A compilation of successful marketing tips from our clients.
Overview These pages cover
techniques our clients are currently using and
having success with. They are designed to help
increase traffic, maximize the chance for a visitor
to contact you, network with your community and
quantify the value of this web site service. Below
is our 3-Step plan to maximize your web site's
usefulness. STEP 1 This is a
tremendous benefit that should not be
overlooked. The very FIRST thing you need
to do is to let your site save time and
money. What is your time worth? If you
charge $180 per hour and you can save even
just 30 minutes of your time per month (by
letting your site handle the client's
basic education), the service has paid for
itself. At that point, any other time
saved in this fashion or new business is
icing on the cake. Sample
Marketing Tips (discussed below): STEP 2 Having a site is like opening a
physical office - if you don't tell people
about it, they won't know to come.
Although we market your web site at
estateplanning.com and send you leads, the
best way to boost your site's usefulness
is you. Sample
Marketing Tips (discussed below): STEP 3 The last step, and an extremely
important one, is to track your leads. If
you don't ask every person if they've seen
your site, you will not be able to
quantify your site's usefulness. We can't
stress this enough. We have many
professionals receiving new business from
leads we sent them, and they were
completely unaware of it. Don't make this
mistake! It's easier than you think to
incorporate this tip into your daily
routine. Sample
Marketing Tips (discussed below):
Education
Pre-Meeting
Education,
Post-Meeting
Followup,
In-Office
Education,
Ongoing
Client Relations,
& Fresh
Content.
New
Business
Conventional
Marketing,
Internet
Marketing,
Mailings,
Free
Information Kits
& Word
of Mouth.
Track
Leads
Lead
Tracking
TIP:
Conventional
Marketing A) Print Your Web Site
Address On EVERYTHING B) Contact Local
Media C) Mailings to Existing
Clients and Other Professionals
Your Time Investment: (Varies, depending on how
much you do)
Cost to Implement: (Initial printing, ad cost or
mailing cost)
Include enticing copy to emphasize your
site's content, such as "FREE estate planning
educational information at
http://www.estateplanning.com/yoursite." Your
marketing materials probably include some or all of
the following: letterhead, fax cover sheets,
business cards, brochures and other handouts,
advertisements, customized office items you give
away (such as pens, desk calendars, etc.). One of
our professionals has mouse pads and mugs with his
web site address on them that he hands out. The
simple and inexpensive way to get started with this
is to print up a page of labels and stick them on
everything. Make certain to use language that will
intice the recipient to visit your site.
If you can land yourself an article in
the local newspaper or a mention on local radio or
TV station, you might be surprised by the number of
hits you receive on your web site. For example,
talk to a neighborhood newspaper about writing an
article on your site's free educational content,
up-to-date information and ongoing free seminars.
The papers LOVE to write about things that the
public can get for free. One of our professionals
received a great response from even small articles
in local papers--as many as 700 hits in one day! If
only 5% of those people were to ask you for free
information, you would have 35 new leads to call!
You only need to convert one to a client and you'll
increase your profits--with no marketing costs! Be
sure to write down your web site's statistics (see
Lead Tracking below) before and after the ad runs
to see how well this marketing worked.
Send a mailing to your current
contacts--both clients and professionals--and
invite them to use your site! Don't limit yourself
to estate planning professionals. Include local
business people and merchants you frequent, too.
This is a great way to announce your web site
and get the traffic started! We can't stress
this enough... don't underestimate the power of the
"word of mouth" generated from your mailing. Be
sure to write down your web site's statistics (see
Lead Tracking below) before and after the mailing
to see how well this marketing worked. Here's a
quote from one of our clients, "I already have
nearly 200 direct hits because of a limited
mailing that I did to some lawyers, professional
associates and clients. I used their feedback to
make improvements. I am doing three repeat post
card mailings to my full client base and other
names mailing lists. I will stagger the mailings
depending on the number of hits over the next month
or two. I am using this site to reinforce my
referral base and I expect it to do well and
possibly generate a few more unexpected clients in
the process."
TIP:
Internet
Marketing A) Search Engines Almost all of the engines use different methods
for determining where your listing appears in the
results of someone's search. These criteria can
change often, making it difficult to retain high
placement. However, one of the most common things
they all use is called META tags. These tags are
put at the beginning of your "welcome" or "home"
page automatically by our web builder. It defaults
to using tags such as "living trust" and "estate
planning," but these tags can be anything you want.
