Target Marketing

Source: Journal of Accountancy

In its monthly checklist series, Journal of Accountancy shows financial advisors how to identify their desired clients. But these strategies may apply to other niches as well.

• Be specific in your targets. Instead of identifying age groups or net worth minimums, select a narrow group such as those saving for retirement.
• Target special interests such as estate planning and business succession.
• Let your prospects know how you will help them achieve their goals.
• Track your marketing initiatives (i.e., find out which messages and mediums work best) so you can increase response rates.
• There is now an experimental program available that can test a mailer or email  and tell you which factors increased response and which ones did not matter. You can find out, for example, whether adding a certain graphic to your mailer increased response. Or you might learn whether having a lunch meeting versus a dinner meeting increases attendance. For information on this program, see http://www.advisormarketing.com/know.htm

From Journal of Accountancy, April 2005.  For the complete article, click on the following link: