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BLOGSThe Marketing Maven
A Financial Advisor’s Toolkit for Creating the 'Wow' Factor
By Marie Swift
November 14, 2011
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It's time for bloggers, tweeps, LinkedIn and Facebook addicts to take a timeout and realize that while building a positive online presence is important, it’s also crucial for financial advisors to think about their overall business image.
Year-end is the perfect time to review everything in your marketing toolkit. Is it time to polish up an old brochure or Power Point presentation? How about that logo and tagline? Are they still fresh-looking and on target? Have you neglected your professional bio? Has your Ideal Client Profile changed? Maybe there are some holes in your marketing toolkit? And how about that website? Is it dull and boring, built on an old web platform, or basically out-of-whack?
Let’s revisit some of the essential elements that will set you apart and help you create “the wow factor.”
Complete Marketing Materials
Your marketing toolkit should include:
A client-centered brochure
A compelling Web site
Professional looking stationery and business cards
A branded PowerPoint template
A personalized e-mail signature
A newsletter template
An executive note card
Seasonal postcards
A handful of branded promotional gift items such as pens, coffee mugs, post-it notes or note pads)
Branded apparel (e.g., polo shirts, fleece jackets, windbreakers)
A “core issue article” or special report
A power bio
An Ideal Client Profile
This week: The Ideal Client Profile
Prospect Profiles
When you ask for referrals, do you communicate exactly who you're looking for and why you would be their best choice? Start by creating a clear written statement describing your best clients. Include demographics -- where they live, their ages, incomes and professions -- and psychographics: their values and motivations, problems, issues and aspirations.
Finally, determine where these clients congregate and how to reach them.
An advisor in rural Missouri was having a hard time articulating his firm's value. He was perplexed because although he felt his firm did an awesome job for its clients, referrals were few and far-between. While there were several other advisors in town, he ran the only truly independent investment advisory firm. A twice-published book author who was often quoted in the local and national press, he was the quintessential hometown boy who'd made good. But he knew he could never convince the upper echelons to fire the bank trust department, so he decided to target the middle spectrum and newcomers to town.
After working up an Ideal Client Profile, he began meeting with key clients and advisory board members. The one-page profile, which was branded with the firm's logo on top and contact information on the bottom, clearly outlined in concise, bulleted form whom he best served and why he was the best choice for busy professionals and business owners.
The Ideal Client Profile served as a good meeting agenda and conversation starter with influential people in the community. It provided all the talking points he needed for dedicated lunch and breakfast meetings. After a focused 15-minute discussion about what he could offer, the conversation turned naturally back to kids, hobbies and other mutual interests.
The meetings fostered relationships and left dozens of referral partners with a handy reference guide explaining who the advisor was looking for and how to facilitate an introduction. When the referring party thought someone might make a good client, she was asked to say a few positive things about her experience working with the advisor, provide his Web site address -- which was easy to spell and remember -- and ask if she could facilitate an introduction. If the prospective client seemed open, she would suggest that they have lunch or golf. If the three of them shared a common interest or membership in an organization, she was asked to connect the advisor and the prospect personally when the occasion arose.
Finally, she was asked to call or e-mail the advisor, just to check in and discuss possible other ways to establish a connection.
A happy byproduct of the process was the advisor's own clarity about his message and target market. As a result, he is able to talk about the firm's value to the right people much more easily.
BENEFITS TO YOU
Creating or revisiting these materials should help you get a clearer understanding of who you are, whom you serve best and the value you provide. In the process, you will gain the confidence to speak and write in an engaging and even passionate manner. As a result you will impress people with your clarity, focus and professionalism.
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When you start putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), think carefully about the words and the style you use. Every communication is an opportunity to reinforce your positioning, market your firm and your build your brand. Sometimes, dear mild-mannered financial planners, it’s okay to be bold – and even a bit (gulp!) bossy. It’s a noisy world out there. Your ads, flyers and other marketing promotions must stand out and grab attention. …
Every communication is an opportunity to reinforce your positioning, market your firm and your build your brand. Yes, you really are marketing, whether you think so or not. Might as well do it right.
Marie Swift is a nationally recognized consultant who has for over twenty years worked exclusively with some of the industry’s top financial institutions, training organizations, investment advisory and financial planning firms. A top rated speaker at dozens of industry events including FPA, NAPFA, TD Ameritrade Institutional, Securities America, Schwab Institutional, NFL Players Association, Financial Network, Pershing and Lockwood conferences, Marie is dedicated to elevating the conversation in the industry.
Marie is also a prolific writer and contributes to many of the industry’s leading publications, including Financial Planning magazine. You can read Marie’s
newest content on www.financial-planning.com where she writes the weekly Marketing Maven column. She is also contributes content to the Networking 2.0 blog for Sourcemedia’s interactive, online destination created just for women advisors as an extension of the Women Advisors Forum events being held in cities across the country multiple times every year.
A thought leader for thought leaders, she is known for bringing some of the industry’s best and brightest voices together for dialog and debate. Her Thought Leader Round Table series is just one example how Marie generates interesting conversations with movers and shakers in the financial services industry.
Her Best Practices in the Financial Services Industry blog provides additional insights and advice, including podcasts, articles, videos and other helpful content for independent
financial advisors and the institutions that serve them. Find it at www.marieswift.com.
Prior to establishing her own firm in 1993, she served as Director of Corporate Communications for Worldwide Investment Network in Irvine, California, where she helped FNIC’s then #1 Top Producer attain and maintain that title for five consecutive years. She managed a staff of twenty that supported two-dozen successful registered representatives,
estate planners and wealth managers.
As president and CEO of Impact Communications, Inc., Marie leads a dedicated team of marketing communications and PR professionals serving financial institutions and a select group of independent advisors on an exclusive basis. Marie resides in Leawood, KS and can be reached through her website, www.ImpactCommunications.org. For breaking news, follow @marieswift on Twitter -www.twitter.com/marieswift.
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