Four important steps to pump up your practice in 2004

Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound (SMART) goals for the year Draft a marketing plan Put a direct mail marketing campaign together (but test first before implementing fully) Culling clients The end of the year is an ideal time to look at your client list and make some decisions about your future. Do you […]

By Martin R. Baird | December 30, 2003 | Last updated on December 30, 2003
5 min read
  • Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound (SMART) goals for the year
  • Draft a marketing plan
  • Put a direct mail marketing campaign together (but test first before implementing fully)

    Culling clients

    The end of the year is an ideal time to look at your client list and make some decisions about your future. Do you like the clients you’re working with now? You’ve read about “firing” clients or getting rid of the “dead wood.”

    Taking a hard look at your clients twice a year and deciding if they’re the ones you really want is a sound practice to make part of your routine. When less desirable clients are actually removed, it frees up time to find more of the ones you prefer. That’s your target market. (For more on culling your clients, including some template letters to help you initiate the process, please click here.)

    Getting SMART

    Next, write out your goals for 2004. As you do this, make sure each of your objectives is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound. Look at your sales goals and goals in your personal life. Studies show that people who have a well-rounded set of goals tend to reach more of them.

    Producing a plan

    Once your goals are in place, you can outline your marketing plan for 2004. When doing so, I recommend abiding by the following five principles:

    1. Short and sweet. A one-page marketing plan is all most advisors need. It should identify who you are, who your target market is and what you will do for this market. This simple plan is the guidepost for all your marketing initiatives. Look at each ad, brochure or mailer to see if it’s in line with the plan. If it isn’t, don’t do it.

    2. Turnkey. I prepared a one-page marketing plan for a wholesaler a couple of years ago. The supporting documents added 40 pages. It was designed so that everything he needed to do that year was in view for him or his administrative assistant. They could look at it at the beginning of the year, or any other time, and they would know what would happen next.

    This plan included templates for faxes, e-mails and post cards and was designed to allow the wholesaler to select the copy early in the year and then turn it over to his assistant for completion.

    3. Delegate. As an advisor, you shouldn’t do all the activities in your plan. Decide which activities you will do and which ones will be carried out by other people.

    Don’t think you have anyone to delegate to? The wholesaler I worked with used a contract administrative assistant. They met a few times to review the plan and decided how much time it would take to perform the activities.

    4. Accountability. One of the reasons more marketing plans don’t succeed is because people don’t work them. For a marketing plan to succeed, it must have specific activities that happen by specific times.

    If people are not accountable for making these activities happen, they won’t. And if they don’t happen, your marketing plan was just an exercise. Review the plan monthly with everyone involved so everyone knows whether it’s working.

    5. Grade it. At the end of each quarter, revisit all your marketing efforts and give them a grade. Did they work? Did they pay for themselves? Were the results strong enough to do it again? Determine which initiatives you need to improve or drop. Drop an initiative when it doesn’t generate the prospects it should; improve it when it develops the right prospects, just not enough of them.

    Testing, testing

    The whole point of a marketing plan is to actually conduct marketing campaigns. Put a direct mail campaign together to kick off the year but before you roll it out, take one important step — test it.

    For example, by testing the headline of an ad, you can see how it affects your response rate. By testing one offer versus another, you can often save money and generate even better results.

    The “how” part of the equation is a little more difficult, but here are a few points to remember:

    • Some people change more than one variable during the test and that’s a big mistake. If you change the headline as well as the day the marketing materials are mailed, that ruins the test. You should test only one change at a time. If you’re working with headlines for a mailer, that could mean changing only one word or even just the font in order to prove what’s most effective.
    • You also must have a sample that’s large enough to generate good data. It’s often said that 0.5% is a good response to direct mail. Thus, if you mail to 100 prospects, you should get literally no calls. To get usable data, you should mail one concept to 1,000 prospects and the variable to another 1,000.

    Once you have identified what works, use that as the control for your testing going forward.

    Anything is possible at the beginning of a new year, including a boost in your business. Improve your odds of a banner year by taking the four important steps I’ve outlined. You just might be amazed at the results.

    • • •

    Martin R. Baird is president of U.S.-based Advisor Marketing, a full-service marketing management firm that 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. Advisor Marketing also provides a service that tests multiple variables of a marketing campaign simultaneously so advisors will quickly know which elements of a marketing effort offer the best opportunity for success before they launch the campaign. For free marketing information and tools to help your business grow, visit www.advisormarketing.com. Advisor Marketing can be reached at 1-480-991-6421.

