Posts filed under 'Direct Marketing'
This article is by Bob Hanson
We have talked in a previous article about email for financial advisors and why most will see diminishing effectiveness unless they embrace what we call Email 2.0.
Email 2.0 for financial advisors is the next step in the evolution of how you can benefit from email marketing to build a community, convert more prospect to clients, and get more referrals.
Let’s imagine it is the end of the year and you are taking advantage of the potential of Email 2.0.
It means you have an (automated) way of building an opt-in email list of prospects (and clients). You are generating new prospects and clients through your website.
Your email database is integrated with your CRM and you can easily run reports on who is a client and who is a prospect.
You can run marketing campaigns such as “prospect meeting campaigns” which get anywhere between 2% and 10% response.
You are driving attendance at events and stimulating referrals from clients. Clients are up-to-date on your latest perspective on the economy and markets.
Sound far-fetched. It is not. Many of our clients and advisors we meet have made this transition — one that has transformed their marketing and the way they communicate with clients.
= = = = =
New, Live Webinar - The 30-Minute Financial
Advisor Marketing Plan
Register now and get your top questions answered!
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/750359331
= = = = =
Want to discuss Email 2.0 or other ways of growing your practice this year so that you reach your yearly income goals in 2011?
Send an email to request a no-obligation consultation to bhanson@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com or call 1-617-901-6886.
August 12th, 2010
This article is by Bob Hanson
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
- Sir Winston Churchill
Opportunity is everywhere. Especially for financial advisors and their marketing.
Many advisors will only focus on the downside of news, and not the opportunity for them to grow their practice. Here are 10 examples.
Which ones are right for you?
> Markets are volatile.
*** Opportunity - Communicate how your investment strategy is right for today’s volatile markets.
> Scared of a double dip recession?
*** Opportunity - Financial advisor gets PR and clients by offering protection strategies in a downturn.
> Bear Market?
*** Opportunity - Many clients will be unhappy with performance and communications with current advisor, looking to switch.
> Merger means many local employees at big company will be moving on…
*** Opportunity - 401(k) rollovers galore.
> “Do not call” list ends cold calling…
*** Opportunity - Get permission from prospects to market to them (opt-in email for example), and you’ll have virtually no competition for their attention.
> Only have a small advisor marketing budget?
*** Opportunity - Use low-cost, no-cost marketing strategies to fuel growth.
> Too many clients to service them all correctly…
*** Opportunity - Weed out the bottom 20% who aren’t profitable anyway and give the others extraordinary service.
> Dinner Seminars no longer working…
*** Opportunity - Move to another event strategy, such as webinars or educational workshops with complementary professionals.
> Print magazines and newspapers ad revenue down.
*** Opportunity - Propose a win-win joint event or ads based on lead guarantees for you, the advisor.
> Disruptions and information overload form the new Web 2.0, CNBC Economy
*** Opportunity - take advantage of Web 2.0 to attract prospects
Join us next Wednesday (May 26) …
New, Live 30 Minute Webinar on Financial Advisor Marketing in 2010
How to Gain More Prospects, Assets in the New Web 2.0, CNBC Economy
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/889450131
Includes 15 minutes of your questions live, max 100 registrants.
While it is all too common that we in business are able to discover opportunity in other people’s businesses, we all have a tendency to get stuck in the daily details of our own practices.
Seeing and taking advantage of just a few of the opportunities from news - good and bad - will help you gain clients and income.
So where’s your best marketing opportunity?
May 22nd, 2010
What is an immediate way to demonstrate experience with a given market?
How can you quickly show off your knowledge, skill, and expertise in investment management or financial planning?
What can you do to position your practice ahead of the hundreds of other advisors in your market?
How can you get “Permission” to market to prospects through email?
What is the missing link in financial advisor website marketing?
One strategy gaining popularity and creating results for Top Producers and independent financial advisory firms like Ken Fisher Investments is a “Point-of-View” White Paper.
While Ken Fisher’s firm did not invent this strategy for financial advisors, they are gaining a crowd of clients and broad publicity with White Papers, and you can, too.
Your “Point of View” White Paper
“Generate Prospects And Tell Your Story”
In short, a White Paper is a longer marketing communication — a way of drawing in your best prospects as leads.
It tells the story of how you help clients in a way that engages the very prospects that you want as clients and moves them to call you to set up an appointment.
