In 2016, there are more ways to spend your marketing dollars than you can poke a stick at, whether it’s a regular blog, a newsletter, or a full page advertisement in Professional Planner (hint, hint). Therefore, the key for business owners is to make sure that you settle on activities that generate some leads and revenues for you.
From my experience most small businesses fall into two broad marketing camps – those who spend nothing and those who take a “spray and pray” approach, which fritters their money away. In relation to those who take the tightwad view of marketing, one of my clients, Angus Raine, executive chairman of property firm Raine & Horne, is fond of telling his staff that “you can’t sell a secret.” The bottom-line is spending zero on marketing, or not making it a focus, will leave you short on the very thing that makes you money: sales leads.
In relation to the “spray and pray” approach, spending money on various campaigns, websites, social platforms and so on can be equally futile. This type of scatter gun approach is akin to burning cash for very few (or no) leads. So, how do you avoid haemorrhaging cash, but still achieve maximum marketing results?
1. Plan for success
Without wanting to sound like a broken record, I always tell my clients to start with a strategy. Even if it’s a basic “one pager”, having a plan helps you focus your marketing efforts on those activities that will most likely deliver the best return.
The next step involves setting a budget and goals. Plan at least the first three months. This involves establishing a basic spending plan, which puts a limit on what you’ll shell out on marketing. Likewise, have a goal in mind, such as targeted sales revenue from a campaign.
If you don’t know how to develop a marketing plan, don’t be afraid to engage a professional marketer. Look for someone with experience in foundational marketing planning. Trying to do your own marketing is sometimes false economy, and often the day-to-day business get in the way.
2. Build your sales pipeline with calls to action
Beware simple “awareness” campaigns. Awareness is useful if it pulls the client into your sales pipeline. Making a potential client aware of your offering, for example through thought leadership activities such as blogging or using a digital advertising campaign to promote a financial advice platform is fine – as long as it is part of an overall lead generation campaign.
But no matter what method of marketing you settle on, be sure to build in a clear call to action. Whether it’s to download a whitepaper from your website (where they give you their contact details as part of the process), or it’s a time limited offer such as a 20 per cent discount on a specific advice service, the key is that the client has to act.
3. Embrace low cost or free technology
As a SMB, you don’t have the financial grunt of an AMP or Westpac. The key, therefore, is to stretch your marketing spend as far as you can by using low cost or free platforms. Here are some good examples:
• Automate your email marketing – free tools, such as Mailchimp, allow you to automate the process of communicating with your customers. Email tools are perfect for building your subscriber audience. You can see the links they clicked, whether they opened the email, and importantly: when they want to unsubscribe from your list, which also helps you avoid the nasty Spam legislation.
• Use social media to grow you prospect database – social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn can offer you targeted campaigns to reach potential clients. In terms of the cost, a social media campaign can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. You can target very specific contacts, for example, people over 50 living in a certain geographic location. It’s a great way to push a campaign out without breaking the bank
• Utilise industry platforms – the financial planning industry gives you a way to connect with customers through industry bodies such as Financial Planning Association of Australia. There are a number of professional consulting sites, such as Expert360, that offer a marketplace for you to sell your services. For a small fee they can introduce you to a range of prospective clients by means of a mini online marketplace.
Ultimately, your marketing activities and messages should be client-focused. This means it should demonstrate that you can put yourself in your client’s shoes. In other words, you understand their pain points; whether it’s estate planning or wealth creation, for example, and that you have the expertise to create valuable solutions. Your marketing should be all about client outcomes rather than how marvellous you are as a financial planner.
