PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS Hartet ing

5 Steps to a New Marketing Planby Kristen Luke

For many of you, this timeof year is the end of yourfiscal year. Soon you'll begin

to review your year-end financialstatements and determine how youmeasured up against your goals. Did youachieve your assets under managementor revenue goal, or did you fall short?

If you easily meet or exceed your rev-enue goals this year because of marketperformance, you might start thinkingthat revenue will grow at the same paceyear after year. When the stock marketis bullish, AUM and revenue grow easilyand organically, and this can lull someadvisers into a false sense of securitythat revenue will continue to increaseeven if no effort is made to market theirbusiness. As we learned in 2008, this isa dangerous assumption.

If you do not meet your goals, youmight analyze what went wrong andhow you can make changes next year.Did you fail to market consistently? Didyou not get in front of enough of theright types of people? Unless you makechanges to your marketing strategy, youcan expect the same results next year.

Now is the time to develop yoursales and marketing strategy to achieveyour goals for 2014. By following these

five steps, you'll be able to compose acomprehensive marketing plan beforewe ring in the new year.

for realistictimelines. It is commonto be overly optimisticand try to accomplishevery tactic in the firstquarter. This can rarelybe accomplished and willbe counterproductive toyour overall marketingsuccess."

Step 1: Estabiish Goals and ObjectivesStart your marketing plan with yourend goal in mind. Choose the threegoals and objectives that will be mostimpactful on your business. Refrainfrom choosing too many objectives asyou will either dilute your efforts or setyourself up for failure.

Ultimately, marketing should supportrevenue growth. For most firms, theprimary goal will be a revenue, AUM, orclient goal. Beyond a financial goal, your

other two objectives will most likely fallunder one of these 10 general areas:

• Branding and messaging.Developing a brand and messagethat attracts your ideal clientand differentiates you from yourcompetition.

• Awareness. Executing strategiesthat will get the word out aboutyour company.

• Lead generation. Implement-ing campaigns to generate newprospects.

• Client referrals. Establishingprocesses and communicationstrategies to encourage referralsfrom clients.

• Center of influence (COI)referrals. Developing a methodfor meeting COIs and encouragingthem to refer clients.

• Cross-marketing programs. Creat-ing a program to market additionalservices to your existing clients.

• Niche marketing. Implementingstrategies to reach a niche marketor demographic.

• Lead nurturing. Developingsystems and campaigns to staytop-of-mind with prospects.

• Transition marketing. Developing

20 Journai of Financiai Planning | December 2013 rPAJournal.org

Marketing PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

a strategy to communicate major

changes in your firm such as a

merger, acquisition, succession, or

other transition.

• Recruiting. Establishing a

strategy for attracting new books

of business.

Step 2: Identify Strategies and TacticsAfrer you have identified your objec-

tives, the next step is to identify the

strategies or plan of action designed

to achieve your goal. Just as with your

objectives, you will want to focus on a

few strategies that you can execute well

and that will be most impactful to your

business. You should develop one to five

strategies to support each of the goals or

objectives you originally identified.

Example strategy; Develop marketing

communication materials that communi-

cate our value and expertise in the niche

market of self-employed attorneys.

After you define your plan of action,

detail the individual tactics you will use

to execute your strategy. You also should

include who on your team is responsible

for ensuring each tactic is implemented

successfully and on time.

Example tactic 1: Create a new

website that speaks directly to how we

work with self-employed attorneys and

differentiates our firm from other fee-only

registered investment advisers. Respon-

sible: John C.

Example tactic 2: Develop a digital

pitch hook that can be used on an iPad by

all of our advisers that communicates who

we are, how we are different, our process,

our investment philosophy, and the solutions

we provide our clients. Responsible: Dana F.

Step 3: Set a BudgetNext, set the budget required to fully

implement your marketing plan.

Depending on your quality require-

ments and your resourcefulness, you

can spend anywhere from zero dollars to

hundreds of thousands of dollars. How

much you should spend on marketing also

Average Marketing Budgets for Various Sized Advisory Firms

Annual revenue

Percent of annual

revenue

Average dollar

amount for firms in

this revenue range

Less than

$250K

5.3%

$8,747

$250-

$500K

2.0%

$7,851

$500K-

$1M

1.2%

$9,092

Source: Angie Herbers Inc. (www.anqieherbers.com)

$1M-

$2M

3.5%

$54,912

$2M-

$3M

3.8%

$89,546

$3M-

$5M

2.5%

$99,64

i

varies depending on the size and stage of

your business, and this number can range

from 0 percent to 10 percent of annual

revenue, depending on who you Eisk.

Consulting and research firm, Angie

Herbers Inc., has studied the marketing

expenditure of several hundred financial

advisory firms and has determined

the average marketing budget for an

advisory firm to be between 1.2 percent

and 5.3 percent of annuid revenue. Use

the table above to help estimate how

much you should be spending.

For firms with more than $5 million

in revenue, a good rule of thumb is to

spend 2.5 percent of annual revenue on

marketing. Whatever budget you set,

make sure that your budget is in line

with your revenue goals so you will see

an overall positive return on investment

at the end of the year.

Step 4: Create a ScheduleWith a plan of action created, the

next step is to establish a timeline for

accomplishing each tactic. This can be

done on a spreadsheet or on a calendar.

Allow for realistic timelines. It is

common to be overly optimistic and try

to accomplish every tactic in the first

quarter. This can rarely be accomplished

and will be counterproductive to your

overall marketing success.

Step 5: Measure ResuitsThe final step in the marketing plan pro-

cess is to measure your results and make

adjustments throughout the year. Ideally,

you should track the source of all new

leads, prospects, and clients in your CRM

and build the dashboards and reports

that allow you to see the results of your

marketing efforts in real time. If this is not

an option for you, you need to be tracking

this same information on a spreadsheet

(see "Measuring Marketing ROI," in the

February 2013 issue of the Journal).

At the end of each quarter, review

where the majority of new leads,

prospects, and clients are coming from.

You may find that the source for each of

these types of contacts is not the same.

For example, the majority of your new

leads might come from your website, the

majority of actual prospects who come

in for an appointment might come from

referrals from a center of influence, and

the majority of new clients might come

as a result of client referrals. Knowing

this information will help you identify

where to spend your time and money

most effectively. Just be sure to give each

campaign at least six months to a year

before you determine its effectiveness.

The Ciocic Is Ticking for 2014Assess your marketing efforts from this

year and determine what you are going

to do differently next year to achieve

success. Whether you achieved your

goals or not, January 1 provides a fresh

start with new goals and new opportuni-

ties to be able to achieve them. I

Kristen Luke is president and CEO of Wealth Manage-

ment Marketing Inc. (www.wealthmanagement

marketing.net), a firm specializing in outsourced market-

ing services to RIAs, and co-founder of The Mercato

(wuTO.themercato.net), an online marketplace featuring

do-it-yourself took, templates, and training for advisers.

FPAJournal.org December 2013 | Journal of Financial Planning 21

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