Do You Really Need to Niche?

HOW TO FIND YOUR NICHE AS A FINANCIAL ADVISOR

Financial advising is a growing sector with more people opting to offer personalised and comprehensive wealth management services. As a consequence, the competition in this industry has grown fierce making it more difficult to differentiate between professionals who are offering similar substantive services. Clients will remain loyal to firms as long as the latter offers quality services. However, firms that do not make amendments and adapt to changing market conditions will doubtless lose on business.

In this scenario, it is vital not just to be better but also different to your competitors if you want to grow as a financial advisor. This entails developing a value proposition necessary to connect with your target audience. It requires you to identify a niche which you can cultivate for connecting better with your desired audience.

What is a niche? How is it different from a target market?

A niche is a unique position or place you offer to attract your audience. A target market is a group of people you wish to retain as prospective customers. The latter is typically connected by something they have in common which you can use to develop a service model. Your niche is a specialised section of your target market that you wish to attract.

Types of niches

Though almost any niche from an affluent sized target market can give you what you are looking for, it can be challenging to know which niche is the best. There are six varying types of niches which have their own unique experiences and services. Let’s look at each of these in turn below.

 Affinity niches are built upon social connections. This includes business development at your yoga class, at the chess club or at your kids’ school programs. When a consumer is not sure about whom they should pick for financial advising, knowing that someone in their affinity group uses them for services can influence their views.

A value niche has a shared philosophy or values which builds trust among people. Knowing that a financial advisor shares the same principles as their client will make the former seem more reliable to the latter.

An educational niche is where the target market needs to be acquainted with relevant issues prior to forming a decision. In such cases, a person who has a reputation of giving good financial advice to clients will be much sought after. Another niche, an experiential niche, is based on the advisor providing a unique experience which will inspire clientele to seek their services again and spread word about their services among their networks.

Psychosocial niche involves working with clients who have undergone painful or disorienting experiences and need emotional and financial guidance in making their decisions. On the other hand, a technical niche involves providing financial services using knowledge, resources, and skills which other advisors do not have.

Finding your niche on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is your perfect resource if you want to establish your business within a niche. With 500 million users in more than 200 nations, it is one of the fastest growing professional networking sites. It can help you identify where your strengths are and how you can leverage them to attract your clients.

The first step is to make your LinkedIn profile page customer-oriented. This will enable your target audience to find you easily and allow you to do better business on the platform. You can adopt a few of these tactics to make your business profile more appealing.

Leverage keywords and search options

Keep in mind that LinkedIn members use the platform as a professional version of a website like Google. You need to ensure that your profile contains the right search phrases and keywords your audience will search for when looking for financial advising services.

For instance, if you are the CEO of an advisory firm, make sure your profile lists that information in the headline section. Do not list your professional LinkedIn headline as “CEO, Company X.” Instead, mention the services that your company offers. It can read like this: “Wealth Management | Inventory Management | Retirement Planning | Estate Planning” and so forth.

Mention your target market

Another tactic is to specifically mention the niche you work for. This will help set your firm apart from that of others who offer the same services and show that you have relevant industry experience and insights. Your headline could read as “Wealth Management | Inventory Management for Cultural Organisations”.

Though your product can be used by anyone, you are establishing boundaries as to who you are selling to. By targeting 2-3 industry niches, you can reach multiple people within that group and re-design your profile to appeal to them specifically.

Connecting with multiple audiences

The “Experience” section in your LinkedIn profile should contain a record of the various positions you have had and how long you have worked in each of them. By creating multiple “Experience” listings, you are trying to reach each of your niche audiences.

For instance, for your wealth management company, you can include an “Experience” section that says “Wealth Management Services for Cultural Organisations”. Mention the name of your firm and how long you have worked with them. Make sure this listing focuses on cultural organisations as the target group that you serve.

In the description section, you can discuss ways in which you provide wealth management services to cultural organisations. Incorporate client testimonials from places you have worked with in the past. Provide sample videos of your financial management practices. It is not going to be enough to simply list your services, so ensure that you are providing these additional details.

You can create a similar listing for another niche. It can say “Wealth Management Services for SMEs”. Follow the same format as you did for cultural organisations but include niche specific testimonials, videos, etc.

By creating multiple “Experience” listings, you are taking a step toward connecting with your diverse niche audiences. Doing this will enable such consumers to locate your profile when they are searching for similar services. It also makes your profile more appealing to consumers since you appear to specialise in their industry.

So in the beginning, I highly recommend trying to be a little bit more specific with your offering, with your services and try and tailor that down. It’s going to help you resonate stronger and your marketing business / lead generation is going to be more effective - you’re going to be able to do less and provide more for your clients and build a system that’s scalable and people are going to talk about and want to work with you.

***It's all about matching our offering precisely to your audience***

So that’s it, that’s my thoughts on niching and why it’s important, especially for lead generation on LinkedIn, but more so than just your lead gen and your marketing, it really moves into your mechanics on business as a whole.

I hope you’ve got some value from that and, should you wish to discuss a bespoke LinkedIn strategy for your business, schedule an initial phone consultation here

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