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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Boomers & Mobile Marketing: Tips to Entice Them to Respond


If your target market is boomers, it's critical to acknowledge that they DO respond to mobile marketing and to understand that they WILL interact with it. Check out the tips below to help you improve your mobile marketing efforts for this growing audience. 
1. Create clear content. 
While boomers are using mobile technology, it's a good idea to avoid using it in a way that is uncomfortable, unclear or unfamiliar to them. Combine your content with their interests or with seasonal events to establish a connection with them. Provide valuable and personalized information to entice them to believe in your brand. Target your content carefully though; avoid casting your net too wide, as boomers are not all alike. 
2. Learn how boomers text. 
A texting program can be a meaningful addition to your mobile marketing strategy, but it's important to understand how boomers use text messaging before you launch it. Sure, they use it to communicate with their families, but how do they use it for their personal interests? Do they like receiving reminders? Do they respond to promotional offers? Targeting their needs and your messaging is crucial to ensuring this program succeeds. Again, remember that boomers are not all alike.
3. Give boomers a variety of ways to respond to you. 
Mobile marketing doesn't mean just social media or just email or just text messages; it's a far more thorough approach that - when executed effectively - provides personalized, targeted and valuable information to specific audiences. With that said, it's important to consider not only how to best deliver your mobile messaging but also how boomers may want to respond. Combinations of mobile chat, social media links, email and phone conversations can provide you with powerful avenues to build awareness of your brand, answer questions about your services and convert sales. Limiting your response options may alienate your audience and make it less convenient for them to complete a transaction with you. 
What would you add to this list? Tell us below or tweet us!
             By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Friday, June 19, 2015

Convert More Clients with These 5 Tips

Earlier this week, our founder and president Jorge Villar shared 3 important tips on developing messaging that will help you convert sales. Every word within your messaging matters, and some words more weight than others. 

But what other tips should you consider as you strive to convert more prospects to clients?

Let's take a look at these 5 ideas:

1. Listen. 

Are you listening to your prospects? Are you talking over them or interrupting them? Do you take the time to hear them out and then paraphrase what they say to make sure you understood them? This critical - and simple - tip can change the way your prospects see you. Be clear and concise when you speak and respond to them, but make sure you provide them ample time and space to speak first.



















2. Be irresistible. 

What do prospects really want from you? What can you offer them to solve their problems? Identify those solutions and kick them up notch by creating offers that compel them to do business with you. The offer should provide convenience and highly competitive advantages and should also showcase your exemplary level of service.

3.  Help them make the right decision. 

If you're talking to a prospect, you have both already recognized that your services are needed and are being considered. Don't focus on selling her your service; focus on selling her the solution that fits her needs.

4. Remember your manners. 

Just as your parents said, "yes m'am" and "no sir" go a long way as do "please" and "thank you." What impression of a business are you left with when one or more of its team members are discourteous to you? What does it say to you when someone you do business with goes above and beyond to exercise exemplary etiquette with you? Provide your prospects with not just the treatment they deserve but the treatment they will talk about to their friends.












5. Follow up consistently. 

By following up, you not only increase your opportunities to convert sales but you also create opportunities to build relationships and develop trust with your soon-to-be clients. These relationships are what will inspire clients to stay with you long-term and to refer business to you.

What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments or tweet us: 

@rme360

#convertthissale 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Jorge's Thoughts: 3 Tips to Develop Messaging that Converts Sales

If you've got leads, great! 


If you've got qualified prospects, congratulations! 

But how do you move them down the funnel? How does your current messaging impact your conversion rate and what can you do to improve it?



Believe it or not, every piece of written real estate matters when it comes to conversions. Each word on your print marketing, your digital messaging and your presentation materials has the power to lead to conversions, but some words have more power than others. 

Check out these 3 tips to consider when developing your messaging:

1. Stand out. Valuable prospects already have financial advisors. To earn their business, it's important to recognize that your messaging must be in steal away mode. What are you saying that is different from their current advisors? Inspire those valuable prospects to consider your services by showcasing what makes you unique. 

2. Identify pain points as well as solutions. Your prospects are likely to have several pain points of various concerns . While they won't find it pleasant or comfortable to discuss them,  they may not to do business with you unless there is something to resolve. Put the spotlight on how you can solve their pain points and make them more comfortable with their financial futures. 

