Don’t Get Lazy – Do Your Marketing Every Day
By Martin R. Baird

The morning I wrote this column, I decided to go for a bike ride after taking my boys to school. Nothing Herculean, just a 10-mile ride to move my legs and get some fresh air.
 
It was a ride that I have made many times. But not long into it, I noticed something – I was puffing! I couldn’t believe that this relatively easy ride among the rolling trails along the Boise River had me panting so quickly. Am I really that out of shape?
 
I realized that for the last two months, I had been a real slug, hanging out with my boys at the pool. For about 60 days, I had done nothing more active than walk to the pool and wade around, if I even got in.
 
You’re probably wondering what this has to do with financial services. I’m sharing this little story because it reminds me of marketing.
 
Slacking off on marketing is all too easy to do. You make up your mind you’re going to do some marketing, but then you realize there is a piece of software that needs updating or client accounts that need reviewing. The excuses are endless. I know the conferences you attend have awesome speakers on everything from non-verbal communication to direct mail and that they share great information. But just like my bike gathering dust in the garage, this new information does you no good if you don’t put it to use. If I don’t hop on my bike, I lose endurance and strength. If you don’t do marketing and learn more on how to do it better, you are cheating your practice. You are missing opportunities to help it grow. Going to sessions and doing nothing with your new knowledge is more of a waste than not going at all.
 
Marketing is a like a marathon. It takes hours and hours of doing it just to get it right and, once you do, you can’t stop. You must maintain your momentum. You must constantly strive to make your marketing more effective so it reaches more target clients. This is the furthest thing from making one marketing effort and thinking you’re done. Marketing is the anti-microwave. A two-minute zap won’t accomplish anything. As I said, marketing takes time and effort.
 
The headline for this column urges you to do marketing every day. People that excel at marketing do just that. They make it an every day pursuit, and they have the people and procedures in place to make it happen. They don’t fall into the trap of only doing it when they want to or when it’s easy. I’m often told that marketing is part of practice management. In my world, marketing is more than that. It is the key to growing your business. Without marketing you won’t have a practice to manage.
 
Now I’m going to bring my pep talk to an close and give you my marketing tip of the day. Most of the people I rub elbows with are coming to the realization that seminars for attracting new clients are a thing of the past. It was a fun activity while it lasted, but now they know that if they plan to grow their business with seminars, they probably will not grow very much.
 
Many advisors are falling back on referrals instead of putting time and money into seminars. That’s fine, but there’s a problem. They don’t feel good about asking for the business. They don’t even know when or how to ask. Fortunately, there are many resources available for learning how to generate referrals. Here’s a time-tested technique.
 
Before you do some busy work, just call 10 current clients and ask them if they enjoyed their summer. This is simple grassroots marketing. Go into it assuming there’s a chance you will be pleasantly surprised. A client you call may say he has been meaning to contact you about how to invest a bonus he received. Another may share the name of a friend who could use your help. You may feel a little stress before the calls and you may need a drink of water when it’s all done. The great news is that those calls take you a few steps closer to growing your business and helping more people. It all starts with the first step. So pick up the phone and dial!
 
There’s another method for generating referrals and that’s to turn your client base into your own sales force. That way, you don’t even have to ask for the business. Your clients make referrals of their own volition. I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Harvard Business Review published research that shows the future growth of any business lies in turning customers into advocates. From a financial services industry point of view, advocate clients are willing to risk their reputation for an advisor and recommend the advisor to friends and associates. Therefore, advisors need to measure and manage their clients’ willingness to risk and recommend. This is a real breakthrough that every advisor should take seriously.
 
Now back to my bike ride. The first time you commit to marketing every day is not easy. You may find many excuses to avoid it. Before you let that urge to market fade away, think of me riding easily along the river and returning home with a big smile on my face. I’m smiling because I rode every day until I made my 10-mile workout easy.
 
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 206-774-8856 or mbaird@raresults.com.