On April 17, 2008, at the most recent Financial Advisor Symposium, Marie Swift of Impact Communications moderated a panel of experts representing virtually every corner of the electronic communications world. The audience got a lesson in how to spend less time communicating more with their clients.

It all starts with the electronic world around us. We see these new communication tools every day when we click a Web site link that plays a video, or when we read an e-zine (electronic magazine) received by e-mail, or when we make a new connection on www.LinkedIn.com (or any other social- or business-networking Web site). What most of us don't do, though, is take the next logical step, which is to appreciate the power of these tools, first, and find out how to incorporate them into our own communications, second. The panel, entitled "Using Electronic Media to Market Your Business and Get     Closer to Your Clients," was designed to impart this information.

Starting With The Communications Audit

Panelist Kirk Hulett, senior vice president of strategy and practice management for Securities America Inc., says, "Advisors should identify the gaps in their internal and external communications procedures by conducting a communications audit." One does this by reviewing all of the components that apply (or should apply) to his practice, and asking the following questions:
What does your business plan say about how you will communicate with (or "touch") your clients and prospects?
  What level of knowledge should each of your employees have about electronic communications technologies?
Does your policies and procedures manual make clear your expectations and requirements about electronic communications with clients?
Have you adequately trained your staff in electronic communications technology, including your customer relationship management (CRM) and e-mail applications?
  Do you provide to clients, via your Web site, a client welcome kit and access to electronic copies of financial plans, investment statements and other critical information?

    "Most advisors will find gaps between actual and 'best-practice' communications performance," says Hulett, "and these questions often elicit a better understanding of what the gaps are and how to correct them."

I asked Hulett, both a highly visible and valuable member of the Securities America team, how he would electronically communicate with his clients were he a full-time advisor rather than a broker-dealer executive. "I would spend lots of time making sure my CRM is robust, contains good quality, updated information and the functionality needed to automate electronic client messaging so that I'm touching my clients at least 12 to 20 times a year.     Further, I'd have a robust Web presence, but a practical one that [circumvents] financial information my clients can get elsewhere. And, finally, my Web site would have a client portal so that each client could [confidentially and securely] access their financial plans, wills, tax information-whatever they need to be involved in the management of their personal finances." Ideally, says Hulett, he would be almost completely automated so he could spend most of his time on important client relationships.

Mastering the Basics

Any mention of CRMs or e-mail as client communication tools might seem a bit obvious, yet advisors often forget that these tools we take for granted are still absolutely critical to an effective communications program. Instead, advisors might use more labor-intensive communication solutions and employ CRMs too simplistic to serve as the foundation of a sophisticated marketing and communications plan.

One's CRM, for example, should be comprehensive enough in content and features that an advisor can search for and isolate groups of clients or prospects and send them targeted marketing pieces, says Hulett. It should allow advisors to store notes from client meetings and phone calls and track the tasks prompted by these conversations.

The CRM should also let the advisor monitor work flow so client service requests don't fall through the cracks. It should include a shared calendar so the entire staff can see the schedule of appointments and events for each of the firm's clients. And finally, the CRM should send out automatic reminders about clients' anniversaries, birthdays, etc., so that a firm can give its customers the "touches" they deserve.

As for e-mail, Hulett says use it when appropriate. "Ask clients and prospects which communication medium they prefer and record their preference in your firm's CRM system, but always use the telephone when discussing sensitive information since most clients won't have access to secure e-mail systems." E-mail can also be used for transmitting client newsletters, economic commentary, a client survey or just a quick note to say, "Despite all indications to the contrary, the stock market will rise again."

Of course, if one is to up the ante on her use of e-mail for client communications, she must have her clients' e-mail addresses-both those that never change and those that change frequently (for whatever reason). Panelist Kip Gregory of The Gregory Group in Washington, D.C., author of the book, Winning Clients in a Wired World (Wiley, 2004), suggests sending clients a self-addressed stamped envelope requesting updated e-mail addresses and other contact information (which is old school) or posting a form on your Web site to collect this information electronically (which is new school). Or do what your doctor does: Whenever a client calls, check to make sure the contact information you have on file for him is up to date (old school) ... unless you'd rather keep up with his address via a business networking site like http://www.Plaxo.com (new school).