    12/30/03

    Martin R. Baird

    • Review your clients and “fire” a few
    • Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound (SMART) goals for the year
    • Draft a marketing plan
    • Put a direct mail marketing campaign together (but test first before implementing fully)

    Culling clients

    The end of the year is an ideal time to look at your client list and make some decisions about your future. Do you like the clients you’re working with now? You’ve read about “firing” clients or getting rid of the “dead wood.”

    Taking a hard look at your clients twice a year and deciding if they’re the ones you really want is a sound practice to make part of your routine. When less desirable clients are actually removed, it frees up time to find more of the ones you prefer. That’s your target market. (For more on culling your clients, including some template letters to help you initiate the process, please click here.)

    Getting SMART

    Next, write out your goals for 2004. As you do this, make sure each of your objectives is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound. Look at your sales goals and goals in your personal life. Studies show that people who have a well-rounded set of goals tend to reach more of them.

    Producing a plan

    Once your goals are in place, you can outline your marketing plan for 2004. When doing so, I recommend abiding by the following five principles:

    1. Short and sweet. A one-page marketing plan is all most advisors need. It should identify who you are, who your target market is and what you will do for this market. This simple plan is the guidepost for all your marketing initiatives. Look at each ad, brochure or mailer to see if it’s in line with the plan. If it isn’t, don’t do it.

    2. Turnkey. I prepared a one-page marketing plan for a wholesaler a couple of years ago. The supporting documents added 40 pages. It was designed so that everything he needed to do that year was in view for him or his administrative assistant. They could look at it at the beginning of the year, or any other time, and they would know what would happen next.

    This plan included templates for faxes, e-mails and post cards and was designed to allow the wholesaler to select the copy early in the year and then turn it over to his assistant for completion.

    3. Delegate. As an advisor, you shouldn’t do all the activities in your plan. Decide which activities you will do and which ones will be carried out by other people.

    Don’t think you have anyone to delegate to? The wholesaler I worked with used a contract administrative assistant. They met a few times to review the plan and decided how much time it would take to perform the activities.

    4. Accountability. One of the reasons more marketing plans don’t succeed is because people don’t work them. For a marketing plan to succeed, it must have specific activities that happen by specific times.

    If people are not accountable for making these activities happen, they won’t. And if they don’t happen, your marketing plan was just an exercise. Review the plan monthly with everyone involved so everyone knows whether it’s working.

    5. Grade it. At the end of each quarter, revisit all your marketing efforts and give them a grade. Did they work? Did they pay for themselves? Were the results strong enough to do it again? Determine which initiatives you need to improve or drop. Drop an initiative when it doesn’t generate the prospects it should; improve it when it develops the right prospects, just not enough of them.

    Testing, testing

    The whole point of a marketing plan is to actually conduct marketing campaigns. Put a direct mail campaign together to kick off the year but before you roll it out, take one important step — test it.

    For example, by testing the headline of an ad, you can see how it affects your response rate. By testing one offer versus another, you can often save money and generate even better results.

    The “how” part of the equation is a little more difficult, but here are a few points to remember:

    • Some people change more than one variable during the test and that’s a big mistake. If you change the headline as well as the day the marketing materials are mailed, that ruins the test. You should test only one change at a time. If you’re working with headlines for a mailer, that could mean changing only one word or even just the font in order to prove what’s most effective.
    • You also must have a sample that’s large enough to generate good data. It’s often said that 0.5% is a good response to direct mail. Thus, if you mail to 100 prospects, you should get literally no calls. To get usable data, you should mail one concept to 1,000 prospects and the variable to another 1,000.

    Once you have identified what works, use that as the control for your testing going forward.

    Anything is possible at the beginning of a new year, including a boost in your business. Improve your odds of a banner year by taking the four important steps I’ve outlined. You just might be amazed at the results.

    • • •

    Martin R. Baird is president of U.S.-based Advisor Marketing, a full-service marketing management firm that 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. Advisor Marketing also provides a service that tests multiple variables of a marketing campaign simultaneously so advisors will quickly know which elements of a marketing effort offer the best opportunity for success before they launch the campaign. For free marketing information and tools to help your business grow, visit www.advisormarketing.com. Advisor Marketing can be reached at 1-480-991-6421.

    12/30/03