Online Marketing. A Fresh Approach to Marketing. K i m H a m i l t o n a n d J e s s y C r a w f o r d,

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1 Online Marketing A Fresh Approach to Marketing K i m H a m i l t o n a n d J e s s y C r a w f o r d, I n K n o w V i s i o n, L L C E n t e r p r i s e D r. O a k B r o o k, I L Page 1

2 2 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing As professionals we desire to do something spectacular; to write, to speak, to share our knowledge and venture into the unknown to create business where none existed. The space between our vision and the creation is known as the marketing black hole in which we can never seem to dig our way out of. By filling this space, our marketing efforts will obtain the business we want on par with our vision. FACT: 100% of 48 financial firms surveyed thought social media was here to stay and 84 percent thought it would have a lasting impact on financial services. ("The Asset Manager's Guide to Social Media," 2010) FACT: 73% of the advisors who use social media have a profile or account with one or more of the social media types mentioned; 55% use Facebook and 46% use LinkedIn. (American Century Investments, 2010) We have learned over the years marketing is absolutely necessary. So let us get down to the basics and get started. In ten minutes a week you can get your feet wet while allowing someone to help you from there. First things first. Who are you? Do what you love and you ll never have to work a day in your life. Confucius 1. Clear your desk or head to a conference room and leave your cell phone behind. 2. Use a white board or legal pad and jot down the following: If money was not an issue what would you be doing now? Write down your top ten relationships (friends, business, family). List the top three things that have worked for you during the past 12 months. List the top three things that you have failed at during the past 12 months. I have fallen victim to the economy Here are three things I cannot live without. Take breaks routinely, at a minimum every 40 minutes to clear your head.

3 3 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Where You Are & Where You Want To Be "Focus on the core problem your business solves, and put out lots of content and enthusiasm, and ideas about how to solve that problem." Laura Fitton, Founder, OneForty.com What I am doing now? List 5 marketing strategies that are working for you today and how they are being measured We were all apprentices before we became successful stewards of our professions. We perfected our meetings with clients, client experience, public speaking, publishing, fee quoting as well as many other skills. What we failed to realize is that marketing plans during our apprentice years were created to address the current times and for the most part were left unchanged. ACTION STEP: 1. Define who in my client base or market I cannot serve well. 2. Terminate unprofitable relationships. 3. Collect and develop detailed profiles of your top 10 clients along with their stories and photos. 4. Identify the differentiator that will appeal to your narrowly defined ideal client. As apprentices, we took every client we could get so we could establish our business and pay the bills. When we moved beyond that place we continued to attract and retain those same clients but at a cost.

4 4 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Time for a story. In the late 90s I was employed by a top female producer at large brokerage house. When I arrived she had over 850 clients whom she acquired during her ten year career. Many of the clients were not only unprofitable but a drain on her business. As part of the marketing plan, we pruned her book down to a little fewer than 400 clients with a plan to focus on the top 100. In a short 18 months, revenues doubled and our holistic approach to client planning achieved successful measureable results. We removed the needy, those who did not want to pay or always wanted a discount and focused on those who luv ed us (just like Southwest Airlines). And more importantly, those who appreciated us. Kim Hamilton, Marketing and Advisor Development This strategy can work for any type of professional service firm but must be executed correctly. Your marketing strategy is how you are going to get where you re going. Create the plan first and plug in the strategies where they fit. One of our top favorite marketing gurus, John Jantch of Duct Tape Marketing, reminds us to also think about those clients we can t serve well or need to terminate because they are no longer profitable. Who You Want To Attract The Law of Attraction Inbound marketing is purely how people become attracted to you. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a "hub" for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through search engines, the blogosphere, and social media I believe most marketers today spend 90% of their efforts on outbound marketing and 10% on inbound marketing, and I advocate that those ratios flip I advocate doing "inbound marketing" where you help yourself "get found" by people already learning about and shopping in your industry. (Hubstub, July 2010) The behavior that prospects exhibit is due to the forces that you create to draw them to you. In effect, they create a magnetic force that only your competition can pull apart. Don t let them.

5 5 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Your Ideal Client Clarity trumps persuasion. Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director Meclabs Let s look into a crystal ball. My ideal client has the following characteristics, demographics, hobbies, educational background, etc. Be sure to consider all of the following - Employment - Gender - Occupation - Income - Education - Industry - Number of Employees - Type of Business - Revenue Level - Geographic Scope of Business Write them down: ACTION STEP: Draft a biography of your ideal client based on the information gathered from above. Does the profile have commonalities of those who are in your existing client base? Can you create a tight market niche? Review your existing client base. Identify your most profitable ones. Do any of these refer you business? What are their common characteristics? What makes them perfect clients? (Duct Tape Marketing, 2010)

6 6 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Start with the end in mind. How You Get There Starting with what you already have will help you leverage online marketing and connect the dots to the world around you. What you do in one space must be connected in another. By providing information you will enhance the relationships you serve and create new networks where your relationships can form. Don t be afraid to share what you know or information you obtain. Just like a virus, it can strengthen over time. Content is King. People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it s surfaced through friends & people they know and trust. Malorie Lucuch, Facebook Spokesperson Some would say that content is king, though in today s overly saturated internet environment relevance is also a key determinate. In order to attract, you will need to provide prospects with what they are looking for; you need to provide information that will lead to a decision to do business with you. What you share is key. FACT: Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the state of the business-to-business, or B2B, market, and discovered that marketers are retreating from traditional marketing tactics such as search marketing and have made content marketing the most-used tactic in their brand-enhancing tool box. ( 2011) Now Collect & Organize: Content that Educates Chances are you have written or co-written books and/or articles. Dig them out and catalog them so you can use them now in an organized fashion. If you have done speaking engagements and had them recorded add them too. Add e-newsletters and blog posts (even if you have posted on someone else s blog) to the mix. Videos are also an excellent communication tool. *Remember your content should be current, revised, organized and ready to post. You need tools that will attract your ideal client.

