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It is that time of year again — time to review your marketing efforts and build out your 12-month marketing plan so you can start the new year successfully. Whether you are a small or large business, you should build an annual marketing plan to grow your firm,
There are four building blocks that create a well-balanced marketing plan for financial advisors: infrastructure, awareness, lead generation and conversion. I will walk you through each block so that you have a clear understanding of what they are and how you can build your 2015 marketing plan.
Building block #1: Infrastructure
Begin with the infrastructure block, as it is the foundation of the plan. Start by reviewing your branding to see if it is working or if this is an area that you need to focus on this year. Your brand includes your company name, logo and colors. Are you happy with your brand? Does it resonate well with your clients and potential clients? If so, then you can move on to review your messaging.
Messaging is the key words and phrases that you use to define your firm and that differentiate you from other financial advisors. These key words and phrases should resonate throughout all of your marketing. It is vital to ensure that you are sending out the appropriate message to your clients and potential clients.
The next step is to review your website. Is the design outdated? Do you have calls to action where you are asking people to sign up for a free portfolio review or for your newsletter?
If you have not changed anything on your site in a couple of years, then you will want to focus some of your marketing efforts on it this year.
It is easy to get stuck in the infrastructure stage of the marketing-planning process. Even though infrastructure is very important to your marketing plan, don’t fall into that trap. You need to move on to the other building blocks.
Building block #2: Awareness
Build your awareness. Get your name out there. You will not get new clients if no one has ever heard of you. There are many ways to build your awareness: word of mouth, speaking engagements, direct mail, social media, sponsorships, newsletters and so on. Make sure that you are doing a couple of them and doing them consistently.
Building block #3: Lead generation
Lead generation is where the fun begins, as this is when you see the fruit of your labor. People often get frustrated with marketing, as they think they are doing all these marketing activities and nothing is paying off. In these instances, they are only building awareness and not doing lead-generation activities.
For financial advisors, most leads tend to come from client and center-of-influence referrals and events. Ensure you have client and center-of-influence referral processes in place. Then, schedule events every quarter to which you invite clients, their friends and any other contact that is a potential client. It can be an educational event or a social one. The choice depends on which resonates better with your clients and prospects. At each event, be sure that you have a conversation with every new guest and capture their contact information so that you can follow up with them later.
Building block #4: Conversion
Now that you have all of these leads, do everything possible to convert them to clients. In the conversion block, you can market one-to-one or one-to-many. One-to-one marketing would be personally reaching out via email to offer a free consultation or scheduling a lunch with your client’s friend who seems eager to learn more about your services. One-to-many marketing would be sending out a monthly email newsletter with a request to “Schedule an Appointment” button or mailing a postcard with your phone number to call for an appointment.
Conversion is a process and takes time. You need to constantly stay in front of your leads so that when they have a need for your services, you will be the easy choice.
Building an annual marketing plan is not complex or time-consuming. But make sure you are including the key ingredients. These building blocks make it easy to see where you need to add or remove some activities. Tailor your plan for you and your firm and make it easy for you to implement. It is fine to start out doing one thing in each of the blocks. Just be consistent with whatever you choose.
Mandy Fisher is a marketing manager for clients of Wealth Management Marketing, Inc., a firm that provides outsourced marketing department services to Registered Investment Advisors and fee-only financial planning firms. For more information, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.
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