How can you productively incorporate new technology into your marketing? Here technology can include CRM, websites, social media, webinars, and email for newsletters and marketing, and more.

Consider this example…

A new client reported to us about a conference put on by a well known firm, expert on the topic of growing advisory practices. He brought back the impression that “higher net worth prospects” don’t use the web AT ALL to help select their advisor. Really?

That the web and your website have little to no importance in your marketing is a common belief among advisors. To counter this, I made a point of talking to a few advisor clients this week who target millionaires and who also have effective websites. As it turns out, all have signed up at least one high net work client in Q1 2012 who “found us on the web.”

The point is not that you need to throw all your marketing budget online, but I would make two recommendations to virtually all advisors:

#1 - A good website — one that describes your value proposition — helps drive email opt-ins and email communications with your prospects and clients, and it will pay for itself quickly.

#2 - Keep in mind every marketing technology should be viewed in the context of your overall marketing plan. Prioritize and use the ones most helpful to you.

We conducted, for example, a recent survey and found professionals are most likely to use LinkedIn above and beyond any other type of social or online marketing. So if you are actively building your COI or professional network, at a minimum update your profile, write a compelling and Search-Engine-Optimization worthy “summary,” and go ahead and make a few connections.

Yes, I wish there were one “magic bullet” solution out there for all advisors for any marketing situation, goal, market, or marketing challenge. There is not. Be skeptical of even internationally recognized experts who tell you there is only one path to success or one way of marketing today.

There are principles of success and productive marketing that work again and again. And one of them is picking the tools, tactics, and technologies which reach YOUR target market and support YOUR growth strategy. That’s how you will vastly increase your odds of hitting your growth goals.

Here’s one marketing tool that makes your website more powerful. In addition, it can help you to become an instant expert, get new prospects in the sales funnel, and attract and educate the clients you want. Get immediate access to our special report here. http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/wp.pdf

The media grabbed Greg Smith’s accusations about Goldman Sachs and enthusiastically broadcasted them far and wide. This flap has caused investors, even those with an independent advisor, to become more skeptical about the advice they are receiving.

Investors suspect a conflict of interest everywhere. On top of the “muppet” scandal advisors are losing clients and assets under management to direct investing. Research from Cerulli Associates, Inc. reveals that this channel grew 19% from 2008 to 2010. And it is now the “second biggest distribution channel after the wirehouses.” And the direct-investment platforms are offering more extensive services to satisfy current investors and entice more investors to take investing into their own hands.

With these forces pulling investors away from financial advisors what’s an advisors to do?

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1. Something Written/Free Report

2. Events (not limited to just dinner seminars), and

3. Meeting Campaigns (2nd Opinion Campaigns, Referrals, Wealth Management Discovery, etc.)

When you look at this list, you may have the insight that #1 and #2 are optional for every advisor marketing plan. Whether you are conscious of it or not, though, you are running a 1-to-1 meeting campaign every time you ask for a meeting, referral, or individual review.

So the logical question is, why not “sell them in bunches like bananas” and ask for the meeting in bunches?

That would be a 2nd Opinion Marketing Campaign which virtually any advisor can profit from in 2012.

We invite you to download our Free Checklist - “Ten Surefire Ways to Unleash the Power of Second Opinion Marketing for More Clients - Now!”
#10_Link-2nd Opinion#>

Easy, direct access for instant download.
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This can happen, and here you’ll find the path to reach this happy state.

Recently, I persuaded my son-in-law (Ron Covey) to be interviewed. In 2007 he was the third person to be invited to join a new business (MRops). The business grew from a one person startup in the founder’s spare bedroom to a thriving 100 person firm with offices in Doylestown (Pennsylvania), Minneapolis, London, and Hyderabad, India.

The company is not in your field, yet that’s no reason to discount its path to success. Many rewarding lessons, we believe, come from outside your industry. The process this market research firm followed for recognized results can propel your practice to the next level or carry a new firm to a happy beginning and beyond.

Looking At The Person Behind The Business

Every business starts with the who, the person behind it. So which of the qualities of the founder, Ian Kiernan, helped to guarantee his success?

He was a known and respected person in the industry, bringing deep experience and tested insights to his new firm.

