More in the series about local business marketing and increasing the amount of business you can get from your website.

In this video we are looking at research and why it is required.

You can make this as big as you want.

For our free manual on Blogging For Business – here it is .

There  are several different types of business owners, those that do, those that think, those that speak a good story and never follow through, those that just make excuses and those that really deliver.

Over the next 5 weeks in the most erudite of the trade press – Professional Adviser you will be able to read a series of articles  written by me (like the ones in the past couple of weeks) and if you take notice (less than 5% of you will) and also take some action your Business Life will start to change.

You see the thing is once you get a handle on what  I will be talking about you really will be a long way in front of the Marketing Game – look online is where it’s at  and a lot of business is still being done but most IFA’s are not getting it.

You can sit back and moan and take no action and join the ranks of most IFA firms that are not going to survive in their present form. Doing the same old stuff.

Behind you are a small number of players that get this internet stuff, and get the fact that Compliance must be tamed in order to you to have a dialogue with your clients and potential clients.

Interesting Stats for you.

Moneysupermarket.com was floated at £843 million.

Hargreaves Lansdown Plc was the 125^th largest listed company in the UK by market capitalisation as at 5 September 2010 (according to them).

Do you think for one minute either of these firms let compliance get in the way of a decent internet presence, no neither do I.

Strangely enough not one of you reading this email will ever build a business the size of Money Supermarket or H-L unless you get a handle on your marketing, and your use of the Internet as a tool for doing business.

I want you to do 2 things,

Go and do a Google search on “IFA Marketing Expert”-  you will find me.

Go and do a  Google search on “Abbey Life Pension Transfer” You will find one of the sites I built.

Go and do a Google Video Search on “ care fees planning” you will find one of my videos – this was only done to test a process but has produced 12 enquiries since it was posted up on the internet. I am not even an IFA anymore (still provide advice as Paraplanner for practice in Brighton and still carry out some Compliance Consultancy)

Now I do not tell you these things because I want to big myself up, I know I am the guru in my field, I know I deliver, the key is do you know you can deliver doing what you are doing at the moment.

For those of you with access to your email on Sunday you will find a very special message. Just doing this little thing, made a massive difference to me and it will for you provide of course you follow through and take some action.

If you want to share this link with any IFA’s that may be interested please feel free to do so, if you want updates from us and are not getting them currently please use the opt in box below.

Of course we do not share loan lend or mess our list about.

Richard Smith – IFA Marketing Expert at theinternetconsultancy.com

0800 781 2031

I have had a long and hard think about this over the past week or so, mainly due to a good number of IFA’s being concerned about “ business prevention department” stopping you from making more money by providing value and service to your potential clients. Now as you know we build Lead Generation Machines for IFA’s and want these to be effective for you.

In making them effective some information will need to be presented in a manner that gets your client or potential client to move their backside out the chair and make a call to you, or send an email, to make contact. Question is – is this information a Financial Promotion?

Now you will have have you own processes, and I really don’t want to upset any anyone’s firework party by taking a long wee on the fire. But in the main much of what your potential clients are looking for on the internet and in other written material will not initially mean you making a financial promotion, indeed you would be foolish to do so.

How would I know, well having supervised IFA’s for some 12 years, having constructed big chunks of a compliance manual and helping devise one of the first Asset Allocation Models in the UK. I think I am qualified to comment. Importantly for the work we do with Regulated Firms we have our our own Compliance Consultancy handy eh! As I keep on saying, we take this business of ours, getting business for you bloody seriously.

So what does the regulator say.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/Regulated/Promo/regime/index.shtml

A financial promotion is a communication that is an invitation or an inducement to engage in investment activity.

In other words, there is an element of persuasion. A communication that merely informs or educates will not normally be a financial promotion. An inducement is intended to lead, ultimately, to an agreement to engage in investment activity. So an advertisement by a firm claiming customers will make a fortune by investing in securities, and that the firm can help them invest, is an inducement to engage in investment activity.

We define the term ‘engage in investment activity’ and it may not include some activities thought of as financial services. For instance, financial services price comparison websites are not financial promotions (unless they promote particular products or services) because simply comparing prices is not an investment activity. ( hy does that not surprise me or you).

