Productivity Tip: Make a Calendar Appointment Listing Your Monthly Goals

Quick Productivity Tip: Each month I create a weekly recurring calendar appointment titled "May Monthly Goals" (where the name of the month varies) on Mondays at 5pm. This appointment serves to remind me what I should be working on this month.

On this list I have actions such as:


Articles to write
Blog posts to write
Topic ideas
Twitter posts
Facebook posts
Projects I'm working on
Follow Up that needs to be done

By reviewing the weekly appointment I am reminded of what I should be doing, not what I want to be doing. Of course I mix in a bit of fun too, but this helps me focus on productivity.

Keys to Branding Success – Invest in Yourself and Use Imagination

Everyone has heard the term "branding" but do you really know what it means? Branding is the art of attracting ideal clients through communicating a firm's core values, business name, logo, colors, tagline and much more.  Often this is accomplished through conscious and subconscious communication in print media, social media, and online through the use of creative visuals.

Firms use their brands to "position" themselves in the marketplace and make an impression on buyers. A brand must be strong enough to garner attention with the demographics or target market that your firm seeks to attract.  A good brand will influence buying decisions. That's why stock logos and template websites don't do much for anyone's brand: these bland devices don't stand out and don't make an impression on the subconscious mind. 

I'm often asked, "What qualities should be used in a brand to attract wealthy clients?" I believe that's putting the cart before the horse. Successful brands are based on the firm's core values and what's important to you, the owner. After all, your values are your passions, and if you attract clients who believe in your values, you'll be a better match and work well together, and you'll enjoy your work.

What are the keys to branding success if you want to stand out from the crowd?

Core Values: Decide what's important to you and your firm. What do you stand for? What is your investment philosophy? What's important to you when attracting ideal clients?

Business Name: Start with your firm's name. Create an image with your name. It's best to avoid using your own name in the firm's name to steer clear of sounding like a one person business.  Not to mention that succession planning will be easier with a name that is not your own.

Logo:  Clip art is not a logo. A logo is a visual representation of your firm and what it stands for. A logo is used to promote instant recognition among your target clients.  A good logo inspires trust and serves to differentiate you from an average firm in your field.

Colors: Advisors have traditionally gone with blue and white for their logo color choice because it stands for trust and integrity. Break out of that mindset and go with something new and different, just please avoid black and red – colors that definitely don’t work for financial planners.

Tagline: Wrap up your brand with a benefit driven tagline to finish off the concept. A good tagline serves to complete your business name with a BENEFIT of what the target client receives out of working with you. Using a benefit is appealing to buyers because they can conceptualize how your service can help them.

Using a creative tagline such as "Your Guide Down the Path to Prosperity" provides a better mental image than "Invest For Your Future" because the target client can see themselves walking down a vine-covered path to prosperity with you as their guide.

Mistakes to avoid

Being generic:  Financial planning naturally attracts left-brained individuals, but that doesn't mean you have to be boring. That's why using a professional is so important – they can contribute the creative force that you may lack.

Low-priced: Don't retain the services of a low price graphic design company.  The "dime a dozen" material they put out is not worth the few hundred you'll fork over. You are asking clients to INVEST with you, so make an INVESTMENT in your professional firm. Don't cheapen it by using an amateur.

Not using visuals: Good financial advice leads to a happy retirement. So please depict what that looks like to your target clients. What will they be doing in retirement that will make them happy?  Drinking wine, playing golf, gazing at sunsets, wearing pajamas during the day, and dining out with their loved ones. These images demonstrate the end effect of hiring a financial planner.

Using high-quality branding in your financial planning firm is a good business practice. Smaller firms can differentiate themselves from wire houses, carve out a niche, demonstrate value, and attract quality clients by investing in their brand. All it takes is looking at your firm with new eyes and deciding what you are all about and how you want to represent your firm with your branding.

