A common attribute of leading financial practices is their disciplined and formalised approach to planning. For those advisers who are also practice principals, having a documented business plan – and an associated marketing plan – should be regarded as an essential ‘hygiene factor’ which will give the business and its people a sense of purpose and direction, and articulate the metrics and milestones against which progress can be measured.
Despite the benefits of formal planning being obvious and numerous, the majority of financial advice practices in Australia don’t do any formal planning for their business. Whilst there can be many reasons for this, it is likely that many advisers perceive the planning process to be overly theoretical, time consuming and complex. This need not be the case, and in fact shorter, simpler plans can often be easier to understand, easier to stick to, and, as a result, more powerful.
In this article we will explore a framework for developing marketing plans that are both meaningful and practical. We will explore the essential building blocks of a marketing plan, including:
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alignment with the strategic goals of the practice
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metrics
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how to set a marketing budget
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target audiences
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branding and value proposition considerations, and
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the marketing mix.
We will then demonstrate how these elements can be simply distilled into a tactical marketing activity calendar.
Practice owners are an optimistic lot
The financial advice landscape has long been subject to powerful forces of change, and as such can be a challenging market in which to thrive. Notwithstanding this, practice owners have generally been driven by a powerful entrepreneurial spirit and enduring optimism.
A few years ago, a study by practice benchmarking specialists Business Health[1] found that 94% of principals expect to increase their practice revenue over the coming 12 months, and almost nine in ten expected to increase the revenue generated by fees. A similar proportion was expecting to increase their practice profitability, and eight in ten expected to grow their client base.
But are they are dreaming?
Remarkably, the same study found that the vast majority of these advisers with big ambitions had no formal plans on how they were going to achieve these results. (By formal plans, we mean plans that are written down and include clearly defined goals, the actions to be taken, accountability and time frames.)
According to Business Health[2], only one in three (35 per cent) practices analysed had a longer-term strategic plan for their business, only 30 per cent had a succession plan, and just 38 per cent had an operational business plan covering the upcoming 12 months.
A similar picture was found to exist for marketing plans, with a Beddoes Institute benchmarking study[3] finding that more than four in ten practices didn’t have a marketing plan at all, and only 13% had in place a marketing plan they were happy with.
To paraphrase the famous expression, ‘a goal without a plan is just a dream’.
An introduction to marketing planning
There are a number of fundamental points to be made about marketing planning.
The first – and single most important – point is that marketing activities must always be aligned with the overarching goals of the business, as articulated in your business plan. As such, your marketing plan is a supporting or corollary plan, which means you should always create your business plan first. It also means there should be a clear link between any given marketing activity and a business goal.
The second is to ‘keep it simple, stupid’. A one- or two-page plan can be far more powerful than a 20-page tome and is more likely to be adhered to.
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