Also basic but often overlooked are commonly accepted rules for an effective client e-mail. Says Gregory, you maximize its effectiveness by making sure your e-mail has a compelling subject line, is tightly written and edited, is addressed and targeted to one client at a time and is designed with a lot of white space, which makes the e-mails easier to read by allowing you to compose them in a noncluttered, eye-inviting manner.

Can Your Web Site Do This?

Web sites have come a long way since the days of the "business card site"-a site of one or a handful of pages that do little more than advertise an advisor's services and post his contact information. Nowadays, says Swift, advisor Web sites (just like Web sites in other industries) should post fresh content regularly, use multimedia clips, graphics and photos, offer information downloads via PDF or podcast, incorporate links for navigation to other sites or third-party content, and provide clients with custom content through a portal.

Using http://www.TheWeathSpa.com-the site of financial advisor Elizabeth Potts Weinstein-as an example, Swift illustrated the many multimedia tools at our disposal to help our Web sites reach clients. On the home page alone, Weinstein's visitors can listen to her "Wealth Spa Radio Show" (which uses the tool of streaming audio); order her book, 6 Simple Secrets to Get Out of Debt (which makes use of an e-commerce merchant account); receive a free special report, How to Avoid the Top Ten Money Mistakes (using the tool of a file-transfer protocol); or read Weinstein's ongoing "Chronicles of a Mompreneur" (her blog).

"Web 2.0" is the name given to this collection of tools, says Swift, who uses them liberally on her own and her clients' Web sites. The hallmarks of Web 2.0 are information sharing and user collaboration. "In other words, whereas advisors have used Web 1.0 tools to publish information unilaterally, Web 2.0 invites them to create a two-way flow of communication," says Swift. And with this back-and-forth comes innovation. Many of us use well-known sites that incorporate tools: eBay (e-commerce), Wikipedia (collaboration), Flickr (photo sharing) and any site that uses an open user forum (an online community).

As a client of Swift's and one of the panelists at the symposium, I showed conference attendees how my own Web sites demonstrate many of these features. Although I'm no longer primarily an advisor, many of the tools on my sites can find uses on the typical advisor's site. As someone who markets books, newsletters, conferences and speaking opportunities, I need to make the process of disseminating information about my services as simple as possible.

If an FPA chapter visits http://www.DavidDrucker.com to consider making me a speaking offer, my Web site page, titled simply "speaking," not only tells them the topics I normally speak on but offers them the materials they need in order to hire me. To make it as easy as possible for them, I have not only posted the pertinent information they need on this page of my Web site, but I have also made it easy to download items needed to consummate the deal-my speaker's contract, my bio (under "Fast Facts"), my press photo and my speaker's introduction. Further, if the visitor has not seen me speak before, he or she can click on a link on this same page and watch a video of my presentation to the San Diego FPA in November of 2005. (Yes, I've probably violated a Web 2.0 rule by not keeping this video more current.)

At http://www.VirtualOfficeNews.com, another of my sites, visitors can easily follow links to learn about the location of our next Technology Tools for Today Conference in February 2009, see what sponsors we have lined up for it and read the testimonials of advisors who have attended the conference in its past three runs. Many of the attendees are subscribers to Virtual Office News, the monthly technology newsletter from which we spun off our technology conference, so they can go online to the Yahoo-based Virtual Office News forum and discuss all manner of technology questions. My partner Joel Bruckenstein, a Financial Advisor technology writer, and I go onto the forum frequently to share in the discussions, communicate with our "clients" and help create the community that binds them all together (and keeps them newsletter subscribers, too).

Uncertain whether your clients would use all these features? Don't shortchange them. The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in many Americans' lives, said Gregory, referring to the Major Moments Survey conducted in March 2005 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/). Adds Gregory, "This study showed [three years ago] that 54% of adults used the Internet to find information that would help them or another person cope with a major illness. Likewise, 40% to 50% of the survey respondents said the Internet played a major role in their training for their careers, making major financial decisions, looking for a new place to live or deciding upon a college for themselves or their children." In other words, just because your clients aren't asking for more functionality on your Web site doesn't mean they wouldn't use it (and like it) if it were offered to them.

Web Site Basics

Panelist Martin Baird, founder of Robinson & Associates Inc. Marketing Management in Phoenix, reminded us that many advisors need to master Web 1.0 basics before moving on to Web 2.0 features.

