“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.

When financial advisors engage in financial planning with clients, they center their work on the unique individual or family in front of them. They concentrate on their hearts, minds, and spirits.

Yet, too often, this focus on the human being is LOST in the advisor’s marketing.

What’s Lost Is Found!

Here are three practical ways to put the human (your audience) into your marketing:

1 - Put Heart into Your Bio

Take the typical advisor bio, for example. It’s rigid, remote, and reserved. The human connection never emerges from the prison of being professional. That prison (You could think of it as putting yourself into solitary confinement) takes the form of name, experience, and credentials. Nothing escapes that reveals your humanity — your heart and spirit — nothing about the life that’s in you.

So what can you do that you are not doing now?

There are hundreds of ideas in Peter Guber’s new book, “Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story.”

Not any story will do. Define and “connect the heart of your story to what-is-in-it-for-them” (your target audience). That’s how you’ll get a story that will ignite the passion of your audience and move them to action.

Here’s one that will reveal what you can do with your bio.

Peter Guber taught a class at UCLA on film production management. At the end was a student presentation highlighting their professional qualifications, artistic goals, and personal motivation before studio executives (who could hire them or advance their careers).

Earlier in the semester Guber had overheard a student, who like the others had set her mind on a career in film making.

She was talking about her motivation: her father couldn’t read. A farmer, visually illiterate, he “recognized a Stop sign by its shape.” His hands would shake as he held a restaurant menu. The student was passionate about wanting to tell her father’s story and help others like him.

When her turn came for her student presentation, she delivered her resume filled with the schools she had attended, her degrees, her grade-point average, and video clips from her student films, and then she sat down.

Guber was “heartsick.” It wasn’t the story she needed to tell to make others want to hire her. “It was,” he wrote, “as if she forgot that people in business are humans, too.”

He concluded that relationships are the foundation stones of every career. He went on, “No empathy, no relationship. Do resumes and bullet points ignite empathy? No! Does telling to win? You bet!”

2 - Beware of Bullet Points

Speaking of bullet points, what about your pitchbook and Powerpoint presentations? Are they distant and aloof bullet points? Or do they spring to life and ignite empathy with stories?

3 - Craft Case Histories

Another place you can “Tell to Win” is with case histories or scenarios. And this can be done within the bounds of compliance.

You are, of course, the hero or heroine of the story. Your clients faced a challenge. Next, they took action (working with you) to meet their challenge, and then experienced a resolution or transformation.

Here’s an example for a business owner. With quick brushstrokes you could present a little about a company’s history and its current situation, next add the daunting hurdles crossed with your help, and then reveal the outcome (perhaps an exit strategy such as a sale that successfully set up the business owner for the rest of their life).

The ultimate connection is not an ordinary face-to-face encounter that presents facts. Nor is it the internet or Facebook or LinkedIn.

Ultimately, the heart in your message moves your audience to action.

And here’s a new resource for you. Tired of giving referrals to CPAs and getting nothing back? Try a CPA partnership instead to use these services to help generate new clients.

http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/cpas.html

—

It can be as simple as making sure one new marketing tactic is working for you month after month. And if you set up your marketing system correctly, these campaigns will virtually be on auto-pilot.

Rather than touching on only one tactic here, we introduce 3 ways to grow your practice. Please follow the links to get the details on how to profit from each one.

1. Growth Can Be As Inevitable As Taxes

Tired of giving referrals to CPAs and getting nothing back?

Try a CPA partnership instead to use these services to help generate new clients.

http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/cpas.html

(You’ll get a white paper here.)

2. Seminars Too Expensive And Not Working?

Consider the power of online meetings and seminars (along with email marketing) to convert more clients and gain more assets.

http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/unleashwebinars.html

(You’ll get a Free Webinar and Summary Checklist here.)

3. Marketing Through White Papers

Want a calling card that breaks through the clutter and helps get appointments with new prospects?

Try Marketing with White Papers.

http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/whitepapers.html

(Free Webinar and Summary Checklist here, too)

Yours for at least one more quality client per month!