So without meaning to sound like David Beckham…’at the end of the day’ this is your business, something you have ‘strived’ and worked hard for over many years, probably through many ‘toils and tribulations’, your client’s trust you, why should you not think ‘outside the box’ and be scared of compliance……

Okay the Financial Services Authority has set rules in place to ‘Treat Customers Fairly’ (TCF) but not being allowed to communicate with your clients and potential clients in a ‘generic manner’ is totally opposite to that and is absolutely not treating your client’s (and potential clients) fairly…

There is no need to jump through ‘compliance hoops’ or to pay for ‘financial promotions sign off’ which takes time and also costs you money for nearly all communication via a Website, Email, SMS or other electronic and written communication!! What is next….Do you need sign off before you answer the phone!! We are in an age of instant communication where if you do not respond to an enquiry, be it via a SMS Message, an e-mail or Phone Call that client will go elsewhere. As a business you owe it to yourself and your client’s to have the tools to hand to be able to service your client’s needs. That is TCF…………!!!!

The Internet Consultancy have have been doing this for long enough now to know what works and I wanted to clear up what is what is not acceptable.

You are entitled to your opinion and you are entitled to comment on whatever Financial or other matter you want using whatever method you decide to use. Now, if your own internal compliance gets in the way of that perhaps you need to find a way, your business really does depend on you getting your message out there.

Anyway, rant over now can we all get back to meeting the demands of our customers and move forward.

For those of you not on my list, please get yourself on it now, by completing the box below.

Richard

0800 781 2031

Investment Markets are remaining flat since January and of course you have clients that want information and more want results.

One firm we have been working with for sometime has been doing a weekly Fund/Market update and sending this out to clients using four mediums, SMS (Text Message), Website Comment and a brief Audio recorded on his laptop placed on his site, plus email with links to downloads.

Guess what, rather than having clients on the phone complaining they are picking up new business,

Interestingly enough they are putting on clients that are being taken from other IFA firms in the area, In one year in they have picked up some 80 new subscribers to their blog, received 3 new investment clients from these and of course now have a lot more credibility in the firms local market. In simple terms they are bucking the trend and doing it as passively as possible. This is all done in space of about 40 minutes per week,

There are just over 13 weeks until Christmas, and that gives you just 24 for short months to worry about qualifications and of course the brave new world post RDR. However as I know you know there is a lot to do, importantly the post RDR changes are coming early, with most networks looking to cap commissions long before the date set.

I have just one question for you, are you bucking the trend, or getting the same as the the bulk of the IFA firms out there? See the thing is most IFA’s are not updating their Websites with valuable content and opinion and of course are not creating a buzz locally in their targeted markets and therefore not getting the results they should be.

I keep on saying, none of what we do over here at the Internet Consultancy is  complex, “it’s not rocket engineering” but we do, do. That’s the difference.

As always I am happy to work with/discuss options and provide some guidance where possible but please get off your bottom and do something, if not with us then chose another provider but please do it.

You can phone on 0800 781 2031

Richard

PS I often get asked, why I offer a Money Back Guarantee for all of the services offered, and it’s this simple. If you invited a Plumber in to repair a pipe and it leaked 3 or 4 days after you would expect a refund. The same with Argos or Tesco’s. Non delivery from us is a prompt refund and we part friends. Simple.

Today we  see some exciting news for some and probably bad news for others.  But Tesco plans to extend its trial of an in-store branch network giving people access to financial advisers. Tesco Bank will also launch a range of mortgage products by the end of 2010/11 as part of its plans to become a full-service retail bank. This is all reported by Money Marketing today.

So should you be worried, well yes and no. There is some stuff you can do to improve your business model and of course you know full well this is not the kind of business that will fail, not with the mighty tesco’s behind it.

A brief video is below.

Tesco to Offer Financial Adivce in Store

Its been an interesting week this week for Independent Financial Advisers, first Plimsoll seemed to think that they are a bit of basket case, and then of course the FSA  giving further guidance on Retail Distribution Review.

Interesting times eh! Well there is a lot to be negative about, I don’t think.

