Advisors ask me questions about how they can grow their firms more effectively all the time.
The answer is that there are no easy answers.
Growth comes from getting in the arena and chasing it consistently, not holding anything too sacred, and asking questions.
At the center of the opportunity to serve a new client are the questions your clients ask.
I’ve said for a long time that the most trusted financial advisor in the world is Google. And for a bit longer, I will still attest to Google being the winner until more folks turn to Bard (which is also Google) or Open AI.
The fact is that clients and prospects ask Google their most personal questions about money.
One of the most amazing facts is that Google keeps all of these questions and logs them by popularity so that nerds like me can produce the right content and ads based on those questions.
In fact, I can take really key shortcuts to get in front of a particular question or keyword for a few dollars.
Twenty years ago, that was a few cents.
Twenty years from now, search engines will probably want to take some custodial referral trail.
I use several tools to track keyword ranking, understand search and traffic trends and audience behaviors. Recently I was working with one of our clients about what they should be thinking for the launch of a new division of their company and my research took me to the key questions that are being asked today around the idea of retirement planning.
If you just focused on answering these questions, you can dramatically climb the charts of marketing relevance across whatever channel or medium you decide to use.
The questions getting broken down in categories of question types:
- Modal (can, should, could, may)
- Location (near, in my state, etc.)
- Relation (transitions from this to that)
- Current Conditions (retiring with $X)
- Relevant Audience (who is this for?)
- Absent of (if someone doesn’t have something, what does their future look like?)
Based on these qualifiers, investors the United States are asking questions like this around the topic of Retirement Planning today:
- which retirement planning
- which retirement plan is best
- which retirement plan is best in India
- which retirement plan is best in Singapore
- which retirement plan is best for self employed
- which retirement plans are qualified
- which retirement planner
- which pension planning
- which pension plan is best in India
- which pension plan is best in india 2022
- which pension plan is best in lic
- what retirement plan is for self employed
- what retirement plan is 401k
- which guide to retirement planning
- in retirement plan meaning
- in retirement plans
- when should retirement planning begin
- when should you start planning for retirement
- 3 stages of retirement planning
- which retirement planning
- which retirement plan is best
- which retirement plan is best in India
- which retirement plan is best in singapore
- which retirement plan is best for self employed
- which retirement plans are qualified
- which retirement planner
- who can help with retirement planning
- who to see for retirement planning
- is retirement planning university legit
- is retirement planning important
- is retirement plan mandatory in California
- is retirement plan mandatory in the philippines
- is retirement plan worth it
- is retirement plan and 401k the same
- is retirement plan halal
- is retirement plan mandatory
- is retirement plan good
- is retirement plan same as pension
- does retirement plan work
- is retirement plan a 401k
- is retirement plan considered 401k
- is retirement plans taxed
- what retirement planning is
- what retirement plan is the best
- what retirement plan is best for self employed
- what retirement plan is for self employed
- what retirement plan is 401k
- what’s financial planning
- what financial planning meaning
- which retirement plan is best in India
- what pension plan is the best
- which retirement plan is best in Singapore
- what’s pension plan
- which retirement plans are qualified
- which retirement planner
- what is retirement planning process
- what is retirement planning university
- can retirement plans own real estate
- can financial planning be applicable to the underdeveloped countries
- can pension plan
- can pension plans be terminated
- can pension plans be rolled over
- can pension plans be rolled over to 401k
- do retirement plans have beneficiaries
- can pension plans be inherited
- does retirement plan work
- can pension plans fail
- does retirement plan affect fafsa
- do retirement plans count as income
- do retirement plan pay taxes
- do retirement plan
- why retirement planning is important
- why retirement planning is important in India
- why retirement planning
- why financial planning is important
- why financial planning and analysis
- why financial planning
- why financial planning analyst
- why financial planning process
- why retirement financial planning
- why retirement savings plan
- why do we need retirement planning
- when should retirement planning begin
- where to start with retirement planning
- when to retire planning guide
- where is the best retirement place to live
- how retirement plan
- how financial planning is important
- what retirement plan is the best
- what retirement plan is best for self employed
- what retirement plan is for self employed
- what retirement plan is 401k
- how pension plan
- how do retirement plans work
- how important is retirement planning
- what is the process of retirement planning
- is retirement planning important
- is retirement plan a 401k
- is retirement plan
- are pension plan
- what are retirement plan distributions
- what are retirement plan options
- are retirement savings plan
- when should retirement planning begin
- who can help with retirement planning
Aside from spending the past 30 minutes listing all of these out, why does this really matter?
Here’s why.
- We need to get a lot better at specifying location-based retirement data
- We need to factor in the dimensionality of search based on how people feel about their current state
- Many people are naturally skeptical. Advisors must prove they are trustworthy and will do the right thing.
- Process is the priority. We need to be able to talk about the process because people are seeking clarity.
If you are planning to get serious about growing your brand organically, keyword and search exercises like this need to be done regularly.
More than this, advisors need to make sure they are continually studying clients and then catalogueing how we serve them both to build best practices in our firms and to build influence within our ideal customer profile (ICP).