Maybe you tried a seminar, or a couple of ads in a newspaper, or sending out a postcard – only to receive a poor rate of return. Did you have a concrete plan before implementing? How about tracking your results after? While these efforts can greatly enhance your practice, everything must have a plan. So how to do you construct a thorough marketing plan? When building yours, utilize these steps:

1. Review Your Vision

Your overall vision is the foundation to an effective marketing plan. Have you clearly defined where you would like your practice to be in one, three or even five years from now? Once you have a projection of where you want to go, you can then formulate ideas to help you accomplish those goals. Marketing is the support developed around your Vision objectives.

2. Know Your Role

Make sure you have the means to support your goals. These questions directly affect the structure of your plan:

• What is your budget for the year?
• What have you done in the past for marketing and/or what are you currently doing?
• What do your demographics support?
• How many marketing ideas are you comfortable implementing throughout the year?

3. Brainstorm

Once you have your goals and budget, you are ready to progress to the idea stage. Think about the type of results you are trying to gain. Do you want to mass market to rapidly gain clients or are you in a position to implement smaller strategies with a courting process?

Consider doing a mind-map brainstorming session for two themes: prospects and existing clients. How do you want to build your prospecting pipeline? What type of marketing efforts do you want to utilize with existing clients? In the brainstorming stage, nothing is too outrageous. Do not limit yourself.

4. Filtration and Planning

You now have an extensive list of ideas. Filter through them, and see which can be implemented immediately and which require long-term efforts. Put the ideas on a calendar system that can help you stay on course.

5. Evaluate and Update

It is imperative you continuously track your results. As the year progresses, new opportunities for marketing may arise and prior ideas may need to be revisited. You should determine what has been working and what has not yielded the results you wanted. Each plan should have room for adjustments.

Just as you tell your clients to have a plan for a seamless retirement, you should also have a structured plan for success. Take these core elements to build your strategic marketing plan today.

The Marketing team will work with Compliance on your behalf to ensure your materials are sent for review and approval. Contact NEXT’s Marketing Department to receive help building your marketing efforts and develop a plan that works for you.