Stop Marketing to a Profile & Start Connecting with People
Every advisor I’ve ever worked with has had some version of what they call an "ideal client profile."
It’s usually a list of demographic data describing the ideal client they want to attract.
But here’s the reality: the entire premise is flawed from the beginning. Because that profile? It doesn’t describe a real person. It describes a preference. A fictitious, self-serving wishlist masquerading as a strategy.
What most advisors define as their "ideal client" is often just a projection of who they wish would walk into their office. It’s aspirational, not actual. It’s based on broad generalizations about what would be good for the advisor, not what’s true for the client.
And that disconnect creates a problem from the very first word of your marketing. Because when your message is built on fictitious generalizations and demographic data, it fails to meet a real person where they are.
The Problem with Profiles
Profiles feel practical. They help you feel like you’re narrowing your focus. But in reality, they’re too shallow to do any real work.
Demographics like age, profession, income, and net worth can give you surface-level context, but they don’t give you connection. They don’t explain why someone’s hesitating, what they’re afraid of, what they’ve tried before, or what they secretly hope you can solve.
That’s why marketing built on profiles feels flat. It’s cold. It’s calculated. It might check the right demographic boxes, but it doesn’t speak to the heart.
And in financial advising, where trust is everything, a message that doesn’t connect is a message that doesn’t convert.
Great Marketing Is Empathy At Scale
Most people overcomplicate marketing because they fail to understand it at a fundamental level.
Everyone’s chasing tactics. Tools. Frameworks. Systems. Strategies. Every advisor wants more leads, and they’re often buried in trying to find the right CRM, the right funnel, the right automation strategy.
But they’re missing the foundation. They’re looking at the machinery and ignoring the engine.
The truth is, none of it works unless it’s rooted in a first principle. And the most foundational principle in all of marketing is this: empathy.
Empathy is the foundation of all great marketing. It’s the reason great marketing connects and mediocre marketing doesn’t. Because empathy is what enables you to discover your prospect’s real problems. And genuinely caring about their experience is what empowers you to solve them.
Without empathy, marketing becomes a guessing game. With empathy, it becomes a conversation with someone you care about.
So yes, marketing involves tools and tactics. But they only matter if they’re in service to understanding and serving the person on the other end. And that starts with empathy.
Why Personas Matter, and Profiles Miss
This is where personas come in.
At Inbound Producers, we don’t start your marketing with a list of traits. We start with four fully developed personas. These are fictionalized but deeply realistic representations of the people you want to reach because they are crafted from your real clients.
These aren’t surface-level avatars. They’re psychological blueprints.
Each persona is built with:
A specific set of frustrations, fears, and goals
A detailed backstory that reveals context.
Actual phrases pulled from real client conversations.
The internal objections they’re wrestling with.
The emotional payoff they’re seeking—not just financial.
These personas give us the clarity and depth to create messaging that sounds like you’re speaking directly to the person reading or watching—because in a very real way, you are.
The Heart of Our AI Systems
These personas don’t just sit in a strategy doc. They are the foundation of your custom content GPT—an AI engine we build and train to speak in your voice. But more than that, it understands who it’s speaking to.
Every email, blog post, social caption, and lead magnet isn’t just tuned to your tone. It’s tuned to their mindset and their felt needs.
So instead of one-size-fits-all messaging, you’re sending precision-guided communications. You’re creating resonance. And resonance is what drives trust, engagement, and conversion.
When a prospective client reads your content, it feels like it was written for them. Because it was.
That’s the power of persona-based marketing amplified through AI. It feels human because it’s grounded in human understanding, even though it’s delivered through automation.
The Strategic Value of Real Connection
When it comes to turning up your marketing, volume is less important than relevance. And relevance comes from seeing, naming, and speaking to what your prospects are actually dealing with—not what your profile sheet says they should care about.
When we stop thinking like marketers and start thinking like humans, when we root every message in empathy and every asset in psychological clarity, our marketing starts to reflect the way trust is actually built.
One person at a time.
Want to stop chasing leads and start connecting with the right ones?
Download the AI-Powered Lead System and see how top advisors are building systems rooted in empathy, powered by AI, and proven to deliver.
