The fifth step is outbound marketing, or the marketing you do to reach your target audience. Assuming you have a compelling message and offer, we would recommend sending monthly or even biweekly e-newsletters, doing interviews on investing with the local media, starting a blog or doing compliant social media on LinkedIn or Twitter. Prospects will see it, read it, pass it on and share it with their friends and followers, and ultimately this all helps your findability on Google.
If you are like most of our clients, you are doing some of these things, but not linking each effort to the other. For example, you may get interviewed by the media from time to time, but when the story appears, you don't post it to your Web site or blog, put it on LinkedIn or feature it in your newsletter. If you send out an e-mail newsletter, is it the kind that people can immediately share with their friends on Facebook or Twitter? If not, you're missing an opportunity for your best clients to share your name with their friends.
The hardest thing about the digital marketing world we live in is the number of options, the complexity and the interrelatedness of it all. Instead of looking for the quick fix or the one thing which will catapult your business to the next level, take some of the advice you likely share with your clients ... take the long view. Some advisors, just like some investors, expect results overnight and then are disappointed when performance does not exceed their unfounded expectations. Truth is, successful marketing takes a unique position, strong message, consistent effort and an ability to link various tactics together which work for you and the people you want as clients. Technology may have increased the speed of failure, but it is certainly not a shortcut to success.
Craig Kaminer is founder and partner of Evolutionize, a leading digital marketing firm focused exclusively on advisors, and a 30-year marketing veteran.