3. Be top of mind. Your target prospects may not need you today, next week or next month, but inevitably they will need you. Your brand should be what they think of when they are ready to seek financial resolutions. That means your marketing efforts need to be consistent and that your messaging needs to address a variety of issues. For instance, if your target market consists of those age 55 and up, consider that their lives change every 4-6 months. Life events such as retirement, major illness or death in the family will trigger their need for you, so your messaging must speak to those concerns. 


Tweet me and let's chat about tips to convert sales:


By: Jorge Villar, President and Founder 
#convertthissale

Friday, June 12, 2015

Engaging Advocates: 5 Tips to Earn Brand Advocate Online Support

Think managing online reviews isn’t worth your brand’s time? Think again.



      88% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business. Prospects who are unfamiliar with your brand are likely to reach out to the digital space to find what your customers say about you.

      72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more. Do you have advocates who are praising your brand on social media and encouraging prospects to trust you? Check out these 5 tips to help you earn and engage with your advocates!
  

1.     Focus on managing customer expectations.
 According to the Gartner Group, 80% offuture profits will come from only 20% of your existing customers. These are relationships are at your fingertips and deserve to be fostered. What do you expect from brands you love? How do those brands interact with you and show their appreciation for your business? Every point of contact you and your team have with your customers should begin with those questions in mind. Exceed their expectations and give them an experience they will talk about online. 

2.     Be proactive. If there is a mistake made, be aware and don’t wait for your customer to complain. Offer your customer something that not only makes up for the mistake but also the inconvenience. This level of attention and service is what prompts customers to speak out for your brand. 

3.     Establish a customer rewards program. According to Forbes, a rewards program for your top brand advocates creates “and environment of exclusivity” and is appealing because your advocates want to be first in line to get a peek behind the curtain. Customers love to share reviews on rewards they've earned. 

4.     Offer helpful (and shareable) original content. Walk your customers’ journey with them and anticipate their questions and needs. Include links to infographics, videos or other types of compelling content that focuses on answering those questions and making their journey more convenient and easy to understand. Customers will share this content online and talk about how it helped them. 

5.     Turn employees into brand advocates. Recent research shows that employees have “10X more followers than corporate social accounts” and that a “12% increase in brand advocacy generally generates a 2X increase in revenue growth.” Harness the power of your employees’ voice and social sharing clout to give your brand an authentic voice and to achieve higher ROI.


What would you add to this list? Tell us below or tweet us!


By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Jorge's Thoughts: 10 FAQs Can Earn You Brand Advocates

Seminars - or social dinner events - are viable and powerful avenues to convert qualified prospects to satisfied clients. But these conversions don't happen during the event; the event is only the beginning of earning them. It's also the beginning of creating brand advocates. 


Advocates are loyal: they repeat business with you, they choose you over your competition and they promote your brand in both the digital and non-digital world to their friends, family and colleagues. They are valuable to your overall marketing strategy, and your seminar can serve as the first step in earning them. One way to begin creating advocates is to establish yourself as an expert who understands your prospects needs and provides a level of comfort when speaking about them. 

Picture this: you're wrapping up your seminar where you've just spent 45 minutes discussing Social Security and strategies for your retirement income. You look out into a sea of worried faces and ask if there are any questions. One or two hands may go up reluctantly if you're lucky, but more likely no hands will go up. Can you blame them? Would you be willing to possibly embarrass yourself by talking about your finances in room full of people you don't know?


Break the air of awkwardness permeating the room by providing a top 10 list of questions you are most frequently asked (see how to get the list I recommend for advisors below). These will be the questions your soon-to-be brand advocates lack the confidence to ask, the questions they need answers to before they take the next step and make an office appointment with you. For instance: "What happens during an appointment at your office?" Anticipate such concerns and answer them honestly.

Here's what will happen once you begin to answer:

1. Your prospects will realize they aren't alone in their concerns.
2. They will understand your core values.
3. They will trust you and see you an expert.
4. The air of awkwardness will be replaced by the air of social approval as heads nod in agreement and understanding. 

