Neil De Beger

Whether you’re long-established or just at the starting line, investing in Marketing is probably one of the most invaluable and worthy decisions that you can make.

It offers businesses many benefits, yet ‘marketing’ per se, often gets brushed aside because it falls into the ‘too hard’ basket. It happens often; businesses are so focused on working within their business or launching their product or service, ‘getting themselves out there in front of customers’, they actually miss a great opportunity to create some wider awareness and increase the take-up of their services or products.

In a world full of ‘noise’ and distraction, at work and at home, getting the attention of your clients is more difficult than ever before. According to research^[1] , consumers (i.e., your clients) are hit with more than 6,000-10,000 advertising messages each day, across various technology platforms, devices, and channels. As this volume of information consumes their attention, it becomes even harder for you to get their attention and to achieve the cut-through that you and your business need and deserve.

Marketing sits at the core of any business; it’s intrinsically linked to business strategy and importantly, customers and clients. When done well, marketing gives you and your business an edge, and it will help you to cut through all the noise.

Why is it so important?

There is a common misconception that marketing is nothing more than the logo and a colour palette; perhaps it’s also a brochure or a piece of collateral and some brand guidelines. The reality is, it’s much more.

From clearly understanding who your clients and who it is you are targeting your services to (e.g., Accumulators, Pre-Retirees, Retirees), to making sure you acquire them and are then able to nurture and turn them into loyal clients over a number of years, marketing has a role to play right through your business’ and your client’s lifecycle.

On the plus-side, most businesses are already doing some form of marketing. E.g.:

• They might have an existing website.
• They might already be promoting that website on Google, or paid advertising.
• Perhaps they even have some social media up and running.
• They often attend industry or local business events to promote themselves..
• Maybe they’ve already implemented a process to generate word-of-mouth referrals.

These are all examples of valid ‘marketing’ activities. The challenge, however, is that all too often they lack a cohesive plan that links back to the organisation’s objectives.

The hidden ‘trapdoor’

The often-overlooked trapdoor for many businesses, is the lack of a strategic marketing plan. Existing marketing initiatives are often piece-meal at best, not linked together and they are not aligned to simple, clear, and measurable objectives.

This results in it being extremely hard to know how effective any effort is and if so what exactly is effective (or whether it’s even effective at all?).

A well-conceived strategic marketing plan acts as a business’ compass. A strong plan comes down to knowledge and an understanding of the process that it requires to create it and while you could read about it or try to ‘Google’ answers to help you out, or simply ‘fly by the seat of your pants’, you will fall into the knowledge gap that will lead you toward unstructured marketing tactics that end up costing you both resource, time and money, with no commercial return.

Outsourcing your marketing to an expert

A good option for businesses without a skill set in marketing, is to engage with a marketing expert, who will partner with them to bridge any divide. By offering access to their professional knowledge, they will determine what a business really needs to be doing to meet their goals, rather than guesswork, hunches or using gut feels.

Professional marketing experts offers sure footing and protection from a potentially dangerous fall. They bring a lot to the table:

1. A marketing plan for your business

A structured marketing plan is an essential requirement and while it doesn’t need to be over-detailed, any business still needs to have a plan. It acts as a blue-print and provides focus that enables marketing effort to be measured back against clear & SMART* goals.

An expert will partner with a business, to get a clear understanding of their market, who they should be targeting (and who they should not). They will help define a clear position that sets them apart in the mind of potential (and existing) clients.

Once armed with this, it is then that they can get into the nitty gritty of tactics – a marketing expert will then also determine the best mix needed.

2. Access the tools of technology

These days, when it comes to engaging with new and prospective clients, it is more than likely that digital marketing techniques and skills will be required. The challenge for any business is that in marketing, some of these instruments can be extremely confusing and also very costly; not only the product itself but the training and implementation required to use them.

A professional outsourced marketer brings their experience, skill and expertise to the table, they understand what should be in the toolbox. They stay up to date with the latest tools and technology to effectively implement, track and obtain the best marketing results.

A marketing partner can help to clarify what a firm actually needs, against agreed objectives. They can then then help employ the necessary instruments and often, also have experience in using the tools. This proves valuable for both decreasing unnecessary expense, as well as increasing peace of mind.

Furthermore, with platforms prioritising exceptional client engagement, bringing positive implications for financial advisers, advice practices, and dealer groups, it also means that for many firms, their technology ecosystem contains existing capability and tools that can be harnessed, without incurring significant additional expenses or set-up costs.

