By Dan Klein – CEO

This is one of the first things we usually discuss with Financial Advisors. It’s a valid question and worth exploring. Let’s look at some typical messaging we see when someone doesn’t have a niche. “We offer holistic financial planning and wealth management services to high net worth individuals and families.” How often have you seen that in an advisor’s bio? A lot unfortunately. So, you’re saying that if I have money and maybe a family I might want to be your client? (and who knows what holistic even means these days).

Picking a niche requires a leap of faith in a way. Many advisors often need to move past the logic that you may be missing out on a potential new client if your message is too targeted. We haven’t found that to be the case. Here are some suggestions as you think about crafting your niche:

Step One – Take a look at the services you provide and also some of your best clients. Who would benefit the most and find value in what you offer? Another question to think about is, who do you enjoy working with? Executives saving for retirement in a particular industry, young families helping them prepare for their children’s college education, or C-suite employees looking for a personal CFO could be items for discussion. Ask your team who they enjoy working with as well.

Step Two – Consider the audience you have identified, and then determine if it’s big enough to be a niche for you, or if you need to broaden it out to an additional niche, or service providers around your initial niche. Here’s an example: if your niche is restaurant owners in a given area, you may want to broaden it out to the service providers of those restaurants. This would include the people who provide their meats, produce, linens, beverages, lighting, and also construction companies who build restaurants, etc. This helps keep your niche market large enough, but within your specialty of providing guidance to this group. The same would be true for doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and many more.

Step Three – Next think about what you do for that particular niche that provides value or alleviates pain points. For example, you may choose to work with young affluent families to help them demystify the college planning process, or mass affluent professionals to help provide the guidance for them to retire more confidently. This is where you match your services to the needs or your audience in a clear way.

Step Four – What’s your plan? It’s important to determine how your niche best receives information and where their network meets up or speaks to each other. What do they read? Do they have conferences? And most importantly, how can you position your practice to be an expert in handling the things that are most important to them? This is also a good time to look at your messaging such as your website, brochures, and social media profiles to make sure that when someone from your niche audience sees your information, they connect the dots that they would benefit from having a conversation with you.

Having a clear niche or multiple niches allows you to be the expert within a given audience. Doing this effectively can position your practice as the “go to” resource for that group. Have questions or want to see how you can define your niche? We’re here to help, just send us an email, message us on social media, or give us a call – good luck!