How Financial Advisors Use LinkedIn To Build Their Practice

LinkedIn is the biggest professional network in the world helping to expand your network. And what is financial advising all about?

Building and expanding your network.

With many avenues to expand your network, LinkedIn is a must for building your practice. Here, we’ll discuss how to optimize your profile and how to engage with your audience. These best practices and adjustments to your profile can help you begin experiencing the true capabilities of a strong LinkedIn presence and its positive effect on your financial advising practice.

 

Why Is LinkedIn Essential For Business?

 

So, maybe you’re wondering if a LinkedIn profile is essential for your practice. Well, it IS. And it’s so much more than an online profile.

In today’s landscape, your online presence is an extension of you and your business. LinkedIn helps you establish your brand as a financial advisor. Your brand is what communicates your value proposition to your target market and target audience.

And with more than 930 million users, according to LinkedIn, you have the opportunity to expand your network through valued connections and engagement. Some of these connections that otherwise maybe wouldn’t have been made.

But, before you can begin adequately utilizing your LinkedIn to grow your practice, let’s be sure your page is optimized for it.

 

Is Your LinkedIn Optimized For Prospecting?

 

Establishing trust and building credibility is an invaluable part of becoming a successful financial advisor. A complete and well optimized LinkedIn profile can further establish your credibility and build name and brand recognition for your practice.

While optimizing your profile isn’t difficult by any means, it’s often overlooked. If you’re still reading along, pull up your LinkedIn profile and let’s work on a few aspects.

 

#1 CREATE THE RIGHT HEADLINE

Your LinkedIn headline is your chance to make a good first impression. A headline is visible to everyone on LinkedIn, regardless if you’re connected or not. 

With thousands upon thousands of search results, you want to stand out here. Your best bet is a compelling and direct headline.

Create a headline that speaks to your target audience. For example: Helping female business owners to create a financial blueprint, grow your investments, and protect your greatest assets.

This approach (helping X do Y) allows you to express your differentiator as a financial advisor.

If you overlook creating your own headline, your default headline will populate as your current company and job title. For example: Financial Advisor at Consolidated Planning. While true (and awesome), that is just too generic for your goal of prospecting and building relationships with LinkedIn.

 

#2 A BIO THAT SPEAKS TO YOUR TARGET MARKET

Your LinkedIn bio, or summary, should actually be less about you and more about your target market. This means positioning this message with “you” wording and addressing your target market’s pain points as well as highlighting what they can expect from working with you.

 

#3 ADDING YOUR RELEVANT SKILLS

Think of the top ten skills that are relevant to your career as a financial advisor. Adding these skills will help you appear more searchable to your prospects as well as give current clients and colleagues a chance to endorse you for your top skills.

Think ‘financial planning,’ ‘income protection,’ and ‘investment strategy,’ instead of your soft skills like Microsoft Word.

These ten skills are another chance for you to showcase your experience and position yourself as a leader in your niche market.

 

#4 ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Being a financial advisor requires you to get comfortable being uncomfortable at times. Asking for recommendations on the bottom of your profile is another example of how you can step out of your comfort zone for the benefit of your practice. Ask a few close clients if they would mind sharing their experience with you on your page.

This type of social proof helps to humanize you and build third-party credibility.

Through these optimization efforts your profile can actually rank higher. Yes, even higher than a competitor of yours. 

What does this mean for your practice?

You will help the right prospects discover you and more easily connect. Leading to a deeper network of those who can relate to your messaging.

 

 

How Can You Engage With Your Audience In A Way That Makes Sense For Your Practice?

 

Once you begin building the right audience, you need to engage them. And engage them the right way.

 

#1 Post relevant content

The content you’re creating and sharing should seek to answer top financial questions, concerns, and areas of interest to your target market(s). Further, posting “real life” content helps to diversify your page and add a “real” element to your online presence. Today, it’s not enough to just post content but the goal of that content should help others see you as a real person with real solutions for your audience. Some content ideas may include:

• Industry news
• Hot topics
• Probing questions
• Firm news
• Monthly newsletter

 

#2 Join groups and communities

Joining groups and communities on LinkedIn are a great avenue to gather with like-minded individuals. Here you can share ideas, best practices, and even give and receive referrals. But it’s not enough to just join these groups and follow along. Try actively participating in a few ways:

• Comment on posts that you find interesting
• Repost relevant articles
• Post questions within the group – common pain points, news topics within your target market: What is this industry dealing with right now? Highlights?

As a financial advisor, it’s important to be in-the-know on all current trends and discussions and LinkedIn groups and communities can help you do just that.

 

#3 Make it about them

No matter what anyone says, trying to sell something right out of the gate will never work. Never. Think of yourself here, how many times have you received a LinkedIn message with someone selling something and you NEVER respond. Us too. 

Rather than leading with a sales pitch, advisors at Consolidated Planning seek to build connections and relationships rooted in mutual understanding and alignment before a prospect hears about any products.

So, how can you engage with your audience that makes it about them? Try to find common ground to talk about your prospect in a few ways:

• Run a nurture campaign to re-engage with former connections via CoPilot
• View and research individual profiles – asking about a particular experience or highlight you found interesting on their profile.
• Reach out to connections you find interesting. Take a genuine interest in who they are, why they do what they do, try to learn something. Ask them questions as it relates to financial advising to build your knowledge. Have you worked with an advisor before? What went well? What didn’t? Why do you like your current advisor?

 

Can LinkedIn Help You Build A More Successful Financial Advising Practice?

 

In the competitive industry of financial advising, you can’t afford to not leverage your LinkedIn.

Before you can harness the power of LinkedIn for prospecting, it’s essential for you to confidently say your target market(s) is the RIGHT market for you. This is important because your messaging will be crafted to meet the needs of this market. Your ideal client will think your content is just for them.

If you can’t say that with certainty, talk with our team of recruiters about how Consolidated Planning helps you determine the right target market(s) for your practice.

 

 

2023-158826 Exp. 7/2025