When branding your firm, it's smart to start with the emotional appeal and then go to the services and products you provide. That's the advice of Mike Fox, founder of the Mullingar Group, a business and branding consultant based in the Greensboro, Winston Salem, High Point, N.C. area.
The real driver for standing out from the competition means telling prospective clients that you can provide security or freedom, not that you provide educational or retirement planning, Fox said during the second day of Schwab Impact 2021.
“We all think we make decisions rationally,” Fox said. “But it is emotion that really directs those decisions.” A firms’ branding has to reflect that reality.
Therefore, advisors who can focus their websites, marketing and advertising on how they provide stability or freedom will stand out from those who show the “what” of their services, Fox said. Advisors who focus their branding on the “what” of their services “are going to an emotional fight with a rational tool,” he added. Advisors should tell prospects why they are in business and then move on to what they provide at the bottom of the advertisements or websites.
Advisors should organize their pitches around why they are in business, how they can help and what they provide, in that order, Fox added. For instance, when advertising retirement services, highlight the results of the planning such as the freedom to travel or to buy a vacation home and then go to the particular services or products.
Fox also told financial advisors to audit their presentations to see if they are standing out from the competition and presenting a different type of face to the public.
“Decide what your typical client desires and then use that as your starting point for your message,” Fox said. “Go from presenting you purpose, to telling about your process to explaining the products.”
Advisors also need to stress their special skills, whether that is comprehensive planning or a niche market, he said.