I’m always on the prowl for marketing techniques that are working for our clients. Those ideas may be new or maybe old with a new twist and sometimes even old and nearly forgotten as we’ve found lately.

It never ceases to amaze me how many successful people find something that works…AND THEN STOP DOING IT! (Yes, myself included). So let’s take a look at the top 6 trends in marketing in 2010:

6 Key factors to successful marketing in 2010

1. Having a Brand Matters
2. Know and dominate a niche within a niche
3. Integrate your marketing
4. It’s a lot easier with what you already have
5. Cold Calling Still works if…
6. Know the future of marketing and get there first

Having a brand matters – Being know by your target market is very important.

– Well known companies are 48% better at lead generation than “not very well known” companies. *
– 70% of firms say that they are not well known by their niche
– Contrary to common belief, traditional advertising like TV, radio and newspaper ads were ranked 33rd, 31st, and 29th out of 33 for effectiveness*

*”Future of Lead Generation” Benchmark report http://www.raintoday.com/leadgenerationreport.com

There are much better ways at reaching a target market that revolve around speaking to them directly.

Know and dominate your niche – You have to have a very clear picture of who and what you are going after. The shotgun approach of “I’ll get whatever I can,” will sentence you to mediocrity. You should have some basic research on them:

– Who are they? – age, income, hobbies, life’s experiences, etc.
– Who are the influence makers? – What are their trusted associations, organizations, etc. and who are the decision makers at those entities?
– What do they want? – What are their fears? What keeps them up at night?

If you cannot answer these questions in detail, you are going to have a problem marketing effectively

Integrate your marketing – Don’t just rely on one type of marketing. You should try to integrate several types into a cohesive strategy. The types of marketing that have proven most effective are (ranked by effectiveness):

– Referrals from clients
– Warm phone calls (to people that have received information from you)
– Seminars
– Referrals from professionals
– Newspaper ads
– Purchasing leads from lead companies

*Survey of Financial Advisors-Corona Research

It’s a lot easier to work with what you already have – It has been proven that it is over 14 times more profitable to attain new business from a current client than from a new client. Utilizing current client for referrals or new money is far easier than going after new people but sales people continue to make the mistake of ignoring the diamonds in their own backyard.

Cold Calling still works if you… — Cold calling has actually become more effective since the Do-Not-Call list made it unpopular. However, it has to have a purpose. The most effective purpose is to follow-up with a phone call on information that you have sent to someone. If you follow-up with a phone call within 72 hours of them receiving that information, you have an over 30% higher chance of setting an appointment.

Know the future of marketing – The future of marketing is NO MARKETING!

The future of marketing is finding ways to talk to the prospect one-on-one. People do not respond to marketing anymore. They do not want to be one of the masses. They want to be treated as a person. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through hand written notes.

Author Bio: Mike Kaselnak is considered one of the top marketing and sales experts in the financial services industry. He has personally mentored over 300 financial advisors in the past 10 years. These financial advisors saw their average production increase by 62%. Many saw increases of over 300 percent. He writes articles that have appeared in many mainstream magazines and has written the popular report 300 Financial Headlines that sell. MikeKaselnak.com

Category: Marketing
Keywords: business,marketing,financial,advisor,client,contact,leads,referrals,branding