Marketing your financial planning business to generate leads is an essential part of growing your organisation. As much as you’d all love a line around the block of money-waving customers, the truth is, competition is fierce, and sometimes being the best isn’t enough. You can have the best products, the best service, and offer the best value, but unless marketed correctly, these are an exercise in futility.
In a recent episode of The Financial Planner Life podcast, we spoke with Nicola McKenzie, Co-Founder of The Dunham McCarthy Group, and Financial Services marketing pro, about how she went from home-made promotional clips on YouTube, to an award-winning company and a strong online presence for both her businesses and personal brand.
One area covered in this conversation was whether to independently (organically) drive your marketing efforts, or outsource this to a marketing agency to do it for you. Of course, there are benefits and drawbacks to both, but depending on your circumstances, goals, and available resources, you may be unsure of the best approach.
Before we dive in, let’s identify some key aspects you need to establish before embarking on your marketing campaign:
🟢 Understand the customer: Know who the target market is and understand their needs, wants, and behaviors.
🟢 Analyse the Competition: Understand what your competitors are doing and how you can do it better.
🟢 Create a Unique Selling Proposition: Differentiate your product or service from the competition.
🟢 Develop a Marketing Strategy: Develop a plan to reach the target market with the right message.
🟢 Design an Effective Campaign: Craft effective content and select the right media to deliver it through.
🟢 Keep Up with Trends: Stay current with marketing trends and adapt your strategy accordingly.
You may already be capable in one or more of these, but lacking knowledge and experience in others. This is where it’s vital to consider whether to take the time to develop in those areas or outsource this workload to a 3rd party.
So, let’s compare the two options:
Outsource – Leave it to the Professionals!
There is no shortage of outsourced marketing agencies out there, offering everything from a cosmetic touch-up on your company website to holding full control of your content, posts, messages, and how you respond to inquiries. However, costs can quickly build up and become an expensive risk, when there is no guarantee of seeing a sizeable return on your investment.
So, at the risk of sounding like a Financial Adviser, where should you invest your money?
It is imperative to know which marketing agencies are best suited to your business needs, as marketing your cake design business is vastly different from marketing your Mortgage or financial planning company.
Be sure to align yourself with an organisation that truly understands the industry you operate within, your business’s unique selling points, company values, and acquisitional goals. Get to know the industry you’re in from a marketing perspective, identify the key people of influence in the Financial Services world, and find out who they engage with to get the job done!
In addition to this, creating content is an essential, but time-consuming and difficult to execute well. Professional agencies have a strong understanding of what looks good, what get’s results, and how to create this within a timeframe and budget, before getting underway!
Organic Approach – Do It Yourself!
So, the potentially cost-heavy outsourcing approach doesn’t appeal to you? The other option is to take on the workload for yourself! This can be very cost effective if done correctly, but ensure you’re fully aware of every task involved, as content creation, distribution, and handling engagement is a laborious process.
The other point to consider is, what level of impact does your/your business’ outreach have, and across what platforms? Do you have a substantial following on social media? Do your Linkedin posts receive a lot of engagement? If not, why not? All points you’ll need to consider if you’re taking the DIY approach.
If you run a small business, often your personal brand will play a big part in the impact you have on your audience. Regular engagement, insightful content and demonstrable industry knowledge will slowly but surely improve your visibility and therefore your reach.
This may prove to be a slow process, and nine times out of ten you won’t see results straight away, but persistence overcomes resistance, and you will start to see a return on your invested time! Nicola highlights this point during the podcast, stating:
“You have to accept that the first time you do it, it’s not going to be perfect… You’re not just going to get up out of bed one day and be the finished article, that’s just not how life works.” -Nicola McKenzie – Dunham McCarthy Group
So what’s it gonna be?
Whether you go for the hands-on, or outsourced approach to marketing your services, the important thing is to take action and get the ball rolling! Whether that means mind mapping some ideas around your personal brand and what direction you’d like it to take, or finally creating that “how to” video for those in your network, the first step is always the hardest.
If you’re looking for ways to supercharge your Financial Planning brand and business, let’s open up a conversation and talk about how we (Financial Planner Life Studios) can help get your services in front of the right people.
Check out Nicola McKenzies full Financial Planner Life podcast episode below:
