Most Advisors assess their Marketing efforts solely on the basis of out-of-pocket spending. It is vital that you view all interactions between you and your team with prospects, clients, and the marketplace as marketing. Here is how.

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May 3, 15
Marketing 101
– Place Your
Bets!

2. © 2015 Advisor Research Group Inc. | All Rights Reserved.
May 3, 15
Executive Summary
Most Advisors hear that they should "market themselves," agree, and then have difficulty
organizing and planning this nebulous mass of activity. There is often a flurry of activity, a
search for some simple solutions, investments in promotions and activities that feel more like
money down the drain, poor results that aren’t measured, and then it’s time to do it all again
for another year!
The question is always, “where should I place my bets?” What will work, what has worked,
what are others doing, what will really win new business?
With apologies to Marketing professionals everywhere for the simplicity of this model, break
your marketing efforts into five categories. Perfect proportions do not exist; they are unique to
each Advisor. It depends on many factors, in particular whether you expect to grow with clients
or prospects.

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May 3, 15
The five categories are:
1. Broadcasting: Building awareness to the entire market, or of your precise target market
2. Courting: Demonstrations and messages to prospects who are likely to need your
services
3. Nurturing: Actions to widen and deepen relationships with clients
4. Delighting: Efforts to fully engage clients through exceptional service standards and
wide and deep services
5. Listening: Activities to better understand clients, prospects, the marketplace and
competition
As an exercise, think of all of your marketing effort in the past year or so. A large percentage of
Advisors, if they will admit it, have focused on Broadcasting because the other areas are more
difficult, more complex…and more effective.
Most Advisors would assess their efforts solely on the basis of out-of-pocket spending. It is vital
that you view all interactions between you and your team with prospects, clients, and the
marketplace as marketing.
Spread your efforts among the categories to match the areas of your desired growth, and then
simply execute against your plan.

4. © 2015 Advisor Research Group Inc. | All Rights Reserved.
May 3, 15
Meat and Potatoes
As mentioned above, one of the most important decisions regarding your marketing decisions is
whether you expect to grow by acquiring new clients, by working with Prospects, or by
expanding your relationships with your existing Clients.
Almost everyone gets excited by Prospects – there is no history of hiccups or poor market
performance; it’s a clean slate. Others are very comfortable with clients, or conversely
uncomfortable with people that they haven’t worked with.
The other major consideration is whether to focus on people with a Known Need or on those
with an Unknown Need. Those who know that they need assistance and are willing to hire a
professional to help them, can decide much more quickly. They will likely be working with a
competitor and potentially be very satisfied. Those who are unaware or have unmet needs
because they haven’t realized they need assistance may doubt that they need help, but once
they do could fully engage immediately.
Lastly, one of the categories can involve all four of the areas. Listening is the way to determine
which of the four other marketing categories to focus upon. If you are not growing as quickly as
you would like and you feel comfortable saying to yourself “I know what they want,” your
growth may be limited by some incorrect assumptions about prospects, clients, and
competition.

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May 3, 15
Make some decisions, and start planning. If need be, revise your plan before you finalize it.
Many firms have an October year-end. For planning purposes, use this tool at any point in the
year, if you haven’t used it before. It will help you finish the current year and position you for
next year’s planning cycle.
1. Take a blank grid (at the end of this article) and load it with all of your marketing
activities ACTUALLY done, and done with reasonable follow-through, from last year.
2. There are five categories, evenly balanced that would allow 20% per category.
a. Add or subtract from 20% for each category, keeping the total at 100% to arrive
at the effort you believe will drive growth.
b. Balance between Prospects and Clients.
c. Balance between “known need” and “unknown need.”
i. People who don’t know that they need your services could take longer to
convince, but once they do switch, they are more likely to make a
complete change.
d. Commit to invest in Listening.

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May 3, 15
3. Ask yourself does the percentage split match your intentions.
a. Is it completely balanced as 20% x 5.
b. Have you put the emphasis in the correct category?
i. Can you “live with it”?
4. Begin filling up the boxes for each category with specific activities.
a. Eventually each activity could be an entire project.
i. Imagine the amount of effort required for each activity and all of the
activities in a category, does it match the percentage you’ve assigned?
1. If not, the percentage or the activities must be adjusted.
b. Begin by brainstorming anything and everything that could be done in each
category, building you the “full set” of activities.
i. Collaborate with your colleagues, suppliers, family members, clients to
build it.
ii. Once the “full set” is constructed, eliminate what you cannot do, and
arrive at your list by category.
Below are a sample, and a blank grid to build your own.

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May 3, 15
Bottom Line
It’s simple, but not easy to have the discipline to organize your marketing activities. It requires
significant effort as well, so share the load.
Once you have your grid constructed, share it with your team, have them post it on their
cubicle or office wall, share it with clients and prospects to gather their feedback. Letting them
know that you are “in business” in this way with garner a different, deeper, and more respectful
appreciation from them.

8. © 2015 Advisor Research Group Inc. | All Rights Reserved.
May 3, 15