Covisum Blog

Since 2004, the United States has recognized April as Financial Literacy Month and focusing on financial literacy is important now more than ever. According to the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC), a lack of financial knowledge cost Americans collectively more than an estimated $295 billion in 2018.

In a recent guest post for Michael Kitces' blog, Nerd's Eye View, Covisum's Director of Sales and Marketing, Katie Godbout, offered an in-depth look at crafting and using a client persona to generate leads. Finding prospective clients can be difficult for many financial advisors. The marketing process can seem overwhelming, and unfortunately the solution is often to cast a wide net to try to attract anyone. However, when you try to market to everyone, it becomes incredibly difficult to differentiate yourself. You can overcome these issues by focusing in a specific and narrow target market. A client persona is a detailed description of your ideal client. "The key to marketing financial services is resonance. If the messages you’re putting out aren’t relevant and don’t resonate with the prospective clients you’re trying to reach, they won’t work. And if you try to create a message that resonates with everybody, it won’t work because nothing is going to resonate with everyone at the same time." "This means the first step to effectively marketing your practice for growth is to narrow your focus and pick which specific prospective clients you want to target. Then you can create marketing that resonates with those particular people."

Here are some talking points that will help you discuss the value you can add for clients when you use the Covisum tech stack Advisors ask us all the time, "How do I use your software to help me attract new clients?" And we've written extensively about marketing best practices. The guides, templates, and checklists we've created for you are helpful, but what do you do with all of it? How do you transition from strategy to execution? And how do you ensure that what you are communicating to your clients aligns with the benefits you provide?

Sometimes, advisors who are considering a subscription to Covisum software have questions about how to use our tools and resources to market their financial planning business. Our tools can make a big impact for financial advisors — especially those serving mass-affluent retirees and those in retirement transition. Financial advisors and institutions rely on Covisum’s software, resources and successful marketing tactics to streamline their practices, offer actionable insights and guide clients to make the best financial decisions. This week, an advisor evaluating our software asked Katie Godbout, Covisum's Director of Sales and Marketing, a question about lead generation and inspired her to write this post.