Ellis Communications, L.L.C.

Haven’t Even Started On Your 2002 Marketing Plan?
Try These 5 Simple Steps to Get Your Marketing in Gear

            It’s still a new year full of opportunities for financial advisors.  The big question is this - do they have their 2002 marketing plan prepared?

            “Advisors who haven’t even started on their 2002 marketing plan shouldn’t feel guilty because they probably have lots of company," says Martin R. Baird, president of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Advisor Marketing and author of The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing.  "Even marketing experts can have difficulty getting a plan done.  Any time you start with a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen, it just isn’t easy."

            Baird offers the following five simple steps that advisors can take to at least get their 2002 marketing moving forward. These tips and others are offered on a daily basis by Advisor Marketing through its Web site advisormarketing.com, a site that provides free marketing information just for financial advisors.

Number 1 - Look at what you did last year.  What did you do in early 2001 that you can do again now?  "You don’t have to select January or February," Baird says.  "You can use any month that was well planned and generated strong results."

Number 2 - Look for natural marketing opportunities.  What will happen in the next 90 days that will cause people to make financial decisions?  "What are common situations that you want to make clients and prospects aware of?" Baird asks.  "For example, how can you use the looming date of April 15 to get them to take action now?"

Number 3 - Look for any marketing effort you have done that worked well.  It doesn’t matter what year you did it.  "Repeat the effort in the first quarter of 2002 to kick of the year the right way," Baird recommends.  "What can you replicate so you don’t need to start from scratch?"

Number 4 - Assess what your clients and prospects may be worrying about in light of changes most everyone has experienced the past several months.  "This process could generate great ideas for seminars or even small town meetings," Baird says.  "You don’t need a fancy presentation.  Prepare a couple of interesting PowerPoint slides and open the session up for discussion."

Number 5 - Browse magazine stands.  "The next time you’re in a bookstore or supermarket, look at the cover stories on major magazines," Baird suggests.  "These can give you ‘hot’ topics to use in your marketing.  You don’t need to create the news story. Just be able to comment on it or answer questions about it."

Advisor Marketing provides a variety of services to financial advisors to help them improve their marketing methods and increase revenues, including seminars and conference speaking engagements on such topics as referrals, marketing, client communication and transitioning to fee. 

Advisormarketing.com is the premiere Internet-based source for free marketing advice, information and tools for self-driven, success-oriented financial advisors who are demanding information that helps them market their practice, meet the needs of their clients and increase sales.  It offers such services as a free weekly electronic newsletter, free reports on how to conduct different kinds of marketing and evaluation of advisors’ marketing materials that is provided at no charge when the critique is posted online for all advisors to read.  Advisormarketing.com also offers an electronic forum where advisors can learn from each other by discussing common problems, sharing ideas and gaining new insights from their peers.