Marketing Wiz is a joint initiative between Kotak Mutual Fund and Wealth Forum, where we share insights on how distributors and advisors can accelerate their business growth by understanding and applying essential marketing concepts and practices. Marketing is often seen as a relatively weak link in an IFA's practice, and therefore offers high potential to deliver growth, if leveraged intelligently. It will be the endeavour of Marketing Wiz to help you strengthen your marketing capabilities, connect better with clients and prospects, serve clients better and thus enhance your own business growth.

In this article, we discuss how you can effectively leverage new age media and social networking platforms to create a high impact marketing team that helps you win new business, at almost no cost to you.

Marketing is a team game - just like football or hockey

Think of a game of football or hockey. To shoot a goal, does the striker take one long shot from his side of the field straight into the opponent's goalpost? Or is there nimble dribbling done by the team to get to the penalty area, after which a deft pass to the striker puts him into a shooting position, which he then successfully converts?

Attracting a prospect to become a lead and then finally a customer is actually quite a similar process. Think of how you get interested in buying the latest smart phone. You are first made aware of it through a series of front page ads in your newspaper maybe 3 times in a week. Do you rush immediately to buy it? Maybe not. Then you see a couple of hoardings on your way to work, announcing the new smart phone. Rushing to buy it? Not yet. All that has been achieved so far is that you have become aware that a new smart phone has been launched. Then you see a friend of yours sharing a video on how smart this phone is, on his facebook page. You see this video. Interest is now developing. Then you see a couple of your social media contacts posting very favourable comments about the new phone and why its such a cool gadget. You are now very interested. You ask some of your trusted friends for their opinion. None of them have bought it yet, but they quickly get onto their own social networks and within minutes, you have 5 more favourable opinions from friends of your friends. You are now hooked, and so are a couple of your friends. You decide to visit the nearest electronics store to check it out.

What marketing has done in this case is exactly what a team does to put its striker in a goal scoring position in a game of football or hockey. Now the striker has to do the job. In this case, you were drawn to the store to check out the product. Now, the product has to do the job. If the product is good, you'll go for it.

How should financial advisors assemble a formidable marketing team?

The question you have to ask yourself is whether you have a similar marketing team working for you or are you still trying to be a lone striker, shooting from your side of the field and hoping to net the ball straight into the goal. The good news is that for financial advisors, intelligent use of web and social media can mean that you are now able to assemble a high quality marketing team for you, at zero cost.

Picture this situation. You make a great presentation at a prestigious local club on why 90% of investors don't create wealth and what it takes to make it into the 10% club that does. Some of the club members are impressed with your wisdom. You've generated curiosity in them. Are they going to come rushing in the next day to your office to become your clients? Probably not.

But, some may go back home and ask a couple of their friends about you. Their friends may or may not know you. Then they decide to get onto the web and they google your name. They are trying to find some validations to support the initial favourable impression you made. What do they see on the 1st page of the google search result?

This is where you better have a great team playing for you, if this prospect has to become a client. Do they see your company website as the 1st search result? Do they see a link to your profile on LinkedIn? Is there a facebook page of yours that shows up in the results? Is there a link to an article you contributed in any publication that pops up as a search result?

Look at it from a prospect's point of view. If he is unable to find any of the above, what's the most likely reaction from his side? Will there be a seed of doubt about you and your business credibility that will seep in? Can it be enough to make him forget about you and carry on with life? Have you just lost the game because you didn't have any players in your team to take the ball forward?

Now consider the opposite situation - he sees all of the above in the google search result. He checks out your website and is suitably impressed with the breadth of your services but most importantly the testimonials on your site. He goes into your LinkedIn profile and sees some names he recognizes in your connections. Now, he's getting quite interested in you. He then checks out your facebook page and is pleasantly surprised to discover that there's more to you than financial markets, when he sees pictures of your latest trekking expedition and the work you are doing in your community's Swachha Bharat Mission initiatives. Then he takes a quick look at the article you wrote recently - good stuff, he thinks - this guy seems to be knowledgeable. He's now convinced that its worth his while to talk to you.

He now goes back to your website, gets to the Contact Us page, and punches in the number you've provided there. Your marketing team has successfully got you to a position where you are now within striking distance of the goal and the ball has been deftly passed to you, to take the shot. Now, the striker - you - have to finish the job. How well you present yourself in the meeting you set up when he makes that call to you, will determine whether you convert this hot lead into a new client. That's the job of the product - which in this case is the quality of your advice. But your marketing team has done its job of setting up a goal for you.

And, just how many people did you have in this crack team that got this prospect all the way to your doorstep, already favourably inclined, even before the meeting? None, other that you yourself in various formats, in various web and social media platforms. That's the power of the new age marketing team that can help you win many more clients than expensive advertising can perhaps do for you. Have you created this new age marketing team to work for you yet?

All content in Marketing Wiz is created by Wealth Forum and should not be construed as views of Kotak MF.

Share this article