I’d like to tell you all a fun fact about me:
I love moving.
Yep, you heard that right. I love packing, color coding boxes to rooms, creating clever labels for each one making me smile as sweat drips down my back and loosens the grip on my fingers. Moving is a chance to reinvent, redecorate, and start fresh.
The hardest part about moving for me isn’t hauling a mattress upstairs or washing all the scarves I used as packing material for my kitchen glasses or even the cardboard, abundant like glitter, making its way into every nook and cranny of the place. Nope, for me, the hardest part about moving is making new connections.
Connecting with new people is hard.
I met a friend for dinner the other week. It was one of the first times we spent time together and I felt rather nervous. Dinner seemed like a safe idea though—if all else failed at least I got a delicious meal.
I walked into the quaint Indian restaurant a little early, as I often am, and saw her sitting at a table. Making my way over, I felt a punch of nerves. What if we don’t get along? What if this is awkward? Will I actually make a friend today?
Before fully sitting in my seat, I complimented the sleeves of her sweater, ruffly and whimsical like a butterfly. Before long we found out we have the same sense of style, we also enjoy the same books, movies, and TV shows. By opening up, I did make a friend that night.
If I had left myself and my passions at the door I might not have had the same experience. Your passions are tools to help you connect and build relationships with other people, and that is what true content marketing is all about.
Passion as a tool
As financial planners, you often talk with your clients about how money is a tool to help them reach their goals and find success. I like to think of passion in the same light. Your passions are tools to help fuel and fuse connections with other people.
Your passions open a window into who you are as a person. They help people understand what you care about and what means the most to you. You ask your clients each and every day to use money as a vehicle to live the lives they want. By sharing your passions with them as well, you demonstrate that you not only give great advice, you live it too.
Let’s take a look at an example. You might be really interested in hiking. Now, that doesn’t mean that you only have to write about hiking from now until forever, but it might mean that you share a post about hiking on your social media or you tell a story about a friend who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail as an introduction to a blog post. These are small ways to make your content personal and unique to you which will help attract the right clients.
Sharing a passion, interest, or hobby with someone can help build a spontaneous connection. This olive branch is a great way to start building trust with the people you meet. When you are open with others, they tend to be more willing to open up around you too.
This is especially important when looking to establish trust in your professional relationships.
Passion in practice
If you are completely sold on the idea of being more open and transparent about your passions through your marketing, this post has been successful. But besides just wanting to do this, it is important to know how to incorporate it into your current marketing strategy. Here are a few ideas to help get you started:
Website: Include passions and hobbies in the “About Me” section on your website to give your audience a feel for who you are.
Social Media: Share articles that you find interesting or topics you feel strongly about on social media. As long as you aren’t phrasing anything as direct advice (compliance can breathe again) you are able to share personal content on your social channels
Blog: Branch out from education-only content. I love educational content. Crafting a core content library for your audience is a great way to develop trust and establish yourself as a thought leader.
But another equally important aspect to your future and current clients is your business. You can write a post on podcasts that inspire you, financial books that every investor should read, or a glimpse into your own financial housekeeping such as how you budget, why you invest, what your ideal retirement looks like. These posts give you the forum to connect with your audience about the things that you are passionate about.
Infusing passion in your marketing is a great way to grow and support your brand. These actions don’t have to be big, but they do need to be intentional. Weaving in personal branding into your overall marketing strategy isn’t always easy, but when done right can help build and sustain relationships with your current and future clients.
We love learning about what our clients are passionate about. It helps us build a unique content plan tailored just for them. Interested in hearing how? Schedule a time to chat with us.
