The Who, Why and When of Effective Marketing

Branding, Marketing

Brand MegaphoneHave you ever heard of the one: “Send the right audience, the right message, at the right time.” That’s how you grow your business. So, that sounds easy enough, right? So why aren’t you doing it!? Obviously, it’s not as cut and dry as it sounds.

Let’s break this down:

  1. The right audience. Chances are good you know who your right audience is, but if you need help getting clarity on the right “who” to market, identify the following:
    1. Geographic location
    2. Age
    3. Marital status
    4. Income or net worth
    5. Education level
    6. Preferred profession (if you niche market)

Then, determine the appropriate mediums that these people know, like and trust, and work to include the “right message.” This one is fairly straightforward.

  1. The right message. So now that you know “who” let’s determine the “why” – why should your target audience pay attention to you? Now, make a list of all of the various problems you can help your right audience to solve. This list could potentially fill a page, but to get you started, here are some examples:
    1. Wants to maximize their Social Security benefits
    2. Wants less exposure to market volatility
    3. Received an inheritance and doesn’t know what to do with it
    4. Realized that capital gains wiped out their returns in their investment portfolio last year

This list can get long. For most advisors I work with, this list will easily surpass 20 different scenarios. So, now that this is defined, the right message should be developed for each explaining how you can help to solve this problem  for the “right audience.” All they need to do is: download the information; attend an event; call for a free consultation; and similar. A little less straight forward, but easy enough to develop.

  1. The right time. The “when” is just as critical as the “who” and “why” when marketing. Sometimes you can predict the right time, but not all the time. You know there are recurring calendar-based events: at the end of year your target audience does end-of-year planning. You know at the start of the year they’re preparing their taxes. You know there are current events that may stir up problems that you can help to solve. “I need less exposure to market volatility,” and similar. Both calendar and news based events give you direction to what the right message would be at the right time. But what about the rest of the problems you help to solve? What about the “right audience” who just received a windfall, is ready to retire or is in search of a new portfolio manager… your guess on the “right time” is as good as anyone else. So what now?

This is where frequency comes into play. No one knows what the future holds for each individual targeted client. Which is why you must be targeted in your approach, but consist in your outreach while rotating your messages frequently. This would include your marketing initiatives to get in front of the new “right people” with a “right message” as well as to your existing database. It’s likely someone has expressed interest in your firm in the past, but didn’t move forward at that time. Continue to illustrate all of the problems you solve through regular email/direct mail communication. Chances are good you’ll get in front of them with the right message at the right time if you continue to stay the course.

You’ve got your aim, you’ve got your fire, now you simply need to be ready when they are ready for you. As always, give us a call at (866) 888-5333 or email if we can be of help in crafting your messaging, developing the support materials or providing the strategy needed to maximize your marketing efforts.

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