Register here to get the rest of the story…
http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/whitepapers.html
Yours for better and more clients in 2010,
Bob Hanson
March 19th, 2010
Live Webinar Thursday for Financial Advisors: “More Income with Niche Marketing”
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/811270987
- The 7 habits of highly ineffective financial advisor marketing (avoid these for a higher income),
- A simple marketing strategy virtually any financial professional can leverage to gain more clients, at less cost and with little effort,
- The alarming reason why most financial marketing communications, including websites, produce few, if any, new clients.
And, your chance to get your top questions answered.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/811270987
All registrants will also get a new article, “How to Position Your Practice Ahead of All Other Advisorsin Your Area.” It will be emailed to you right after the event.
Also, for financial professionals and advisors interested in, or currently doing, marketing events, join us for a webinar with Osterman Research next Wednesday for…
Getting More ROI from Your Marketing Events
(Return-On-Investment from your fixed budget.)
Click here to register and get more information.
http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/021010-NA-G2MC-WBR-L?ID=701000000005Jc5
- What different types of marketing events cost, the answers may surprise you,
- How to calculate the ROI of your own individual events, and
- How to create a marketing events strategy that gets the most mileage out of your resources.
http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/021010-NA-G2MC-WBR-L?ID=701000000005Jc5
How to Promote and Deliver Engaging Webinars
Click here to share your feedback and get an early preview of results:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MSTVDYX
It only takes about 4 minutes.
Yours for greater production and income in 2010,
Bob Hanson
bhanson@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
617-901-6886
February 3rd, 2010
This blog is by Bob Hanson
copyright 2010
The end of a year, or decade, is a great time to look back and reflect on the progress we have made.
Almost exactly 10 years ago today, I was spending 6 months helping install a new CRM system at a major mid-west financial services firm (one of the first to offer mutual funds).
When I think back on the features this firm paid 7 figures for, and compare that to what is offered today to an individual advisor or small firm (better technology at less than 1% of the price), this amazing leap is one reason CRM, or Customer Management Systems as they are known (even though they do a lot more than help manage customers) is my choice for Marketing Innovation of the Decade for Financial Professionals.
To explain, let me outline the capabilities available today for people like you and me:
Contact and Marketing Database Management —
Your basic ability to keep all your contacts in one spot. You can also organize them into groups like “A Clients” and “Seminar Attendees.”
Sales Opportunity Management —
You can manage and track individual sales opportunities along with the current sales pipeline and report on how sales conversions have gone historically.
Email Communications —
The ability to send individual emails to prospects or clients and batch marketing emails to groups such as All Clients, All Prospects, or, for example, all prospects who are business owners.
Marketing Campaign Management —
A marketing campaign could be a seminar program, direct mail piece, or Marketing effort over a period of time focused on different audiences or objectives.
Automated Marketing Follow-Up —
A sequence of contacts to a group within a Campaign. White Paper downloaders, for example, may get a series of 5 emails over 10 days to prompt their requesting an individual meeting at your office.
A Full System Delivered Over the Web —
There is no reason to have to install and manage a program locally anymore. You won’t have to worry about making sure you back-up to prepare for inevitable disasters.
And web delivery means access from anywhere including your local Starbucks and, also, cheaper prices. The technical whizzes at your chosen system will manage and improve the system while you sleep.
Once you have a robust Marketing System up and running, you probably will not want to manage multiple CRM systems or even a marketing database plus an email program. You’ll save time by not having to keep the systems up-to-date with the latest data.
This type of all-in-one system is available for generally well under $50 a month and a high of, say, $299 a month for a system which does it all.
The Marketing Innovation of the Next Decade awaits you . . .
So that’s my choice and those are my reasons. What’s your choice?
Bob Hanson
bhanson@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
+1-617-901-6886
January 8th, 2010
This article is by Bob Hanson
copyright 2009
You are invited to a . . .
Free Webinar Tuesday, October 13: How to Market and Sell (Financial) Services (through Events) and Webinars
http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/101309-NA-G2MC-WBR-L?ID=701000000005FWM
You may be looking to generate new prospects and convert existing names or leads to clients.
I often speak about the three primary ways to generate meetings (qualified prospects coming into your office). They are a White Paper or Article Strategy, Meeting Request Marketing Campaigns, and Events.
Today, let’s turn to Events.
5 Ways To Attract
More Prospects And Clients From Your Events.
1. Profit from the “One-Talk, Different Audiences” Model for more prospects and a higher conversion rate to clients.
This has the advantage of saving your time and enables you to benefit from a proven model.
