How Financial Advisors Can Attract More Clients Using the Mere Exposure Effect
This article first appeared in Advisorpedia on February 8th, 2021, and can be found here.
The mere exposure effect determines the more familiar we are with something, the higher chance we are to like it, including things that remind us of ourselves. For advisors, the mere exposure effect shows why creating relatable and consistent content improves the interest of your audience. In turn, leading to more clients.
The goal is to connect with your audience and appeal to their interests, both in terms of your services, and beyond. Whether through blogs, social media, video or any other content of your choice, the key is relatability and consistency. Appearing in front of your audience regularly improves the overall perception of your brand, increasing the chances they click on your content next time.
To provide some examples, here are ten content ideas you can use to attract more clients.
10 Content Ideas to Attract More Clients
1. Meet the Team Blog Posts
Showing the personal side of your company opens up the opportunity for connection. A meet the team blog highlights a member of your team and presents interesting questions to learn more about them.
These posts are great for any employee, but especially those that are client-facing. If a lead is looking to learn more about your firm, a post on who they’re interacting with can help open up other avenues of connection, providing the familiarity to build the foundation of an ongoing relationship. Here are a few questions you should consider in a meet the team blog post:
- What is your favorite dream destination?
- Do you have a favorite sports team?
- What was the last book you read?
- If you were on a deserted island, what are three items you would bring?
- What’s a fun fact about you that others might not know?
A mix of personal and general questions provides interesting answers, making the post relatable but specific. Check out our Meet the Team blog series to see some great examples and discover more interesting questions.
2. 5 Favorite Books Post
The five favorite books post doesn’t need to be books, it could be articles, news outlets or any other source of information. The types of material we enjoy engaging and absorbing can say a lot about who we are as a person. Therefore, your favorites list doesn’t need to be limited to professional outlets. Feel free to explore your interests and hobbies.
Posts like these are best on social media. It can be used as a piece to attract attention from users with similar interests or to ask your audience to comment on their own top five, generating engagement.
3. Share Industry News
This could be a blog or social media post, or even both. Compiling a list of your favorite industry news outlets gives your audience more information, supporting your brand as a knowledge source. As an added benefit, showing readers how you keep up with industry news tells them you care about changes in the financial space and your clients.
As a bonus, you can create a social post commenting on any new events. This will provide you with an ongoing source of content and support your identity as a thought leader.
As an example of this approach, Nerad and Deppe Wealth Management uses their blog page to discuss market news and changes while offering their opinions and insight.
4. Peek at the Budget
Create a blog post that focuses on budgeting for an important purchase. This could be a car, a home or paying off student loans. What is the demographic of your budgeting goal? For example, purchasing a house could appeal to millennials. Understanding the problems and pain points of your given demographic allows you to format your post as an answer to these issues.
This example from Chad Chubb focuses on budgeting for student loans, particularly for medical students. The post can dig deep and offer effective advice by being aware of the biggest challenges of its chosen audience.
5. Client Conversation
The client name will be kept private, but this post is used to show how you deal with specific client issues. Replacing the name and certain details, the content provides readers with an example of your process. When creating this sort of post, think about what your reader would be looking for.
You could highlight different age groups to show how your firm handles the financial challenges of different demographics. You could focus on the client’s profession, answering problems similar clients might face. Or, you could focus on odd scenarios and challenges your firm has gone through, focusing more on your care and customer service.
6. Family Vacation
When planning a vacation, many people are most concerned with their location, activities and cost. As an advisor, you could create a list of tips to finance a vacation or give a list of some of your favorite destinations and activities. More detail is better for this content, as a lot of time is spent planning for a vacation. Including plenty of pictures and links will inspire visitors and make the content more enjoyable.
Using this strategy, and a little of the next, this post from OverShare Advice and Planning emphasizes vacation budgeting tips while focusing on the needs of a local audience.
7. Budgets for Big Events
Creating a budget plan for holidays, weddings, birthdays and other big life events is another great source of content. Consider creating and posting this sort of content around the time of the events, holiday posts around November, wedding posts around spring. This will make sure your content is timely and attracts appropriate attention.
8. Tools for Running Your Business
Running a business is challenging. With so much to manage and little downtime during growth, many business owners look for software to make their day run smoother. Providing a list of your favorite software can attract the attention of business owners. You could even focus on certain professions or industries to attract the attention of your ideal client base.
This post on 6 integration tools from our Twenty Over Ten blog is a great example of a list you could create. From describing the advantages of the tool to integrating it up, the post guides readers through the entire process.
Check out some of our other posts on tools for your business to get inspiration and examples for your own.
9. Daily Spending Habits
Talking about daily spending habits can be a great way to relate to your audience’s workday routine. Many of these posts focus on savings, so make sure to highlight the purpose of the savings. Is it to pull back on excessive spending? Or could it be an attempt to prepare for retirement? Focusing on the goal can direct the content towards a bigger topic.
For example, someone focused on cutting back to prevent excessive spending has a different goal to someone preparing for retirement. Both may need additional advice to help them understand which strategies to adopt.
The following example from Rick Raybin discusses high-end budgeting tactics along with day-to-day spending habits. This example might not hit specifics, like the standard “skip the coffee” recommendation. But this is an advantage. Instead of giving examples of daily activities that others have heard, Rick’s example covers the habits that make the biggest impact on your budget.
10. Relaxation Practices
Money is stressful. Showing some methods for de-stressing can help others stay calm around finances, or just after work. How do you relax? Consider your client base, returning to their pain points can be a great indicator of what causes them stress. What stress-reducing strategies do you practice that could solve or reduce these specific pain points?
Schad TenBroeck’s post below is a perfect example of this strategy. Not only does the post discuss stress and stress-reduction in terms of finance. But it targets a specific audience, business owners.
Conclusion
By adopting these content types, you create plenty of opportunities for your leads and clients to interact with your content, fortifying the Mere Exposure effect and increasing the likelihood they will perceive you in a positive manner. Remember to use the options above, not only do they prevent the feeling of spam, but they also and provide additional opportunities to reach a new audience, and expand your ever-growing client list.