Struggling to figure out the best niche for your firm? You’re not alone. When a financial advisor tells us they need help to select their niche, we recommend they do three things:
- Watch our workshop webinar on embracing a specialty.
- Send out a client survey.
- Create a “Who We Serve” statement.
We’ve had dozens of advisors follow these three foolproof steps. Every single one of them has come out on the other side with a clearly defined niche that allows them to duplicate their favorite clients and grow their business.
This process takes a few hours to complete, but I promise it’s valuable and worthwhile.
Ready to get started? Here’s how to select your niche in three simple steps.
1. Watch This Webinar on Choosing a Radically Relevant Niche
Before you invest money into your marketing plan, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. That’s why for Step 1, we recommend watching this webinar on How to Choose Your Niche & Create a Radically Relevant Marketing Message.
This is an exclusive workshop webinar that I created with Bill Cates, bestselling author of Get More Referrals Now! and Beyond Referrals.
Together, Bill and I help you:
- Figure out what you do best.
- Identify potential niches.
- Create a clear vision for growing your firm.
- Decide which top clients you truly love working with & which ones you want to repel.
We recently had an advisor who had no clue what his niche should be. After going through our webinar, he discovered that 95% of his favorite clients are executives making between $150k and $300k a year.
In just a couple of hours, he went from having no clue what he should specialize in to having a clear vision of who he serves best.
2. Send a Survey to Your Favorite Clients
You may have some unanswered questions about your ideal client after you watch the webinar. Jot those questions down and send them out to your favorite clients in a quick survey format.
Their responses will help you understand your ideal client better and craft a marketing message that compels them to take action.
Here are some sample questions you could include:
- Why did you choose to work with us instead of someone else?
- What do you think we do best?
- How do you describe us to friends or family?
- What do you do for fun?
- What causes are you passionate about?
- Where do you get your news?
- What is your biggest financial goal?
- What problem do we solve for you?
- What don’t we do that you would like us to do?
- What’s one thing you wish we would stop doing?
Once you have your questions, it’s time to create your survey. If you’re an Indigo client, just let us know which questions you like and we’ll create your survey and send it out to your list for you.
If you’re not a client of ours, you can use the website Typeform to create your survey. It’s free and easy to use.
3. Create Your Final “Who We Serve” Statement
The final step is to create your “Who We Serve” statement. This statement answers an important question in your marketing strategy: “What one urgent problem do you solve for your specific niche?”
Your answer should be succinct because you and your clients will use it to describe your firm to other people.
Instead of clients saying, “My financial advisor is great! They helped me put together a financial plan,” they can say, “My financial advisor specializes in helping women make smarter decisions with their money.”
See how powerful that is? It’s short, easy to remember, and most importantly, it’s descriptive. It clearly states the specific problem you solve for a particular group of people. When someone hears it, they’ll automatically know if your firm is a good fit for their needs.
Two Templates to Use for Your “Who We Serve” Statement
There are two different templates you can use for your “Who We Serve” statement. The first one is: “I help [TARGET AUDIENCE] do [XYZ].”
Here are some examples:
- I help individuals and families prepare for all of life’s milestones and events.
- I help retirees and pre-retirees bridge the gap from work to retirement.
- I help business owners and entrepreneurs stress-test their financial plan to identify red flags and missed opportunities.
- I help individuals live comfortably in retirement and enjoy the assets they have spent their career building.
- I help individuals and families pursue financial independence.
The second template is “I specialize in providing [SERVICES] to [TARGET AUDIENCE].”
Here are some examples:
- We are a faith-based independent financial services firm providing financial planning and retirement planning to pre-retirees and 401(k) plan participants.
- I specialize in providing comprehensive wealth management and financial services to individuals, professionals, and families who enjoy simplicity and seek a professional to help them pursue their goals.
- I specialize in providing retirement and income planning to state and federal employees.
At Indigo, our “Who We Serve” statement is: “I help specialist advisors target their ideal prospects with content marketing.”
Ready to Grow Your Business?
If you’re struggling to figure out the type of clients you want to target with your marketing, follow these three steps. It’s worked for dozens of other independent financial advisors, and I know it’ll work for you too.
If you have any questions about your marketing, schedule a free strategy session with our team. We’d love to help you put together a marketing plan that attracts your ideal client, grows your business, and positions you as the go-to expert in your niche.