Why Financial Advisors Need to Tell More Stories
There's a question we ask many of our clients: What stories do your best clients tell about you when given the opportunity?
As an advisor, it's easy to market from our perspective, but your ideal client may have a different viewpoint with their own goals and challenges.
When it comes to marketing, we want to know what your best client says about you. We want to know what stories from your relationship stand out to them. What is the area you’ve created the most impact and value for them?
You might be surprised that what stands out for them may not be the things you would list first.
Stories Hold Your Best Value Propositions
If you can get a pulse on these stories, you can work them into your marketing and shift the perspective to your ideal client's point of view.
Your marketing is not successful when it sounds like a textbook. People remember plots, outcomes, and stories.
So, have conversations with your best clients and ask them about the biggest value your relationship has brought to them.
In these stories, you’ll find the most resonant messaging that appeals to your best clients. That is the heart of your marketing strategy.
People see what you can do for others, and they can see themselves in your clients’ stories.
So if you’re wondering where to find your best content, talk to your best clients.
How to Share Your Stories
To get practical, here are a few of the key ways we work with our clients to help share their most impactful stories.
Be a Consistent Documenter
We tell this to all of our clients: Any time you have a particularly meaningful client interaction, write down a few thoughts about what stood out to you. If it’s easier, record a voice memo.
If you send these to your marketing person or team, this is the best foundation for great content.
Know What You Can Share
Beyond the obvious (don’t share things you can’t promise), focus on the tactical side of financial planning. What are specific situations and decisions that you could help someone make that create value? Value can mean:
Tax savings
Reduced complexity
Marital alignment
Increasing charitable giving
You have the interactions consistently – keep your radar up for ones you can share.
Focus on Video + Written Content
Video is always our favorite, but we find videos and written content are the easiest way to quickly package impactful stories. We like to follow a loose outline:
Give a good hook that creates interest
Don’t spend too much time on context – our world is too much in soundbites
Focus on your client’s experience, not your expertise
You won’t be perfect out of the gate, but try capturing your thoughts in this format with video or written content.
Leveraging Client Testimonials
While we're on the topic of client stories, it's notable that client testimonials are now fair game for advisors. There's a platform called Wealthtender that we’re thrilled to introduce as one of our strategic partners. Wealthtender has created a purpose-built platform for advisors to safely collect, display, and leverage client stories.
Every advisor we work with has clients who love them, but capturing this in a compliance-safe way for marketing has been difficult.
Wealthtender's platform makes it easy and compliant, and now your clients' best stories are usable in your marketing.
It's time for advisors to start telling the stories of the life-changing work they do with amazing people. That's the heart of your value proposition and marketing strategy.
