Financial advisors looking to promote their practice need to steer away from the “old” ways of marketing, says Sara Gilbert, founder of Strategist in Montreal. Cold calling, mass mailings and advertisements, known as “outbound” marketing strategies, she says, is becoming less effective and falling out of favour with audiences.
“Like everything in life, outbound marketing has a life cycle, and it’s dead,” Gilbert says. “There was just so much cold calling, mass mailing and product-based events and seminars that people stopped responding to them.”
Instead, Gilbert says, you should be using new marketing methods called “inbound” marketing,.
Inbound marketing focuses on allowing your clients and prospects to get to know you, Gilbert says. It emphasizes issues such as “what you do, the solution that you bring and how you can help them.”
Inbound marketing has a greater emphasis on helping people as opposed to selling, Gilbert says. That is a significant shift from outbound marketing, which is pure selling.
The general public doesn’t respond to outbound marketing because the message gets lost among all the other promotional messages they receive. Your communications must stand out from the pack of ads, brochures and flyers your potential clients receive.
> Focus on providing solutions
The big difference between the two types of marketing is that inbound marketing is about educating your clients and prospects on how you can help them.
Think about your target market and the phase of life in which they find themselves. Are they thinking about funding their children’s education? Are they exploring their careers through the development of small businesses? Maybe they are thinking about the legacy they want to leave their heirs.
Says Gilbert: “What are the questions you get from clients? Answer those questions in an article or in an event.”
You may be a seasoned cold caller. But applying inbound marketing to your practice will mean your target market is more likely to approach you as opposed to you pursuing them.
“With cold calling, you’re going to call one person, that person says no and you’re going to scratch them off your list,” Gilbert says. “With inbound marketing, they’re actually going to call you because they found what you have to offer interesting.”
> Convert your old marketing skills into new marketing skills
The problem with old marketing isn’t so much the medium through which you communicate your message but the approach you take in conveying your message. So, if you are comfortable placing ads in newspapers or holding client events, continue to do so. But change the tone.
“If you’ve always done an ad in a specialized newspaper,” Gilbert says, “consider writing an article instead. You’ll actually be helping and providing information.”
If you hold client events, avoid the functions at which 200 clients and prospects sit in a room and listen to a talk about products. Try organizing a smaller, more personal gathering in which you can appeal to the interests of your top clients.