Why are so many in this financial advisor channel using the same approach to marketing?
Statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza at the Plaza de Espana in Madrid, Spain
Getting outside of the box.
We’ve all said it. Why does it matter in this independent financial advisor space?
When everyone looks or sounds alike, consumers default to choosing brands. That’s an expensive space to compete in.
But when we get outside of the box, go beyond product-driven marketing and actually present ourselves as someone who understands the advisor’s circumstances, challenges and motivations; then we have differentiated ourselves. When we are connecting with our audience they listen and they begin to trust. Our audience is not homogeneous. It’s a collection of personas.
Stories stick in our minds and connect with us at an emotional level. Good stories change our perspective. What’s really memorable about Super Bowl ads? Most would agree, it’s the story they tell.
Storytelling has become one of the latest marketing buzz words. Maybe we should say “over-used.” We find it used to describe everything from anecdotes to case studies.
There’s actually a process for creating genuine corporate brand stories that leverages the science of persuasion to motivate behavioral change. Most of us would credit the work of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell and his work, The Hero’s Journey, as creating the road map we marketers follow today.