* You have the unique experience you bring to your practice (which could be personal, from other career situations, and through your years in your practice). Capitalize on it.

He talked to leaders in his field beforehand to test his ideas to fill the void he saw (conducting his own informal market research).

* You, too, have contacts you can tap to help you identify and make the most of your opportunities — friends, clients, networking groups and, perhaps, an advisory group.

Ian is smart and confident. Equally important, he is adaptable. Over the years he “changed the company 4 or 5 times” to better serve his clients and to grab opportunities.

* The markets and the global economy you and your clients face are careening in new directions. Are you mired in the past? Or are you adjusting and amending to address lightning-fast change?
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“It looks like every other financial advisor’s brochure,” he complained. So Andy (not his real name) went surfing on the web and found us.

Deadly Brochures

What’s wrong with the typical brochure? Three big myths are perpetuated in producing the usual advisor brochure.

Myth #1 - An Eye-Catching Brochure Makes Things Happen

You need more than a drop-dead gorgeous design to get the pay-off you are looking for from your brochure. Or to say it another way, design alone cannot rocket your brochure to the results you want.

Myth #2 - The Ultimate Goal Of My Brochure Is To Showcase My Professional Status.

Two costly mistakes here:

1 - It’s all about me, the advisor.

2 - It becomes a boring recitation of name, credentials, and experience.

Yes, you do need to present your best case. Yes, you do need to counter the suspicions and mistrust (some of it justified) about financial services that are epidemic. Yes, you do need to demonstrate how you put your clients’ interests first.

But you don’t need to bore them. With precision, select your desired audience(s) for your brochure. They won’t be bored if you can talk directly to them with concern about their stresses and anxieties. They will listen if you show them exactly how you can make their lives easier.

Myth #3 - My Readers Are Smart: They Will Figure Out What To Do Next After They See My Brochure

We call it relying on “Wishful Thinking.” What’s the answer?

Face the fact that your readers will not bother to figure out what action you want them to take next. You need to decide what that is ahead of time and spell it out in your brochure.

Then, you must do what it takes to prompt them to take that action.

Warning: These myths are failures that are most common in template brochures, brochures left to your printer to produce, or brochures created by a graphic designer who is not a savvy marketer.

So when we work with Andy, we will steer him away from these fatal flaws.

How To Avoid A Deadbeat Website

And Andy’s brief message introduces a failure we find in most advisor websites. It’s rampant not only in template websites but also in those produced by many web designers and developers.

How did Andy find us on the web? He’s in Oregon, we’re in Philadelphia. He’s never heard of us, we never contacted him.

So he did a search for financial advisor brochures. Out of “about 1,300,000 results (0.17 seconds),” according to Google, we came up first in a natural search (not paid advertising).

Wow! Was that lucky?

Well, no. We’ve been intense students of Search Engine Optimization since we put up our first website in 1996. We knew exactly what to do to attract financial advisors to the page on our site that talks about brochures that can pay off for you.

Again, this is not on the same planet with a template site that puts only your company name in the title tag on every single page and calls it Search Engine Optimization. We can’t tell you how many websites we’ve seen that fit that description. There is much more to SEO than that.

While surfing the web, Andy found us in first place and checked us out. Our website met his expectations (that takes more than Search Engine Optimization), and he made the call immediately!

For a brochure and website that pay off, contact us at 215.753.2620 or Shirley@marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com.

Let’s look ahead in 2012 for marketing tactics that will continue to help advisors attract new prospects, clients, and assets. These tools and strategies worked in 2011. Can they be marketing powerhouses for your marketing this year?

1. Try Change Versus More of the Same

Just like the Clinton campaign election slogan in 1992, which came on the heels of 12 years of Republican leadership, new prospects are likely to respond to your approach if you are offering an alternative to the way they have been planning or investing in recent years.

Your theme could be, for example, Taking Control of Your Finances, Sheltering Wealth from Market Volatility, or Making Money in Sideways Markets. The bottom line is: If you offer the same planning or investing strategy your prospects are getting now from their current advisors, why would they go through the trouble of switching?
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But what if “weird” is really typical? What if calling you “weird” is a compliment? What if your best prospects are “weird?”

That’s how Seth Godin looks at it in his provocative book, We Are All Weird. Let him explain.

