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It’s easy to get lost in the service, administrative, and compliance side your business while pushing aside the work needed to attract the ideal prospects.
There are simple strategies and tactics that often get started and stopped over and over. It’s a cycle of marketing misfortune. Marketing is often the weak link in an advisors practice and it’s almost always the first “expense’ that gets cut or the first “task” that falls off the plate.
Ready to learn FOUR proven and easy-to-execute tactics, plus ONE critical strategy to help you attract more ideal prospects?
1. Invite People to Your Social Channels
Every time I speak with advisors, it amazes me how poorly they execute this simple initiative. Whether it’s a lack of belief in social media or online marketing, it doesn’t really matter. Digital networking is here to stay and if you’re not connected to everyone you should or could be connected to, you’re not properly maximizing this opportunity.
How many people do you know who you aren’t connected to? It’s a massive opportunity for your practice. Being connected socially helps you:
Best practices:
2. ‘Recommended List’ Social Inviting
Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook all make recommendations for new connections for you. They do this to keep you inspired to continue to use their social network and to help you find new opportunities to expand your business. Respect these “connection recommendations” otherwise you may lose your ability to invite. If you play along and obey the network’s etiquette, you can grow your network by 10-50 new connections every month. It’s a quick and easy way to grow your digital network – just don’t abuse it.
While most social networks have abuse protocols in place they still want you to succeed. Do what they allow you to do and take advantage of their recommendations.
Best practices:
3. Social Stalking
‘Social stalking’ is by no means new but it’s not often leveraged by the average advisor in their marketing arsenal. I’d recommend implementing a simple ‘social stalking’ tactics in your social media strategy.
‘Social stalking’ starts with finding regional and/or local influencers. Once you’ve connected with them, you monitor their online behavior. When you find a relevant social post you ‘like’, thoughtfully comment and share it with your network. Make sure to tag them or a subject in your comment, it helps you get noticed by their network and people interested in that subject. It’s a fantastic way to expand your reach and get noticed by your audience’s networks. You’ll ignite connection requests, perhaps slowly but, if done well, surely. I get 5-10 connection requests per month on LinkedIn. Social stalking may appear selfish but you’re also helping your target get noticed in your network. It’s a win-win-win situation; peer/you/prospect.
Best practices:
4. Invite Guests To Your Podcast/Blog
Business is about relationships. The relationships you benefit most from are often with people who have influence with your ideal audience. In some cases they can add valuable expertise to your audience’s needs and other times they may be in completely unrelated industries. Obviously, the related industry experts and centers of influence are the real opportunity for you and your business.
When you’ve identified experts to follow and monitor, after having built up some credibility and rapport online, it’s a good idea to consider inviting the most engaged peers as guests on your podcast or blog. You can accomplish several key benefits from this: 1) extract expertise that educates your audience and promotes their business, 2) one posted, gives them a link to promote your podcast/blog to their audience, and 3) shows your audience how committed you are to adding value to your relationship with them.
Best Practices:
ONE PROVEN MUST-HAVE STRATEGY
A Compelling Brand
Who’d have thought a ‘branding’ guy would suggest the need for a compelling brand in attracting ideal prospects online? I preach this daily. It’s the single most important marketing strategy there is for this profession. Be seen as different, better or at least relevant (valuable to a specific audience).
A good advisor brand creates intrigue and establishes credibility quickly. Imagine the waste of money and time in creating and implementing marketing tactics without an appealing brand when they finally get to “meet” you. Advisors I talk with experience a lot of pain when they consider the wasted marketing efforts and dollars they’ve spent without a better story and image.