Ellis Communications, L.L.C.

7 Ideas for Supercharging Your Marketing Plan Now
Even Advisors Dedicated to Marketing Can Get Off Track

Even the most marketing-savvy financial advisors can let their mind wander from their marketing plan.  Sometimes they need to give it a jump start.

“Any time of the year is a good time to breathe new life into your marketing plan,” says Martin R. Baird, president of Annapolis, Md.-based Advisor Marketing and author of The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing.  “There are many tried-and-true methods for doing this, but the most important thing is that you take action now to get your marketing back on track.”

Baird offers the following seven tips on how to put a marketing plan back on the path to success. 

Tip Number 1 – Sharpen your focus by zeroing in on your target market.  “Go after people who will make perfect clients, those who will appreciate your work and compensate you for your talents,” Baird says. “ Make a detailed list of the characteristics of your perfect client.”

Tip Number 2 – Compare your list of perfect-client characteristics with the areas of your book that have been generating business the past 12 to 18 months.  “Do they match up?” Baird asks.  “It’s tempting to use the scattergun approach and market to anyone with skin, but staying on target is the best way to make your marketing successful and cost effective.”

Tip Number 3 – With your target market clearly in your sights, consider reaching them with direct-mail marketing.  “You need to ‘touch,’ move and inspire the recipients of your mailers so they feel they must call you immediately,” Baird notes.  “Direct mail can be one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your perfect clients.  In fact, with the crackdown on telemarketing and spam, it’s one of the few really good techniques left.”

Tip Number 4 – Use your direct mail to tell clients and prospects what you can do for them.  “Focus on your solutions to their needs,” Baird suggests.  “Use a strong headline.  Break up the copy with subheads.  Use a postscript that draws them back into the letter.  Include a call to action that gets them on the phone right now.  Personally sign each letter.  And don’t forget to include your telephone number, Web site address and e-mail address.”

Tip Number 5 – Consider seminars as one way to grow your business.  “Give serious thought to having seminars on non-financial topics,” Baird says.  “Clients and prospects will remember that you organized a session on a topic of keen interest to them.”

Tip Number 6 – Use the Internet for marketing.  “More than 80 percent of those who go online use search engines to find what they’re looking for,” Baird notes.  “If your target market uses the Internet and your Web site doesn’t come up early in search engine results, chances are they will never find you.  You need to know what they search for so you can have your site optimized for the search engines.”

Tip Number 7 – Use public relations to fire up your marketing.  “You could become the new financial source the news media turns to,” Baird says.  “Develop a list of media outlets that have your target market as an audience.  Let these outlets know who you are and that you’re available for interviews.  If you have insight into developing news, put it into a press release and send it.  Send story ideas to the media with enough facts to get them interested.”

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.  The company also provides a service that tests multiple variables of a marketing campaign simultaneously so advisors will quickly know which elements of a marketing effort offer the best opportunity for success before they launch the campaign.

The company’s Web site, www.advisormarketing.com,  is the premiere Internet-based source for 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 and reports on how to conduct different kinds of marketing. 

Advisor Marketing may be reached at 480-991-6421.