Your Practice
Tools for Digital Age Marketing by Bill Winterberg. CFP®
Bill Winterherg, CFP®, is a technology consultant to financial advisers in Dallas, Texas. His comments on technology and financial planning can he viewed on his blog at www.fppad.com.
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uccessfully marketing to a liirge audience of prospective clients used to require a budget beyond the reach of most financial planners. Unable to make substantial investments in marketing, planners often found themselves losing an uphill battle to the multi-million-dollar ad campaigns of brokeragefirmsand financial product companies. Many simply gave up and avoided marketing altogether, relying almost exclusively on referrals to grow their businesses.
However, the evolution of the
Internet, social media, and mobile devices is forever changing the way service providers market to and engage with their audiences. Today, planners can use many of the same tools and techniques employed by large companies in marketing campaigns without spending millions, or even thousands, of dollars. This column highlights various solutions you can use in the new year to attract prospects and differentiate yourself from impersonal multi-billion-dollar financial service companies. 32
Embracing Inbound Marketing
Your audience of prospective clients consists of sophisticated and discriminating individuals. Reaching out and connecting with them through print advertisements, radio commercials, and cold calling, otherwise collectively known as "outbound marketing," is not as effective as it once was.
Prospects have new ways to block outbound marketing messages of all kinds. They skip television commercials with DVRs, hide Internet ads with pop-up blockers and web content filters, and screen incoming phone CcJls with caller ID. With so many barriers to engagement, how can financial planners break through with their messages?
Planners can reboot their strategies