- Know what your clients/prospects want.
- Ask the right questions to your prospects and clients.
- Make a list of discussion topics.
- Market yourself.
- Keep track of stats and adjust accordingly.
Our recent marketing articles focused on how to market the content an advisor already has in place but we haven’t focussed enough on creating original content. As an article in the Journal of Financial Planning showed, content marketing costs 60% less than standard marketing and brings in 3 times as many leads.
So if it is really that effective why isn’t everyone doing it?
The article points out some crucial points that every financial advisor needs to consider to make content marketing successful:
1. Know what your clients/prospects want.
Remember: content marketing is for your clients. Not you. So, identifying the needs of your clients and prospects must be one of the first steps.
Plan sponsors often don’t know the underlying risks in their plan. RiXtrema designed Larkspur Executive to give advisors the intelligence they need to show deficiencies and how they can correct them.
Larkspur Executive has data on more than 800,000 retirement plans – pulled directly from the current 5500 filings. Each plan comes with a report with metrics to support the downside risks in the plan’s composure. It also delivers an analytical plan overview of performance and plan participants.
2. Ask the right questions to your prospects and clients.
Be sure to ask your clients using an objective medium – like a survey or a few prepared questions during the first conversation. Knowing what a person is looking for from a financial advisor can be used to craft a content marketing plan that brings in similar prospects.
A quick review of RiXtrema’s 3rd party plan ratings and risky red flags in Larkspur Executive can be vital for building trust with a prospect. These can help advisors develop probing questions that will reveal unforeseen shortcomings to plan sponsors and prove that an advisor is diligent and trustworthy – solidifying your proposition.
3. Make a list of discussion topics.
Don’t walk into a prospective meeting without a plan. After analyzing the questionnaire and all the preliminary research, form a discussion plan that brings all the plan sponsor’s questions and concerns to light.
The notes feature in Larkspur Executive lets you jot down something whenever you have a spark of wisdom. The program can also send you a reminder on specific dates to make sure you keep up with a marketing schedule.
4. Market yourself.
A successful business regularly hunts for new prospects – it doesn’t just scavenge on whatever walks in the door. Digital content shows that you are opinionated, analytical, and knowledgeable about current events and trends. But, don’t be stiff. Let your content show your passion – it will make it more enjoyable and attract like-minded people.
Most importantly, in an online digital world, content, like a blog or podcast, will set you aside from those who create unoriginal content.
This is where Larkspur Executive starts to shine with its Custom Trackable Marketing Letters (CTML) feature. CTML takes the simplicity of creating visually intense and nicely composed marketing letters to the next level. It saves advisors precious time by creating original, highly customized content for marketing letters with important selling points with direct, efficient language.
5. Keep track of stats and adjust accordingly.
Monitoring your marketing content should be done consistently because your targeted market is always changing. Besides helping you to create marketing letters, Larkspur Executive will track when the letter is opened by a recipient, giving you an edge for your follow-up timings and boosting your marketing campaign efficiency.
You should never stand in one place even if you are seeing a solid return on your marketing strategy and the content you produce.
These steps should position you towards an effective content marketing strategy.
Remember that useful, relevant content helps to engage leads and build brand awareness. It will lead to more conversions and strengthen your relationships with existing clients.
P.S. Larkspur Executive Pro (LE PRO) will launch in less than two weeks and be the most advanced marketing system for plan advisors.
LE PRO supercharges the effect of Custom Trackable Marketing Letters by creating automated sequences of emails to plan sponsors. Once you find a good prospect through the Larkspur Executive search engine, you can trigger a sequence of emails, each containing some valuable intelligence about the plan. Each email will be highly customized and relevant for each plan sponsor and will take just a few clicks to start a sequence.
LE PRO will pair with a mobile app to help follow up, set appointments, and notify you when a plan sponsor opens an email or when a certain point in the sequence is reached.
It is just like having a paid salesperson on staff for email marketing...
Please reach out to RiXtrema Client Success Team at clientsuccess@rixtrema.com or 800-282-4567 for any questions