This book is his “manifesto about the end of the mass market.” He adds, “The way of the world is now more information, more choices, more freedom, and more interaction. and, yes, more weird.”

Seth Godin defines “weird” as: “Weird by choice, people who have chosen to avoid conforming to the masses, at least in some parts of their lives.” Or said another way, weird is a “tribe — belonging to the small circle of people who share interests.”

It is a reason why trying to be all things to all people fails — whether it’s in your message, in your “I can help everyone” attitude, or in your fear of missing an opportunity. The alternative is to become essential to a few. And here are three ways financial advisors can do that:

Go Deeper Than A Niche

Think beyond niches to narrow your sights to the level of the “tribe.”

In following my spirit of being enticed daily by learning something new, I’ve been listening to Frank Kern (who enjoys being weird). Several years ago he started selling dog training courses on the Internet, and his success made him an Internet marketing legend.

His rewards did not arrive from selling the ultimate course to the mass of dog owners, but in selling a dog training course for owners of labs, one for poodles, one for Rhodesian ridgebacks, another for collies, etc.– about 600 courses in all.

An example for financial advisors comes from a client who, when we began working with him, thought of his niche (his desired audience) as people in transition. His audience is now collections of people in specific life-changing situations. They are inheritors, the divorced or divorcing, the bereaved, business owners ready to sell, and others.

Each is experiencing different pains, different needs, different choices. Each gets a distinct message.

Prove That You Understand

You can call it a case study, a scenario, a case history, or something else. Within the confines of Compliance you can let a “tribe” know that, yes, you understand and empathize with their problems and you can help. Further, you and they share the same desired outcome.

Clients, a talented husband and wife team, described a scenario where they worked with a business owner who was looking at retirement and business succession issues. That’s the tribe they are helping. They demonstrated their expertise further by being able to develop what they called a “Recovery Plan” to counter the damage of the continuing downturn on that business to make it much more salable.

They can help business owners in this situation take control of their future by addressing their lack of sufficient retirement income and helping them generate a road map for an orderly, more rewarding business succession.

Follow a Fast, Easy Route To Reach Your Tribes

The fastest connection is the Internet. It can be through your website which speaks to your tribe(s). And only them. Forget everyone else. Or it can be by email or through a webinar or a video on YouTube. Or through a print ad that sends them to your website, or by other routes.

Ultimately, what are you giving your tribes? A choice.

The choice could be as simple and as profound as your Realization Process, which helps them define and realize their desired future.

And you explain how more than 30 years of experience contributed to creating and refining the process. You reveal the exact 4 steps that give them their path to successful living. And you show how you back up the process with a caring staff, sound business systems, and organizational ability along with a limited client list.

Bob and I give thanks to you for the amazing abilities and dedication you contribute to your clients’ lives and for your power to stretch our capabilities.

For more information contact me at
Shirley@MarketingPlanFinancialAdvisor.com
215-753-2620

I find Yogi Berra irresistible because he makes me laugh and think.

Most people who come to a web page leave within about 10 seconds. How are you “gonna stop ‘em?”

In about 10 seconds they scan your website, maybe glance at your images, and leave . . . or not.

Jakob Nielsen, “the reigning guru of Web usability,” has this to say: “Users are skeptical. They know that most web pages are useless, and they behave accordingly to avoid wasting more time than absolutely necessary on bad pages.”

Whether your website is a starter template site, where you spent a few minutes filling in the blanks to get on the web right away or it’s a custom website patiently crafted over months, chances are you are not holding on to your website users.

“Unless your writing is extraordinarily clear and focused, little of what you say on your website will get through,” Nielsen warned.

So how can you be extraordinary? For answers I invite you to go to my new concise, complimentary checklist, “One Dozen Must-Haves For A Website That Gets Results For You.”

The checklist is at
www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/webmusthaves.pdf

There you’ll discover a system that stops your website users in their tracks by giving them what they are looking for and, then, hands you what you expect from your website.

Check out this checklist now for a valuable, not a useless website

For more information contact me at
Shirley@MarketingPlanFinancialAdvisor.com
215-753-2620

With these 3 Advantages in your corner you’ll be able to:
- reduce the loss of assets under your management and
- boost the chance of gaining assets now managed by others.

