If you have a passion for a hobby and are trying to attract new clients, you might consider a strategy similar to the marketing program adopted by a U.S. financial services firm that capitalizes on its principal’s love of fishing.

Main Line Financial Advisors LLC of Pottstown, Pa., has a roster of about 700 clients, but principal Al Matarazzo — a long-time fishing enthusiast — says the clients he has brought into the business over the past decade or so tend to enjoy fishing as much as he does.

“We have a good 15%-20% of our client base that is into fishing and outdoor activities,” he says.

In fact, the company’s marketing platform has included the outdoors since the firm’s inception in 1988. But although Matarazzo and his associates, including his father, generally included fishing-based activities — such as days out on their boat — in their client appreciation events, it wasn’t until the past year that they decided to turn it into a more formal marketing endeavour.

So, in addition to more fishing-based local outings, Matarazzo plans to host courses on specific angling-related topics, such as fly fishing. He also intends to organize seasonal trips for larger groups, offering fishing paraphernalia as client gifts and marketing directly to fishing groups. Main Line recently sent out a mass mailing to local fishing buffs to generate interest in an upcoming course.

Fishing is the perfect icebreaker, Matarazzo says, because it’s free from the pressures of sales presentations and gimmicks. And in the course of spending five or six hours outdoors, doing something people love to do, it is only natural that conversation will flow from family to other areas of life. He adds that the nature of the sport tends to generate personal reflection.

“The basic bond of fishing opens up a box of emotions and leads to all kinds of discussion that normally I don’t think you’d ever have with someone,” he says.

And, he adds, “Business will inevitably come up.”

When it does, another advantage of taking prospective clients fishing surfaces. “When you’re spending a day on a boat, you have a captive audience,” Matarazzo says.

His goal is eventually to whittle down his roster to 50 or so top clients, all of whom will be avid anglers. “Ideally, my life will be spent talking to them, helping them with their needs and spending a lot of time fishing with these people,” he says.

As the advisory business matures, honing in on narrow niche markets will make more and more sense, says Dan Richards, president of advisor consulting firm Strategic Imperatives Ltd. of Toronto: “One of the approaches advisors in an ultra-competitive market will have to take is to focus their prospecting efforts.”

One way an advisor can differentiate him- or herself is through enhanced expertise. For example, an advisor can provide specialized services to lawyers or small-business owners. But familiarity can be just as potent. An advisor, for instance, may spend all his or her free time at a golf club, slowly building trust among its members until they consider him or her the go-to person for investment advice.

Needs a softer touch

But, Richards points out, the interest-based strategy takes more patience — and a softer touch — than those involving specific areas of expertise. “The key is that you’re not explicitly marketing yourself to those folks,” he says. “As soon as people sense that the only reason you’re there is to hustle for clients, the whole purpose of the exercise vanishes — because it’s all about credibility and trust.”

On the other hand, such an approach can be a catalyst for generating new business, says Julie Littlechild, president of financial services research firm Advisor Impact Inc. of Toronto. Although she has seen Canadian advisors tie hobbies and interests to special client events, she hasn’t seen any advisors focus entire marketing programs on such activities. And, she says, a strategy such as Main Line’s only makes sense if the area of interest is a genuine hobby for the advisor. Attempting to attract clients with something that is of no interest to the advisor will not resonate well with clients.

She also cautions advisors to keep their target market clearly in mind. Advisors need to be aware that not all enthusiasts will be in the advisors’ target market. In that case, advisors should not be tempted to go this route just because it fits with their personal interests; it can run counter to their business goals.

@page_break@But, if it does fit the business plan, niche marketing is exactly the approach an advisor needs to stand out from the crowd, says Jeff Thorsteinson, founder of advisor marketing consultancy YouFoundation Inc. of Vancouver.

As well as providing an automatic filter — an advisor won’t waste time chasing down every possible lead — this strategy also simplifies the practice and, perhaps most important, builds the advisor’s brand identity. “It creates a way for people to tell a story about you,” Thorsteinson says.

He encourages all of his advisor clients to find and cultivate niche markets. They’re not all based on hobbies, he says, but they should be tied to something an advisor genuinely cares about. One advisor, for example, works only with clients involved in building charitable foundations; another is slowly changing his practice to revolve around his love of music — hosting concerts for clients and prospects, for instance; and another targets Vancouver’s gay and lesbian community.

Applying your passion to your business can create a happy advisor and happy clients. “If every financial advisor worked with people with similar interests, we’d have far less stressful lives,” he says.

But not everyone thinks this strategy will bring in business. Although Jim Rogers, founder of Rogers Group Financial Advisors Ltd. in Vancouver, thinks Main Line’s fishing program is interesting, he can’t imagine why a client would “bite.” Rogers believes it would be a mistake to judge a financial advisor’s ability by whether he or she shares a common interest.

He believes clients are far more interested in knowing about an advisor’s qualifications — his or her designations, experience and areas of specialty — than about his or her hobbies. IE