Advisers need to differentiate themselves

To attract the appropriate clientele, advisers need to make sure their branding suits the demographic they are trying to attract, according to an adviser.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), Natasha Janssens, Women with Cents founder, launched her company in 2016 and had since won business awards and become a best-selling author.

“My key starting point which I attribute my success too is going through this process [of] getting to know my target market and that demographic,” Janssens said.

“I built the branding, the messaging, the way I dress, everything had to resonate with that demographic.

“It didn’t resonate with me – it had to resonate with that demographic that I was trying to talk to, and I had to make sure I had to learn to speak in a way that made sense to them.

“In my experience a lot of financial advice practices are missing the marketing piece so making sure that everything about you also speaks to these clients.”

Janssens said when she looked at financial planning websites, all of them looked and sounded the same.

“When an adviser says to me ‘I’m frustrated all I’m doing is having conversations with people who are just price shopping and that’s the main thing the conversation comes down to’ yeah, because [they] have nothing else to compare you on,” Janssens said.

“Every website looks exactly the same – they have the same type of stock photos, you’re all talking about the same lingo ‘and we’re all here to serve you and we do financial planning and we do investments’ – what about that talks to me as your target market?

“If I’m using this like online dating – think of your website, Instagram and Facebook etc. as a consumer’s Tinder account – what in there is going to make you stand out from everybody else to make them say they want to click and have a chat?”