Page 41 - Investment Advisor April 2021

THE FAST TRACK

By Angie Herbers

4 Problems With Advisor Marketing

(and How to Fix Them)

Consistency is key, and so is understanding how to reach new

and developing clients.

our advisory firm probably 4 PROBLEMS WITH ADVISOR
needs to do less marketing — or MARKETING
Y rather, you need to do fewer Following trends: The first problem
types of marketing better. that advisors make with marketing is
I rarely meet an advisory firm leader that they follow a trend instead of stick-
who doesn’t want to grow their busi- ing with what works. Let’s be clear:
ness. Often, the first step leaders take is Following a trend, like podcasting was
investing in marketing. several years ago, is not a bad thing. The
The problem is that when advisory problem is that many advisors stop pod-
firm leaders invest in marketing, they casting before it can yield results.
jump from one idea to the next: blog- Marketing, like many investments
ging, social media, podcasts, seminars, leaders make in their businesses, often
events, email campaigns, etc. You name yields long-term results. The key is to
it, most advisory firms want to do it all. give it time to work for you. In the case
But moving rapidly from one market- of podcasting, it took roughly two years
Moving rapidly from ing idea to the next doesn’t create suc- for our clients who did not give up on it
cess. Rather, it often leads to frustration
to see real results. This leads me to the
one marketing idea and an inability to effectively create second problem.
Wanting instant results: Effective
to the next doesn’t and follow through with a cohesive marketing is seldom a quick hit. When
marketing plan.
create success. While many may believe that the next you approach marketing and expect
Rather, it often big thing is finally the tactic that will instant results, you are gambling with
your business dollars. Great marketing
yield marketing results, the truth from
leads to frustration what we’ve observed is that marketing is a building process: It requires you to
is not a tactical problem, it’s a behavioral
implement one tactic at a time.
and an inability to problem. Here’s an example: This method will allow the tactic to
About four years ago, podcasting
effectively create became a popular tactic. Many advisory build upon itself over time; consistent
marketing is the best marketing. You
and follow through firms tried it, but six months later, with may work on a marketing tactic for a
with a cohesive few results, they quit doing it and missed long time and get few results, but as you
continue to build on it, the results will
a big opportunity. With our consulting
marketing plan. client base, the ones that stuck with it compound with the effort you make.
Doing more for no reason:
have experienced great success with the
leads the podcasts now produce. Expanding on consistent marketing
Quitting too soon is just one of the and implementing more tactics doesn’t
four most common behavioral prob- always mean more leads. What would
lems that advisors make with market- you rather do: a podcast that produces
ing. What are the others? See if you can 100 leads per year, or a podcast and
identify any of these behaviors and move email campaigns that produce a total of
past them so you can build a successful 100 leads per year? If an advisory firm
marketing strategy. is not expanding lead flow after adding

APRIL 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 39