As 2015 came to a quick close, I looked back to reflect on the many conversations that I was fortunate to have had late in the year with top advisors from around the country.
What was astounding to me was the consistency in conversations related to growth goals through marketing initiatives for the coming year! In hopes this may guide you towards increasing continued success, I have compiled a list of the key steps that help our Carson Group Partners—34 partner offices managing over $6B* in assets—execute on their marketing program.
Write It Down
It may seem obvious that you would have a written marketing plan, but many advisors simply do not take the time to do this, or they do not feel adequately staffed for proactive marketing. In other words, they make excuses and continue to count only on referrals for growth.
For other advisors looking to improve, develop, or change their marketing plans because they have an insatiable appetite to grow, they oftentimes find themselves unsure where they should turn to help them achieve dramatic growth numbers. We suggest utilizing all of the resources you have to help you, including your own team members, your OSJ, your broker dealer or custodian, your business coach, or for our partners—the Carson Group Marketing team’s annual plan.
We have created a simplified marketing template, based on our Annual Marketing Plan, to help you with the important task of having a written marketing plan. Click here to download yours now.
Build Your Brand
Next, it is important to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and look at your overall brand and website. When you Google yourself and your firm, what do you see? If you have not updated your website or logo recently, and instead you take a “set it and forget it” approach, then you are likely missing out on opportunities to convert more prospects.
The Carson marketing team revamped the Carson Wealth website mid-2015, and the leads from the new platform have doubled! Going from a great website to an industry-leading one has made a big impact and generated results.
In fact, over 30,000 users have checked out the new website in just 6 months. A lot of this traffic has been driven from Search Engine Optimization, Google Analytics, and our social media sites, as well as our marketing strategy. Check out the Carson Wealth website and see how yours compares.
Have Consistent Deliverables
Once you have been able to drive prospects and clients to your website, they should see fresh, relevant content that demonstrates you are a thought leader in financial services and in your community. As part of your written marketing plan, you should set consistency in delivering content to clients and prospects to keep them engaged electronically.
At Carson Group, our deliverables include: Weekly Market Commentary, Monthly Newsletters, Monthly Blog Posts, Quarterly Market Outlook Videos, Animation Videos, Custom Partner Videos, Infographics, Whitepapers, and Holiday Correspondence. These types of communications are targeted to a variety of client audiences, in order to maximize visibility in the marketplace.
Related content: The 10 Best Lead Magnets for Advisors, Ranked
Engage Your Clients & Prospects
Two primary ways our Carson Group Partners gains clients’ and prospects’ attention is through social media and passion prospecting. Social media is a topic of interest for advisors who want to connect with the next generation in order to be well positioned to keep assets when wealth transfers.
However, there is a sense of anxiety for advisors not actively using social media. We have developed a training course on social media for our Partners to get them comfortable using whichever platform they prefer – Twitter, LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Facebook, etc.
Compliance-approved social media is a significant source of website traffic and leads for Carson Wealth and our Partners, and it keeps client and prospects engaged. Our Partners post relevant business content, but also personal, highly-relatable content, which is just as important.
Passion Prospecting, which is spending time with clients and prospects doing something you both are passionate about, is a proven way to help you achieve your growth goals. The top two activities to add value to your firm are spending time with current clients to deepen relationships, and spending time getting new clients.
Whether your passions include art, wine, golf, travel, charity events, concerts, or sporting events, there are countless opportunities to prospect doing what you love. Advisors oftentimes experience a great return on investment through increased referrals and happy clients.
Execute Your Plan
Based on research from Harvard Business School, if your business is not growing by 15% or more per year, then it isn’t growing at a sustainable rate to remain competitive in the future. A written plan is critical to keep you on track toward your goals. What is your number? Is it 15% or more!?
If you don’t know where you are going, it will be difficult to get there. Once you know your goals, calendar out your marketing plan so you can be consistent and achieve your goals! A critical component of executing your marketing plan is to have buy-in from your entire team, so they can be accountable to work towards your firm’s specific growth goals.
Check in at least quarterly to review your written plan to see how well your firm is executing.
Consider A Partnership
Many top advisors have approached Ron Carson over the past 30 years for guidance and help with marketing plans and achieving growth goals. Even with the nearly unlimited resources some of them have, many didn’t have the time to build the firm they wanted on their own.
Ron began to ask himself, “If I wanted to double or triple my assets in a short time frame, what would I need to do?” He realized the only way would be to find a partner who would take all of the things off of his plate that were not helping him foster client relationships or get new clients, so he could focus 100% on growing.
In 2012, Ron Carson formed Carson Group, a Turnkey Integrated Partnership for advisors who want to get back to doing what they love. Do you currently have a partner that takes things off your plate so that you can focus? Compare different platforms and see how yours ranks.
Our Carson Partners receive all of the services mentioned above when they partner with us: a full brand review, brand design and a custom logo, identity system, ongoing marketing collateral and deliverables, passion prospecting events, website setup and updates, social media setup and training, custom videos, infographics, market commentary, and more. Instead of years, we only need three months to execute the marketing plan for our partners. Click below to learn more about Partnership.
