401(k) Specialist Issue 3 - 2018 - 28

401(k) CLIENT CONNECTION
Why 401(k) Marketing
Should Never Sleep
By Rebecca Hourihan
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE to know that day or
night, rain or shine, your brand is consistently
in front of your clients, prospects and
centers of influence? Would you like to feel
confident that your marketing efforts are
constantly working for you to develop relationships,
deepen your trusted reputation
and create a sales pipeline?
As a retirement plan advisor, you have a
multitude of responsibilities-from business
owner, to keeping up with compliance, to investment
oversight, to plan design consulting.
You're also the chief marketing officer.
As an entrepreneur, you oversee the growth
of your business and the onboarding of new
retirement plan clients.
Yes, it takes time and effort for your firm to
achieve notable brand awareness. However,
we're in a digital marketing age that offers
lovely shortcuts. With a strong marketing
plan, valuable content and technology integration,
you can remove the guesswork and
better allocate your time.
Prerequisites
Keep in mind that one prerequisite for a
dynamic digital campaign is, of course, a
quality website. You're a modern, professional
business owner and you probably
have a great online presence, but think of
your website as your No. 1 salesperson. It's
sometimes in front of hundreds of people
per day. The next time you're thinking about
investing in a website update, think about
how much it would cost to pay a top salesman
to meet with hundreds of prospects.
Thankfully, most websites don't cost as
much as an annual salary, but it's a different
way to think about your marketing investment
and how you should allocate your
marketing budget. Does your site convey
your value proposition and how does it represent
your brand? Does it encourage your
prospects to act and is it optimized with
automated features that work for you?
Another essential ingredient is its content.
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ISSUE 3 2018 | 401kSpecialist.com
What information are you sharing with
prospects, clients and centers of influence?
Are you producing original material, or do
you subscribe to a creative suite of content?
Quality content such as articles, newsletters,
infographics and videos allow you to
consistently share useful information that
educates and builds your reputation as a
trusted source.
Once you have the basics taken care of, it
is time to turn up the marketing volume.
Getting analytical
How are people engaging with your website?
To help you view the digital path that
your site visitors take on your website, we
recommend using Google Analytics.
The analytics dashboard will give you
valuable information like how many people
have visited your site, how long they clicked
around and which pages were viewed. These
metrics can provide helpful insight when
setting goals and developing campaigns.
For example: you want to increase the
number of site visitors, try an email campaign
or social media promotion that directs
visitors to your website.
Call to action plus automation
Who visits your website, and how are
you staying in contact with them? Analytics
tell you a ton of great data about your site
visitors but don't quite relay everything;
sometimes you have to ask. A great way of
collecting contact information from visitors
is to offer them something of value.
Let's say your website has a call to action,
such as " Subscribe to our newsletter, " and
your site visitor enters their email information.
What happens next can go one of two
ways. You could get a notification saying you
have a new subscriber, subsequently handcraft
a personal message and then enter the
information into your CRM manually.
Or, better yet, if you have a marketing
automation system in place, that person
will automatically receive a friendly " Thank
you for subscribing " email, be automatically
added to your CRM and instantly plugged
into an appropriate email list.
Automation allows you to sit back and
watch your contact list (or pipeline) grow
over time as more and more people visit
your site and subscribe to your content
marketing.
Restful winks
When your marketing efforts leave your
hands (or outboxes), they take on a natural
lifecycle. Some pieces will be quick posts of
fleeting popularity, while others will stand
the test of time.
A great marketing campaign should consistently
share valuable content, leverage
technology and encourage automation. By
organizing your marketing campaign and
thinking through the prospect's experience,
you can be in front of them every step of
the way-whether at 2:00 in the afternoon
or 2:00 in the morning, because a quality
marketing campaign never sleeps.
At 401(k) Marketing, we believe the retirement plan
industry can do better. Our clients are the best professional
retirement plan advisors and TPAs in the
business. They care deeply about saving America's
retirement future. We are proud to share their voice
through industry writings, professionally-designed
marketing materials (including websites) and
expert content collateral. We support in promoting
their businesses through on-going awareness
campaigns. 401(k) Marketing is based in San Diego,
CA. Check us out at www.401k-marketing.com.
http://www.401k-marketing.com http://www.401kSpecialist.com
401(k) Specialist Issue 3 - 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 401(k) Specialist Issue 3 - 2018