Bob Hanson
Partner, Client Attraction System for Financial Advisors

To attract the qualified prospects you are looking for, the answer can be your Marketing White Paper (Free Report).

Here you get 7 winning advantages you, too, can gain from this hot marketing strategy (one that follows current compliance and B/D guidelines).

1 - Generate More Qualified Prospects –

If you are doing any marketing today, you know getting “Permission” from prospects is the key first step to engaging prospects in the sales process. A White Paper can quickly turn your sales introduction from a “pest” to a “welcome guest” for more qualified prospects, new clients, and assets under management.

2 - Educate Prospects, “KO” The Competition –

One benefit of an educational White Paper is that it sets you apart from other advisors. Done right it can:
- Establish your expertise on solving a problem,
- Introduce your point-of-view on investment strategies and/or financial solutions, and
- Showcase your process for solving a key financial problem fast.

You will be seen as an expert in your selected topics such as Retirement Planning, Retirement Income, Wealth Management, 401(k) Rollover, etc.

3 - Gain More Appointments Without Costly Seminars –

Surveys estimate that marketing seminars only reach about 20% of your possible target audience. Reach your entire potential target market with an educational White Paper and draw them into your sales process.

4 - Attract More Clients through Referrals and Influencers –

Having trouble driving referrals from clients and Influencers? Do they see you as just like every other advisor in your area? No longer! Just hand them the White Paper with your name on it.

5 - Access Online and Social Media Marketing Channels –

Simply, you need a powerful marketing offer to get attention and leads from online and social media channels. Offering your own White Paper will help drive and convert traffic, leads, and prospects for you.

6 - Tap into “Money in Motion” –

It’s easier to get in “front of a sale about to happen” than to have to convince prospects or clients to budge now. A White Paper on the right topic will help you identify prospects with money in motion and prompt them to come your way.

7 - Boost the Power of Your Marketing Tools –

A White Paper can become your marketing champion to differentiate your practice and help you collect leads both online or offline.

You can call on a White Paper to attract qualified prospects, for example, from a website, a print ad, or a webinar.

And for more about Webinars we invite you to attend our complimentary Webinar “How Financial Firms and Advisors Can Unleash the Power of Winning Financial Webinars.” Click here to find out more and to sign up:

http://www.yourconferencecenter.com/r.aspx?p=1&a=UpfrEIrLrmrWVk&C3H=QLM

Bob Hanson
Partner, Client Attraction System for Financial Advisors
Ph: 617-901-6886

This summer the field is wide open to make new connections and ramp-up your marketing unless . . .

You are as busy as you want to be with ideal clients or ahead of your goals for the year. Then, enjoy a break this summer.

For everyone else, here are 5 easy ways to beat the “summer marketing blues:”

1. Reactivate COIs and Old Prospects.

Even if you gain only a couple extra clients or referrals, isn’t that worth harvesting formerly fallow fields?

2. Test a New Direct Contact Strategy such as a post card, email, or letter to drive meetings.

While others will be on vacation, you will have virtually no competition for your prospect’s attention. The numbers actually tilt in your favor.

3. Consider Updating Your Core Story for Your Capabilities Deck, White Paper, or Website/Brochure.

Most contacts and many clients probably don’t fully understand what you do, and the power of telling your story well usually leads to more referrals and a greater flow of prospects.

4. Update Your New Prospect Marketing Plan so that you hit the ground running post-Labor Day.

Understand who your desired prospects are and exactly what they want. Then, go after them with finely targeted marketing.

5. Try New Media such as social media marketing or a webinar.

An investment of just a few hours time in new media turned into over $5 million in new assets for one of our clients within 3 months.

And here’s how you can get off to a fast start with a webinar.

We invite you to attend our complimentary Webinar “How Financial Firms and Advisors Can Unleash the Power of Winning Financial Webinars.” Click here to find out more and to sign up:

http://www.yourconferencecenter.com/r.aspx?p=1&a=UpfrEIrLrmrWVk&C3H=QLM

Bob Hanson
Partner, Client Attraction System for Financial Advisors
Ph: 617-901-6886