In an increasingly competitive environment, marketing plays a crucial role in acquiring and retaining clients. Whether your marketing initiatives use the web, print, client events or other activites, a well-defined strategy is essential to reaching your goals.

Many advisors make marketing mistakes because they trust their instincts, rely on what might have worked in the past or simply take an improvised approach to marketing, says Prem Malik, a chartered accountant and financial advisor with Queensbury Securities Inc. in Toronto. But these “unscripted” approaches do not lead to a sustainable business development strategy.

You can develop a successful marketing strategy by avoiding these marketing mistakes:

1. Not having a written marketing plan
Having a written strategy that defines what you offer, your target audience, your goals for growth and your competitive positioning is essential to building your practice, says George Hartman, CEO of Market Logics Inc. in Toronto. “Advisors do not typically spend a lot of time formulating a marketing plan,” Hartman says. “They take a more reactive or ad hoc approach.”

But having a plan is critical, says Malik. Taking the time to write a plan enables you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts over a defined period.

2. Taking a “look at me” approach
While your experience and qualifications are an important component of your value proposition, your marketing initiatives should focus on the client — not the advisor. Your message should appeal to clients’ personal, financial and emotional needs, Hartman says.

Prospects must be able to relate to what you can offer to them. Otherwise they will not see any real value in choosing you.

Says Malik: “What should come out from your message is what you can do for clients.”

3. Reaching out only to prospects
Many advisors assume marketing is strictly a prospecting exercise. Marketing is essential to attracting new clients — especially if you are marketing to a defined group such as seniors or high net-worth individuals. But your core message, which brands you and your value proposition, should also speak to your existing clients, who are most important to your practice.

4. Working without a marketing budget
Marketing costs money, and you must decide in advance how much you intend to allocate to each marketing initiative. Most advisors spend 1% – 2% of annual revenue on marketing, according to Hartman. Top advisors, he says, spend between 5% and 10%.

For Malik, money spent on marketing is a good investment. He says new business he gets is directly related to how much he spends on marketing.

The challenge, Hartman says, is to find the right combination of spending among different marketing initiatives over a calendar period. This balance can be achieved by measuring the success of different marketing programs.

5. Not measuring results
“It is absolutely essential to measure the results of your marketing efforts,” Hartman says, “although most advisors do not.”

If you don’t measure the results, you will not know which efforts are working. While quantifying success can be difficult, Hartman recommends looking at the effects of a number of integrated activities. For example, how many prospect meetings did your seminar generate? How many calls did you get as a result of your newsletter?

The goal is to find out which marketing efforts are generating the results you are looking for, so you can adjust your plan accordingly.

IE