise as a Financial Advisor

One of the best ways to become the go-to expert in your field is to take an omnipresence approach to your marketing. This includes being present and active on social media platforms, consistently posting articles on your website, and sending out emails regularly to those who opt-in. It can also include other methods, such as direct marketing, podcasts, and videos. To highlight your expertise as an advisor, you’ll want to focus on financial topics.

Producing enough content can pose its own challenge. If you’re stuck for ideas on what to share, try some of these options:

Industry news: What’s happening in your industry that might be interesting to your target audience? Sharing industry news shows that your organization is tuned in to what’s changing in the financial landscape, which helps establish trust.

Financial tips: Sharing tips on investing, personal finance, and other financial topics is a great way to engage with others and provide value. When you share tips that can help others navigate the world of finance, you become a trusted source.

Interesting facts and observations: As an advisor, you probably come across your fair share of interesting financial facts. Instead of just reading about them and moving on, why not share them on social media, or in a blog post, video, or podcast episode? You can include your observations about them, which can help make you a thought leader on the subject, as well as give the outside world a reason to listen to what you have to say.

Company updates: People are naturally curious, and this includes wanting to know what’s going on inside your firm’s four walls. Have you or your company received an award or accolade? Have you reached a career milestone or goal? Sharing corporate achievements bolsters your image as being an expert in your field. You can also share other updates, such as newly added features and benefits, which can generate additional revenue.

Personal events: Sharing some personal news can help people get to know you, which builds trust. You can even use personal events to showcase your expertise, such as how moving to another state lowered your taxes or how you’re creating a college fund for your newborn.

Unique selling points: What makes you and your firm different from competitors? Be sure to share this online, especially in social media posts. People are constantly on the lookout for solutions. Any benefit you offer beyond the typical advisor can help you stand out and fortify your brand.

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Find Your Brand’s Voice

It also helps to find your “voice,” which is how you communicate with the public. Is your tone going to be casual or more formal? Will you integrate humor or a humanitarian viewpoint?

If you’re not sure, think about who your ideal clients would be. You can even create ideal personas, often referred to in marketing as a “customer avatar.”  To create your customer avatars, write down the characteristics of your ideal clients, such as their age, occupations, habits, hobbies, and overall lifestyle. You will also want to identify their typical goals, values, challenges, and pain points. After you have a few avatars in place, you can begin to shape the style and tone of your digital marketing strategy.

Once you’ve established the tone and voice of your brand, it’s important to be consistent across different marketing channels. Although you can—and probably should—make small adjustments based on the platform (e.g. slightly more formal on sites like LinkedIn; more conversational on sites like Facebook), being too inconsistent can cause confusion and muddy your brand.

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Growing Your Customer Base with Limited Resources

Digital marketing involves a lot of time and dedication. But in order to grow, it’s a necessity. As Goran Paun states in the Forbes article “Building a Brand: Why a Strong Digital Presence Matters,” “Your presence online displays a sense of professionalism that allows you to prove your expertise and stand out against your competitors.”

To build a strong online presence, it’s not enough to post occasionally or solely through one channel. Digital marketing must be consistent, ongoing, and across multiple channels. Large financial firms have the resources to do this, but this can be overwhelming for smaller teams.

The founders of Clout understood this paradox and created a system that helps independent advisors and smaller firms reach and engage with their target audience. Our team of dedicated financial marketing specialists will help identify your most engaged clients and prospects and create new customized content for social media and email campaigns that showcase your expertise.

We’ve made growing your customer base easier and more affordable. Starting at just $13 a day, we can give you consistent visibility and help you build your brand. Plus, you have the option to opt out after 90 days, with no further obligation.

‍We understand that staying on top of digital marketing can be a challenge. We’re here to help. Contact us today to schedule a demo.

Important Reminder: If you are a regulated advisor, it is your firm’s responsibility to ensure all material is reviewed and given final approval by your internal compliance/legal department prior to publication.

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