Making yourself heard

Like all small business people, financial planners would like to broadcast their serv-ices across the rooftops. Sam Walker investigates whether anyone is really listening and whether costly marketing efforts are really worth the bother.

Like all small business people, financial planners would like to broadcast their serv-ices across the rooftops. Sam Walker investigates whether anyone is really listening and whether costly marketing efforts are really worth the bother.

There are some for whom the term marketing always manages to elicit a grimace. Is-n't marketing all about flogging pamphlets at the local shopping centre, these people cry out? Do I really need to don the chicken suit and harass passers-by in Bourke Street mall?

While no one would argue against marketing being vital for the survival of a small business, it is not an entirely pleasant task. It takes money and time. And, time is something the average financial planner doesn't have. Which is why planners have such an appalling track record as marketers. Or do they?

Chief executive officer of Austplanners, the managing company for Advisor Invest-ment Services and Bleakleys, Wes McMaster says financial planners are more suited to marketing than other small business operators.

"I think that the key to why financial planning has become the dominant source of fi-nancial advice in the community is marketing. One of the interesting observations you can make is that financial planners have grown in an operating environment that's undergoing constant change. This tends to be conducive to marketing," he says.

Yet, his view is not shared across the board. Jim Stackpool, the principal of Strategic Consulting & Training (SCAT), says many financial planners aren’t doing all they can to market themselves or their businesses.

“Most people aren’t particularly good at marketing…Financial planners have a long way to go. They’re too busy. Most aren’t even getting their regular reviews com-pleted,” he says.

Part of the problem, Stackpool argues, is that “most people think marketing is a newsletter” - or, merely advertising.

Dealer group Godfrey Pembroke’s marketing experts believe that while financial planners are becoming more aware of marketing issues, there are still those who have a myopic view of what marketing really entails.

“Marketing is not about getting new clients through the door, it is about communi-cating with your clients. Some people think marketing is about having an ad, whereas it’s all about relationships and building a relationship with a client,” says Jacqueline Weily, head of marketing and distribution services at Godfrey Pembroke.

One of the functions of Godfrey Pembroke’s central marketing department is to pro-vide support for the group’s financial planners in this area. In the past six months, the department has identified a “designated marketing contact” for each Godfrey Pem-broke office. This means that the team can more effectively monitor and coach each office’s marketing afforts.

“Planners have clients to serve, plans to write. Meanwhile, they get a whole heap of stuff on their desk and it gets lost in the wash. Now we’ve got a marketing contact, we can make sure information is getting through to someone,” Weily says.

Both Karen Hirst, who is Godfrey Pembroke’s marketing services manager, and Weily believe that planners are increasingly becoming aware of the need to market themselves and their business. But not every planning firm should have the same ap-proach to their marketing, they say.

“The actual marketing they do is dependent on what sort of business they have, what stage their business is at and how much they want to spend,” Weiley says.

Austplanners’ McMaster says start up planning businesses tend to rely on marketing while more mature planning businesses “tend to be more geared towards service than they are towards marketing”. This is because most of the clients mature businesses attract come via word of mouth.

“The best marketing is referrals,” Stackpool says. Aside from this, he sees the edu-cation of the public in financial planning issues as another key marketing tool.

He says planners wanting to attract or retain clients should think about providing regular seminars to the public and perhaps, even “one on one” briefings with selected clients.

Many also argue that a planner based in a rural area may have to embark on a slightly different approach to marketing than a city-based planner, with an added emphasis on being seen as ‘part’ of the community.

“I think it’s true what they say. Everyone in a small town knows everyone,” Godfrey Pembroke’s Hirst says.

This could mean writing a column for the local newspaper, or sponsoring a talk back session on the local radio station, as well as being involved in local community groups.

“There’s also a cost factor involved in this. It’s generally a lot cheaper for rural-based planners to market themselves in this way,” Weily says.

Planners should also be taking advantage of any back-up services offered by their dealer groups. Godfrey Pembroke, for example, can provide generic marketing tools and consults with individual offices on marketing issues.

“We hopefully provide the tools and issues for marketing. Our planners will hope-fully come to us with an idea. If we think it’s not too good an idea, we’ll tell them why. We can ensure any marketing materials are acceptable from a compliance point of view. We also have strong branding type content and visuals,” Weiley says.

McMaster says a dealer group should provide the backbone of a planner’s marketing efforts, at least in the beginning.

“In terms of marketing, the dealer has two roles. One is building brand awareness. The other is that the dealer should also provide marketing materials to a practice. However, the most effective marketing is that which is undertaken by the practice. The individual planners will know their own markets and who they are targeting,” he says.

McMaster says that the brand name of the dealer group is important, even though “it doesn’t cause a customer to walk off the street”.

“It’s a comfort thing. It doesn’t produce direct business,” he says.

Managing director of the Money Managers Kevin Bailey agrees that it is more im-portant for the individual planners to leverage off their dealer group brand names in order to successfully market themselves.

“Marketing is about positioning yourself to show off your strengths and tilting the scales in your favour,” he says.

Bailey, based in Melbourne, is no stranger to marketing both his own business and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). He has regular segments on regional ra-dio, television spots and says he makes sure his is always available for comment.

Meanwhile, principal of Godfrey Pembroke in Maroochydore Neil Dearberg also has a rigorous marketing strategy.

“We are involved in a money expo once a year where we invite a number of fund managers to come and exhibit their wares, set up stands and run seminars. We write monthly articles for targeted professional journals and we run monthly in-house seminars for groups of up to 15,” Dearberg says.

At the end of the day, however, most experts in the industry agree that it is the serv-icing of clients that forms the basis for successful marketing. If clients are happy, they will not only keep coming back but will also recommend you to their friends and colleagues.

“If you’re doing the job really well, that’s the best marketing of all,” Bailey says.

Stackpool sees the individual as his or her own brand. He argues that you don’t nec-essarily have to be attached to a strong dealer brand name to successfully market yourself.

“There are two types of brands — the public brand and the private brand. The public brand is a relationship with people you don’t know and the private brand revolves around ‘what do my clients think of me?’ You’ve got to have a good solid image with your clients in order to be successful,” he says.