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As an advisor, at this point, you’ve heard the idea of “niching down” too many times to count. From Michael Kitces to us highlighting it on our own podcast, establishing a niche is a topic discussed daily within the wealth management world.

Why? Because in the U.S., 300,000+ financial advisors are fighting for many of the same clients and separating yourself from the competition is becoming harder.

And niching down works: CEG Worldwide Research reflects 70% of top financial advisors earning at least $1 million a year focus on a niche.

In working with hundreds of advisors in the past two years, those who aren’t clear about their target market or niche often struggle to market their practice consistently. It becomes much more challenging to think about your content strategy and channels regularly if you’re unclear about your audience.

It’s easy to talk about niching down, but what are some ways you can begin to establish a more unique, niche brand? We cover seven ideas.

1. Start a Podcast Featuring Thought Leaders / COIs in Your Niche

Before starting a podcast, you should know that it can be difficult to produce one of quality consistently. So, before you begin, ensure you’re mentally ready for the effort. That said, starting a niche podcast featuring thought leaders from the industry, sector, or market you’re trying to go after can be incredibly powerful. Powerful for two reasons: 1. You’re immediately tapping into their distribution network, and 2. Because you’re discussing the issues that your audience cares about with those they listen to regularly.

When starting a guest-focused podcast, your first step is to build your roster of guests. This is critical as without a proper guest list, your efforts will run dry. The guest list is the essential element of creating this type of podcast.

Pro tip: Keep your topic set diverse from episode to episode. You don’t want different guests coming on and talking about the same items each time. Ensure you’re spacing out your guests to keep each episode interesting and a guessing game. Following that, figure out the following:

• Structure: How long will it be? Will it just be you asking the guests questions?
• Cadence: How often will you release it?
• Distribution: What channels do you want it to live on?
• Content Variations: Will you cut up clips at all for distribution?

2. Start a “Docuseries” Featuring Your Audience

Not up for doing a podcast, but still want to highlight those in your target market? A docuseries is the next best option. We’re not saying you must develop a Netflix documentary, but highlighting your audience’s experience through video interviews or Q&A style articles can be an excellent way to root your market in what you do and how you operate.

This still requires outreach, scheduling, and coordination – but it allows you to create a series without the commitment needed to do a podcast. Docuseries will enable you to get intel from your audience while leveraging their network for distribution.

Pro tip: The easiest way to do this is to host something via YouTube. It allows for the most accessible sharing functionality. Still, if your niche is looking for more information on a specific topic (e.g., stock options), you can act as a source of demand capture.

3. Deploy Niche-Focused PPC Strategy

We’ll be the first team to tell you that a Google Ads strategy is only successful in two instances: 1. You have a big budget ($2,000/m+) or 2. You have a particular niche you cover that looks for information on long-tail topics. If the second is where you land, deploying a Niche-Focused PPC strategy may be worth it.

How do you go about it? The first step is to conduct keyword research to see if there is an opportunity. Target longer-tail, more detailed searches that have a lower volume with less competition. Stack your keyword sets and questions to give you the reach you need to create demand around a set of topics or keywords. Focus on modified broad match (now phrase match), so you’re not casting too wide of a net and driving qualified traffic. Create a specific landing page for each campaign you set up with conversion points (forms) on it.

Pro tip: Check out our breakdown of PPC here. It dives into why long-tail matters and more.

4. Develop a Long-Tail Keyword Blog Series

If PPC isn’t in your budget, deploying an SEO-focused blog series with those same long-tail keywords in mind can prove big benefits over time. That said, SEO is a long game – it can take 30-90 days to begin ranking for terms, and you consistently must keep monitoring your rankings. You’d begin the same way you would with the PPC approach – conducting the keyword research.

Pro tip: Keep your pieces to over 1,000 words with your focus keyword density to under 2%. Your keywords should fall into your headers, opening paragraphs, and section headers. Check out our focus areas for SEO here.

5. Create a Weekly Thematic Newsletter

If you’re tracking tech executives, there’s nothing better than becoming the one place tech executives go to get their news and financial planning information. It’s how businesses like the Hustle built their business. In creating a newsletter, you must promote the heck out of it. On your website, in your social posts, through your direct client communications, etc.

Capturing email addresses is the ultimate growth hack, so don’t be shy about sharing what you’re offering. 

Pro tip: If you deploy the strategy, become the one-stop shop for your audience. Don’t just be the financial planning element – cover things you’re tracking, reading, watching, and writing. This allows you to become more to them than just another financial planning resource.

6. Run On-Demand Webinars, Using Paid Media to Distribute

 Webinars can be an excellent tool to turn cold prospects into leads. That said, having to worry about who shows up to a live event can be exhausting and nerve-racking. Also, the promotion concentration on live webinars needs to be intense, and if you’re not on top of your game, you can miss the boat on optimizing for registrations. That’s why we often recommend “on-demand” webinars that appear live but are on-demand.

We have started to use EverWebinar with members rather than Zoom. Generally, it’s smart to promote the webinar via paid – Facebook or LinkedIn ads to get the reach. Remember running ads is a numbers game, so plan for audience size accordingly – expect anywhere from 1-4% click-through rate on the ads, 60% landing page rate, 3-5% form conversion rate, 50% show-up rate.

The key to a good webinar? Make it specific and timely. Webinars play better at a particular time of year (e.g., during tax season, bonus season).

Pro tip: We developed a video breaking down how to run a webinar.

7. Join 3-4 Facebook/LinkedIn Groups, Then Start Your Own

Groups are one of the most underrated tactics for anyone to build a community. While starting your own from scratch can be tough to gain momentum, joining others can be an easy way to get involved with those in your niche. Groups primarily work well with interest or profession-based niches – e.g., if you’re going after athletes, doctors, or dentists.

Pro tip: Once you’ve built up a rapport with those in other groups, aim to launch your own. This could be on Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Slack. Of course, ensure that compliance is OK with your approach here and ensure you’re capturing the discussions appropriately.

The Bottom Line

Building a niche brand is not only a great way to get to a bigger business, but it can also be an excellent avenue to highlight your expertise, build community, and create a stickier client. Focus on the channels your audience lives on, and regularly talk about what they want to hear, understand, and research.

Ship often, get feedback, build with intent.