Suzanne Muusers

Prosperous Advisor™ Coaching Program
Branding Packages

Local Sporting Event – Client Appreciation Ideas

Sporting events are a great way to break away from the office, nix the suit in favor of shorts and jeans, relax, and enjoy the moment.  Consequently, creating a Client Appreciation Event out of a sporting event can be a fun way to connect with your clients and prospects at a fairly reasonable cost.

Peggy B., ChFC, a Scottsdale Arizona Financial Planner, recently organized a successful event at Salt River Fields, the spring training facility at the Talking Stick Resort in Arizona.  Here's my interview with Peggy regarding the success and lessons learned from the event.

How many clients did you invite to your Client Appreciation Event and what was the cost?

We invited 47 clients. We sent invitations and then following up with a phone call.

We had approximately 70 people RSVP for the event including friends that clients wanted to bring along. It was a family event. Some clients brought children and some brought friends and coworkers. Tickets cost $10 each and we spent about $7 for each person's concession tickets.

How did the event play out?

We had 70 people on the lawn. I prepared ten blankets so that we could sit on the grass.

We told everyone that the first ten people to arrive would recieve a gift - we had ten Vineyard Financial baseball hats to give away.

We also raffled off a jersey.

We give each person tickets for hot dogs and drinks at the concession stand. We were  able to spend time with clients and experience the event.

This event was strictly a "Thank You" to our clients.

We told clients, "Wear jeans, we'll be on the lawn. Children will be running around."

What did clients like most about the event?

It was unique because we were at a brand new ball stadium. Everyone wanted to see the stadium since it was written up in the newspaper and was quite a novelty. The fact that we had seating on the lawn made it even better because it was a relaxed environment. You could talk to anyone, not just to people next to you.

How do you think the event benefited your firm?

We measured success on a few different levels. We earned "good will' and received several referrals after the event. Plus it showed that we were capable of running an event and made it look effortless.

We took pictures and sent them out with an email thanking the attendees.

The ballpark put our firm's name up on the board for all to see, so that was exciting.

What would you do differently next time?

We would follow up right away - within a week while the event was still fresh in everyone's mind. Get on the phone and call to thank attendees. I would also send a card with photos of the event.

Related Posts:

Client Appreciation Event Ideas

How to Market Your Client Appreciation Events
How to Host a Wine Tasting Party 
How to Host a Golf Event

Suzanne Muusers

Author of: Ten Powerful 21^st Century Marketing Tactics for Independent Financial Advisors

How to Market Your Client Appreciation Event and Get the Word Out – Step by Step

Client appreciation events can be a very effective way to market your financial advisory practice, and if done correctly, can lead to happy clients, increased revenue, referrals to wealthy prospects, and increased satisfaction with your practice and your life.

This post will lay out a path to getting the word out about your event so that you can reap the benefits of a well-attended event through a systemized way of marketing. If you haven't already decided what type of event to host, see this list here. Just like any marketing event, to maximize attendance, you should count on a minimum of four touches to your client list. Any less than four could mean poor attendance and a waste of your marketing dollars.

The question is: How do you market your events so that they are well-attended? 

Here is a Client Appreciation Event Checklist for marketing your event:

Step 1

Two months in advance, use your monthly e-newsletter to create anticipation by issuing a "Save the Date" reminder. Many people don't attend an event because they haven’t been given enough notice. Think about yourself. How far in advance does your calendar book with parties and events?

Step 2

One month in advance, send out an official invitation. Spend some time selecting the invitation design. Use a custom designer or find something in stock from a stationary store that you can print on your desk top printer. You will want to BRAND your event and create anticipation. Think about the parties you have wanted to attend. What was it that made you want to go?

Here are a few invitation sites I really like:

http://www.itsadatedesign.com/

http://www.paper-ink.com/

http://www.invitationconsultants.com/

Step 3

Two weeks in advance, send out an email reminder that is specifically for this event. The subject line should read "Reminder | Don't Miss the Fun at Event Name on Date." In the email, give all the details of the event and a map to get there.