In addition, there are numerous integrations, with the likes of iRESS Xplan, DASH, and Fin365, all offering access to email marketing platform Mailchimp.

Often, the technology is readily available; what’s needed is simply the guidance to optimise its use, to aligned goals.

3. Employing best practices and redeeming time

As mentioned in the previous point, keeping up is no easy task – especially if a business owner or the team are not immersed in Marketing on a day-to-day basis. Outsourcing your marketing, can also yield greater levels of productivity.

They are much more likely to be able to offer more in the way of experience and a broader skill-set, than a less-experienced, in-house full-time Marketing Manager (who will also, almost certainly cost more to hire and maintain).

You get access to high-quality advice and best practices, at a much lower cost than hiring another team member, who may also require training and they are often much better placed to help a business hit and surpass their bespoke goals; both immediate and mid-term.

Another benefit is the time saving. Time also proves a valuable commodity, and a business might not yet be at the stage that they even have enough work for a full-time marketing manager, certainly not enough to fill their day, for 5 days each week. And as any business owner knows, saving time, also saves money. It really is that simple.

4. Outsourced marketing costs much less than DIY

While it may seem logical that handing out marketing assignments to current employees saves money (after all, they are already being paid), this is simply not true.

Loading yourself or existing staff with additional tasks depletes energy, creativity and overall productivity. It also produces an unnecessary headache further down the line.

Many businesses make this mistake when a team member puts up their hand to ‘do the marketing’. Yet, if that person hasn’t been professionally trained, it’s fraught with danger.

Without a plan in place, the nominated person is at best, likely to put a loose proposal forward, before jumping straight into execution and the latest ‘shiny’ tactics, without being able to prove any real measured return, on both effort and spend.

5. Protecting the daily workflow and creating focus

Business requires a certain amount of time and energy, to keep it moving each day. Adding a new project or campaign interrupts this activity, possibly even to the detriment of your firm.

The crux of the issue is this: You have a good idea that a marketing plan is vital to moving your business forward, but you have no space in your day, or the necessary expertise in-house, to begin such a task without significant disruption and negatively impacting other areas.

An external (outsourced) marketing professional, partners with you to create a strategy based on your specific business goals. They help, by executing the plan outside of the daily workflow, giving you the best of both worlds and all the while, you stay in the know.

An outsourced expert is also accountable to you. They will provide you with summaries and reports which will show you what is working, against pre-defined KPIs. If necessary, they, will fine-tune and adjust the plan and activities accordingly, to meet agreed goals and objectives.

This will provide the assurance that your goals are being met, keeps you looking ahead and your company moving forward.

6. Adjusting to ongoing needs

Like many businesses, the ongoing process of many marketing strategies requires maintenance, reporting, and optimising, for the best results and to get the optimal cut-through, particularly now that we are in a digital world:

• For instance, once you bring in new customers, you need to be talking with them on a regular basis – which might mean you need help setting up a simple engagement program.
• Websites once up and running, require ongoing maintenance so that they are optimised for search engines, and social media accounts also require weekly (if not daily), attention.
• Generating new and relevant content is a great way to increase trust, which in-turn leads to better marketing results, and stronger relationships.
• Keeping up with changes and updates in technologies and methods is also vital.

Outsourcing these tasks, brings assurance that it is being done and done correctly. Again, it provides you the breathing room for your own team to tackle other tasks, including addressing the new business leads that you will also be generating!

7. Increasing your business’ bottom line

Lastly, outsourcing your marketing efforts, offers good return on investment.

At first glance, it might not seem that way and that it could lead to higher costs. While you may think that the numbers may appear to raise costs, the actual pay-off arises in leads generated and then converted, the flexible costs, and the decrease of hidden internal expenditures (including the resource and time creep mentioned above) associated with marketing, material/s and campaigns all having to be generated internally.

In short, quality professional marketing support can significantly boost revenue and ultimately, investing in high-calibre professional marketing assistance can be a game-changer for a business’s bottom line.

Conclusion

A critical benefit for any advice firm, is that they can spend time nurturing and growing their client relationships.

Think of it this way: you’re gaining an ally in the relentless realm of marketing, a field that operates round the clock. Just the time saved by not having to manage these efforts in-house is a testament to the practicality of entrusting your marketing to those who specialise in it.

Outsourced marketing services tend to work per project, or on a contractual period basis, so you also have the extra flexibility to increase or decrease their functions as you go.

Beginning with one project might offer you a picture into the services and working relationship. If you like the results, move ahead. If not, move on.