By addressing their concerns in a way that doesn't risk embarrassment on their part, you will inspire a sense of comfort that makes it easier for them to make an appointment with you. You will also be taking a critical step in creating brand advocates. That air of social approval will leave with them, and they will share their seminar experience with others. Brand advocates are the heart and soul of any marketing strategy; revive your strategy by focusing on creating and engaging with them. 

If you'd like to a copy of the top 10 questions I recommend advisors ask, tweet me: 

@JorgeVillarRME

By: Jorge Villar, President and Founder 
#whosyouradvocate






Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Jorge's Thoughts: Debunking the Top 3 Seminar Marketing Myths

This week, we're taking a look at seminar marketing across our social media. Take a look at these top 3 seminar myths and let us know what you think in the comments below!


1) Feeding at the events 
This is a must to create that social event environment and not that antiquated lecture, workshop or sales pitch scenario. Also, the obvious: it allows time for you and/or your team to make appointments; otherwise, attendees would just leave after your presentation. The restaurant setting is neutral and familiar to your attendees. They probably go there many times on their own, and it's not suffocating or compromising like the other closed door venues. They know they can just leave the crowded restaurant if they wanted to.

 Something is bothering them financially, which is why they originally responded. If there are a few couples who appear to be there just information shopping or just gathering ideas, then so be it. They help fill the room and give you that emotional dynamic that makes people feel comfortable.
You are going to get a 20% to 30% appointment ratio from the people who are attending whether you feed or not. You need the numbers on your side. Top producers do not worry about food costs because the ROI takes care of that. Ironically, not offering food does not change the appointment ratio nor does it mean that the attendees are truly more interested in what you are presenting . It will just end up being 30% appointments of less attendees. 
 

2) Converting attendees to appointments 

















The amount of appointments you make at your seminars is 100% in direct proportion to the following factors:


  • Did you have enough attendance? 
  • Did you connect with your audience socially? 
  • Did you tell stories that were relevant to the attendee's financial concerns? Could they relate? 
  • Did you give your local background and tell your own story?  
  • Did you intrigue your attendees with potential solutions and options and not a product pitch? 
  • Was your topic current? Did you have too many slides?  
  • Did you inspire the audience to feel like their confusion and worries about many financial issues were normal? 
  • Did you explain and clarify what will happen at their first office appointments, include that nothing will be sold even then? 
  • Did you have an effective and professional process to ask for the appointments during the dinner session? 
  • Did you pre-sell appointments during their presentation and not just at the end? 
  • Was the event feedback form explained and handed out? 
  • Were you diligent in calling attendees who could not commit to a time and date the very next day? 
  • Did you ask if a better or a later date would help them commit?  
  • Did you offer the option of a private complimentary phone call review session if they were not willing or ready to meet face to face yet? 


 3) Saturation in marketing 


The real saturation is not in the marketing; rather, it is in the amount of advisors who are in direct competition in the immediate area. In one city corner at a business district intersection there could be 10 to 30 advisor offices. Many advisors ignore that fact and decide to blame bad seminar results on the amount of marketing that they perceive is happening in their backyard. If that were even remotely true and it was not working, then why would so many others send out invitations? 

The reality is that a very high percentage of those who are even doing seminars are doing them wrong. Wrong invites, wrong lists, wrong venues, wrong dates, wrong messaging...on and on. They may want to cut corners, save pennies, not take the time to understand marketing and end up usually partnering with local printers instead of experienced direct marketers. Good marketing is based on good data. Understanding and following the 10 to 15 critical variables that create successful outcomes is challenging. 


To wrap this up, everything we do here at RME360 is intended to create predictable marketing and sales processes that will continuously drive prospects and results for advisors over and over, all year long. We have 20 years of data. Let us show you how we can generate a continuous flow of prospects for your business. 

Tweet me and let's chat about seminar marketing:



By: Jorge Villar, President and Founder 




Monday, June 1, 2015

Seminar Marketing Success Factors: The Critical Factors You Must Avoid

Long before social media marketing, there was the original social marketing concept: seminar marketing. And while there are many marketing trends that allow you to reach your targeted audience with your brand messaging, your brand can't afford to ignore the classic solution of seminar marketing that brings you face-to-face with interested prospects.


Click here for our FREE white paper to learn more!


#planyourseminar





By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360