Financial advisors have a tough lesson to learn: credentials don’t close, connection does. You can have the processes, the track record, the experience - it doesn’t matter. If your prospects don’t feel you’re the right advisor, your growth will never take off.
That’s why I believe advisors could land more of their ideal clients by shifting their focus from short-term tactics to brand building. And in this article, I’m going to explain exactly how you can do that.
Given that less than 30% of advisors have a defined marketing plan, “brand building” is unlikely to be a major priority for most firms. They tend to focus on tactical plays that can recoup immediate returns - and for good reason:
But here’s the reality: no other marketing activity comes close to matching the value of brand building. Because branding is the art of building emotional resonance, and that resonance is what drives clients to select you as their advisor - often before you’ve even spoken.
The average advisor I work with experiences at least three clear benefits from brand-focused marketing:
These aren’t vague or fluffy benefits. They’re replicable outcomes—if you follow the right discovery process and execute with clarity.”
As I wrote recently, there are two kinds of brands advisors can build: personal brands and firm brands. But this is not a simple binary; most advisors benefit from both. And many of the same principles apply to establishing, growing, and optimizing both.
Here are five steps every advisor can take to build a powerful, scalable, and revenue-generating brand:
Your brand isn’t about what you say about yourself.It’s about the shared emotional space between you and your clients. It reflects a set of shared instincts, values, beliefs, and cultural signals that make your prospects and clients feel seen before the first meeting.
But here’s the catch: you can’t manufacture that resonance. We’ve all seen corporate ads that try to be “relatable” and flop–because it’s obvious they’re imitating humanity, not expressing it. They are trying to manipulate the audience - and you need to do the opposite. That’s the difference between signal and noise.
The real work isn’t about picking a few surface-level, likeable traits. It’s about discovering the real people behind the firm–their instincts, their way of seeing the world, and so much more–and building a brand that reflects that with emotional precision. It’s about uncovering the qualities that actually make you emotionally magnetic, then engineering those into every step of the modern client journey.
That might start with your sense of humor, your directness, or even one of your many worldviews. Those are entry points, not endpoints. If that sounds obvious, it’s only because the real signal is still buried, and you haven’t been shown how to extract it yet.
This is the kind of deep discovery that firms can’t do alone. It takes an outside lens, behavioral precision, and a structured process to extract what truly resonates - and then translate that into something scaleable, repeatable, and unforgettable.
It’s not just about knowing what to say. It’s about knowing who’s saying it, and why that matters. Generic templates won’t cut it. Differentiation starts by uncovering what’s already present–but usually buried–in the personalities that drive the brand.
That’s the work I do with firms. Because the traits that attract your best clients aren’t always the ones you’d think to lead with. They’re often hiding in plain sight – until we pull them forward, on purpose.
Branding is a creative process – and that can be very scary. It’s natural to default to imitation; why else do you think every other advisor’s website features stock photos of elderly people smiling on a beach?
The problem is following trends negates any value your brand might generate. Your brand should be specific and singular; it should reflect the things about you and your business that are genuinely different.
This involves taking a risk - and turning off some potential audiences. Maybe you embrace your obsession with baseball; maybe you tell a personal story that feels vulnerable to share in public. But the value here is undeniable.Your brand should feel so distinct, your ideal client couldn’t imagine trusting anyone else.
Here’s something most people miss:
You’re so afraid of being judged that you never force people to decide. And if they never have to decide, they never actually think about you.
Read that again.
You don’t get remembered by being neutral. You get remembered–and considered–by making people feel something–and letting that signal do the sorting.
And don’t forget: taking risks saves everyone time. You avoid 10 sales calls with a prospect that was never going to close; prospects narrow down their choices faster. Plus the audience that does connect with your idiosyncrasies will find you more quickly.
Most advisory firms run into a problem as they scale: when the CEO leaves the room, it stops feeling like the same company. Other advisors can’t replicate the same experience or reflect the same set of values. But this is only because those values have not been properly codified.
Think of this as a kind of prediction machine: it should be possible to determine what your brand would do in any scenario–not because of rigid scripts, but because of shared instincts. The values you define must be attached to visible behaviors that any team member can carry forward in real conversations, decisions, and client interactions.
Codifying your philosophy isn’t about making a manual. It’s about building institutional memory–so your firm doesn’t just say the right things, it feels the same in every room, even when the founder isn’t in it.
Your codified brand philosophy should be embedded at every level of the organization. This is not just about the investment style or frequency of communication; it should inform hiring decisions, office management systems, client onboarding, and everything else. For example, your recruitment process might land on two equally qualified and skilled advisors. The choice will then come down to which advisor better embodies and shares your philosophy.
When this is done right, the brand philosophy functions like DNA. It becomes an internal compass–so natural that employees don’t need a script to deliver the experience. They already know what the brand would do. They know how it should feel. And they can deliver the service you envisioned from the start, with emotional consistency.
The final step is to embed that brand DNA in every aspect of your marketing. I call this “SignalCraft” - it’s the discipline of engineering a cohesive set of cues that transmit your values and emotional resonance clearly and consistently across every channel.
Take your website: there are numerous distinct elements - from the photography and copy to the page layout and site structure. With the right SignalCraft, every single detail becomes a carrier of meaning. Every touchpoint sends the right message to the right person–before a single word is spoken.
That’s why I partnered with ProperExpression I extract the emotional DNA through deep discovery, behavioral strategy, and brand architecture; they bring in the creative execution–translating your SignalCraft into core messaging strategies and tactical campaigns like webinars, campaigns, and LinkedIn Ads - delivering a cohesive digital brand that attracts clients before they’ve even spoken to you.
Looking polished is easier than ever. Templates, AI scripts, and stock design can make any firm look the part. But looking the part isn’t the part. It’s table stakes. And it’s boring.
The smart ones focus on being memorable. Feeling right is what closes the gap. That starts with deep discovery, matures with emotional consistency, and scales with precise execution. Want to become the only option for your ideal clients?