Question: should every piece of content you use in your marketing sound the same? It should definitely always sound like it’s coming from you, not Joe Advisor over at Financial Planning Company, and it should also speak to your target audience. But even if your target audience is specific enough to get you into the sweet spot of niche marketing, sometimes that’s still too broad for content that really resonates. So how exactly do you make your marketing, something that’s blasted out to the public, feel personal enough to entice individual leads based on their specific needs? Let’s get some terminology out of the way and dive into mixing up a tall glass of content just the way your audience likes it.
The Lingo
If you want to create content that feels ultra-personal to your audience, you’ve got to start by getting to know them. One of our favorite ways to get to do this is through psychographics (don’t worry, it sounds worse than it is). Demographics are the nuts and bolts of your target audience– where they live, how old they are, what stage of life they’re in, asset range, etc., while psychographics start to scratch the surface of who they really are. What gives them joy? What keeps them up at night?
Knowing your target audience beyond the numbers helps you create audience segments, which is just a fancy term for sub-categories. Say your niche is financial planning for small business owners. Your audience segments could include a) business owners who don’t know how to scale their business while maintaining work/life balance, b) those who want to pass the business along to a family member someday, and c) those who don’t know how to create an exit strategy that includes the sale of their business.
Once you have your audience segments, you can use them to create differentiated marketing, which is also sometimes called segmented marketing. Differentiated marketing is the opposite of mass marketing– instead of posting content along the lines of “Are you a small business owner? We can help you create a financial plan.” you’d create multiple versions of the same basic message (we help business owners) and put each message in front of the intended audience segment.
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Generic messaging tends to make you sound replaceable. Sure, you can help reach their financial goals, but so can every other advisor. And, as Michael LeCours points out, “…prospective clients may not even be thinking in terms of goals; instead, many come to an advisor with a specific pain point in their financial life where their goal is to address the pain.” (Communicating Client Value By Articulating Your Solution To Their ‘Job To Be Done,’” Kitces). Differentiated marketing based on psychographics allows you to identify, anticipate, and meet those specific pain points instead of pitching a product; it gives you the opportunity to create a connection, and connection sparks commitment.
The point isn’t to be everything to everyone– after all, you’re not the duct tape of financial planning needs– but you are trying to build connections by speaking to specific fears and needs within your target audience. While that may sound like a tall order, you can create a system to personalize your interactions with prospects and existing clients alike without having to manually tailor each message. Automatically customized content requires a little legwork up front, but the result for your audience is a financial planning experience that feels like stepping into their favorite bar. The person behind the counter knows them by name and knows exactly which off-menu cocktail they’re in the mood for. As for you, differentiated marketing allows you to present a personalized service that attracts new clients and reminds your existing client base that you’re miles ahead of the competition.
Twist or Olive?
Alright, so we’re down to the details. How exactly do you implement this unicorn marketing approach?
- Define your audience. If you’re not sure who they are, back up to your business goals. What kind of work do you want to do, and who needs what you provide? If you love helping small business owners create exit strategies, then your target audience is obviously not going to be retirees.
- Map out the psychographics. To create differentiated marketing that meets the specific needs of your target audience, you need to compile some data. Make a list of common financial challenges faced by small business owners. Remember our examples from above? Think about their pain points, fears, and goals, and use that information to create your list. You can also pull from conversations you have with your existing clients.
- Organize the information. Make a list of your individual clients, and in a separate column, list the pain point they’ve expressed most to you.
- Hone your strategy. After analyzing the data, pick the top 2-3 most common pain points- these are your audience segments! Focusing on these gets the most bang for your marketing buck– you’ll be targeting the individual needs that are shared by the majority of your target audience. You’ll also be speaking to prospects who share the same needs, which allows you to focus on your specialty service areas.
- Give everybody what they want. Create different versions of the same message (“We help business owners”) that speak to each of those two to three audience segments. For example, if we stick with the audience segments we identified earlier, your segmented marketing could include:
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- “Scaling your business? It might be time to scale your financial plan. The right employer-sponsored retirement plan can kickstart your growth strategy AND free up your time.”
- “Are you hoping to pass your business along to a family member? We can help you include your business in your estate planning.”
- “If retirement means selling your business, think of your exit strategy as the yellow brick road. Ask us how we can help you build up your business right now so that when it hits the market, your road to retirement is smooth sailing– no ruby slippers required.”
Keep the Content Flowing
If you want to get perfectly personalized content in front of the right individuals, you need a way to track who resonates with it. One of the best ways to do this is through gated content, which is any content that requires the prospective viewer to sign up before viewing, typically by joining a mailing list. Gated content works particularly well when you release free “teaser” content first, say, a reel or short on the same topic with a link to subscribe and gain access to the full whitepaper. Leave the juicy stuff for your gated content, but don’t shy away from openly sharing tips and information– free resources and genuinely useful insight help establish your credibility.
For those already on your mailing list, use tags in your CRM. Whenever a client or prospect opens a specific piece of content, they’re tagged according to that marketing segment (say, business owners who plan to sell their company), which allows you to create a drip campaign. Drip campaigns are automated, interactive sales funnels that essentially allow you to batch-send content to everyone with specific tags that readjust depending on how they respond to the content (learn more here).
When you want to apply segmented marketing to prospective clients, advertising is your best friend. A savvy advertising plan can get your content in front of specific audience segments and retarget those who click on your content, offering an automated friendly reminder that you get what they need and already have a solution in hand.
Shaken, Not Stirred
Congratulations! You have everything you need to nail segmented marketing so you can settle back into your plush recliner and say “I don’t always create content… but when I do, it’s personal.” And of course, for the times when you’d rather leave things to your favorite mixologist, our Full Monty Daring package is what segmented marketing dreams are made of. Grab a glass and some fancy ice cubes– this one is in the bag.
Related: 6 Ways To Improve Client Relationships When An Employee Leaves Your Team