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The power of digital platforms as a credibility builder cannot be questioned, according to an elite broker whose content experiment proved to be lucrative.
Speaking on The Adviser’s Elite Broker podcast, Redom Syed said that his first mission as the founder of a new broking business, Confidence Finance, was to build his reputation.
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In 2015, Mr Syed decided to try something: write an article on what he would do if he was the boss of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
In that post, he made predictions about the future of lending at the time, which turned out to be “pretty much spot-on”, Mr Syed said.
“[I wrote about how] assessments rates are a little bit funny. There were some issues with living expenses [and] variable income that was a little bit funny. I just thought [certain] changes would make sense based on my understanding of how other countries around the world were doing it,” the Confidence Finance CEO added.
“At the time, people are talking a lot about LVR caps and things like that. By getting it right, I got a lot of credibility.”
At the time, Mr Syed said that there were not many others in the industry that were talking specifically about these issues and observations.
“I said what was going to happen [and] much of it happened. There’s a written record of it online with a date stamp on it,” the CEO said.
“I got a lot of business coming through the door with people trusting the work that we do. Then we just continued on from that.”
Mr Syed, who was previously a Treasury economist, admitted that his journey into broking was fuelled by a passion to improve financial literacy among borrowers after his parents lost their jobs and, subsequently, their home. As such, it made sense for him to make education a focus in his social media and content marketing efforts.
“We just keep educating [through] new blogs, [providing] new insights, new analysis. Now, we have a reputation in the market,” the Confidence Finance CEO said.
This strategy also proved to attract customers that Mr Syed’s business wasn’t specifically targeting.
“We don’t specifically target investors. But investors come to us a lot more, probably because of what we speak about and the prism with which we analyse lending,” the CEO said.
The Confidence Finance CEO noticed that, increasingly, his articles were resonating more with investors based on the responses he was getting. In realising this, the brokerage shifted its content marketing strategy to focus on showcasing how it is helping investor clients.
According to Mr Syed, the key to developing a brand online is being consistent and unique. This is what he learnt by posting content daily on an online property market forum.
“If you’re going to talk about things that people can read about everywhere, you might not get that much traction. I’m on LinkedIn every day and I get to see some of the cut-through that some brokers are getting at the moment,” the CEO said.“There’s a unique element in what they’re saying and in the way they’re delivering it.”
To find out more about how Redom Syed grew his brokerage, Confidence Finance, listen to the latest Elite Broker podcast here.
[Related: Treasury economist turned mortgage broker on how he is educating borrowers]
