Five Marketing Ideas for Under $100

Many advisors think they must have a large marketing budget to see result from their efforts.  While it is true that campaigns such as seminars and radio shows, which can run thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, are usually effective ways to set appointments, there are other options available for smaller budgets.   Below are five marketing ideas for advisors on a tight budget.

Idea #1: Email Marketing
Email marketing is a wonderful and cost effective way to stay top of mind with your contacts.  While emailing people you don’t know can become a little sticky with federal CAN-SPAM laws, regularly emailing contacts in your database is a must. There are plenty of email marketing providers out there that will provide graphical email templates to jump start your marketing while ensuring you are following CAN-SPAM laws.  Even if you are currently emailing a monthly or quarterly newsletter to your clients, don’t forget to keep in touch with those prospects who came in for an appointment   but never converted into a client.  If you consistently reach out to them via email, your name will come to mind when they are ready to make a move. You should also consider different email campaigns for each of your contact lists – clients, prospective clients, and centers of influence.  This will enable you to address specific issues that would motivate your contacts to take action whether that be scheduling an appointment or providing a referral. 

Cost:  Starting at $15 per month using ConstantContact.com

Idea #2: Webinars
If you choose not to put on live seminars, consider the more modern equivalent – the webinar.  For a monthly flat rate fee using GoToWebinar, you can conduct an unlimited number of webinars for up to 1,000 attendees.  Since there is no restriction on the number of webinars you can conduct, you can host multiple presentations specific to your contact types and target markets.  For example, you can host a webinar series just for your clients, another series for centers of influence, and finally a series for prospective clients.  Design the webinars to be short (30 minutes) and on a narrow topic so that your audience will want to attend the next presentation.  For example, Retirement Planning is too broad of a topic for a webinar, but you could conduct a Retirement Planning Webinar Series which addresses a specific and narrow topic each presentation.  GoToWebinar allows you to record webinars which can be posted on your website for future marketing uses.

Cost: $99 per month.

Idea #3: BlogTalkRadio.com
Have you always wanted to host your own radio show, but haven’t had the resources or the contacts to do so?  With BlogTalkRadio.com you can create your own online radio show.  While you won’t get the built in audience that comes with a terrestrial radio station, this service allows you to host a live call in show on your schedule.  You choose the day, time and length of the show and then promote the show to build an audience.  When creating a show, consider your target market and choose episode topics that are relevant to that demographic.  A show for small business owners would be different than a show for professors and teachers.  If you have more than one target market, host multiple shows so that you do not confuse your message.  The shows are recorded so that you can create an archive of podcasts to use in future marketing efforts.

Cost: Free

Idea #4: LinkedIn
If you are a regular follower of my blog, you are well aware that I’m a fan of using LinkedIn as a marketing tool. This free social networking site allows you to connect with prospective clients and centers of influence through the thousands of groups ripe with your target market.  By joining groups and actively participating in them, you can promote links to your newsletter, blog, events, webinars, and radio show which ultimately promotes your business.  Use can also use the LinkedIn profile applications to showcase your marketing material about your firm’s services.  For a more detailed explanation on using LinkedIn as a marketing tool, see my blog post from last week, Worksheet: Using LinkedIn to Market Your Business

Cost: Free

Idea #5: Greeting Cards
I know what you are thinking – in this age of digital marketing, traditional greeting cards are just not sexy.  Plus, they are time consuming.  While this might be true, they can be very effective.  I don’t know about you, but I always read greeting cards sent to me.  Most likely, so will your prospects, clients or centers of influence.  It’s just one more way to keep your name top of mind with everyone you meet.  For those of you who just can’t accept this type of traditional marketing, you can use SendOutCards.com.  SendOutCards allows you to send traditional greeting cards directly from your computer and provides you the opportunity to write a personal message in your own handwriting font.  This eliminates all of the time and effort previously associated with sending a card without reducing the impact.  I have not personally used the service but I have received cards from people using the site and they really make an impression.  My only warning is that SendOutCards seems to have some sort of multi-level marketing component to it, but you can just ignore that part and use it to make an impression with your contacts and clients.

Cost: Approximately $1 per Card (A Variety of Packages are Available)

There are a number of inexpensive marketing options out there.  All that is required is a little bit of time and creativity on your part.  So stop making excuses that you can’t afford to market because revenue is down and start implementing some of these ideas to drum up new business.

 

Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing advice and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies.  She has recently started developing custom marketing plans for advisors with step-by-step instructions giving the advisor the tools to implement the plan on his or her own.  For more information, visit www.WealthManagementMarketing.net.