The unlikely scene played out, advisor marketing guru Maribeth Kuzmeski recalls with wry amusement, during morning rush hour at a busy Chicago-area commuter train station one day in 2008, as the economy—and people's investment accounts—were bottoming out.
Seeking a creative way to leverage the financial meltdown in his prospecting efforts, one of Kuzmeski's advisor clients headed to the train station to hand out fliers to passers-by, a tactic typically used to tout political candidates and happy hour drink specials. The flier essentially read, "Are you happy with your investments? If not, it's time for a second opinion," with the advisor's contact info and an invitation for a no-strings-attached consultation, she recounts.
As much time as Kuzmeski, who heads Chicago-based Red Zone Marketing, has spent in the trenches, helping advisors market themselves and their practices, this was one idea she had never seen attempted. And for good reason: it was, in her estimation, a nonstarter, little more than a gimmick. Had the advisor asked her an opinion on the idea beforehand, she says, "I would have told him it wasn't going to work."
In this case, Kuzmeski acknowledges she would have been dead wrong. What struck her as a harebrained prospecting scheme proved to be a fruitful, if highly unconventional, marketing approach. In a matter of days, that handbill had landed the advisor a new client—and close to $1 million in new business.
Advisory practices are built and grow using a broad range of marketing angles, some conventional and well known, others less so. Here's a look at some tactics that while leaning more toward the nontraditional, overlooked or obscure, just might be worth exploring, because, as advisor marketing expert John Comer, CFP, of Comer Consulting in Plymouth, Minn., points out, "If you're looking to grow your practice, you need to fill your pipeline."
Work these overlooked, underused and unorthodox marketing angles to build your practice.
One-on-one virtual appointments. Face-to-face doesn't necessarily mean in- person, especially for prospects who are interested in engaging your services, but lack the time or inclination to meet at your office for an appointment. Instead, suggests Kuzmeski, invite them to an online one-on-one meeting, conducted via a virtual conferencing platform such as GoToMeeting, where the advisor can walk the prospect through a presentation that appears on both their computer screens. Such a prospect may appreciate the convenience more than a handshake.
Lend a hand, shake a hand. Community involvement is a positive in and of itself. But advisors who volunteer for a charitable organization or not-for-profit also can leverage that work to generate networking opportunities and good will, which in turn may lead in a variety of promising directions. "Get involved where the money is, by sitting on an organization's fundraising or development committee instead of the finance committee," Kuzmeski suggests. "It gets you face-to-face with people with the money. I'm not recommending you go out and sell yourself in these situations. You're looking to build relationships. I know advisors who have built client bases mostly from these kinds of relationships."
"Doing a client survey every year is a great way to identify clients who are willing to provide referrals, and to identify a product or service void that needs filling." John Comer, Comer Consulting
