In marketing, buyer personas are pretty commonplace. Savvy business owners know that the better you understand your audience, the better you can give them exactly what they want.
Well, financial firms can get the same kind of clarity from a similar source.
Just like a retail business wants to know who’s downloading their app or signing up for their rewards program, financial professionals need to understand who they’re advising, what their prospects care most about, and how to reach them effectively.
That’s where investor personas come in.
What’s an Investor Persona?
An investor persona is a complete profile that represents a segment of your ideal clients. More than just a snapshot of your demographics, it looks deeper into things like goals, fears, life stages, communication preferences and financial behavior.
It’s like building a “character” based on real-world data and insights. You might never meet 55-year-old “Careful Carrie,” a woman nearing retirement who is nervous about market volatility, but you’ll definitely meet clients just like her. And if you understand her priorities, you can tailor content, advice, and outreach strategies that ring true.
Why Investor Personas Matter
Personas help financial firms in several ways.
First, they allow you to create highly personalized content. Instead of blanket newsletters or generic social posts, you’re able to speak directly to each client’s concerns, whether that’s paying off student loans or preserving capital through retirement.
Personas also guide your segmentation by showing you the best ways to group contacts in your CRM, what type of messaging they receive, and how to target them at different stages of the game.
Finally, personas help support your strategic decisions. From choosing the right marketing channels to planning new products and services, they keep you focused on what your clients actually need – not just what you want to promote.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Investor Personas
1. Start With Your Current Clients
Begin by identifying patterns among the people you already serve. Pull basic data like:
- Age
- Income range
- Occupations
- Investable assets
- Financial goals
- Risk tolerance
- Life stage (single, married with/without children, retirement, etc.)
Try to identify any existing clusters or trends. Do you serve a lot of mid-career professionals? Newlyweds looking to build wealth together? Retirees trying to navigate an ever-changing market? The harder you look, the more patterns you’ll see.
2. Dig Deeper
Basic demographics are great, but they only tell part of the story. Dig deeper by sending short surveys to your clients, reviewing your client onboarding notes and thinking back on actual conversations you’ve had with the people you serve.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Some examples:
- What financial issues keep you up at night?
- What motivates your investment decisions?
- How do you define financial success?
- What are your communication preferences? (Email, text, phone call, social media, etc.)
Learning how your current IRL clients think and feel will help you develop more realistic personas.
3. Define Your Core Personas
Now that you have some real-world data to work with, it’s time to breathe some life into your new imaginary friends. Aim for two to four personas that reflect your most important audience segments. Give each one a name and a short description.
“Careful Carrie” is in her mid-to-late 50s. She’s married and looking to retire in the next five years. She prioritizes preserving her existing capital over aggressively trying to grow it, is a bit nervous about market volatility, regularly reads Kiplinger content and prefers in-person meetings.
“Determined Daniel” is an ambitious young professional, 28 to 38 years old. He’s single, open to risk and prioritizes building wealth. He gets the majority of his financial content from YouTube and podcasts, responds well to educational tools and apps, and wants transparent, digital-first service.
Each persona you create should feel like a real person. Think of it as creating a practical reference guide for your clients.
4. Put Your Personas to Work
You put plenty of time into building them, so make sure your personas actually benefit your strategy.
You can use them to guide your blog posts and email content. For example, Carrie would greatly benefit from retirement planning tips while Daniel might appreciate a crash course in crypto.
Personas will also help you tailor segmented outreach campaigns using different subject lines, calls-to-action or special offers relevant to specific clients.
Meet Your Investors Where They Are!
When financial firms are willing to understand their clients as people who exist outside of the spreadsheet, marketing becomes more relevant, advice becomes more personal and trust becomes a whole lot easier to earn!
Are you ready to take your financial firm to the next level? Mischa Communications can help. Let’s talk about it.