By Neil De Beger,  founder and principal, OYM – Outsource Your Marketing.

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References:
[1] Dentsu Aegis : The Attention Economy Research.
IRESS Xplan integrations: https://community.iress.com/t5/Xplan-Integrations/Available-Integrations/ta-p/22576

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Neil De Beger

In the five years since the Royal Commission, the number of financial advisers in Australia has nearly halved, with approximately 15,500 advisers currently active.

While this decline may appear alarming to those outside the profession, many insiders believe that the industry is now in a stronger position than ever before.

We are entering a new era of advice characterised by innovative thinking, fresh perspectives, and advisers who prioritise soft skills, such as empathy and understanding their clients’ mindsets and behaviours, alongside technical expertise in financial advice.

In this article, we explore the enduring importance of trust between advisers and their clients and how to significantly enhance your chances of business growth.

Advocates yield significant benefits

The Pareto Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 rule, illustrates that 80% of outcomes stem from 20% of causes.

This principle applies to various aspects of life, including advice businesses who are aware, that it is generally their top % of clients that generate 80% of their firm’s revenue.

Once you acquire a new client, it is widely acknowledged that developing a successful strategy to nurture that client relationship, yields significant benefits, namely:

1. Cost-effectiveness: Retaining existing clients is approximately five times more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. The cost of a customer acquisition (CAC), including distribution, marketing, and all other costs, more often surpass those associated with ongoing customer lifetime value (CLV), retention and service of existing clients.
2. Increased growth: Loyal customers are more receptive to your other recommendations and efforts due to the trust and satisfaction inherent in their relationship with you. Research indicates a higher success rate in promoting services to existing customers (60-70%) when compared to new ones (5-20%).
3. Referral potential: Satisfied and loyal clients often become ambassadors for a business, recommending its services and solutions, to others. Word-of-mouth recommendations hold far more influence, with most people more likely to purchase a product or service, based on a friend’s trusted recommendation. Nielsen research found 92% of people are more likely to buy a product or service, if their friends or a family member, recommend it.

Identifying and tapping into the gold seam

It is widely accepted that referrals are the lifeblood of many advice firms and a strategic documented approach is required, for both inbound and outbound referrals.

Referrals are so well-regarded because of the trust that is attached to them. Research by the University of Lancaster in the UK found that 33 per cent learnt about their financial adviser from a family member, employer, or a professional such as their accountant.

With smaller firms who have limited resources, as well as perhaps a lack of an appetite for what they deem to be ‘expensive’ marketing or promotional activities, it’s not uncommon to shy away from investing in marketing. It also comes down the perception, that Marketing is both expensive and too hard. Yet it needn’t be.

An essential part of any business strategy, Marketing helps to acquire, nurture, retain and evolve clients into advocates for your business. And when it comes to obtaining quality referrals, there are proven Marketing strategies that can certainly help.

The following section provides a few practical and cost-effective tips, to get you started on your client referral program (or improve your current activity to get quality referrals through the door)—some of this you may already be doing, some you might not.

1. Identify your advocates

a. Create a clear profile

To get started, you first need to decide who your advocates are. Not all clients will refer you and a simple profiling of your client database is a good place to start.

It is likely that you have a pretty good idea of who these might be, so this needn’t be exhaustive (e.g., you’ll most likely find that your advocates, are your mid to longer-term clients where there is already a healthy/more established relationship in place) so defining and applying your own criteria such as tenure, might serve as an easy starting point and you can then add further characteristics unique to your group or practice.

You might start with tenure then add your own variables (e.g., has been a client for at least 5 years and holds 1 or more Risk products, and at least one other product under your advice). The key here, is your starting point.

2. Validate them

a. Net Promotor Score (NPS)

NPS offers a simple and effective way to measure customer loyalty, provided via a simple score and based upon the likelihood or the customer’s propensity, to recommend your business.

Once identified, sending a simple NPS survey question to your advocates, will validate that you have the right clients so you can start your program.

Tools such as SurveyMonkey provide an easy and cost-effective way to do this.

3. Communicate with them

a. Content and cost-effective digital channels

Research shows that 83% of customers who feel appreciated, spend more with a brand, and 87% go on to advocate for it.

You will find common ground and consistent themes within your identified advocates and a great way to build advocacy, is to provide them with regular, engaging content.

You might already be sending ad-hoc communications, providing a select group with useful information. So, rather than sending one-off emails, covering multiple topics and content where you must start from scratch each time, consider putting a bi-monthly email or newsletter together and using an email platform such as Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign to manage and distribute it.

