KeyNow why should you even bother wasting hours to write a Marketing Plan? Most of the time, what’s written inside would not even materialize. Right? That’s very likely if you just do a superficial job, not being truthful to yourself and if you write it alone without a coach.

Would writing a marketing plan ensure success? I wish I could say that, but it’s just one part of the puzzle. The marketing plan is just a piece of useless paper if not put into implementation, constantly reviewed and improved upon.

Before we start with the preparation before writing the marketing plan, we need to know the components of the marketing plan for a Financial Advisory Practice:

  1. Market Study & Segmentation
  2. Competition analysis: SWOT
  3. Market Positioning and Branding
  4. Products & Services Offering
  5. Client Acquisition Strategies
    1. Direct Marketing: Mail, Email, Leads-buying, Online Strategies
    2. Third Party Arrangements: Referrals, Tie-ups, Professional Alliance
    3. Other Marketing Programs: Advertising, Articles in magazines, Seminars
  6. Client Relationship Management & Retention Strategies
  7. Sales Targets, Performance Gauges and Practice Milestones

Market Study and Segmentation

It’s essential to start with a decent Market Study & Segmentation. To do so, you may seek the help of your coach and senior colleagues. It’s also very helpful to engage some of your trusted friends for their feedback. Finally check out your company’s resources or on-line if there is information available for you to scope out your target markets.

Make a study of the profitable segments of in terms of net-worth, occupations, industries or even by age demographics. Make an assessment of their likely needs for financial services at large. Match this with the likely products and services you can offer to these groups of people.

Competition Analysis

Having had an idea of the competition landscape, do a Competition Analysis and determine your Competitor’s weaknesses and strengths. This will allow you to turn their weakness to your advantage and avoid fighting head-on with their strengths.

Doing a SWOT analysis pits you in the Market and brings out glaring points about how NOT to compete with your potential target market. It’s all about standing out from your competitors including your colleagues from the same company.

Here are some points you may want to know:

  1. What types of firms are there offering Financial Services and what are their competitive advantages?
  2. Where your firm has similar competitors, how do they differentiate from one another?
  3. What sort of products and services so they have? How do they market their services?
  4. How does the public or at least your target market see them?
  5. Matching with the Market Study are there any segments of people that are under-served and profitable?
  6. What is the current share of the market like? (not essential but good to have)

Products & Services Offering

Next, take a look at your company’s product and services offering vs your competition and matching your target market’s needs. If it does not stand-out and shout at you in a positive way, you may have to work harder at the Market Positioning and Branding. Why McDonald stands out in the competition for Fast Food is it’s ability to Position and Brand itself well in the market.

Another consideration is to tie-up with other service providers to beef up your product offering. For example, if you are an insurance agent, tying up with a mortgage broker gives you an extra “product” to offer to your target market.

Also, ensure that the products and offering are really solving problems for your target market, and that they are competitive in terms of benefits vs costs. A good way is to ask your senior colleagues who have been in the business for very long and have met different competitors.

Coming Up “Why You Should Bother with a Marketing Plan if You Want Success” Part 2



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