Five Little Things For Your Monday: December 21, 2020

It’s the week of Christmas, and we can’t believe it’s almost here! The hustle and bustle is upon us, so before you get wrapped up in the last minute Christmas planning, make sure to check out our Five Little Things article. So, enjoy some hot chocolate and catch up on some of our favorite reads from the week on setting goals for your business, trends to expect in 2021, how to use LinkedIn as an advisor, using social media and how to best create a marketing plan.

1. Setting Operational Goals For Your Business at Year-End via Perfectly Planned Content

Business owners are looking for a fresh start in 2021, and while this past year has been nothing like what we expected, business owners can look back at what went right and what went wrong in terms of their marketing plans, business plans, etc.

If you haven’t already, then now is the time to set operational goals for your business, and some ways to do this are to set the “Big-Picture” Goals first. This includes:

1. Financial Goals
2. Goals for Clients
3. Operations
4. Marketing and Sales
5. Personal Goals

Next up, evaluate your operations and figure out what needs to change. This includes:

1. Team Structure
2. Technology
3. Client Journey
4. Financials

Once establishing these goals, it’s important to implement them, and your team can help you do that. For more tips on how to have an awesome 2021, check out the entire article.

2. Trends 2021: Adopting a two-speed strategy and embracing failure via Marketing Week

2021 is a year to start fresh, so we wanted to share some two trends to expect for the coming year.

1. Adopt a two-speed strategy
2. Embrace Failure

These may not seem like the types of trends that you would expect, but after the year that we had, we’ve learned that you need to always be prepared, and while you want to have a long-term plan, you need to adapt to shorter-term glitches. Also, it is no longer about perfection, but rather about embracing the fact that failure is going to happen.

All the details for how to adapt your business to these two expected trends can be found in the full article.

3. Is LinkedIn Still Working For Financial Advisors? via The Podcast Factory

When it comes to finding qualified leads, LinkedIn is one of the best ways to do this, however, they recently cut their organic reach and have made it harder to connect with people. This doesn’t’ mean that LinkedIn is no longer a viable option for connecting with prospects, and today’s podcast offers plenty of insight to meeting your ideal prospects.

4. Financial Marketers Can’t Be Social Media Holdouts Any Longer via The Financial Brand

If you are a financial advisor, you can no longer ignore social media. It’s crucial that you are putting out content and engaging with others. As we’ve gone increasingly virtual especially due to COVID-19, it’s so important to connect with clients and prospects digitally and that includes social. To find out the right tools for each social media marketing task, check out the entire article.

5. Using A Marketing Wheel To Create A Marketing Plan via FMG Suite

Marketing is all about storytelling and there are many aspects that go into creating a strong marketing plan. When you are contributing to a digital story, it involves building a marketing campaign, executing tactics and creating an overall plan.

When it comes to creating a plan, there are six main things that you should keep in mind, and even though the final part is the “Goal,” you need to make that part first. From there, it includes:

1. Create content
2. Personalize your content
3. Create a hook
4. How are you going to distribute your content?
5. What is the destination of your prospects
6. What is your goal?

Find out more in the entire article and master your marketing plan for the coming year.