There is no doubt we are in the digital economy, and this digital frontier presents both challenges and opportunities for financial professionals. Many of us have enjoyed tremendous success working face-to-face with clients and building a great referral network that contributes to our current growth and success. The opportunity that lies before us, however, is to take our relationship-building success into the online frontier.

Whether we like it or not, our new reality is this: Consumers of all kinds can now accomplish a significant amount of their financial goals online without the help of a professional or an advisor. So, are you prepared? If this pandemic has exposed anything, it’s our need for digital capacity. The currency of the day and our economy is this: What sells the most in today’s economy? What are people looking for online?

The most successful companies in today’s economy are building themselves around one single focus: creating an exceptional consumer experience, one that goes beyond just products and solutions and connects to how people think and feel. How clients and prospects experience the totality of our practices matters more now than ever before. From onboarding to execution, to ongoing service and care, offering a superior experience is the best way to not just stay in business, but grow your business, since the best way to get referrals is to be referable, and nothing refers better than an amazing experience.

How can we elevate our thinking away from sales, marketing, body counts, insurance and assets under management and move toward brand development and engagement? Brand thinking is big-picture thinking. It doesn’t just encompass what you do functionally as a professional. It connects with how your clients and your prospects feel about you, what meaning you are adding to their lives and how their world is better because they have you in it.

We are all in the people business. What we deliver as professionals is designed to take better care of society and take better care of people, so there is no better way than to have a brand that recognizes that.

What are the elements of a brand? What are the puzzle pieces that need to come together to make your brand exceptional?

Thinking about a logo means you have another way to tell an effective story. So, how did we develop our logo? Well, having a mascot certainly could make us stand out, and that was one of the first things that we had to decide for ourselves. A bulldog is actually the No. 1 mascot in America, so it’s pretty popular. We also identified with many qualities of a bulldog that we felt were embodied in our practice, such as fun, loyalty, dependability and being a best-in-breed team.

What about your website? What kind of website supports your practice? Ask yourself, If somebody lands on my website, what do I want them to do? What kind of an experience do I want them to have? Your profile picture is another one that I think a lot of us overlook. What do you look like online as a professional?

What else do you need to be thinking about — from marketing materials to voicemails to attire? When you present things to your clients, whose marketing materials do you use? If you run an independent practice and you use materials from several different companies, it’s important to ask yourself this very critical question: What messages are they sending, and do those messages align with the way that I communicate my brand value?

It’s critical to carry your brand across every medium of communication, and it’s critical that it’s consistent. Adding all these elements together is all about differentiating yourself from the pack. There are a lot of financial professionals to choose from. How can you differentiate yourself in the right ways for the right reasons?

Ninety-three percent of buying decisions are influenced by digital and social media, so it’s critical that we find a way to be strategic in this space. The right content also increases brand loyalty, but the wrong content can be deadly. The reason people tune us out is because we don’t demonstrate that we know them very well at all. Far too many financial professionals talk at their audience instead of talking with them and inviting them into a conversation.

What’s the solution? It’s time to change the way that we market and reach new prospects. How can we develop a capacity for inbound marketing? How can we have people come to us because of something that we offer instead of pursuing people or trying to go after them online?

To be a great content developer, we need to get to know our audience by their actions and behaviors and what they actually do online. How is our target audience already consuming our stuff online? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you know how your website is found on search engines?
• Do your prospects already search for things? And, if so, what are they looking for online as it relates to your profession?
• How many clicks do you get on your website, and where do people go?
• Have you ever asked your clients or prospects what content they might want?

Understand the power of two-way communication because, in a digital marketplace, not only can you master proactive marketing to connect your brand to your target audience, but you can also draw in prospects like never before by producing engaging content that really lets you have tremendously valuable conversations.

What are some of the characteristics of effective content? Good content has the following common denominators:

• It is ultra specific. You don’t want to try to solve every problem somebody may have. Try solving just one.
• It provides immediate gratification. Can somebody grab a quick bite, grab your stuff and jet?
• It’s easy to consume. Click here; listen here. Make it an easy experience.
• It has a high perceived value, which means it needs to be significantly relevant and demonstrate your expertise.
• It shifts the relationship. It should leave them wanting to know more and needing to reach out to you.

How do you meet your audience where they are? The new digital needs to go where your target audience is. Are you on the right platforms? Are you on the right Facebook or LinkedIn groups?

How do you measure success? You’ll know you are doing something right when you see your audience responding to your content and eventually to you.

Are you comfortable having an all-virtual client appointment? Are you comfortable meeting prospects online? Are you comfortable offering a no-obligation virtual consultation? These are critical elements to your digital success. Engagement leads to action, and that should ultimately lead to a client conversion, which is, as we know, the ultimate prize.

So what steps do you need to take? Let me take you through four steps:

1. Start by seeing yourself where you are. Audit your virtual presence to see what other people already see. When was the last time you Googled yourself?
2. Be sure that you build the right digital buyer persona. This step should tell you exactly where you need to go and what you need to do to generate the right content.
3. You need to create a year-long digital marketing plan, which should be a part of your larger business and sales plan already.
4. You need to execute that digital plan alongside your sales and marketing plan so that you are firing on all levels and taking maximum advantage of every opportunity out there.

The digital frontier is just one part of the sales and marketing puzzle, but it’s a critical one. If you build it right, they will come.

Brian Joseph Haney, CFS, CLTC, is an 11-year MDRT member with two Court of the Table and four Top of the Table qualifications. He is a 16-year industry veteran, operating an independent family-owned practice with his father and brother in the Washington D.C. area. Haney has been recognized in Washington Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, NAIFA’s 4 Under 40 and NAILBA’s Independent Distribution ID20 winners. A self-avowed “tech junky” and brand enthusiast, Haney launched his podcast in 2019.