Ellis Communications, L.L.C.

Marketing Optimization Is the Ultimate Leverage for
Financial Advisors Who Want to Grow Their Business

Financial advisors wouldn’t think of investing clients’ money without researching investment options first but they routinely use that approach when it comes to their own marketing.

“Savvy advisors use marketing to grow their business but they fail to take one critical step before they roll out a marketing campaign,” says Martin R. Baird, president of Annapolis, Md.-based Advisor Marketing and author of The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing.  “They give no thought to testing the effectiveness of the marketing first.  Testing optimizes their marketing.”

Baird offers the following seven tips on testing, optimization and effective marketing.

No. 1. Optimization involves testing the effectiveness of several elements of a marketing effort to determine which ones work best.  “For example, you change one word in the headline in a direct-mail piece’s sales letter,” Baird says.  “Then you change the offer.  Then you change the postscript.  Eventually, you figure out which variations of those elements work best.”

No. 2.Testing no longer takes months to generate useful information.  “There is technology available that eliminates that problem,” Baird says.  “In the past, the key to testing was that you had to do it one variable at a time. This new technology tests up to seven variables simultaneously.  In only a few weeks, advisors can know what will and won’t work with their target markets.”

No. 3.  Any advisor using e-mail or direct mail marketing more than four times a year should have it optimized to get the highest-possible response.  “The higher the response, the greater the odds that they will generate new business,” Baird explains.

No. 4.  Advisors who do not optimize their marketing are at a serious disadvantage.  “I guarantee they are not getting as high a response as they could,” Baird notes.

No. 5.  The practical aspects of optimization are numerous.  “It also could be used for advertisements and seminar invitations,” Baird says.  “I’ve seen changing one word double the response to an ad.”

No. 6.  Optimization works hand in glove with target marketing.  “Once you have determined precisely who you want to reach out to, optimization helps you approach them in the most effective manner possible,” Baird says.  “That’s the whole point of target marketing – to get the right people to call you, e-mail you or drop by the office and talk to you.”

No. 7.  Optimization is not a waste of money.  “Some advisors think optimization is too expensive,” Baird says.  “I believe they waste far more money on marketing that doesn’t work.”

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’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.