If you’re a financial advisor seeking to do more business in your local community, then increase community awareness about your firm by optimizing your office location.
How?
Be a drop-off location for items needed year-round within your community.
By opening your office up to your local community, you’re now welcome to repeatedly post to your town’s community Facebook page and other free social channels regarding your drop-off location and the respective cause you support.
Remember, it’s repetition that keeps your firm top-of-mind and, therefore, available for when a community member realizes they need financial guidance.
(See related post describing how financial advisors can participate in local Facebook communities.)
Here are three ideas to increase community awareness, with examples:
#1 — Birthday Toy Drive
#2 — Local Food Bank
#3 — Ongoing Seasonal-Item Drive
Related: Financial Advisor 12-Month Calendar of Blog & Social Media Content Ideas (special report)
#1 — Birthday Toy Drive
Rather than limit yourself to helping just during the holidays, consider collecting toys year-round to be given to children in need for their birthdays. Be sure to work in conjunction with a local nonprofit, increasing your advisory firm’s credibility.
#2 — Local Food Bank
By helping your local food bank year-round, it’s appropriate to post once a month as a friendly reminder for community members. In addition, you could add seasonality to your food bank collection program, increasing your postings and ultimately your firm’s exposure.
For Example:
Perhaps around the Easter, Thanksgiving and winter holidays you encourage local residents to fill a bag with the respective seasonal food items. The added timing creates deadlines, enabling you to post community reminders more often.
If this seems too time consuming, try contacting your local high school and ask for student volunteers. Most seniors need volunteer hours to meet graduation requirements. Let a volunteer do the heavy lifting for you, perhaps even managing your social media communications in regards to your charitable efforts. For the latter, seek out a student attending an English honors class. Also, this approach could result in a financial advisor recruiting opportunity.
Related: Attract More Female Investors (special report)
#3 — Ongoing Seasonal-Item Drive
Consider partnering with a nonprofit agency and collect items that are in demand during certain times of the year, e.g., winter coats, summer camp donations to sponsor children in need, etc.
One benefit to this approach is that your message changes. The core message is consistent, i.e., our office is a drop-off location. However, your creative message changes and, therefore, continues to draw attention rather than be glossed over.
In Closing
Keep in mind, excellent photo opportunities exist with each of the above programs. For example, posting a photo as your collection pile increases. Also, your efforts increase community awareness through additional publicity.
For example, keep count of all donations and follow up with a press release to local news outlets, e.g., Community members joined together to help ABC Financial collect more than 1000 gently used pairs of sneakers for children in need.
Overall, by maintaining year-round charitable efforts, your firm presents as an engaged community member, ultimately increasing credibility and referrals from your involvement.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE:
For other ideas to increase community awareness, check out my eBook: Duplicate Yourself: Small Business Piggybacking & Partnership Marketing Strategies. Learn how to capture more AUM from your marketing efforts.
Before You Go
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Independently Yours,
Sharron