Five Keys to Your Excellent Marketing Plan
By Martin R. Baird

Congratulations for having put together a world-class marketing plan for 2010! No doubt, you have a well-organized system you can turn over to an administrative person so that your marketing will happen no matter where you are or what you’re doing. It’s a turnkey solution that allows you to turn the prospect faucet on and off at your choosing.
 
OK, so maybe not all of you have accomplished this. Perhaps you have a few thoughts and you have started to put a couple of ideas on paper.
 
Don’t fear. Following are five keys to an excellent marketing plan, steps that will make the process easier for you. They also will make it easier to follow your plan throughout the year.
 
Number 1: Short and Sweet
 
A one-page marketing plan is more than sufficient for most financial advisors. This short and sweet plan needs to identify who you are and what your target market is, as well as what you are going to do for them.
 
This simple plan should be the guidepost for your marketing travels. You should look at each of your ads, brochures or mailers and see if they’re in line with your plan. If they are, that’s great; if they aren’t, don’t use them.
 
Number 2: Turnkey
 
Of course there’s more to this than a one-page plan. You need to compile supporting documents so that everything you need to do during the next year is in view for you or your assistant. You can look at your plan and supporting materials at the beginning of the year, or any other time of the year, and you will know what is happening next week and even next month.
 
These materials could include copy for faxes, e-mails, postcards – any marketing tools you plan to use. It takes more time on the front end to do it this way, but it saves a lot of time later.
 
Number 3: Delegate
 
Once the one-page plan is written and the supporting pieces are developed, it’s time to decide who should do what. As an advisor, you shouldn’t be doing all the activities in the plan. It’s important that you decide which activities you will do and which ones will be carried out by other people.
 
You’re probably thinking you don’t have anyone to delegate to. What about hiring an administrative assistant on a contract basis? The two of you could meet from time to time to review the plan and decide how much time it would take to perform the activities. Estimate your monthly cost.
 
Now you know that your marketing activity will continue even if you have to be at a conference in Palm Springs for a week. You know your assistant is accountable for the marketing activities.
 
Number 4: Accountability
 
Speaking of accountability, one of the reasons more marketing plans don’t succeed is because people don’t work the plan. This has nothing to do with the quality of the plan. For a marketing plan to work, it must have specific activities that happen by specific times.
 
If people are not accountable for making them happen, they won’t. And if they don’t happen, your marketing plan was just an exercise. Put the plan to work and review it monthly with everyone involved so they know whether it’s succeeding.
 
Number 5: Grade It
 
At the end of each quarter, look over all your marketing efforts and give them a grade. You want to be honest and critical. Did it work? Did it pay for itself? Were the results strong enough to do it again? Look over your report card and see what efforts were As and which ones were Cs or less, ones that you need to improve or drop.
 
Then think for a moment about when you should drop an effort and when you just need to improve it. You drop it when it doesn’t generate the prospects that it should; you improve it when it develops the right prospects, just not enough of them.
 
Developing your marketing plan is not an easy task, but it’s very important. Invest some time and do it. You will be glad you did.
 
OK, You Did It. Now What?
 
You did it! You developed your marketing plan! You know who your target market is and what you’re going to do for them So, now what?
 
The next step is to take action. The sooner you take action, the sooner you will see results. You need to get your marketing plan out of your computer or off the shelves and get it into the hands of the people who are going to make it happen.
 
Have a couple of team meetings to go through your plan with all the key people and identify who will have which responsibilities and resources they will need to accomplish them. During these sessions, you should also decide how often you will meet to review the opportunities that have come up since your last meeting.
 
These meetings are very important and they need to happen early and often. By giving your attention to this, all the people you work with will realize that marketing is a priority and one of the ways that you are going to grow your practice.
 
Now you know what to do. Just do it!

Martin R. Baird is chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a consulting company that helps financial professionals measure and manage the quality of client service and improvements to their internal operations to enhance business performance and increase revenues. He is a highly regarded speaker in the areas of marketing and client retention and development. Baird is author of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing,” a book that offers easy-to-implement marketing ideas for financial professionals. He may be reached at 480-991-6420 or mbaird@raresults.com.