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There are over 630,000 financial professionals registered with FINRA, and according to the bureau of labor statistics the number of financial advisors is projected to increase by 27% in the next 8 years. So turns out your competition isn’t backing down, but if you’re reading this article you already have an edge on them.
Why? Because, of the advisors ClientWise has extensively researched (which happen to be Barron’s ranked teams!) only 1/3 have a unique value proposition. So if right now you’re thinking about what constitutes your unique value proposition, you’re in a great place!
Next week we are hosting a complimentary marketing webinar, The Essential Elements of the Marketing Approach, which will flush out in detail all the tips listed below, but more importantly will provide you with targeted assessments, and tools and exercises you can immediately implement to improve your marketing.
But here’s even more… the list below contains tried and true marketing strategies from some of the top financial professionals we’ve coached, interviewed, and studied. If you’ve had difficulty setting aside time and resources to market your business, get together with your team to determine if the options below could work for you:
Create a checklist: We’ll be going over more details on the contents of this checklist in our webinar, but the important thing is that you maintain consistency. Make a checklist, follow it, and address it daily, weekly, or monthly, whatever you hold yourself to doing. It will help you stay consistent in your approach, and these days, consistency is key to success in this sphere.
Involve your team: Believe it or not, most of the advisors we work with rely on their team to implement the majority of their marketing. They say it’s more likely to slip to the bottom of their own lists, than it will if properly delegated to the members of their team. So divide and conquer today!
Create a process around it: Like number one, this helps create consistency, and it will streamline the process of delegating it to your team and tracking their progress toward marketing goals.
Spend less time on it more frequently: Advisors who spend 45 minutes a day tackling things like going through LinkedIn, writing out an idea for a blog, or sourcing their inbound marketing leads, are much more effective at accomplishing these tasks than those who leave them for a four hour time-block at the end of each week. It becomes too daunting and too time-consuming that way, and you’re guaranteed to convince yourself you have something better to do (which you likely don’t!)
Pick your poison: In other words, don’t do everything. There are so many marketing channels out there that are so varied and so complex that it is an impossible task to tackle them all effectively. Take a bunch of introductory webinars about different approaches like social media marketing, inbound marketing, blogging, etc. and pick a few that work best for you. Consider what you’ll be able to keep up with, and use the expertise and efficiencies of your team to implement.
Know your unique value proposition: Clearly understand what makes you unique and sets you apart from other advisors in your field. Then be able to deliver this in a succinct elevator pitch, a detailed marketing deck, and on your website. Easier said than done, we know, but we can help you tackle these ideas in our free webinar and soon you’ll become part of the elite 1/3 of advisors who know their unique value proposition.
Who are you talking to?: If the answer is “anyone with money who wants to be my client,” then you have no idea. And we promise that if this is your approach you are missing out on, not gaining, potential clients. Knowing down to their hair color (okay, well not quite, but at least their potential profession, life goals, and minimum account size) who your ideal client is will help you far more than any marketing gimmick. Because then you’ll be talking to someone rather than no one, and you’ll be able to craft a message geared specifically to them.
Look at a calendar: If a full-fledged marketing strategy isn’t in your future (there’s really no excuse for this) then at least pick a few key dates that you feel you’ll have a message you’d like to get across to your clients. Depending on your specialty you may want to get them right after tax time, around the start to a new year, or flag day (okay, probably not)… but taking advantage of these few key days throughout the year could get you on a marketing roll you didn’t even realize you had in you.
Okay more to come in our free webinar next week! In the meantime, consider the questions below to kick-start your thought process!
Coaching Questions from this Article:
- What makes you different from your colleague sitting in the office next to you? How can you articulate this to clients?
- Is there a pattern in the clients that you most enjoy working with? Write down a list about their characteristics and go beyond what their financials tell you. Perhaps there are other attributes that will help you hone in on your ideal client.
- What are the qualities of each of your team members and how could this help you in a marketing capacity?
- What time do you regularly spend online that you could turn into more productive marketing management time?
