Despite our best efforts, the financial services industry is still a whole lot of sameness. Blue as a brand color. Messaging about security. ETFs that look a lot alike.

Investors often don’t engage because brands seem so similar. They can’t tell one from another, so they never get to the point of actually moving their money.

This guide explains why financial services companies must build unique brands and how to do so.

Why Building Asset and Wealth Manager Brands Matters

Financial decisions, including how to invest for retirement, save for college, or give gifts to family members, are deeply personal. They have a significant impact on people’s livelihoods, families, and sense of security. When people choose a wealth or asset manager, they’re deciding who to trust with their financial futures. Selecting the wrong one could have devastating consequences.

That’s why so many freeze up when choosing investment providers. So many firms seem so the same, it’s hard to identify the one that makes them feel secure about entrusting their money and futures to, much less enthusiastic about it. However, they might get excited about partnering with a brand that makes them feel heard, understood, valued, and empowered.

Distinctive branding helps financial service firms by:

• Building trust. Financial crises. Industry scandals. Underperformance. The financial services industry has a trust issue. It’s critical for firms to imbue their brands with trust to attract investors.
• Creating emotional connections. Finance, by nature, is a numbers business. It’s hard for most people to connect with numbers. However, it’s easy to engage with the hopes, dreams, fears, and goals associated with dollar amounts. Brands that acknowledge and speak to these emotions will stand apart from blander number-crunchers.
• Speaking to your target investor. Tailoring your brand to the people you are targeting is critical. It will help ensure they connect with it and not view it as a commodity.

9 Steps to Building an Outstanding Financial Brand

To move beyond being just another financial institution, you must create a strong brand that clients will engage with and trust. Here are nine steps to get there,

1. Define your brand’s value and key messages

Begin by identifying three to five core values that define your financial company, who it serves, and what makes it unique. Avoid generic values like integrity, good service, and focus on technology, which most financial institutions can claim. Your values must align with the principles that guide your decisions and distinguish your approach to wealth or investment management.

For instance, a financial planning business focused on women could have brand values emphasizing inclusivity, education, empowerment, and strong communication. These values should inform everything from solutions offered to marketing language to services provided to online and in-person experiences.

Once you’ve defined your values, develop key messages that translate them into language that will resonate with the people you’re targeting.

Start by developing a value proposition that explains what makes your firm different from — and better than — competitors. Include about five to ten messages about how you address your investors’ concerns. Also, come up with a brand voice that sets the tone for how you communicate your messages. Examples include friendly, authoritative, and supportive.

Bottom line: The best key messages are specific, authentic, and used consistently, as appropriate. Competitors should not be able to say the same things about their companies.

2. Develop a visual identity

A polished, consistent visual presence builds the perception of consistency and stability. It helps the investors you’re targeting get a clear picture of your organization, especially after repeated touch points.

Typically, a visual identity includes a logo, color scheme, fonts and type styles, imagery style, and design elements or patterns.

Whether people experience your brand digitally or in person, they must recognize it as uniquely yours. It’s the only way they will build trust with your brand and do business with you. If your visual style is too similar to your competitors’, prospective investors will not be able to distinguish you.

Use these tips to develop your unique visual identity:

• Check out your competitors’ visual branding to see what they are doing, identify commonalities and overused elements, and find ways to differentiate yourself.
• Choose two to four brand colors that convey your values while standing apart. For instance, an environmentally focused investment firm might choose earth tones, and a metals-focused investment company might use gold or silver. Try to avoid the ubiquitous financial services blue. It may seem conservative and secure, but it is also indistinguishable.
• Select typefaces that look professional but also reflect your brand personality. For instance, sans-serif fonts suggest modernity and innovation, while serif fonts are more about respectability and history.
• Document your brand so everyone at your firm can use it appropriately, even for simple things like emails.

Pro tip: Test your brand elements with people similar to those you are targeting to ensure they resonate. Online surveys or in-person focus groups can be great ways to test brands.

3. Launch a branded content marketing program

Content marketing allows you to demonstrate your financial expertise in materials that can build trust by positioning you as an expert in your area of finance. In addition, branded content marketing can improve your visibility in search, both in traditional vehicles like Google and in artificial-intelligence-based summaries and compilations. Content provides opportunities to get in front of prospective investors and encourage them to do business with your firm.

Focus your content development efforts on addressing your prospective and current clients’ most pressing questions and the pain points that you identified during your brand development process that you can uniquely solve. The financial firms winning the content marketing game provide genuine value, which helps build trust and eventually leads to business growth.

It’s critical to become THE go-to resource for information in your financial niche. Do this by posting quality material regularly, at least several times per month. This is the minimum needed to establish your brand as a reliable source of information for investors and search engines.

4. Maximize your brand’s social media presence

Many financial brands struggle with social media. They either avoid it entirely or post dull corporate content that investors don’t engage with. Still, working closely with compliance, it is entirely possible to achieve success in social media.