2. Speak at others’ events.
Many financial advisors are joining with an accountant and estate attorney to get more leads at one-third the cost.
3. Improve the title and invitation copy of your events to be more benefit oriented.
Our tests show that even changing only the copy bullets can improve attendance by 18% or more at each and every event.
4. Avoid being addicted to a compiled list of suspected investors — a list that anyone can rent or buy within target zip codes.
Instead, consider responsive lists and your Influencer lists.
5. Go beyond live, free dinner seminars.
Consider, for example, CD recordings, live webinars, and webinar recordings.
If events are at all part of your growth plans in 2009 and beyond, you must attend our free webinar next Tuesday, October 13.
For ‘How to Market and Sell Services with Marketing Events and Webinars,’ with Citrix Online, QLM has reserved 100 seats for “Client Attraction” subscribers of the 1,000 available.
Click below to register now for this free event:
http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/101309-NA-G2MC-WBR-L?ID=701000000005FWM
In this new webinar you will learn:
- how leading services firms are creating a winning event and webinar program,
- 5 easy ways to get more leads from your events and webinars, and
- how services webinars are different from product demo webinars, seminars, and trade shows and what you can do to take advantage of the differences.
Register now so you don’t miss-out.
http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/101309-NA-G2MC-WBR-L?ID=701000000005FWM
For more information . . .
Bob Hanson
bhanson@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
+1-617-901-6886
October 8th, 2009
The question came from a new advisor. The answer, though, is for everyone who wants to see a hefty increase in production.
“I’m new to the financial advising industry. One question I would ask would be how to get in front of the right people that I would like to do business with?”
But first, a vital question for our questioner . . .
Are You Prepared To Make This Shift?
The shift is in how you answer this key question: What business am I in? Are you motivated to move from seeing yourself as a “financial advisor” to becoming a “marketer of my financial advisory practice.”
That’s a vital difference that can start you off to a productive practice. That outlook sets priorities. The majority of your high-value time goes to your marketing . . . day after day, week after week.
For established financial advisors, that’s also an indispensable shift if you want to break out from the status quo and reach new levels of production.
You may have noticed financial advisors who are exceptional at what they do, yet they never achieve the success they deserve.
In contrast, you may have watched financial advisorswho are good at what they do — good, but not remarkable — who achieve extraordinary success.
So What Makes The Difference?
These six words put it in sharpest focus: The money is in the marketing.
Don’t get me wrong. To succeed as a financial advisor, you do need to be good at what you do. (We are assuming your qualifications are under your belt.)
And that fundamental shift leads to more effective and energetic marketing. We’ll talk about productive marketing in our next article.
Yours for great marketing,
Shirley Hanson
October 2nd, 2009
Christopher Columbus speaks to financial advisors today. Here’s why . . .
For 7 years he tried to persuade the governments of Spain, Portugal, Venice, and Genoa to support his “foolish” scheme to sail west to reach Asia. To them, he held out the vision of discovering a New World along the way.
Through those tough 7 years Columbus called on his strengths.
A big one was his power of persuasion. The son of a weaver, and not well educated, the language barrier could have defeated him. To get a serious hearing, he needed to be able to speak the language of the educated upper classes at the royal courts.
Columbus realized that he had little chance of success unless he could relate to his audience in every possible way.
He went way beyond just learning their languages; he took on their dialects.
According to Michael Gelb in “Discover Your Genius,” he went the extra mile and absorbed the manners and body language of a courtier. Then, he flooded them with the most convincing arguments he could muster.
Another strength was what’s been called his “irrational optimism.” Refusing to take “no” for a answer, he found ways to continue to engage the royal courts.
You know the story: Finally, Spain agreed to fund Columbus’s voyage.
What’s In It For You?
How much of this story can help you build your financial advisory practice?
* How precisely have you identified your ideal prospects?
Columbus knew exactly who his target audience was: The royal courts of Spain, Portugal, Venice, and Genoa. His vision never wavered.
* Have you questioned and listened deeply so that you inhabit your prospect’s world?
Equally important, Columbus took extraordinary steps to relate to them: learning their dialects and taking on their manners and body language. In short, he became a courtier in four “languages” and flavors.
* Can you identify and intensify your strengths — perhaps by practice and noting outcomes, maybe by coaching, possibly by study?
Simply, Columbus drew on his strengths to an extraordinary degree.
