t4 Marketing Innovations Blog

Any last words dear...?

Investment News – a specialist trade publication for Financial Advisers in the US has been doing some research on advisers use of social networking and blogs as part of their marketing strategy.  This is interesting because the structure of the financial advice industry in the US is similar to ours and what happens in America tends to predict what will happen in the UK 5 years down the line.

More and more advisers we talk to want to integrate social media into their marketing plans. They … Continue Reading

How was your day?

Investment News – a trade journal for financial advisers in the US published a great article on how blogging works to the good for financial advisers – it is full of practical examples.

They account for only a minuscule fraction of the world’s estimated 100 million bloggers, but financial advisers who maintain their own commentary-oriented websites are finding that blogging can pay.

Blogs can be an inexpensive way to attract prospects, market a practice and communicate with clients. They’re also a way to … Continue Reading

I often read Marketing Wire – an excellent blog about marketing for financial adviser firms in the USA.  Kirsten Luke, the woman behind Marketing Wire has done a lot of work on simple marketing approaches for American advisers.  She reckons they can put together a great marketing programme for only $3,000 a year! So can you in the UK – for £2,000.  Here is a UK version of that approach for our market.

Marketing Plan

It is more important than ever to market your business. However, your dilemma … Continue Reading

Bloggers Map

Blogs are worth doing for financial adviser firms.  They are easy to do and you don’t require an IT PHD to run one.  Tools such as WordPress and Google’s Blogger allow anyone to keep one.  If you integrate your blog with your website it is a great way of keeping your website updated with fresh material.  Keeping a blog and updating regularly also helps with your Search Engine Optimisation and is one of the key ways to push you up those search engines searches – … Continue Reading

21st Century marketing

How to step up your marketing in a recession

There is a 21st century shift in marketing that is affecting small and medium sized businesses – and it is affecting financial adviser businesses as much as  other industries.

What are the traditional methods of marketing your services?

• Networking – referrals, golf club, business club, round table…
• Direct mail
• Telemarketing – phoning up prospects and potential prospects
• Local press advertising – national press and trade press as well for larger IFAs.
• Seminars

These methods are still valid but in the modern world … Continue Reading

If you are marketing a financial adviser businesss, test social media

Social Media

Several conversations with both B2B marketers and financial advisers have really opened my eyes to the role that social media can play in B2B demand generation – and, yes, even for the marketing of financial adviser firms and services.

Blogs, LinkedIn groups, Twitter feeds, and the like don’t replace workhorse tactics like referrals, direct mail, email marketing or seminars (or even webinars), but those channels increasingly are where your customers and prospects spend time … Continue Reading

Twitter.com

Twitter is becoming more and more popular. The Twiterati – as one wag called them – are making a lot of noise. Stephen Fry and Richard Branson are heavily into this tool. The first news and pictures of the plane crash landing on the Hudson came out through Twitter and the news of the Mumbai hotel siege was coming faster and more comprehensively through Twitterers than it was from the big news networks.

So what. So it’s all the rage with all the Facebook and Bebo junkies. But what … Continue Reading

IFAs risk missing out on the upturn through a lack of marketing planning

Marketing Planning

· Financial advisers should be building up their profile now to be ready for the upturn.
· There are several ways they can build trust with clients and prospects.

When the recovery comes, many financial advisers will be unprepared and will miss out on the renewed energy in the marketplace because they have failed to prepare and build up their marketing activities.

Financial adviser businesses need to think beyond the mechanics of giving advice towards … Continue Reading