Maintain a high level of contact
throughout the year. You should
touch base with a client at least 18 times a year.
Some studies even recommend contacts numbering in
the high 20s, says Martin R. Baird, president of
Advisor Marketing, Phoenix, and author of The 7
Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing. Keeping up
with clients helps prevent them from looking
elsewhere for new solutions to their financial goals
or for another CPA. Peoples’ lives and the financial
markets change quickly, and repeatedly reminding
clients of your existence helps them to remember you
when they need advice.
Use variety in your approach.
Making contact doesn’t mean simply
calling a client 18 times or sending him or her 18
letters a year. To get the best return on your
investment of time, Baird recommends reaching out
to people in a host of different ways throughout
the year. For example, you could pass along to
them articles you’ve read that would be of
interest or you might invite them to a seminar
where you will speak. If you get an invitation to
a conference or dinner event and can bring
someone, call one of your clients and ask him or
her to join you. Once there, introduce the guest
to other successful professionals in the room and
let him or her see how much you value the
relationship.
Send something of interest.
Don’t limit what you send clients to
topics related only to their business or industry
or yours. The subject matter also could mirror
their hobbies and desires, if you know what they
are. Giving a magazine on organic gardening,
hiking or sailing, for example, could go a long
way toward making them realize you took the time
to get to know them.
Stand out from the crowd.
You can get creative and do more fun
things in your marketing to get your target
audience’s attention. Anything you do to help your
communications stand out from the generic
information people see all day can bolster your
position in clients’ minds. You don’t have to
think outrageous—just unique. Look carefully at
your target market and see what its members like
or are interested in. For instance, if your target
market is made up of men and you find out most of
them like to golf, you could hold spring golf
“tune-ups,” suggests Baird. These would be a
series of golf lessons, and at the end of each
lesson, you could share one “accounting tune-up
tip” with them. This wouldn’t be a hard sell, says
Baird, just giving them something to think more
about and providing good information in a fun and
informative way.
Take advantage of the digital age.
Use e-mail to make some contacts
during the year, but don’t rely solely on this
method. It is a cost-effective way to reach
clients in a time when marketing budgets are
tight, but remember that people tend to view
electronic communication as impersonal. Limit your
use of e-mail in staying connected to your
clients; instead make more phone calls and send a
few handwritten notes here and there.
Consider a joint promotion with other
area professionals. Who else
(other than a competitor) is trying to reach your
target market? Once you’ve got your answer by
doing some quick research and asking around, give
some complementary local businesses a call and see
whether they have an interest in a marketing
partnership; it will save all participants some
money. For example, if your clients are older with
significant assets, you may decide to jointly
market with some local estate planning
attorneys—for example, by sharing the cost of a
booth at the town festival in order to reach the
crowd and display some promotional materials. “You
also could set up a table at a health screening at
companies or senior communities and pass out
brochures about retirement assets or
long-term-care benefits,” Baird says. Or if you
target small business owners, maybe you could work
with business coaches and consultants that are
helping these clients grow their business acumen.
While they’re working on the art of closing a deal
or their presentation skills, you can help them
with their accounting needs. The only limit to
this is your imagination.
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