When Properly Planned and Executed, Newsletters Are Effective Marketing Tool for Financial Advisors
(PRWEB) August 10, 2005
Newsletters have been used as a marketing tool for decades. For financial advisors, they still can be an effective means of communicating with clients and prospects when properly done.
“Advisors often ask me if it is worth the time and expense to do a newsletter and is always say yes,” says Martin R. Baird, president of Annapolis, Md.-based Advisor Marketing and author of The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing. “But I caution them that they need to give it careful thought before they take the plunge.”
Baird offers the following tips on planning, producing and distributing a newsletter.
No. 1. First decide on your target market. “This is where you must start because you need to know who you are talking to,” Baird says. “If you have more than one target market, you may need to consider more than one newsletter.”
No. 2. What do you want to accomplish? “Do you want the newsletter to be strictly educational?” Baird asks. “Do you want it to generate new clients? Do you want to increase the amount of assets that you have from current clients or do you just want to share your ideas with clients and prospects?”
No. 3. Figure out what your target market wants to read. “Too often, I see newsletters that try to be all things to all people,” Baird notes. “The more focused your newsletter is, the more effective it will be. Marketing that is highly targeted is much more cost and time effective.”
No. 4. Decide if a pre-printed newsletter works for you. “The answers to questions in Tips 1 through 3 will help you make this decision,” Baird says. “I’m not for or against pre-printed newsletters. If your target market is looking for generic financial information, a pre-printed newsletter could be the answer.”
No. 5. If you do your own newsletter instead, have it professionally designed. “Your newsletter needs to have a look that screams ‘this is a professional publication,’” Baird explains. “Once the design is set, you can use it for several years. This is an important investment to make.”
No. 6. Distribute your newsletter on a regular basis. “You need to distribute your newsletter often enough that your clients come to expect it,” Baird says. “Publish it at least six times a year. Twelve times is even better if you can do it. Anything less than six times a year makes your newsletter seem almost random, almost an afterthought.”
Producing a worthwhile newsletter is a serious commitment that takes time and money, Baird points out. “But a newsletter is a great marketing tool. Just make sure you do your homework up front and provide information that your market wants.”
Advisor Marketing provides a variety of services to financial advisors to help them improve their marketing methods and increase revenues, including seminars and conference speaking engagements on such topics as referrals, marketing, client communication and transitioning to fee. The company also provides a service that tests multiple variables of a marketing campaign simultaneously so advisors will quickly know which elements of a marketing effort offer the best opportunity for success before they launch the campaign.
The companyÂ’s Web site, http://www. advisormarketing. com (http://www. advisormarketing. com), is the premiere Internet-based source for marketing advice, information and tools for self-driven, success-oriented financial advisors who are demanding information that helps them market their practice, meet the needs of their clients and increase sales.
Advisor Marketing may be reached at 480-991-6420.
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Contact: Tom Ellis
Ellis Communications, Inc.
Phone (417) 881-5635
Http://www. advisormarketing. com (http://www. advisormarketing. com)
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