Make sure that you include a dedicated section explaining your referral program and provide a link to an online form (on your firm’s website), making it easy for your clients to refer their friends and family.

b. Your business website

Including a new page or a dedicated area for client referrals, is a good way to make sure that your clients can easily refer others through your website.

Better still, if your clients have a log-in to a dedicated portal, you could a section within there, that provides simple information outlining your referral program and how you can help their potential friends or family members, with easy instructions.

c. Leveraging social media

Social media provides a great way to create awareness of your advice services in a cost-effective manner, so setting up social media channel/s (e.g., a Facebook page) and inviting all clients (especially your advocates) to ‘follow’ your page, is another great way to build engagement and advocacy.

If your clients start promoting you on social media, you will quickly see who starts engaging with and/or recommending you, to their friends and family. This might give you another group to target, that sit outside of your typical advocate profile and another group of clients to communicate with.

Applying some of these simple tips and methods and focusing your efforts upon these identified clients, rather than chasing down new ones, should very quickly help you to get more value and efficiency, from your activity.

Your strongest client relationships will have been built on trust and your service and lay the foundation for successful (and stronger) referrals, so it makes sense to tap into them.

Measurement is crucial

In any business, large or small, new to market or mature, marketing is a highly valuable function. It complements your activities and helps to create awareness, drive profit and business growth, acquire new clients, and importantly retain them, strengthening their engagement with you over time.

With 92% of people more likely to purchase based on a friend’s recommendation, nurturing client relationships and identified advocates, for successful referrals can gives you a crucial competitive edge.

When it comes to any referral program designed specifically for advocates, measurement is critical, and you should make sure that you’re able to track client engagement and any referrals. You need to not only measure how many referrals come in but how they convert.

Applying a continuous ‘test and learn’ methodology is important too. Once you have the measures in place, you will soon gain a clear picture of what and which of your channels are working best and you can identify any necessary areas for improvement.

Leveraging technology for scalability

As your business grows as well as your pool of advocates expands, further profiling and segmentation of your target audiences and activity, might also be necessary so that you remain relevant and keep all your clients as engaged and as ‘happy’ as possible.

For practices with a large client base (or potentially, dealer groups, looking after certain aspects of marketing communications across several firms), personalised outreach for every customer may not be feasible.

The acceptance and integration of technology, particularly in the wake of Covid-19, has streamlined communication processes, while also enhancing client engagement. Leveraging tools such as AI-powered email platforms, enables more personalised communication, at scale.

Employing the services of a marketing expert to help with the fundamentals of any existing or new communication program to the next level. A professional marketing expert will design a strategy that complements your existing service levels freeing up time for you / your practice to focus on strategic client interactions and other important areas of the business.

Conclusion

In a post-Royal Commission era, client / adviser relationships remain a priority, with advisers embracing a more empathetic and innovative approach to advice.

As part of solid marketing strategy and road-map of activity, Word of Mouth client referrals provide a proven rich seam of gold that can be an invaluable source of new business, giving advice practices a competitive edge.

Fostering strong client relationships is essential for long-term success, so identifying and nurturing ‘advocates’ within an advice practice’s client base, therefore presents significant opportunities.

This article has presented some simple and cost-effective steps that advice practices can implement, to kick-start their client referrals with these identified advocates and to gain invaluable efficiencies alongside existing activities. If correctly implemented, they can then be scaled to support business sustainability and growth.

Leveraging marketing technology, is an effective way of streamlining advocacy efforts and facilitating higher existing client engagement.

For advisers seeking guidance in developing and scaling advocacy programs, marketing experts can add strength to your business.

Importantly, they can offer services that create efficiencies, measure what is working, identify what engages your clients the most, what keeps them loyal to you and your business and what turns them into advocates, increasing your success of generating quality referrals.
By prioritising client relationships and leveraging advocacy, advisers can continue to navigate the evolving landscape of financial advice with confidence and increased optimism. 

By Neil De Beger,  founder and principal.

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References:
[1] https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2012/global-trust-in-advertising-and-brand-messages-2/
[2] https://www.forrester.com/blogs/unlock-loyalty-throughout-the-customer-lifecycle
[3] https://ifamagazine.com/what-are-the-key-drivers-in-client-acquisition/
[4] https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/customer-retention-marketing-vs-customer-acquisition-marketing
[5] https://fastercapital.com/content/The-Power-of-Advocates–How-to-Leverage-Them-in-Your-Referral-Program.html#

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