We can’t believe how quickly summer is flying by! There may only be a few more weeks left, but its not too late to make some last minute updates to your social media and marketing before fall sets in. If you need some inspiration, take a look at this week’s top articles.
1. 4 Tactics for Combating Marketing Blindness via PR Daily
Do you remember the first billboard you saw on the way to work today? What about the second?
As another exercise, try to remember what cereal boxes are in your cupboard. Which cereal is on the left, which is on the right? If you can’t remember, you’re not alone.
We become blind to the things we see every day. Our eyes see things like billboards and cereal boxes and immediately (subconsciously) decide that we know about them already. Therefore, they aren’t worth our conscious attention anymore.
What does this say about your company’s marketing efforts?
Your website might have been super flashy and eye-grabbing the first time potential clients saw it, but what about the third or fourth—or twelfth time? If you can forget your favorite cereal, you can certainly forget a website.
Take these steps to ensure your audience stops glossing over and your marketing starts landing once again.
2. 4 Industries That Will Dominate Social Media in 2018 via AdWeek
Once seen as purely a tool for entertainment, social media has become an indispensable marketing tool for many industries over the past few years, rivaled only by word of mouth.
According to a first-quarter-2017 report by 4C Insights, overall social media spend was up 60 percent compared with a similar period the previous year. CMO Survey predicted a 17 percent annual compound growth rate from 2016 through 2021 for social media spend. It estimates that the social media advertising investment will represent 25 percent of total online spend in 2018.
Yet, there are some who are not convinced that social media can generate revenue. Clearly, the success hasn’t been uniform across all industries—some are raking in billions of dollars, while some are barely active. But based on the recent trends, we’re likely to see more social media activity from some traditionally inactive industries.
3. Advisor Growth: It’s Just Not Us Saying It via SEI
How many of you caught an article (or this one) regarding the new Charles Schwab annual RIA benchmarking study? Or did you read the study in its entirety? This information is both fascinating and a bit disappointing. Fascinating, because you should always be interested to know what’s working, what top advisors are doing to set themselves apart or how those top firms are growing. Schwab surveyed over 1,200 firms, and in the results, highlights the fastest growing – those that added a median number of 36 new clients vs. 19 with all other firms. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, you should, there is great information in the report.
One of the study’s key takeaways is that the fastest growing RIAs are “Getting bigger by getting smaller.” I’ve said the same for years. Those firms are focusing on a niche and even creating personas, or ideal client profiles to create a curated experience.
4. 10 Benefits of Social Media for All Businesses via Social Media Today
No doubt most of you reading this are fully immersed in social media. We live and breathe it. Most of our job is focused around it. But shockingly, to those of us that ride or die with our friends on social channels, there are still businesses on the fence about utilizing the medium, and there are still marketers writing proposals to their superiors trying to convince them of the need to start a social media marketing program.
The truth is, people are using social media to engage with brands more than ever. With over three billion people using social media around the world, if you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re missing out on a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to reach almost half the world’s population.
In this post, look at just a few ways in which social media can help you grow your business.
5. What’s in a Partner? The Beginnings of a Beautiful PR Friendship via Fi Comm
Like most things worth doing, choosing the right Public Relations partner can be *hard*. Advisors and wealth managers often describe the practice of PR as an invaluable, yet somewhat intangible unicorn-like resource that can be either a total game-changer for their businesses – or a complete time and money sucking experience if not done well.
As you look around the independent advisory industry, you see only a handful of media mavens who skillfully use PR’s prowess to deliver their message naturally, thereby directly engaging the industry to impart their expertise. From Ron Carson’s “Ron-sense” to Joe Duran’s industry insight to Michael Kitces’ Nerd’s Eye View, it seems some just shine in the media spotlight with seemingly effortless ease.
These “media darlings” were born with this gift. It’s best to acknowledge their talent, allow yourself a moment of envy, but then move past it. Because for most, it takes *a lot* of work that is not only time consuming, but often outside your wheelhouse of expertise.
When you’re looking for the right PR partner, it’s important to ask yourself these questions about your prospective PR firm.
Struggling With What Content To Share on Social Media or via Email?
We are offering access to our content for advisors to use via Lead Pilot for 7-days completely free (even on our month to month plans).