Here’s what top producers want to know: what’s in it for me or “WIIFM” as we like to call it. If you want to attract top producers you need to explicitly communicate your value and what you can offer them. What’s the easiest way to do this? Strategically increase brand awareness. We’re talking about leveraging tools like public relations and social media marketing to “WOW” recruits. Let’s dive right in.
So you’re an independent broker-dealer with an impressive network and notable infrastructure to support your advisors. Does anyone know about you or the value you can offer top producers? Get your story out there! Public relations can play an integral role in increasing your firm’s brand awareness. It can help differentiate your business from the competition and create some major referral opportunities. Even more importantly, news coverage serves as an objective third party endorsement in attracting new recruits and even strengthening existing relationships. It will be hard for recruits to ignore you if your story is validated by websites and magazines they read on a daily basis.
In our highly technical, fast-paced marketplace, public relations won’t get the job done on its own. This is where marketing and social media come in to make up what we like to call PR 3.0 (which is similar to The PESO Model™). We live in an SEO world. Recruits are turning to Google for guidance and answers, and you better hope that your firm is at the top of those results. Between public relations, social media and strategic marketing you can start to increase your brand awareness in a way that’s hard to ignore, especially on search engines. Want to learn even more about how to improve your SEO? We tackle that topic here.
So, what are the other tools that you should be using to increase brand awareness? Our top two recommendations for effective results are social media and a 2015-friendly website. Don’t kid yourselves, social media is not a fad and it’s not going away anytime soon. In fact, social media has become even more “business friendly” this year. Having a presence on Facebook, Twitter and especially LinkedIn will not only boost your SEO, but they’re the perfect place to communicate your value proposition. Believe it or not, recruits are using social media to learn more about your business and why you may be a great fit for them. Create profiles that reflect your brand and then start to make your presence sizzle for optimized results.
We can’t say it enough, websites matter, ESPECIALLY now. Google has a new search algorithm that will be released this week, which is designed to favor mobile-friendly websites. For advisors who have outdated websites, this could be the kiss of death. A recent InvestmentNews study found that 41% of advisory firms are not optimized for mobile use. If you want to attract top producers you NEED a fresh website that not only showcases your value to recruits, but is Google and mobile-friendly.
So you’ve taken your brand awareness to the next level with some of our recommendations. What’s the next step? Don’t let the PR, marketing and social media cycle stop now. Communicate and leverage your recruiting wins to continue to help future recruits find you.
