How financial advice firms can create a sustainable competitive advantage
Do you want a sustainable competitive advantage over all the other financial services firms that serve clients who are ideal for your business? One of the most effective ways to create that advantage is to become a thought leader in your field of expertise.
High-quality thought leadership is more critical than ever in a sector saturated with information and data to help your firm stand out. Original thought leadership dramatically increases the effectiveness of your messaging and puts you in the driving seat to promote your knowledge and skill sets to prospective clients.
Influence others and gain the respect
Establishing yourself as a thought leader will set you up for the significant success that most financial advisers aspire to—yet few achieve. Thought leadership adds a human element to your brand. Thought leadership puts a face to your best research, ideas, knowledge and financial services industry expertise.
Authoritative thought leadership content generates demand and builds new prospective client connections. Clients will interact with you when you are an expert in your area. A prospective client won’t question an expert or someone who knows their subject better than others.
Being an expert means influencing others and gaining both existing and prospective clients’ respect.
Focus on the client’s experience
A strong focus on the client experience is essential in positioning yourself as a thought leader. Making sure that clients remain engaged with a brand is key to establishing loyal relationships over time.
Any financial advisor can achieve client loyalty through consistent interactions that keep clients invested in their business’s offerings. Focus on personalised messages, effective marketing strategies, or new innovative solutions.
Businesses can build trust and retain clients by developing mutually beneficial relationships.
Continually develop new products
As a financial advisor, it is critically important to continually develop innovative solutions and products to stay ahead of changing trends and maintain a competitive advantage.
The latest innovative offerings can help increase client satisfaction and loyalty, enabling advisors to build strong relationships with their clients.
In addition, continually developing new services & products can also help financial advisors gain traction in an increasingly competitive market. Advisors can differentiate themselves from competitors by introducing something they may want but have never been offered.
Investing time and resources to create new products will ultimately improve any financial advisor’s success.
Understand the market and its segments
As a financial advisor, it is essential to have a good understanding of the market and its segments.
The financial marketplace consists of a wide range of financial products and services that can benefit clients. It is essential to keep up with changes in the market and how different segments impact each product.
Taking an in-depth look at financial products, assessing client’s needs, and researching the specific financial segment will enable financial advisors to provide more comprehensive advice tailored to each individual’s goals.
Doing so can help build trust between financial advisors and their clients. This will enhance client satisfaction, maintain a competitive advantage and establish yourself as a thought leader.
Firms goals and marketing strategy
Thought leadership requires two main strategies: a content marketing strategy and a research strategy. A research strategy is vital for long-term leadership planning and content development. Original research keeps financial institutions on top of changes and trends as they’re happening.
It forces us to dig deeper into our target markets and their needs. In turn, this research can help you gain leverage over the competition.
Content marketing strategy
A content marketing strategy is the foundation for developing a successful content creation plan that fulfils your company’s marketing goals.
It involves identifying buyer personas and tailoring content to them through various channels, such as social media or email marketing, to reach a target audience.
With an effective content marketing strategy, companies can boost visibility. Companies should incorporate a paid performance campaign and provide clients with content tailored to their needs and interests.
Taking the time to develop a content marketing strategy will help establish long-term success for any business.
Research strategy
Developing a detailed and comprehensive research strategy is essential for those hoping to lead their respective financial firm or team into the future.
It ensures that important information is continually being collected and serves as a guide for what topics should be discussed during strategic planning sessions.
Research strategy affects leadership planning and content development by gathering meaningful and actionable insights from well-researched content targeted at relevant audiences.
Long-term success starts with ensuring all decision-makers are adequately informed. This success continues with creating engaging and valuable experiences designed to cultivate client and community relationships. Therefore, a robust research strategy is invaluable when attempting to achieve long-term leadership goals.
It would be best if you revisited your firm’s goals and marketing strategy to confirm what outcomes your thought leadership is designed to achieve. With these goals in mind, you can conduct an audit to benchmark your firm’s perception and brand presence against the industry and key competitors.
Media Relations
Making thought leadership a priority in media relations is an essential business strategy.
Media relations involve cultivating, managing, and improving all communication between an advisor and clients.
In thought leadership, financial advisors can express their positions on timely subjects, showcase their thought processes or perspective to let their views stand out organically and drive engagement.
This type of thought leadership should be strategic and thought out to maximise impact. It should create positive relationships with businesses, clients and media outlets.
Establish brand authority among your Media Channels
This approach in media relations positions your organisation as an expert in your field and drives interest in current topics while creating trustworthiness among your audience.
Brands must refine their thought leadership when developing and managing content across owned media channels. This is especially true today as clients rely heavily upon digital information research before making buying decisions.
Cultivating a well-defined thought leadership strategy allows financial advisors to establish authority which can result in an improved ability to convert leads into clients.
By thoughtfully addressing relevant topics within your industry authoritatively, you can build trust and garner respect among customers and other industry professionals.
It’s vital to ensure that messaging reflects your company’s values and mission so that clients perceive it as reliable and authentic.
Over time, thought leadership established on owned media channels can help financial advisors establish themselves as industry experts and thought leaders in their respective fields.
Thought leadership principles for best practice
Just as in journalism, exclusive stories attract readers, so in thought leadership, topical, provocative insights into market areas where there is little information do the same. Relevant thought-provoking content might shed new light on significant trends or showcase new thinking on an investment strategy.
How thought leadership can be utilised effectively
In our view, these are key to creating and promoting effective thought leadership:
- Write topical and relevant content that creates news or presents original views
- Address a newsworthy issue, often where there is a degree of uncertainty
- Communicate a straightforward story and narrative
- Devote sufficient resources to the content and research
- Make your content authoritative with facts, quotes and anecdotes
- Emphasise your key messages with creative headings, straightforward stand firsts and (if needed) executive summaries
- Don’t sell; this is information, not promotion
- Broadcast your thought leadership reports across socials with tweets and LinkedIn posts
Does your firm have the ‘right model’ for future growth?
Enhancing your firm’s performance first requires a fundamental understanding of its operations. At Goldmine Media, our dedicated team will work with you to implement new opportunities for business growth. To find out more about how we can support your firm, please get in touch with us for more information — call: 0845 686 0055 or email: findoutmore@goldminemedia.co.uk.
