Three financial adviser initiatives: Holborn Assets
By Mark Battersby, 30 Nov 16
In the latest of our series of insights from financial advisers across the world, Keren Bobker, senior partner of Dubai-based Holborn Assets sets out three initiatives she is taking to build the business along best practice lines.
Marketing
I don’t work as part of an in-house team; I have taken a different approach to marketing and over the years have built up a brand of my own. As I am self-employed, I see myself as running my own mini business under the Holborn umbrella, with the benefits of a highly personalised approach, flexibility and the backing of a major company. Several extra-curricular activities have resulted in my personal brand flourishing.
For the past eight years I have been writing a weekly column in ‘The National’ newspaper, published by the Government-owned Abu Dhabi Media Group, based in the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi, and covering all of the Emirates. My column ‘On Your Side’ deals with all kinds of financial and consumer issues, including banking, taxation, financial services, legal issues and many queries regarding the UAE’s labour laws. The column is very popular and has a weekly circulation in print and online averaging 70,000. It can be time-consuming but it is important to get it right and in addition to the published questions and answers I reply to many of the numerous enquiries I receive each week, on a personal basis.
In addition to the column, I have a monthly slot on the UAE’s foremost talk radio station ‘Dubai Eye’, where I tackle various personal financial issues. I also write for many UAE publications including Time Out and Esquire magazines and run my own blog www.financialuae.com which has built up significant traffic over the years.
I have been featured in BBC articles and on UAE TV programmes and have become something of a go-to commentator for much of the Dubai media. All this is in addition to running a financial planning practice. However the media profile and continuously giving useful advice means that clients seek me out and the traditional financial services marketing routes of contacting people out of the blue are not required. It has also led to invitations to run workshops on a variety of topics for well known companies in Dubai.
Social media, especially in a place like the UAE, where just about everyone is online, means that having a good reputation is more important than ever before. True holistic advice is not just about financial planning but also about life plans, especially for people in a new environment with laws and systems that are very different your home country. Very often unsuspecting people get caught in situations that can have serious consequences. Being an adviser who is available to answer queries on a variety of topics builds trust, as does a regular media presence, but at the end of the day you need to be human, caring and approachable too.
All too often I see companies as well as advisers posting and sharing undoubtedly useful articles, but failing to interact on a human level. People want to deal with other people, not just an inanimate corporate profile, and my method of working does this, whilst still promoting the Holborn brand by association. Naturally companies need to have measures in place to ensure that their representatives are good ambassadors and this approach does not work for everyone. I find however that being more than just a corporate face pays dividends.
Tags: Holborn Assets
