It’s critical to have a personalized marketing plan to clarify how your bold goal can be achieved. Your personalized marketing plan takes into account who you want to attract as new ideal clients, what their demographics are, and where and how you can reach them in order to support your pipeline.

How to Create a Personalized Marketing Plan:

1. Growth is one of the key desired outcomes of a marketing plan. As a first step you want to define additional goals of your marketing plan, and be as specific as possible. Clarify how many ideal clients you want to attract and 3-5 marketing channels that will support the attraction of those clients.

2. Determine which marketing channels or avenues will attract clients. Some of the most effective marketing channels for financial services professionals include client referrals, professional referrals, digital marketing, client events, speaking opportunities, and networking.

Look back to what has been most successful in the past, (for example, client referrals or professional referrals?) and make sure to include those areas, as well as what’s next in the marketing plan to truly create the results you’re looking for within these channels. For example, a digital marketing plan should encompass a website, social media campaign, and strategy around messaging that will align with your brand to attract and maintain ideal clients. Pick which marketing channels you’d like to focus on for the year.

For senior level advisors with larger practices, typically you already have an abundance of ideal clients in your book of business. If that’s you, the client referral channel is a great place to start or enhance your marketing plan. Financial advisors with referral programs generate 86% more leads.

Here are some important points to consider:

• Are you strategizing about which top clients are raving fans and open to referring you business? Are you setting up opportunities with these top clients where they can invite friends or associates to meet you? A few examples of events that easily facilitate referrals include a milestone birthday, anniversary, or retirement party. Another effective example: if your top clients are golf enthusiasts, you could invite one of them to invite two of their friends to a round of golf. The people that you’d want them to invite would also be golf enthusiasts who they think might benefit from your services at this time.

• Are you asking for introductions from your top clients and taking steps to follow up and connect with anyone they introduce to you?

Another channel for seasoned advisors is the professional referral channel. These are other professionals serving your ideal clients in a different capacity, like estate planning attorneys, CPAs, or even golf instructors. Typically with the professional referral channel, it’s a two-way referral partnership. The professional referral partners you want to attract are seasoned enough that you can rest assured that you’ll be referring your clients to people who can be counted on to deliver (as well as also interested in building their practices).

An easy place to look for people to connect with are your top clients. Which other service professionals are your top clients utilizing and raving about? These are the individuals you want to build relationships with. There are a few ways to find out who these potential referral partners might be. If you don’t already inquire about their CPA and estate planning attorney and any other service professionals on your client intake form, I invite you to add that to the information you collect at the beginning of the engagement. You could also send out a separate letter letting them know you’re interested in creating resources for clients and asking if they have any recommendations with regard to their CPA or estate planning attorney. Once you get recommendations (and ask permission to contact their referrals), contact those professionals and schedule a meeting to learn more about their practice and determine whether or not they might be a good referral partner.

3. Figure out when you will implement each channel. For example, if you are doing an event to support client referrals, figure out in advance how you will support the event, such as sending out an email blast to your clients, or promoting it ahead of time on social media. Build a marketing calendar so you’re being proactive and not missing opportunities to promote your business.

4. Take stock and pay attention to what’s working and what isn’t. Consistent tracking is critical to maintaining focus and producing results. Oftentimes when people get busy, tracking is one of the first tasks that is left for “later,” though often later becomes much later, like the end of the year. Ideally you should be tracking weekly to keep a good pulse on what’s working and where you might want to make changes with your plan to support your desired results.

5. If you would like to get a jumpstart on this in a dynamic and empowering environment, sign up for my 2-day event Business Success Intensive for Financial Advisors on September 21st-22nd, 2017. In just 2 days you’ll learn how to increase your visibility in the marketplace, create a personalized marketing plan, attract high net worth clients with greater ease, overcome your business challenges, and receive high-level input to set you up for success.

Click here for more information, and register by calling Susan at 925-954-1773 or email  Susan@SusanDanzig.com. Spots are limited so reserve yours today!