What’s more Columbus never stopped learning so that he could become the brilliant navigator he needed to be. He was ready when he had to talk about the fine points of navigation at the Spanish court. He was prepared to make his uncharted voyage with a frightened crew.
For many advisors marketing is an unmapped, uncharted voyage. To create your own map you can go to
http://marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/sample-marketing-plan.html
September 14th, 2009
Tom Peters supports branding with this striking do-or-die quote: “distinct…or extinct.”
I agree: a successful survival strategy is to be “distinct,” to put yourself in a Category of One. I part company with Peters in how to do it. Let me explain:
Branding According To Tom Peters
Way back in 1997 in Fast Company magazine, Peters introduced “The Brand Called You” concept. He described it like this:
— “figuring out how to deliver value to the customer” and
— creating “a distinctive role for yourself.”
So far, so good. Then, he adds:
— generating “a message and a strategy to promote the Brand Called You.”
Here’s where “The Brand Called You” gets off track.
Too often, the “strategy” is constructed around design, a logo, and a glossy brochure. Branding, then, becomes more about broadcasting your name and less about resonating with your desired audience. Simply, it becomes an end in itself rather than a way to fortify your uniqueness.
Exactly what do you stand for that would cause your desired prospects to choose you over every other possibility? Design, a logo, and your glossy brochure too often become a self-centered exercise that fails to provide a compelling answer.
“A Brand Called You” Brochure
I have a real-life “Brand Called You” brochure in front of me. It sounds off about “we,” the financial advisor. The text talks at the audience with phrases such as “we can offer,” “we believe,” “we aim to,” “we continue to,” “our focus is,” etc.
The tagline in the logo in tiny, easy-to-ignore print states, “The Financial Planning Specialist for Owners of Family Business.” That’s the last time we hear about owners of family businesses. The brochure never touches on the specific problems and needs of these business owners. It could be for anyone and everyone . . . and no one.
A Brochure For Results
In contrast, we think of a brochure as a conveyor belt from beginning to end smoothly carrying your reader to a result: to say “yes” to your desired action. And along the way you position yourself as a unique and inevitable choice for them and only them.
So, be wary of “The Brand Called You” if it mostly promotes you and your name. Stay away if it produces a logo, a brochure, a business card, and consistent design and doesn’t reach the core of your target audience’s deep concerns and their dreams and desires.
What are your experiences with branding?
For more marketing ideas for financial advisors you can sign up for my free report “7 Client-Attraction Secrets of Highly Successful Financial Advisors” at this web site.
August 29th, 2009
This article is by Bob Hanson.
You have probably heard of or read one of the top business books of all time, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins.
Basically, the book looked at the question, “Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how?”
Our client work, interviews, and surveys with countless financial advisors over the years have uncovered a key insight.
Whether you are at $10 million Assets Under Management and want to go to $25 million, $25 million and want to get to $50 million, or $100 million and want to get to $500 million, generally there is one success strategy that is found in those who make this leap quickly, and missing in those who don’t.
Very simply, it is…a Marketing System.
That may just be a fancy way of saying these financial professionals have a way(s) of getting the type of new prospects they want in the office each and every month.
Now with these successful Financial Advisors we find their Marketing System has some common characteristics.
They include:
— Some notion of a target market or niche; after all, if you try to be all things to all people you will likely be nothing to nobody.
— A sense of how YOU are different from the thousands of other financial advisors and professionals in your area.
— Your calling card that gets you out there in front of your desired audience. This could be an article or report, seminar or webinar, or a meeting campaign. Ideally you have 2 or 3 ways working for you at once.
— Support from others in the marketing process such as clients, formal partnerships, co-marketing through influencers, and simple joint referral relationships from others targeting your audience.
— Your marketing hits the mark for the times. Today you need to account for the “new normal” economy. The way you marketed in previous Bull Markets will likely not work well today.
Finally, there is no one path to marketing success. It means everyone has their own personal route to achieve their goals. Think Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
So, if you are serious about growing your practice and income in 2009 and beyond, we suggest you take a lesson from other advisors who have gone from “Good to Great” and make sure a marketing system is in place and working for you ASAP.
To discover more you might be interested in Bob’s complimentary recorded webinar “Double Your Assets Under Management In 36 Months Or Less.” It’s at
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/322322251
Bob Hanson, Principal
Client Attraction System for Financial Advisors
bhanson@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
+1-617-901-6886
August 17th, 2009
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