With the new year well underway, it is ideal to have a marketing plan established that will keep you on track and organized throughout the year. This plan will help you map out your year, and help to make sure your best ideas don’t get lost in the hustle of your day-to-day work.
A good marketing plan also brings you back to your fundamentals: identifying where your growth has come from, what your niche looks like, and forcing you to examine the underlying challenges and opportunities within your business.
Having said that, we know that some advisors don’t have the time or the resources just yet to create that formal marketing plan. However, whether you have a formal marketing plan or not, there are certain things that you should be doing for your prospects and clients as part of a thriving practice. At Taylor Financial Group, we consider the following seven activities must-do items for our annual marketing and outreach.
1. Regular client outreach on the markets
How do you plan to reach out to clients this year and update them on the markets and your views? Plan to send regular newsletters, whether that is weekly, monthly or quarterly. It’s that simple.
Figure 1: Sampling of TFG Weekly Update
Source: Taylor Financial Group
2. Don’t forget outreach on planning items such as Medicare or Social Security
How are you communicating on the all-important planning items? Commit to sending out some type of updates on financial planning issues, which are every bit as important as the investment updates. We send monthly planning updates to clients, using the Horsesmouth monthly themes. We address taxes, Social Security, Medicare Open Enrollment and so on.
Figure 2: Sample of TFG Monthly Planning Update
Source: Taylor Financial Group
3. Commit to a regular schedule of webinars and videos
How are you communicating with your prospects and clients at the end of the month or quarter? Consider all-client calls, quarterly webinars, or regular video updates on the markets or a client’s portfolio. We hold monthly all-client calls that are very informal. We also hold quarterly webinars on the second Thursday after the quarter ends.
This year we are going to start using a brief video introduction when sending out written reviews for clients whom we don’t see as often. We are also going to start using short videos a little more when onboarding new clients or reaching out to prospects.
4. Start holding client events again
Many clients want to get back to in-person client events, while some still don’t. For those clients who are eager for educational events or a little fun, consider holding some events. If you are concerned about health issues, consider restaurants with outdoor seating, as well as outdoor events in the spring or summer such as golf clinics, barbecues or a minor league baseball game. Think about what makes sense for you and your clients.
We have created a calendar for cooking classes at my home, an outdoor barbecue in the summer at my home, a women’s bowling night, and a few special dinners at two very nice restaurants.
5. Consider sending special-purpose announcements for critical news or time-sensitive items
It’s hard to predict everything in advance, and important financial concepts don’t necessarily all fall neatly into a monthly theme. That is where creating announcements comes into play. When new legislation is passed (such as SECURE Act 2.0) or if you want to remind clients of the importance of a Roth conversion, then this is a great way to do it, as the announcement focuses on one issue and one issue only.
We have an annual schedule and then there are ad hoc announcements that are sent throughout the year based on breaking news or recent developments. All in all, we sent about 40 announcements during the course of the year.
Figure 3: Sample of a TFG Special Announcement
Source: Taylor Financial Group
6. Consider sending a Year in Review communication
Our Year in Review is sent early in the year (it’s still not too late!). and it is one of my favorite pieces. It highlights our wins for the year, reminds clients of the work we have done for them (such as the number of plans we updated) and mentions new service options (such as our tax work). We have a lot of fun putting this together and we get great feedback from clients on it.
The Year in Review mentions all of our accomplishments within the year. For example, it mentions our retention rate, all the milestones we celebrated, the number of articles written, and the number of announcements that we sent along. There is also how many meetings we held, any goals that we accomplished through donations, some of our favorite client events and much more! Below is an example of what our Year in Review looks like.
Figure 4: TFG Year in Review
Source: Taylor Financial Group
7. Seek feedback through surveys and client advisory boards
Our annual survey allows our clients to rate us and we think it is absolutely critical. We send two surveys a year, once in January and once in July. Compliance is starting to get picky about the surveys and they won’t allow free-form answers anymore, which is a shame. However, the survey still provides an opportunity for clients to give you feedback and it is also another way to show you care about their opinions.
Figure 5: Sample of TFG Client Survey
Source: Taylor Financial Group
We also hold two client advisory board meetings, one in February (for women only) and one in October. Through the Client Advisor Board meetings, clients let us know what they liked, what we can improve on, and what they expect going into the new year. The feedback is absolutely essential in helping us to understand how our team and our work is perceived (and always a little surprising).
To be clear, our preference is that every advisor develops a marketing plan, as data shows that those with a formal marketing plan will experience more growth (or is that confusing correlation with causation?). In any event, if you decide to move forward (at least for now) with no formal marketing plan, then consider the seven critical marketing moves above for a successful year.