7 7 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Content marketing can be leveraged in many ways; by assuring you are exploring every opportunity to reach your target audience, you will broaden the scope of your marketing plan. Assembling your Marketing Plan Putting it all together All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. Sun Tzu- The Act of War Set Website Objectives: Core Message SEO Marketing Clarify your Ideal Target Market: Prospect/Client Experience Lead Generation Engine Referral Strategic Partners Set Social Media Objectives: Core Message Brand and Identity Total Web Presence E-marketing Toolkit Create Helpful Tools: PR Toolkit Success Toolkit Content Library Nurture, Lead, Sale, Repeat Nurture, Lead, Sale, Repeat

8 8 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Use the above objectives to develop the next steps: 1. Your vision statement 2. Your mission statement 3. Your business goals 4. Your competitive advantage/usp- Unique Selling Proposition 5. A list of your strengths and weaknesses 6. Your current and projected budget for business development 7. Your current operating and projected expenses 8. A one year calendar If you don t have any of the above or you need to fill the holes, grab the book Business Plans for Dummies to get you started. I know you are not a dummy but if the basics are what you need then you ll get it for cheap. Or venture into the big leagues with the E-Myth Book, another great source is Duct Tape Marketing. Now ask yourself the following: 1. How has my business changed? 2. How has my revenue grown? 3. Who are my clients? 4. Who are my best referral sources? 5. How is my business structured? 6. What are my processes? 7. What do I outsource? 8. Who is keeping my business running smoothly? 9. What are my hidden dangers? 10. What are my hidden opportunities? Be sure you know what your key performance indicators are and add them to your Success Toolkit TRAFFIC/PAGE VIEWS/TIME ONSITE CONTENT DOWNLOADS INBOUND LINKS/PAGE RANK FANS/FOLLOWERS OPEN/CLICK-THROUGHS INQUIRIES/DATABASE GROWTH FROM SUBMISSION RATE FUNNEL CONVERSION QUALIFIED/ACCEPTED LEADS MEETING WITH SALES OPPORTUNITIES ACTIVE PIPELINE/VALUE CLOSED BUSINESS

9 9 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Now you have a sense of what you will need in your toolkit and how you will measure your marketing results. No one said this would be easy. By using at least three of the tools listed and tracking their impact on your ideal client, you will know exactly how your marketing efforts are paying off and which ones are creating the highest impact. Every 90 days add a new tool or implement a new strategy to your marketing plan until you have used every strategy on your map. They are all interconnected at some point and the more you add, the greater your reach. Your Action Plan Determine what the center of your e-marketing universe; it more than likely at first will be your website. What will the rings of marketing that float around it? How will you optimize your content? How will you disperse it? These are good questions. And you will need a system to execute it all. Systems and processes are part of every successful business. This is where the value drivers are found. If it is not you doing the work then your marketing specialist should be able to systemize your marketing plan and provide weekly updates including results.

10 10 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing Bonus Tips from Hubspot for monitoring Social Media in 5 Minutes a day 1.) Check Twitter for chatter about your company ( 2 minutes ): Use tools like TweetDeck or Twitter Search to monitor conversations about your company in realtime. 2) Scan Google Alerts ( 1.5 minutes ): Check Google Alerts for your company name, products, executives or brand terms. To set this up, enter your search terms in a Google Alert and select to receive updates as they happen or once daily. Now, when people blog about your products, an alert will be sent to your inbox. You can read the articles and respond right away! 3) Check Facebook stats ( 1 minute ): Visit your Company Page's Facebook Insights. This can be found under the page's main photo if you are an admin for your page. Scan your active users and interaction stats. Check out your wall posts or new discussions if you have them enabled for your page. 4) Answer Industry-related LinkedIn questions ( 3 minutes ): Search for questions on LinkedIn that you or members of your company can answer. You can set up an RSS feed for specific question categories to go to your Google Reader as well. When you find a relevant question, respond and include a link to your website or a relevant blog post that might be helpful to your audience. 5) Use Google Reader to check Flickr, Digg and others ( 2.5 minutes ): Also set up RSS feeds for searches on your company name and industry terms in other social media sites. Similar to monitoring LinkedIn and Twitter, your Reader will serve as a great place to centralize your other searches too!

11 11 Online Marketing: A Fresh Approach to Marketing We suspect you have some things in your marketing plan book already started. It may be they just need refreshing or retooling. Marketing can be overwhelming tasks so do not do it alone. Hire a marketing intern or outsource your efforts. No small professional service firm has enough hours in the day to do everything. Be realistic about your goals, choose your tools wisely, and be sure to measure the results. And never, ever stop marketing. Best of Luck! Kim Hamilton InKnowVision, LLC Jessy Crawford InKnowVision, LLC Share It! Enjoy this article? Please help share it!