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This is part two of a ten-part series on marketing an RIA. Read A Marketing Guide for RIAs for a full overview. To view the installments in this series, select “RIA Marketing Guide” in the left margin.
In my previous article, I discussed the importance of an RIA choosing a niche market (See A Marketing Guide for RIAs in Transition: Pick a Niche). When resources are limited, choosing a niche market provides direction and focuses your time and money on those activities most productive to building your business.
Choosing a niche also makes it easier to craft a message differentiating yourself from the competition. Crafting a message will explain what you do to prospects and within your marketing collateral.
Too often, advisors will create marketing communication that is firm-focused and ignores the needs of the prospective client. Your message needs to be client-centric. While creating the perfect messaging can seem like a daunting process, it can be simplified by breaking it down to six steps:
- Identify your niche market
- Define the current situation facing your target market
- Identify your target market’s unique issues and needs
- Explain your firm’s solution to the problems
- Describe your process in engaging with clients
- Highlight the benefits of your services to clients
By following those six steps and using the exercises below, you will have the themes and wording you need to create your marketing material, website and unique value proposition (a.k.a., the “elevator pitch”).
Niche market
In the previous article, you identified a niche market. If you haven’t done this yet, visit A Marketing Guide for RIAs in Transition: Pick a Niche and complete the exercise. When you have defined your niche market, include the description in the box below:
| Niche Market |
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Current situation
Use the box below to identify the current situation for your niche market. Be specific when describing the situation. An answer like “currently retired or nearing retirement” is too broad, and it’s not a sufficient answer. There may be several scenarios for your niche market, so write down all the possibilities. This will help you craft your message later.
Example: Individuals starting a new business
- Starting a business and relying on the spouse’s income to survive the first few years
- Getting remarried and blending two families with young children into one
- Youngest child is graduating from college next year, and the couple would now like to retire in five years
| Current Situation |
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Unique issues/needs
Use the box below to identify your niche market’s unique issues and needs. Consider not only what they need today, but what they will need in the future. Do not list your services like investment management, tax planning or estate planning. Instead, list the problems your prospective clients face that your services can solve.
Example: Individuals starting a new business
- Access to affordable health care insurance
- Income protection in case of disability
- Rollover 401(k) and setup a new retirement savings plan
- Analysis of cash flow
- Evaluation of best sources to fund the new business (e.g. savings, liquidate investments, loans, HELOC/line-of-credit, credit cards, borrow from 401(k))
- Setting up a 401(k) plan for employees in the future
| Unique Issues/ Needs |
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