It’s time to dive back into personas and how they can help boost your marketing efforts. If you missed part one of this series, you can check it out here. For a quick refresher, we went through every persona we’ve ever created for advisors and compiled eleven of the most common types.
Want to see all eleven right now? Download the free guide. It’s a great resource to go through whether you’ve never considered personas at all or even if you feel like your persona game is under control.
Why should you care about personas? If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “How can I find the right clients?”, personas can help focus your marketing efforts, which in turn can help you reach your desired audience more effectively and efficiently. Not all of these will apply to you – and you probably have at least a persona or two that isn’t covered here – but our hope is that this list can provide a few solid building blocks for your own persona development. Okay, let’s get started.
4. Retired Ralph
Ralph and his wife are retired but want to stay active. They live full-time in Arizona, but love to visit their hometown in New England regularly to see old friends and be with their grandchildren.
What Does This Persona Need?
- Help with tax issues, especially regarding financial gifts
- Someone they can trust to make sure their money lasts
- Estate planning
How Can You Attract This Persona?
Create and share practical retirement planning tools – calculators, estate planning guidebooks, retirement prep quizzes, etc. Write articles that simplify complex retirement planning studies using illustrations and simple prose. Share your content on Facebook – retirees love Facebook. Be specific, approachable and practical. Center your blogs around personal stories from your family and life experience.
How Can You Repel This Persona?
Use industry jargon that is difficult for anyone other than an advisor to follow. On the flipside, you can also alienate Ralph by only writing generalized, non-specific content. Find the sweet spot in between.
How Can You Exceed This Persona’s Expectations?
Coordinate with his CPA or, even better, handle his tax questions in-house. Demonstrate a clear understanding of how he is wired with a focus on building a retirement plan centered on the needs of his family, his tax situations, and the ever-changing events of his family.
5. CEO Cecil
Cecil runs his own company and has time for little else, so let’s get down to it.
What Does This Persona Need?
- Delegate oversight of his family’s financial future
- Maximize tax efficiency at home and work
- Hasn’t thought much about retirement, but needs to start planning
How Can You Attract This Persona?
Cecil is attracted to other executives, so build authority for one person in your firm regarding executive planning. This person should represent your firm in the media and on your blog whenever the subject of executive planning comes up. Also, feel out Cecil’s preferred level of involvement in the financial planning process and proceed accordingly. CEOs tend to delegate the details, so he probably doesn’t care to receive weekly newsletters or invitations to webinars. Client meetings should likely be short and to the point.
How Can You Repel This Persona?
Regularly ask Cecil for his input on how you’re doing, upsell at every opportunity, and generally treat him like a high-touch client.
How Can You Exceed This Persona’s Expectations?
Cecil understands the importance of time, so show how much time you will spend on his finances. Offer tax planning services centered around tax efficiency. Stress the importance of planning for retirement, and introduce retirement income plans. Prove you can handle his finances better than he can.
6. Plan-Ahead Paula
Paula thinks about the horizon a lot – from weddings to illnesses, she often feels like the only one in her family who’s concerned about tomorrow. While she knows it’s impossible, she still wants to set up game plans for every possibility.
What Does This Persona Need?
- To start saving for the next big family expense (typically college for the kids)
- She’s probably only thinking of the oldest kid’s college, but needs to get started on the other two.
- Needs to keep her retirement plan intact through this big expense.
How Can You Attract This Persona?
Create and share planning documents, especially spreadsheets and ebooks centered around college planning. Give her assurance that you can be trusted as the financial planning pro and she can take that off her plate by writing practical and approachable content establishing your authority on planning.
How Can You Repel This Persona?
She wants to feel like she has a pro on her side, so the easiest way to alienate her is by outsourcing everything and giving vague answers to her questions.
How Can You Exceed This Persona’s Expectations?
- Coordinate the family’s assets and give a clear picture of what they can afford
- Give mom peace of mind that she doesn’t have to be the pro in this area
- Help the family see the big picture of this expense – how it impacts them, their children, and their plans
That’s it for now. Don’t forget to download the full guide to get all 11 investor personas by clicking below.
