A lot of financial advisers want their marketing to specifically target high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). They think that content like “How to Manage $10 Million Effectively” or “Investment Alternatives For the Daring Millionaire” will help them land more high-net-worth (HNW) clients.
Contrary to common sense, many HNW clients aren’t interested in being pitched this kind of content. More often than not, it’s a turn-off because most HNWIs don’t see themselves as rich, to begin with. Brent Kimball of Kimball Financial, and member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), even said, “My clients don’t view themselves as wealthy, including one client who is in the top 1% income bracket.”
Instead of focusing on your ideal clients’ net worths, create more relevant content through proper segmentation that allows you to address pain points, talk about hobbies, and share interests. As you learn more about your prospects, you’ll find that HNWI have similar interests, needs, and pain points as your other prospects.
Hyper-Specific Content that Focuses On Net Worth Turns Off HNWIs
While hyper-specific content can be very effective, it doesn’t really work if your target audience doesn’t want what you’re giving them. And HNWIs don’t want “rich” content.
HNWIs Don’t Think of Themselves As Rich
Creating content for the ultra-rich doesn’t work if the ultra-rich don’t think they’re rich. Basically, you’re creating content for an imaginary target audience that doesn’t identify with the box you’ve put them in.
“Content for the rich” only serves to alienate other target markets and doesn’t really hit home for HNW clients. Matthew Charles Collins, principal, and shareholder of Financial Decisions said, “The high-net-worth can be very private. The wealthiest guy I deal with drives a Camry, and not even his kids know what he’s worth. He doesn’t want his kids growing up acting entitled.”
Instead of getting blinded by net worth, learn more about your HNW prospects. Get to the bottom of what they really need through conversation-starting emails, introductory calls and events, and surveys, and create content based on that.
Segmenting by Net Worth Oversimplifies HNWI’s Pain Points and Interests
Not all rich people are the same. Treating them as one common group with one common goal and one shared pain point is ineffective. Your HNW prospects have a variety of pain points, hobbies, and interests. By merely focusing on one thing—their net worth—you fail to address real issues that they want you to talk about. HNWI have their own financial hurdles, like personal 401(k) planning, investing, estate planning, and asset protection, among others. They also have interests that overlap with your other clients’ interests.
Establish your credibility by getting specific with real pain points that your HNW prospects are facing. Start conversations by sending your prospects content that might interest them. For example, if your prospects are business owners (whether they are HNWI or not), send them content on business owner exit planning.
Treat your HNW prospects like friends—understand their interests, hobbies, and pain points and create content around that. And the easiest way to create relevant, personalized content is through segmentation.
Create Hyper-Specific Segments Based on Pain Points and Interests
A regular segment is a group of prospects or clients that have something in common. Hyper-specific segments, on the other hand, go beyond just your generic segments (like net worth) and delve deeper into specific interests, affinities, demographics, and psychographics. For example, instead of merely classifying your prospects into warm leads and cold leads, you can get even more specific by segmenting them according to their needs: retirement planning, tuition planning, health insurance, investment products, and more.
Hyper-specific segmentation tells you exactly what your prospects want. You can figure out their needs by taking note of the ads they interacted with and the lead magnet they downloaded. You can find out their hobbies by sending a quick email and asking them what their hobbies and interests are.
We recommend that you segment your prospects by:
- Purchasing intent. Whether they are warm or cold prospects or referrals.
- Interests and hobbies. Whether they like skiing, golfing, kayaking, or other common activities.
- Financial needs and goals. Whether they’re interested in retirement planning, tax breaks, investment help, or insurance.
- Occupation. Whether they are entrepreneurs, marketers, or angel investors.
- Age. Whether they are young and just starting their portfolios or are pre-retirees and want to get started on retirement planning.
- Motivations and behaviors. Why they are looking into hiring a financial adviser.
You can create segments with email marketing tools or an automated growth program like Snappy Kraken. Tag your prospects’ emails based on their interests so that an HNW prospect who’s interested in investing abroad won’t get emails about opening an individual retirement account (IRA). Take note: you should add your prospects to all of the segments they belong to get an accurate picture of their needs and interests.
Snappy Kraken has some pre-determined segments—like warm prospects, cold leads, men, and women—to get you started.
Relevant, Personalized Content Is Your Best Bet at Securing Clients (HNWIs and Otherwise)
With hyper-specific segments, you can create content that is more personalized and relevant to each of your prospects. For example, if one of your HNW prospects is in your golf segment, instead of creating campaigns on “golfing for the rich” that would alienate your non-HNWI prospects, create content that all golfers can enjoy.
One of our members, Michael H. Baker of Vertex Capital Advisors, got to see the results of personalization first-hand. “The first automated campaign secured a new High-Net-Worth client,” he shared, “That’s the ROI you can get when you send the right content to the right person at the right time.”
There are three ways you can create a variety of campaigns for each of your segments: hire a marketer or marketing agency, create the content yourself, or join an automated growth program.
Content that your prospects actually care about helps you build real relationships that go beyond transactional connections by starting conversations. “Once you start talking to people, you tend to build their trust over a period of time, and you become a part of their family,” Glory Xavier, General Manager at Elixir Commercial Brokers LLC, shared, “That leads to a very long-term relationship.”
All of our prospect nurturing emails focus on learning more about your clients and addressing their specific needs. For example, if your prospect downloads an ebook from the Retirement Income Teeter Totter campaign, we don’t just leave it at that. We set up automated emails that tell them more about retirement planning and ask them questions about their current financial goals.
The goal of relevant, personalized content isn’t to outright sell. It’s to build relationships and trust so that your prospects choose you as their financial adviser.
Use HELP! to Create Content that Reaches More People (Including HNW Leads)
For all your content, we recommend using the HELP! framework—a framework that we created at Snappy Kraken to help you create better content and generate more leads.
H – Humanize Your Content
Make your content relatable and human. Tell stories about yourself, your family, and your experiences that your readers can relate to.
E – Empathize With Your Target Market
Empathize with your readers to show them that you care about them on a personal level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we made sure that our members could regularly check up on their clients and reassure them during trying times.
L – Localize When You Can
Tell your prospects where you are so that they know that you’re not emailing them from an “abstract black void.” Location can be a great conversation starter, especially if your prospects have been to or lived in your location before.
P – Create Positive Content
Scarcity and exclusivity are great marketing tactics—but they also foster fear and negativity. Instead, create content that is encouraging and helpful so that your prospects associate you with good vibes.
Get More HNW Clients By Building Relationships, Not Selling
The real secret to landing HNW clients is building relationships and showing them that you truly care about their financial well-being. With hyper-specific segments, you know exactly what prospects are interested in—their likes, dislikes, fears, needs, and goals—so you can build content that directly answers their pain points and starts conversations.
If you want content ready-made to engage your clients and build relationships, check out Snappy Kraken’s automated growth program.
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