The "How To" of Investment Advisor Marketing
Financial advisor business plan - Everyone who's been in sales knows you must market yourself first then sell your product second. The issue for most advisors is how you can do just that...market themselves along with a viable product. Simply so everyone understands...we're not particularly fond of the word "product"... but sometimes there's just no other term to make use of (so bare with me).
Financial advisor business plan - It's been fun to view the marketing gurus of the financial services industry show up in the last decade approximately. The quantity seems to be growing like gangbusters, although i'm sure they've always been around.
And why not?
We've gotIMO's and FMO's, B/D's, system sellers, workshop sellers, conference sellers, software sellers.
Crap...there's many people hawking their wares available!
So, while we've done a few videos covering some of this - here's a "written" version of some of the what works and what doesn't in our oh-so-humble opinions:
Seminar Marketing
Enjoy it or loathe it - this method of promoting has been for a lot of the crem de la crem. We talk below about Internet marketing which has been an enormous addition for individuals who relied solely on semniar marketing previously. In the flesh seminar marketing is still the flavour du jour in financial adviser marketing, even though this newest form of gathering client assets will likely overtake the seminar market in the years to come. Please realize for those attempting to become a fee only advisor it's not just the amount of assets and clients - but the quality.
The same holds true with all the seminar.
Believe it or not, but there's actually marketing hawkers out that have fooled the bulk of our industry in believing response rates, size, and booking appointments on the spot matter? ?? ? Insanity!
Listen up: All of that matters from seminar marketing is how much assets are raised from how couple of clients. Yeah - you need to want lots of assets and very few clients. This is simply not brain surgery.
Remember one fundemental truth that escapes a lot of, the caliber of people in the seats is certainly more rewarding compared to the quantity or seeking to fill the space. The best client to get a RIA firm is someone who has significant assets and wants an advisor that is certainly different. This may be hard to believe, but being fee based is a start. Having something worthwhile to offer you prospects is nice too. When the path of least resistance is learned, it's not every too tough.
Some crucial steps to adopt when attempting a seminar:
The Location
Make certain the area is known for your potential audience, the parking is easy and it has a genial atmosphere. A little litmus test: Money is not an issue, and she is getting married - where do you have the reception, if you have only one daughter? That's an excellent place to start when it come to in which the seminar needs to be.
A List
Break the list up into two or three income and age segments...for example 55-60 Incomes over $100,000 and 60-65 incomes of $75,000 or greater. Specify if possible a wealth finder in order to narrow down the search. You must be able to mail to a minimum of 5,000 households within no more than a 20 minute drive of the location.
Obviously twenty minutes varies from your location. It could be 20 miles in Podunk or 20 blocks in Chicago.
The Invite
Go on and test this over and over again using a variety offonts and types, pretty or ugly and what you'll likely find what works the best is a sales letter. A lengthy one.
Many happen to be very successful using the postcard above and over some other method, however a 4 page sales page appears to weed out some of the...er, plate lickers, as well as peak the interest of the you truly, really want to come - but aren't the postcard types.
Utilize a large envelope with special type externally like "DO NOT BEND" that seems to allude to the fact something important is inside which is inside our opinion. Remember that the only way to qualify people before they get to the seminar is with the list and the mailer. The mailer should have a qualifier mentioned several times within...for instance "in order to attend you must have at least $350,000 in investable assets, excluding your home in order to attend this free seminar to learn...".
The Setup
Most of the time the most preferred evening seminars including a free of charge meal please nearly all potential clients. Don't moan and piss about serving a meal. It's an ancillary cost and also the return consistently support offering a meal.
Most significantly - understand that seminars are much like competition. You happen to be rivaling other advisors for clients. Some of those advisors are going to do seminars. And a lot which can be doing seminars are serving meals. It should at least be up to par with your competition, though the meal shouldn't be the focal point.
Starting the seminar at about 4: 30 and concluding using a salad and dinner served around 6: 15; following the seminar continues to be completed has been the venue associated with preference over the years for many. It's important never to allow questions during the seminar as it is exactly what the meeting at the office is for.
The Presentation
Speakers differ in ability, looks and style for that matter. Within our opinion the presentation should be geared toward your time and money Advisory business and should not be intertwined with selling commission based products of the sort. If you're trying to raise AUM compared to the seminar setting could be a great place to separate yourself from the herd.
Web Based Marketing
It really is our opinion the mega producers of the future will likely be growing their company is a significant way online. There exists a huge opportunity as at this moment over time - most advisor sites suck.
An internet site ought to be quite simple. It ought to only make an effort to do a few things - its not all things. If you're attempting to make the site an enormous brochure you'll likely be disappointed inside the results thinking because there is a website that you're now ready to get potential clients.
The website has to have the onlooker a deal that motivates him or her to action. Exactly what can the offer be? A good example that might be replicated, albeit inside an altered approach, is identical offer made on the seminar. Offer a free personal consultation but alter it by calling it something unique and different.
If you're going to build a website make certain that somewhere there is a call to action that prompts the onlooker to want more information from you either in the form of a newsletter that they have to provide their name and email or some other form of continued communication, simply put. Below is actually a short list of website marketing strategies that can assist and hopefully protect you from wasting cash in your effort to build and web-based presence:
Seo - SEO
It is a critical feature essential to organically grow a web-based presence. This feature will permit your site that can be found and rank higher on the search engines including Google. Someone searches to have an investment advisor in your area; you want to make sure you can be found.
Marketing With Articles
A good way to get more traffic to your site is to publish articles that can potentially link your site from others sites which can be also known as linking. There are online companies specializing in linking articles with other web sources that may easily draw attention to your website.
Pay Per Click Ads
Google AdWords provides for online PayPerClick advertising that allows several test ads that rotate and likewise allows for a budget. Once that budget is filled the ad no longer shows up for the day thus if someone has a budget of $5.00 per day then. You will find a science concerning how this works and how for the best bang for your buck.