The simplest and most obvious question we should be asking ourselves, says Baird, is one advisors often fail to consider: "Who is this Web site for?" What clients want from an advisor's Web site is different from what prospects want. Clients, for example, want to know about your ongoing work for them, such as financial plans and account balances, and they want to know what you have done for them lately. Prospects want to know about services and fees.

If your Web site is for attracting new clients, asks Baird, do you include the information you think prospects want to see, like your credentials or community service, or do you tell them how you're going to provide the specific solutions they're looking for? Can the elderly or sight-impaired read your site? For that matter, can a search engine read it? "Search engines generally like neither Flash nor frames," says Baird-some basic considerations if your aim is to attract prospective clients.

He makes an important point. If you know who you want as clients, if you have a Web site geared to attracting clients, and if clients must be able to find your site to avail themselves of your services, then tying search engine requirements to your main message is critical. "The only things a search engine can read is words," says Baird, "and titles, metadata, keyword tags and even page themes-the tools by which search engines do their thing-should all be geared to your main message." And that message should be how you're going to solve the prospect's financial problems.

Do you use RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") to push podcasts out to clients? "My clients aren't that tech-savvy," you say, but as the Major Moments Survey shows, many are just that tech-savvy. And for some people, podcasts are essential, most notably the blind and those younger clients who won't consider anything unless it comes to them via iPod (the most-favored device for listening to podcasts, though it is only one of many). Blind people will also benefit from text-to-speech Web site technologies.

Baird further asks, "Do you track your results to see how effective these strategies are for you?" Targeted marketing requires diligence in finding out what works and what doesn't so our tools can be continually realigned with our strategies. Do you use tools like Mint (http://www.haveamint.com/) or Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) to track hits to your site? Or use them to find out whether visitors are drilling down from your home page to those pages that best address their problems? What other sites are prospects coming from when they reach your site, and are there ways to increase the flow from these other places? Do you know how many of the prospects that come to you via your Web site are converted into clients? What was the last page on your Web site that a prospect visited before calling you?

It's possible to track all of these things, says Baird. "Financial advisors need to look at the Internet as a portion of their marketing and give it the same energy, effort, time and money they do any other medium. You wouldn't pay for an ad in the newspaper every week and not track who called you as a result of seeing it, would you?" he asks.

Client Portals

And finally, moving well beyond the basics, advisor Web sites are beginning to incorporate the "client portals" mentioned earlier by Hulett to enhance service to existing clients.

Advisors have long cordoned off password-protected sections of their Web sites for their clients, pages where the clients can gain access to their investment account information. But in most cases, these are simply conduits to the custodian's Web site, which clients could have visited directly without going through the advisor's Web site in the first place.

Today's client portals are considerably more robust and, in some cases, even allow for that Web 2.0 brand of interactivity. By creating a secure "vault" for client documents, you bind your clients more closely to you. Not only are you their lead financial advisor, but you hold all their important papers (or PDFs of those papers) in a secure, online location they can get to whenever they want. What's more, you have everything organized so it can be easily found-in direct contrast to most clients' own file-keeping systems.

LightPort, the Palm Harbor, Fla., company specializing in Web solutions for the financial services industry, is one service provider that knows what a client portal should look like. Among its other tools, LightPort offers advisors VirtualSafe, an online repository accessible to clients 24/7 from the advisor's Web site that enables them to view important documents when desired. VirtualSafe can accommodate documents published in most common file formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) so that clients can as needed, find copies of their financial plans, financial statements, wills and trusts and tax returns. They can also find articles of interest you've posted just for them.

Hulett adds just one caveat: "For some client niches, like the executive or younger client, a client portal is virtually essential. But if a particular client doesn't value a portal, then don't spend time providing him one." Noting the ever-increasing acceptance of computing and the Internet by all manner of clients, though, he adds that even those who won't appreciate a portal today might appreciate it in a few years.

Conclusion

The symposium panel and this article were meant to open advisors' eyes to the possibilities inherent in the Internet. Much like a Microsoft Office application-Word, or Excel or PowerPoint-we think we're taking good advantage of Internet tools only to find out that we're only using 20% of them-or their capabilities. You can either take the time to learn everything you can do with these Internet tools, or you can just scratch the surface and delude yourself into thinking the tools you're not using are of little value. We all know that's just a convenient excuse.