Start by selecting platforms where your target audience spends time. For instance, business owners typically spend hours every week making new connections on LinkedIn. Wealthy senior investors often spend time staying connected with family on Facebook. Younger investors generally seek out information on Tiktok and YouTube. Just make certain you develop content appropriate for your audience that fits naturally in the social media environment.

5. Humanize your financial services brand with client stories

Wealth and asset managers can often seem cold and aloof. That’s because much of what they do is numbers-based and technical. However, the results they get for clients can make their lives much, much better. That’s why it’s a good idea to make client stories a core component of your financial services brand.

Client stories take abstract financial concepts and turn them into relatable, understandable narratives. They can be effective across different platforms, including your website and social media. Just make sure you focus more on the client than your brand. Let them be the hero in their own narrative.

Here are our top tips for producing client stories:

Identifying potential stories

• Develop a system for client-facing staff to flag potential testimonials and document them.
• Create incentives for clients to share their successes, within compliance rules, such as a quarterly spotlight program.
• Review client interactions for positive outcomes.
• Develop a net promoter score or client survey program that allows clients to share their positive experiences.

Handling compliance

• Create a compliance-approved template for gathering written consent from clients to share their stories.
• Develop and document a review process involving legal and compliance teams.
• Eliminate financial details as necessary while preserving the emotional core of the stories.
• Focus on personal outcomes rather than specific products and solutions.

Effective testimonial formats and platforms:

• Short 30- to 60-second video testimonials for social media and your website.
• Written case studies for email newsletters and sales presentations.
• Audio snippets for podcasts or hold messages.
• Client panels at events or webinars.

The most effective financial service case studies focus on outcomes realized told in an emotional way.

6. Focus on the overall brand experience across all touchpoints

Your brand isn’t just what your company says or how it presents itself. It should be reflected in every interaction with a prospect or client. This includes everything from digital experiences to call center scripts.

Some critical — often overlooked — touchpoints to pay attention to include:

• Digital interfaces (website, mobile app, online transactions, social media): Ensure your brand is presented consistently across all online channels, including the most technical and transactional aspects of your business.
• Client service interactions: Ensure messaging and language are brand-appropriate in all interactions with prospects and clients.
• Onboarding: Train employees on all aspects of your brand starting day one. (Don’t stop there. Keep offering brand refresher sessions to prevent coworkers from picking up bad habits or forgetting things.)
• Physical locations: Create environments where clients and prospects experience your brand in the real world as they do virtually.
• Communication materials (statements, notifications, email newsletters, collateral): Many firms focus their branding on the advertising and marketing collateral, but it’s critical to ensure all touchpoints reflect your brand, including things like text messages.

7. Invest in quality marketing

Cutting corners on various aspects of your brand marketing sends signals about how you might handle more important matters, like your clients’ finances. It’s also critical not to be too extravagant, because it could make you seem careless with money. Strategic investments in key assets that can be repurposed across different channels and parts of the marketing process typically provide better returns than creating large volumes of mediocre content or a few exquisite pieces.

Focus on:

• Professional photography, instead of generic, overused stock images
• Clear, concise copywriting with no financial jargon
• Well-designed digital assets that work across devices
• Premium printed materials that reflect your brand standards
• Video content with proper lighting, sound, and editing.

Pay extra attention to things client’s reference frequently — welcome kits, educational resources, account statements, and your website. These long-term touchpoints reinforce brand perception after a marketing campaign transforms prospects into clients.

8. Launch a seminar or webinar series

In today’s virtual world, human interactions can make brands stand out. That’s why many are turning to seminars, webinars, and other events.

Financial services firms that position their experts as thought leaders build trust and authority by showcasing their experience and insights. Go beyond publishing original insights and engage in conversations at seminars, webinars, and other events. It adds a dimension to your thought leadership that makes it stand out. People who attend these types of events are typically further down the sales process and are more likely to become clients.

9. Monitor brand perception

Even the best-managed firms may do something that disappoints a client and makes them angry. A missed call, bad investment advice, or a financial loss could result in negative online feedback. The digital ratings and reviews that can raise a firm’s profile online can also quickly harm it.

To maintain brand integrity on digital channels, implement a review management process. Platforms like Chatmeter can automatically aggregate reviews from Google Business Profile, Yelp, and industry-specific sites. It gives you the power to respond quickly to feedback, monitor sentiment trends, and gather client feedback that can help you improve your offerings and operations.

Effective reputation management involves:

• Monitoring brand mentions across review sites and social platforms
• Responding promptly to both positive and negative feedback, within compliance requirements
• Analyzing review themes to find ways to improve your business
• Encouraging happy investors to review your business.

Financial Brand Building: The Final Word

If prospective clients aren’t investing with you in adequate numbers, it could be because they don’t understand what makes your firm and approach unique or they don’t have a positive impression of your brand.

Leverage the expert tips in this guide to burnish your firm’s brand reputation. Take things to the next level and get fresh ideas for differentiating your brand from the competition by scheduling a free brand consultation with Dan Sondhelm.