We have been out and about this week with some interesting financial services firms that are making it pay, and handsomely. Key is, as a firm of financial advisers do you want to be walking into the RDR and 2013 with a half cocked plan or one  that leaves you with money in the bank and processes that work.

I have a little more to say in this area, as you can imagine and therefore I will be updating you further.

Financial Services Sales Managers | Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

Richard Smith

theinternetconsultancy.com

Over here at the Internet Consultancy I am always being asked about the best way to market a business online? Or what about Social Media? All of these are  buzzwords which are used constantly by us and now you.

So what is the deal with Social Media? It’s this simple, the newest models of social interaction are just that, newest models. Each comes with it’s own challenges and can do several things for your business – increase it or turn people off if not used correctly.

It will help  if I move forward in slightly different direction for a second.

Lets think about your ‘target market’, you know the ideal client for your business. The one’s that you would most like to be doing business with now, and in the future. I know for a fact that this causes immediate problems for most business owners, with cry’s of  “er! Not sure! Ideal Customers? Well everyone that can afford it!”. These stock replies will just keep you where you are.

Lets put an Airline Pilot analogy on top of that.

An Airline Pilot knows (I have used he but could be she, before you start a million emails).

Where he is going – a specific target
A direction  – which way (which methods)
How long it is likely to take based on averages ( Time Goals)
How much fuel is needed to get there – for businesses this would be the action/type of marketing plan.
A plan in B in case of weather or other crisis

Not complicated is it? Remove any one of these aspects and you increase the risk of failure dramatically, submit a flight plan without a target. Are you mad! Too many small businesses fly by the seat of their pants, marketing without a plan or strategy is not funny or clever  just a quick way to the poorhouse.

So back to Social Media – Twitter, once you have identified your target market and realised that your potential customers may indeed use twitter, or the use of twitter fits in with the rest of your strategy off you go. (Replace Twitter with any Social Media, Facebook, Bebo, whatever)

Twitter

Using Twitter for business

Easy  – account set up in 3 minutes or less

Cheap – Cost is very little,

Obtaining Content -Use your blog or website posts, or any other value adding source you can find.

Remember – this is social media – don’t’ apply a sales pitch anywhere.

Inform – try and be as informative as possible.

Using Twitter for Search Engine Optimisation.

Links – helps build links back your website.

Traffic – helps build traffic

Twitter Negatives

Negative Followers can build up quickly with links to Porn Sites and other less desirable followers. Now if Porn is your thing that’s great, but for many….

Limited Number of Characters – comment is reduced to 160 characters. Will make you think about what you write.

That’s it for now.

Richard Smith is the Internet Marketing Expert specialising in the Professional Services Sector

Independent Financial Advisers

Search Engine Optimisation

ADWORDS – FOR SMALL BUSINESS

There is a very quick way to lose a lot of money very quickly and that is to blindly try and use Google Adwords to drive traffic.

For a start you need a target, some research.
Then you need to check the competition and determine where they are positioned.
Then you need to make sure your Web Pages are optimised around your Adwords Ad. You should also ensure your Website is optimised in the first place.
Then you need to ensure you have a conversion strategy in place before you place the ad.

Once you have covered these basic issues you are ready to go.

Now when writing your Adwords Ads you need to make sure you do not fall foul of Googles editorial policy on spelling, grammer etc etc.

And then issues around pricing within your ad to use or not to use.

Consideration then needs to be given the geographic regions – local or not and then the use of the various content networks, and then the key word bid (it is an auction system in part).

You then need to write several ad’s to check for a Click Through Rate (CTR) |Google rewards a good one.

As a business I know that Adwords is a fundamental part of marketing, however it is fraught with downsides if you try and go in blind in fact just like any other form of marketing.

Google and other sources will provide you with the information you need, and there are various training modules available on the net, you can then learn it all yourself (for me since 2001, and from 2004 profitable) or buy in the expertise either way there is a cost.
That said it is one of the greatest laser focused methods of marketing, but it not for the inexperienced unless of course you want to be one of the many that found Adwords to be a little harder than expected.

Richard Smith

0845 226 92106

IFA Marketing Expert

Internet Marketing Expert | Sales Process – Why You Need One

Internet Marketing Expert | Services You Will Need

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