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 series, we have shared insights on the 4 P's of marketing - which many marketing professionals regard as the guru mantra of marketing (Click Here). Here, we discuss a rapidly emerging trend of thought, which says that the future of marketing will be led more by the 4 E's than the 4 P's. The new age 4 E's of marketing are emotions, experiences, engagement and exclusivity. Read on to understand more about the 4 E's and apply these learnings to deepen existing client relationships and build new ones.

A lot of recent research has focused on the 4 E's of marketing and their importance in connecting with consumers. The 4 E's - emotions, experiences, engagement and exclusivity were originally thought of as most relevant for luxury marketing - for firms that sold high end cars, perfumes, personal accessories and so on. Then we had FMCG brands like Dove which embraced the 4 E's wholeheartedly and changed their entire consumer engagement strategy - with good effect. Earlier, Dove - like many other soaps - focused on communicating product features (x% moisturizer and y% soap). Those of you who have been tracking this brand's more recent TV ads will have noticed a sharp change in communication : their "inner beauty" campaign focuses on everyday people (not models) discussing their own experiences with Dove and how they feel after using this soap. Its all about emotions, experiences and engagement. The exclusivity comes from their claim that this is the only soap which makes you "feel beautiful". The campaign has become a big success, with business volumes jumping sharply higher after the new campaign.

How is all this relevant for financial advisors?

We believe that the 4 E's are as vital for financial advisors to embrace, as they are for a soap brand. After all, you are dealing with the same human beings. Its just the way you apply these 4 E's which will differ. Here are some thoughts on how you can apply the 4 E's of new age marketing to deepen existing client relationships and build new ones :

Emotions

In our MasterMind microsite, we have discussed in some detail how investors more often than not use emotions and not pure logic in making investment decisions. An entire field of study called Behavioural Finance explores this in some detail, and through MasterMind, we provide practical insights on how to understand investors better and communicate in a manner they can relate to.

If we know that emotions play a huge role even in a dull and dreary topic of money management, the question you have to ask yourself is how are you connecting emotionally with your prospects? To start with, what is it that you are offering your prospects? Are you offering financial planning services or are you offering them a path towards financial freedom? Are you offering them investment advisory services or an opportunity to become a smart investor? Just like Dove changed its communication from product attributes to the emotions that it wanted to play into (feel beautiful), financial advisors need to change the communication of their offering from product attributes (financial planning services / investment advisory services) to emotions that they want to address (path towards financial freedom / become a smart investor). Ask yourself a simple question : will a new customer want to come to you if you offer financial planning services or if you offer him a path towards financial freedom? Take a look at your brochures, your pitch presentation and evaluate whether you are describing your product's attributes or communicating clearly about the emotion you want to tap.

Experiences

There are two angles to experiences in the context of the financial advisory business - one is to focus on delivering a great experience to your clients and two is to record satisfying experiences and highlight those in your pitches. As we all know, a client's experience of your firm does not only revolve around returns delivered. The promptness with which his queries are addressed, the smiling face that always greets him when he comes to your office, the unfailing regularity with which his portfolio statements come to him each month, the diligence with which you call him once a month to discuss his portfolio and insist on a quarterly review meeting, the efficiency with which you send him a mail within 24 hours of the review meeting detailing action points agreed - all of these collectively go towards delivering a great customer experience. Are you paying enough attention to all customer touchpoints and ensuring that your clients get a great 360 degree experience from your firm? If not, that's the first thing to fix. Returns are important - no doubt - but a good customer experience goes far beyond that.

If you have done the hard work in ensuring a great customer experience for your existing clients, use this to your advantage in winning new clients. Far more effective than any glitzy brochures will be testimonials from existing clients recording how satisfied they are with your services. When clients appreciate your firm for little gestures, do ask them to write down a couple of lines of appreciation. It is these experiences that prospective clients will value much more than promises you make.

Engagement

Engaging regularly with existing clients is a necessary part of delivering a good experience. What you may want to do additionally is to find ways of engaging with prospects - rather than having only a one way communication with them. Sending promotional material to prospects is a one way communication. What can get a prospect drawn much faster to your firm is when you find a way to engage him in a conversation. Instead of sending out educational emails, if you were to convert that into a blog, and invite readers to post their comments and experiences on particular issues, you are trying to engage with them. Use of social media allows you a two-way communication, which strengthens engagement with prospects. Responding to their comments and queries on the blog or your social media page is a great way to keep the conversation with the prospect going. When you send out promotional material, instead of just sending a routine brochure, if you offer a free financial health check up at his society next Sunday, that's a way of trying to engage with prospects. The more you think of how you can start a conversation with a prospect and keep the conversation going, the better are your chances of converting the prospect into a client. Opening up a helpline or a query box in your website and your social media page can help prospects get in touch with you for a query that matters to them. Address it and convert the prospect into a hot lead. Advisors need to think constantly of how to get two-way conversations going with prospects and junk the traditional one-way approach.

Exclusivity

This was originally thought of as relevant for luxury brands, but is increasingly being seen as relevant for all products and services. Exclusivity in the context of a financial advisory business is an ability to convince a prospect that you have the ability to tailor a solution to meet their unique needs. Nobody likes to be told that he has to choose from one out of 4 model portfolios that you have created. A prospect will feel reassured if you first listen carefully to his needs and then design a solution that fits his requirements. Small efforts from your side like making a branded, personalized goal planner and giving your client a printed, signed sheet of this, will go a long way in making your client feel that he has received a tailor made solution for his unique needs. The whole process of financial planning (as opposed to retail distribution) is about providing exclusive solutions for unique needs. Your communication to a prospect must highlight the fact that you don't have standard plans and attempt to fit a client into one - rather, you create a plan that is truly unique to his needs and circumstances.

What do you think?

What do you think of the 4 E's of new age marketing and their relevance to your business? Do you think applying these principles will help you connect better with prospects? Do you think these can help you win new business more easily? Do you have practical experiences and insights on application of these principles that you would like to share? Post your comments in the box below and let us know what you think of this new age marketing mantra.

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

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