Branding for IFAs
We can help you with your branding
February 2019
Branding is about giving your business an identity. It is a concept that extends far beyond the marketing of “brand name”. A company's brand represents their market identity: who they are, what they do and what kind of quality they provide.
Logo
A professional independent financial adviser (IFA) brand or logo is not just about graphic design. Your corporate logo represents your business, it's your first step in the visibility of your business.
The presence of a professional logo design enhances the visibility of your business and gives a distinctive identity for clients to associate with.
A logo will always have a professional impact, it is something you will use on your website, business cards and letterheads. It's something you will be remembered by.
We can offer you a free logo with your website, after all nothing beats doing your own branding without the cost.
IFA Website
We firmly believe that building a professional IFA website is much more than just creating an attractive design. We understand the importance of engagement and navigation. Your website needs to be intuitive and easy to use for both your existing clients and future prospects.
Blogging
A static site with no regular new content and no engagement with visitors won't do so well on Google. We help by updating your content and providing a stream of newsletters.
You can create a blog, Google likes to see natural growth so one or two articles a month may be all that's needed. We then add them to your site using meta tags (titles and descriptions), images and alt tags to reach Google. We can and do write blog articles for our clients, obviously we have to charge for this service.
Our marketing expert Graham is experienced in writing guest blog posts to help you reach a wider audience.
Social media
Increasingly, more professional financial adviser businesses are now embracing social media as part of their client marketing and communication strategies. Please be aware that anything you do put on social media needs to be compliant with the FCA.
Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of making improvements in order to gain more exposure in search engine results in order to gain exposure in Google search engine results. Hopefully this will lead to more traffic to your website.
Newsletters for IFAs
Keeping in touch with your clients using personalised newsletters are proven way to maintain and build and maintain relationships with clients. This is something we help you with, we provide quarterly branded newsletters to help you to reach your clients. It is always worth considering the benefits of using a newsletter to communicate with your clients.
Start with Why you do what you do!
According to Simon Sinek, the fundamental difference between the “Apples” of the world and everyone else is that they start with “why.”
What does that even mean? To explain this concept, Sinek has developed what he calls the “Golden Circle,” image pictured right. The golden circle has three layers:
Why - This is the core belief of the business. It's why the business exists.
How - This is how the business fulfills that core belief.
What - This is what the company does to fulfill that core belief.
Sounds simple, but what Sinek found is that most companies do their marketing backwards. They start with their “what” and then move to “how” they do it. Most of these companies neglect to even mention why they do what they do. More alarmingly, many of them don't even know why they do what they do!
Because Apple starts with "why" when defining their company, they are able to attract customers who share their fundamental beliefs. As Sinek puts it, "People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it." Starting with "why" makes Apple more than just a computer company selling features, and that's why their products have flourished while their competitors' products with similar technology and capabilities have often flopped.
3 Key Marketing Takeaways from Simon Sinek's “Start with Why”