Step 4

One week in advance, get on the phone and start calling people. Although you may have asked for an RSVP, few people these days actually take the time to confirm attendance. By getting on the phone and asking for a commitment you could double the attendance and the success of your event.

Here's a sample script:

"Hi Bob – It's Jane with XYZ Financial Planners office calling to confirm your attendance at our Client Appreciation Event on Date. We are sure to have loads of fun and would love to see you there. Please call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx or email us at email address.  

It should be your goal to create a memorable Client Appreciation Event, one that your clients will talk about to their friends and associates. By putting in time and effort up front, you will greatly improve your chances of success.

Suzanne Muusers

Prosperous Advisor™ Coaching Program

How to Create a GREAT Tagline

Is there something missing from your business brand? When prospects hear or see your business name, do they understand or "get" what you are about? If not, could it be that you need a tagline? A tagline, also known as a slogan, is a great way to position a company in a specific target industry and can add value by communicating a distinct message that may be missing in an otherwise good brand.

When we think of good taglines, it's usually the ones that are short and snappy such as "Just Do It" or "Eat Fresh." Other memorable taglines are those that rhyme such as "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" and "Don't Get Mad, Get GLAD."  So a good tagline is memorable and "sticks" in the brain.

As a student of branding, I often study business cards and websites. I find that the majority do not have a tagline, and even if they do they are missing one crucial element that would make them GREAT: the main BENEFIT that the target client would receive by working with the firm.

Checklist for a GREAT tagline:

*No more than 7 words (3-4 would be even better)

*Speaks to the firm's target client

*Finishes off the brand with a positive "message"

*Identifies a BENEFIT

Here's a PDF exercise that lays out a step by step procedure to create a tagline that you can save right to your own computer. It takes time to create a tagline, so don't rush it. I recommend that you brainstorm a few taglines and then put it away to come back later. You'll then find that one or two will jump out at you as being more effective than the others.  Then, ask a few of your best clients which one best exemplifies your business and your brand. That's when you'll find the best one.

Suzanne Muusers

Prosperous Advisor™ Coaching Program
Branding Packages

HOOKS and BENEFITS in your Financial Advisor Elevator Speech

While helping a client today with his elevator speech, it dawned on me that this topic would make a great blog post.  We could all use help explaining succinctly what it is we do for our clients. Our "elevator pitch" or "30 Second Commercial" is one of the best ways of explaining our worth to non clients and can help us obtain better referrals to our ideal clients.

Follow this link here to a Step by Step Exercise to Write your 30 Commercial. You can improve your elevator speech by working on it. Don't sound like all the other advisors out there.   Dare to be different!  

Instead of starting off with "My name is Steven and I'm a financial advisor" we should use a HOOK to get the listener's attention, otherwise the audience may tune out or not hear what we're saying.

Here are some lead in phrases or HOOKS to start off your 30 Second Commercial:
Imagine your life with…
Did you know that…?
Now you can have…
Do you want more X in your life?
Does your business need…?
The secret of X…
Have you joined the X revolution?
Get rid of (problem) once and for all…
Here's a quick way to (solve a problem)…

Perhaps the biggest mistake we can make is explaining FEATURES versus telling BENEFITS.  Learn to use benefits in your 30 second commercial so as to explain the end result of working with you.

Here are some common finance-related benefits for advisors to use in an elevator pitch:

• Achieve prosperity
• Free up time to do other things
• Simplify life - go from complicated to easy
• Find peace of mind - no more worry
• Retire early
• Live a stress free retirement
• Achieve goals more quickly
• Invest intelligently
• Live the good life
• Clarify lifetime goals
• Build a dream home
• Improve future potential
• Replace income
• Achieve lifetime goals
• Find financial freedom
• Live a beachside retirement
• Obtain clarity of financial direction
• Plan for a carefree, wealthy retirement
• Prepare for life's emergencies
• Take care of loved ones
• Work less, have more fun
• Leave a legacy
• Find a financial solution
• Discover financial wellness

Suzanne Muusers

Prosperous Advisor™ Coaching Program