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.

“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?

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

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

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.
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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

“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

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.

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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.
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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