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If your 2017 marketing results didn’t generate the leads you wanted, you were probably guilty of some of the problems below. As you put together your marketing strategy for 2018, here’s how to avoid screwing up.
In decreasing order of their seriousness, they are as follows:
- Relying on your own followers
Many advisors wrongfully conclude that social media doesn’t work because it didn’t generate leads for them. But I look and see that they have 343 followers among all their social networks.
Folks, you would never expect to catch a 20-pound Peacock bass by fishing in the puddle of a lake next door? No. You’re going to get the same old trout. You’ve got to go to the big lake if you want to score the big fish.
There are literally 30,000,000 postings over all the social media and messaging networks every single minute. If you’re not doing social media in a big way then you’re not doing it at all.
If you have a following of fewer than 5,000 people, you have simply got to find your audience somewhere else. Someone else already has your following. Go get on their social media. This is called “influencer marketing.” Have them shout you out in a posting. Write a blog post together. Put a guest blog on their site. Attend an event they hold and then have them post the picture to their networks. Use Facebook ads to get in front of the people who follow them on Facebook.
There are many ways to do this. I’m just getting started.
- Being namby-pamby
The second biggest screw up I saw in 2017 was the persistence of wishy-washy marketing. If you haven’t realized this by now, the industry is becoming more commoditized. It’s not like 20 years ago when clients didn’t have the Internet and they needed to call their broker to get in on a trade.
Being a generalist is the wrong way to go. Take a big, bold position and defend it.
Examples:
- I can help you invest without ever touching an IRA account. Forget about tax efficiency – let’s just get bigger gains and pay tax on them.
- am the financial advisor for anyone who has kids who are opioid addicts.
- The market is going to crash this year, let me help you protect yourself.
- I will work with any Microsoft employee in the country because I know all that can be known by any human being about your benefits and 401k plan.
If it doesn’t work, then at least you know that you tried and it wasn’t the right thing, and you’ll know better for the next time. But straddling a million market verticals and trying to be everything to everyone is just going to dilute your power.
I dare you.
Read the full article here by Sara Grillo
