Marketing Power for Financial Advisors helps you avoid common missteps that stunt your growth such as presenting yourself as just another look-alike financial advisor, squandering your resources on trial-and-error marketing, trying to appeal to everyone, being mesmerized by the latest marketing tactic, or falling into the trap of calling on one and only one marketing tactic. Instead, you can gain marketing leverage by following the 3 P's of growth: Planning - How to generate your marketing Plan to help you attract a steady stream of qualified prospects. Packaging - How to communicate your Story to grab your desired audience. Promoting - How to spread the word about your story through productive Promotions and tactics To experience sustainable growth over a period of years, financial advisors must incorporate Planning, Packaging, and Promoting into their practice. This book nimbly guides you through each of these three essentials with the exact systems and tools you'll need to ignite your marketing momentum and realize the success you desire. Marketing Power for Financial Advisors How to Attract a Predictable Flow of Your Ideal Clients for a More Rewarding Practice By Bob Hanson, Shirley Hanson AuthorHouse Copyright © 2014 Bob Hanson and Shirley Hanson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4969-3178-8 Contents 1 - This Could Be You, 1, 2 - A Fast STARt out of the STARting Gate, 7, 3 - How You Can Break Out of Your Status Quo, 15, 4 - Sidestep These Four Marketing Pitfalls and Potholes on the Path to Your Breakout, 19, 5 - Marketing Principles to Strengthen You and Motivate You for Your Breakthrough, 23, 6 - P Is for Planning — Seven Steps, 31, 7 - Getting into Your Growth Groove: Ideal Client Discovery, 41, 8 - Getting into Your Growth Groove: How You Can Leave the Pack Behind, 47, 9 - Getting into Your Growth Groove: How You Can Nail These Eight Faces of Trust and Believability, 57, 10 - P Is for Packaging, 61, 11 - P Is for Promoting, 75, 12 - Gain Traction through the World of Referrals and Influencers, 93, Conclusion: "The Best Way to Predict Your Future Is to Create It." — Peter F. Drucker, 105, About the Authors, 107, Selected Bibliography, 111, CHAPTER 1 This Could Be You You may have said something like this: "The only thing I lack in my financial advisory practice is marketing to develop a prospect flow; then I could double my practice easily." Or, perhaps, you said, "I know I need to specialize, but I am not sure where to start." You see yourself as just another look-alike advisor, with an all-things-to-all-people approach. Or you may fall into the category of many advisors who try to select marketing programs or tactics before they understand their market or grasp the message that will resonate with their audience. As a result, you are stuck with a hit-or-miss marketing program that wastes your resources. Or, possibly, you count on only one way of reaching your market, which can derail your chance of achieving your goals. Or you may expect branding — your logo, company name, and a slogan — to kindle your marketing momentum. You may have spent years or even decades building your practice up to this point, and you are looking for a smart road map to double assets under management. You may feel that you are throwing money heedlessly at marketing, and you don't want to squander your resources on trial and error. We Wrote This Book for You We unleash our experience over our combined 46 years in marketing to give you a streamlined system that propels you to your desired results. The cost-effective strategies and time-tested tactics you discover here will eliminate the frustrations of random, unpredictable marketing. They prevent time-wasting dead ends and detours. To help you to get off to a fast start we organized the book around the 3 P's of Planning (and its seven steps), Packaging (your core communications that tell your story), and Promoting (high-gain marketing tools). The chapters on "Getting Into Your Growth Groove" enable you to build a sound foundation for the growth you are looking for. Our goal is to unlock the power of marketing leverage through a clear-cut system you can call on again and again. This system takes you directly to the strategies and tools that will make the most difference in your practice. You receive exactly what you need when you need it to boost your flow of new prospects and "A" clients. Above all, we want to inspire you as you go along your personal path to a more rewarding and fulfilling practice. What's Behind the System? Over the years, some individuals have brought particular expertise in marketing to the advisor growth challenge and the problem of attracting a stream of ideal prospects. They may have carried out primary research through numerous interviews on what is working for high-growth advisory practices. Others have sought solutions from other industries and introduced those to financial advisors. And o