The 10-postcard approach to financial advisor marketing
If you receive 10 postcards from productivity expert Jason Womack, it means you’re on his “most wanted” list of prospective clients. This seems like a strategy that financial advisors could adopt.
For 10 consecutive weeks after meeting a hot prospect, Womack sends a postcard to the prospect, as I learned in a video clip from his April 2011 presentation to the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He told me more when we traded tweets.
Each postcard contains a practical tip, with a link to a web page with additional information on the topic.
After 10 weeks, the prospects surely recognize his name. If Womack has hit their hot buttons, they will want to learn more.
This strategy poses two challenges for financial advisors, which I address below.
1. Where to obtain the content?
If you’re a financial blogger, you have content. The best content for a long-term campaign is “evergreen,” meaning it never gets outdated. You can print a teaser line on the front of a postcard, and then provide a short URL to input for more details.
I can imagine some of advisor Roger Wohlner’s blog posts working as postcards.
“Six Investing Mistakes to Avoid” could go on the postcard’s front. On the back? Some teaser copy along with a link to the complete list of mistakes on his website.
If you’re not a blogger, you can license other people’s content and link to it on your website. Forefield‘s articles seem popular among advisors for this purpose.
2. How to create the postcard?
If you’re a low-volume postcard sender, you can start by designing and printing them in your office. I’ve used Vistaprint.com for my promotional postcards. I picked a template and input text. I’m not techno-geek, so you can rest assured that it’s pretty easy to do.
If you’ve successfully used postcards to market your services–or if you have ideas about how to tweak this approach to make it work better–I’d like to hear from you. Please comment below.
For another postcard-related tip, visit “How to connect with your workshop attendees.”
Susan,
The key to this is: I only want to inform.
My intention is to let someone know that I study this stuff for a career; in my seminars I say, “I read a book a week – sometimes more. Why? So you don’t have to!”
I find the best out there – again, in MY area of professional interest – and I want to spread that far…and wide.
I write about this in the next book: Your Best Just Got Better
Jason,
Thank you for your additional tip about your emphasis on informing. I’ll keep an eye out for your next book.
Susan
This is a great idea. It is similar, but different, to what Joe Girard the “World’s Greatest Salesman per the Guinness Book of World records did to sell cars. He did a monthly card to all of his prospects and customers.
Chuck,
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
That’s a great idea. It’s important to keep your customers interested, especially if the topic isn’t necessarily one that changes all the time. Thanks for sharing!