These are the same 3 Vital Advantages that enabled a few advisors to take the recent plummeting markets in stride.

How did they do it?

>>> Advantage #1 - Their clients respected their value and recognized them as a trusted advisor by their side.

This appreciation by clients didn’t happen by chance. These advisors created a rich portrait of how they were different from all other advisors. Then, they diligently got out their Category-of-One Message.

It touched clients and prospects through business cards and brochures to websites and personal, not canned, newsletters to how they handled client requests and questions.

>>> Advantage #2 - They had a well-thought-out plan and a process for managing their clients’ money over the long term through the shocks and surprises that the financial world and global economy would throw at them.

And that plan was not a one-size-suits-all straightjacket, but a custom design for each client.

And they made sure that their clients were involved in creating the plan and that they understood what it was and why.

>>> Advantage #3 - They had a Communication Plan in place.

It wasn’t one they had to scramble to devise on August 5.

This was NOT a situation where they spoke in “professionalese,” hid behind charts, graphs, or statistics, or made all-knowing predictions. Their communications were down-to-earth and personal.

“As a client admitted, “When I see plunging markets and resulting panic, I still get a knot in my stomach. This happens even though I’ve lived through several tumultuous markets like this one in the 18 years I’ve been in the field.”

Through the years he developed and articulated a distinct wealth management approach. His communication plan has been in place for a few years now

He offers workshops and small, informal get-your-questions-answered luncheons, always reinforcing the same underlying message. His well-defined approach and its principles are clearly laid out on his website and through White Papers.

Every month he sends an e-message to his clients fortifying his underlying approach.

So what did he send out to his clients and prospects about the crashing markets and fear of a new recession?

The theme was “The Story Continues” . . . . It quoted relevant sections from past newsletters. To many in the media everything had changed. His reassuring message, which was no surprise to his clients, was that nothing really had changed, and his consistent message explained why.

These 3 Advantages can help you skillfully maneuver through a crisis such as when Global Markets lose more than $1 trillion in a single day.

And it can do more day after day after day:
— to prevent loss of assets currently under your management by clients who are “diversifying” and
— to pull in assets managed by other less Advantaged Advisors.

May all the Advantages be yours in 2011.

The reaction of advisors to the latest crisis is as varied as investors’ reactions. It reminds me of 2008 all over again. Then we had some clients who proactively solidified client relationships and picked off some great new ones. Most advisors, though, dug in and played only defense for a couple years.

While few of us like tough times, the majority of clients will judge us on what we do when they really need us. Generally, the best way to help those relatively few in need is to be ahead of the problem and communicate your calming message to groups of clients in “bunches like bananas,” as sales guru Tom Hopkins is famous for saying.

Here are 3 ways to do that.

1. Custom Update Letter, Email, or Newsletter

A simple letter updating clients on events and your take on it will let them know you are actively engaged and how you are staying the course/or making adjustments as needed.

Where we saw the most success in the past downturn was where advisors reminded clients of their planning strategies and investment philosophy and stuck to their “message.” Think clarity and consistency.

Remember, there is a lot of noise out there and you cannot expect clients to be living finance and investments as you do, or perhaps even remember their last review

2. Webinar and Web Meetings

Now might be the time to embrace new technology or use it in different ways. In volatile situations, you can’t wait for the end of the quarter to do a market update. A web seminar may be the answer.

In the last downturn, one client saved about 200 hours by doing most education and updates with webinars rather than individually (and lost only one client during this rough period).

Web seminars and web meetings are great tools to not only “tell them” but also “show them.”

Check out this link for more info on this strategy.

www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/unleashwebinars.html

3. Meeting Campaign for New Prospects

You can bet on it, there are some referrals and past prospects who are not getting the results or attention they crave….

That’s where you come in with a simple 2nd opinion or “Consultation” meeting campaign. Even a short email or one page letter with a specific call to action can pull in a handful of quality new clients as it did for one advisors in 2009.

Oh, and don’t forget, your Influencers will generally be ignored during these times, so reach out to them with these tactics as well. At this time, when others are lying low, you can demonstrate your confidence in your work and your competence.

Who knows, a few Influencers might become clients.

If you would like to talk with us about a Downturn Prospect Meeting Campaign, give us a call at 1-267-323-2619.