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Brittney Castro, CFP®, AAMS®, CRPC® is the founder and CEO of Financially Wise Women, a Los Angeles-based financial planning firm whose mission is to teach women and couples the art of managing their money the fun and simple way – and she has achieved that and more!
As a regular contributor to the US market through her speaking engagements and media appearances, she has some secrets to success to share.
Women are not a niche, but they are an underserved market
As a 22-year old right out of college, Brittney went to a financial planning firm to work and quickly realised that there weren’t a lot of women in the industry. Research actually shows that less than 20% of financial planners are women. Meanwhile, a lot of women who control the money are dissatisfied with the financial industry. Brittney saw the problem and started a blog called Financially Wise Women to talk about money in a way that makes sense to women. She began to learn about branding, marketing and leveraging online, and 4 years ago she launched her own firm. She turned her blog into her company and pursued the idea of being a financial planner for women.
Women are half the population, but there are so many men in the financial industry that women are still an underserved market. So Brittney’s company has done really well, not only in serving women clients but in making waves in the financial industry. She says that company’s brand is not just her vision, it’s like her baby. Brittney has developed and created it over a long time and put her heart and soul into it. They’re up to the fifth iteration of Financially Wise Women as a brand, so it keeps evolving as the company evolves too.
Using social media to build a brand
Facebook and Instagram are the main platforms Brittney focuses on, which is because the women professionals she targets are using those platforms. Her advice to other financial advisors is to go where your audience is, rather than trying to make them come to wherever you are. Figure out where your ideal clients hang out online—whether it’s Facebook or LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter—and spend the majority of your social media time on those platforms. That’s how you get the best results.
Brittney is a great example of how to use social media and be the face of a brand without giving away her entire personal life. A common obstacle for advisors using social media is the fear of having to share all their airs and graces. However, Brittney proves that you can let your audience get to know you without letting them know everything about you. The thing about social media is that it’s social, so you do have to share some of your personality in order to attract clients successfully through those platforms.
Delegation and Authenticity
One thing that helps Brittney in this regard is having a team to help with the social media postings. In the beginning, she did it all herself, but delegation is an important part of business and as her business and cash flow grew she was able to delegate some of the tasks and responsibilities. Brittney still oversees the themes and content, but she employs somebody to actually do the posting.
She has also hired someone skilled in writing sales copy to write the weekly emails that go out for her business and help build more online courses.
Brittney believes that an easy way to stand out in the financial space is to put a personal touch on the financial content. All the topics are the same, the basic principles of finance don’t change, but the way you say it or explain it is how you can stand out and be different. People are coming to you for a personal touch. They don’t want just the generic financial information—that’s boring! Authenticity is the key because it helps build that know, like and trust factor as well as building your personal brand.
Brittney says she is old school and new school when it comes to client attraction strategies. She still has strategic alliances with referral partners like accountants and attorneys, and she still goes to in-person events to network and meet people. It’s a balance between that and the digital marketing strategies such as her blog and using social media to drive people to the website. It’s about having a real blend of the modern and the traditional as well.
The funny thing about the online world is that even though everybody is connected on all these platforms, people are starving for human connection. As an advisor, although you’re in a professional role in their life, your audience still wants to connect. According to Brittney, if you’re not doing that in some way, you’re missing out.
