4 Ways to Make the Biggest Marketing Impact With Limited Resources

Narrow your niche

Defining your target audience is the foundation for simpler, more impactful marketing. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, you can better focus your efforts on getting in front of them.

For example, if your clients are primarily preretirees, going viral on Instagram and TikTok might be fun — but it won’t be the most effective way to connect with your target audience. Only 8.1% of Instagram users are 55 or older, with just 3.2% older than 65 (source).

Instead, consider how your prospective clients spend their free time. You might have greater success engaging with local community groups or workshops (both online and in person), professional associations, or church groups — all places where your audience is more likely to gather.

To narrow your niche, consider the following:

• Location
• Current challenges (retiring soon, divorcing, paying down debt, etc.)
• Net worth
• Profession or industry
• Values and beliefs

Choosing even just two or three main differentiators can be enough to build out a strong ideal client avatar (ICA). Once you’ve defined your niche, consider where your audience is likely to spend time or seek out information, both online and in person.

With a defined audience and a clear sense of where to reach them, you’ll be able to say “yes” or “no” to the overwhelming amount of marketing opportunities at your disposal.

Choose 1 place online & show up consistently

You don’t have to be everywhere online — you just have to be in a place where your ideal clients will encounter you. Maybe that’s LinkedIn if your target audience is midcareer professionals, or Instagram if you serve younger families and individuals. Start with one platform or marketing channel (this also includes emails, videos, guest publications, podcasts, etc.) and make sure it aligns with your niche.

Remember, spreading yourself too thin can quickly cause burnout. Imagine going from never working out to hitting the gym six days a week. It’s an unrealistic standard to set and maintain.

Choose one platform and build a realistic but consistent schedule you can stick to. Even dedicating just one hour to interacting with others and posting one to two times a week on LinkedIn can help build traction. Or you might want to send a newsletter once a month, if that’s what feels most manageable for you.

The magic here is consistency. When you're consistent, you start to build expectations with your audience. Eventually, they’ll come to expect your posts, emails, etc. After regularly interacting with your content , loyalty and trust will start to grow. This is all part of the “know, like, and trust” (KLT) marketing concept: People need to see and hear from you on a regular basis to become familiar with who you are and feel confident reaching out to you.

You may find it worth investing resources (your time, energy, and/or money) to learn about the best practices for the marketing channel or platform of your choice. You’ll want to ensure your content is optimized to both reach and resonate with your ideal audience.

You can always add in more platforms over time, but start with mastering just one so it becomes second nature before you expand.

Learn how to repurpose existing content

“Repurposing your content” simply means transforming one piece of content into multiple other forms of content.

Typically, a piece of content (like a blog or video) will be cut or tweaked to create posts that are optimized for different platforms. However, you can also combine multiple pieces of content, like short blog posts, to create a single more in-depth downloadable or gated lead generation incentive.

For example, one five- to 10-minute YouTube video can be chopped up into multiple five- to 30-second Instagram and Facebook reels. The written YouTube video script can also be turned into one or two blogs, and those blogs can become several LinkedIn Posts and Instagram captions.

Of course, it’s not necessary to do this for every piece of content, but your content creation efforts can become extremely efficient with a bit of planning and forethought.

Leverage your existing circle of influence

Creating your own local and online influence is a long game, but you can accelerate the process by seeking opportunities with those who already have a large audience. In this way, you get exposure and credibility before building up your own.

Reach out to niche podcasts or local publications to write a guest article or do an interview. Offer to speak at a conference, or partner with a complementary professional — like an estate attorney, CPA, or real estate agent — for a joint webinar or workshop.

Tap into your existing network and connections to make this happen. Over time, your efforts will compound on each other as more and more prospects learn who you are, and eventually, convert into clients.

When it comes to marketing as an advisor, the trick is to dial in on what works and ignore what doesn’t. Focusing your marketing strategy on the right things can yield significant traction — with much less effort.

Rachel is a content marketer with 7+ years in financial services. Founder of Your Best Investment Copywriting, she specializes in producing quality, well-crafted content for professionals and other marketers across the financial sector.

A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: To learn more about this and other topics, check out some of our webcasts.

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