If you would like to customize these, you can edit
it yourself (if you have the proper software) or
you can just email us what you want, and we'll do
it for you. Although you can register at each search engine
individually, some web sites specialize in
registering you to ALL the search engines. You can
try them and see if they work for you. To find some
current ones, run a search using a search engine
for "traffic boost," "search engine
placement," "promote your site," or
something similar. B) Cross-Linking with
Affiliates, Charitable Organizations or Local
Businesses If you run some quick searches on Yahoo and
other search engines for "estate planning," the
result will be "gazillions" of listings. (Not
really, but it will be a LOT.) If you limit your
search to your local community, city or area, you
can find a wealth of sites with whom you could
potentially exchange links. Other good
"crossing-linking" possibilities for you could be
local charitable organizations, local business (any
type), sites dedicated to seniors, and
information-based sites like on-line newspapers or
magazines. C) Build a Page for
Affiliates, Charitable Organizations or Local
Businesses Offer to create a web page exclusively for them,
filled to the brim with their information,
background, services, etc. Simply collect this
information from them, and use one of your 10 blank
"custom" pages. Keep in mind that the custom blank
pages will give this organization a link on almost
EVERY page on your site. So, not only are you
hosting their web page free of charge and giving
them an "Internet Presence," but you are also
MARKETING them to all the people visiting your web
site. Once you have explained this to them, let
them know to start telling people to come to your
site to see this information. Now you have other
organizations marketing your web site! D) Banner Ads &
Link Exchange E) Ongoing Seminars F) Publish Articles G) Listing Services
Your Time Investment: (Varies, depending on how
much you do)
Cost to Implement: (Usually nothing)
Although it is hard to prove that search
engines can help increase your traffic, it
certainly can't hurt to get yourself listed on the
more popular ones, such as Yahoo, InfoSeek, Lycos,
Excite, AltaVista, HotBot and others. At these
sites, you can locate a register or submit a link
to be listed on that engine. We will submit your
site to the top five engines, if you want ask us
to. However, many engines take several months
before they add you to their system. And that
doesn't have anything to do with where you are
placed in search results. There are companies that
specialize in getting you high search engine
placement. To find some current ones, run a search
using a popular engine for "search engine
placement" or "search results." The
costs for this service vary greatly.
One of the most powerful methods of
increasing traffic to your site is something called
"cross-linking." In short, you put a link on your
site to someone else's site and, typically, you
would reciprocate by putting a link on their site
back to yours. By doing this, any traffic that the
other web site gets has the potential of coming to
you. The more sites you exchange links with, the
more chances you have of getting bonus traffic.
It's exponential. The obvious benefit is that you
are creating ties with organizations that already
have establish traffic.
This takes the idea above one step
further. Using the phone book, local newspaper,
Internet Yellow Pages or just driving down the
street, you will find that many local entities that
do NOT have a web site at all. Here's your chance
to shine.
Another popular method of getting
traffic is by using banner ads or link exchange
services. Their are MANY of these, which you can
find by doing a search in a search engine for "link
exchange," or "banner exchange." Many of these
services include statistics so you can see how many
times your banner ad appeared on other people's
sites and how many people clicked your ad to visit
your site. Here are two popular ones: Link
Exchange & HitExchange.
Click
here to see one of our clients that is making
use of these on his welcome page.
Seminars can bring you new prospects in
a way that nothing else can - even if you don't
currently do them. By offering free seminars every
so often, you can attract individuals who would not
inquire otherwise. Even if you don't currently give
seminars, you can still use this powerful idea by
giving a "mini" seminar in your own office. Your
agenda? Simply go over one of our highlight
brochures or use one of our slide/CD Rom
presentations. Include wording like, "Seating is
limited" to give the impression that this
information is a hot topic (which, of course, it
is). Or give a series of seminars with a theme
like, "Bagel & Coffee Series: Living Trusts."
Be creative. Our system automatically generates a
seminar form for each event you create, allowing
visitors to register right there and then. The
benefit? As always, to get people to contact you.
Keep in mind that every
public seminar you offer at your web site
automatically appears on
estateplanning.com for additional marketing
exposure.
Informative Articles are always
requested by Prospects! We can't stress this
enough. Every article you add
to the ARTICLES section of your web site,
will automatically appear on
estateplanning.com's consumer area for
additional marketing exposure.
You can find several services on-line
that give you free or paid listings to increase
your "Internet Presence." Here are a few: lawyers.com,
lawlead.com
& lawfind.com.
Most of these type of sites allow you to include a
link to your web site (your site with us, for
example).
TIP:
Mailings As mentioned in
other tips, mailings are a fantastic tool in
conjunction with your web site. We use to spend
thousands of dollars to produce full color products
marketing our products and services. Then, we spent
a fortune mailing them out to you and our other
clients. With the intense growth of the Internet
over the last three years, we quickly discovered a
brilliant alternative - postcard mailings. At
20¢ per postcard, it is absolutely the least
expensive way to keep in touch with your client
base. The down side has always been the lack of
information you can put on the postcard. That's
where your web site comes in. We have discovered
that most people prefer the postcard to a thick
booklet, especially when you don't overwhelm them
with information in small print. And if they want a
hard copy, they can print it out. One of our
clients sent a postcard that simply said, "It's the
new millennium. Stay up to date with today's
financial issues and ensure your family's future.
Visit free educational web site at..." Large text,
a nice picture, to the point and the all important
word, "free." This method not only keeps you in
contact with your clients, but increases the chance
for referrals when they method your site to their
friends and family. You can also send out email
mailings that say the same thing as the postcard.
We find that a healthy mix of email and postcard
mailings works best. Lead Tracking
Note: Make sure to include a different
extension in every mailing. For example, your
postcard could read, "Call 800-728-2665, ext. 95"
And when someone calls in and mentions that
extension (or more commonly, you ask them how they
heard about you and they mention the postcard and
extension), you have tracked the lead to this
mailing. This way, you can distinguish new business
based on your marketing.
Your Time Investment: (Varies, depending on how
often you do mailings & update content)
Cost to Implement: (20¢ per postcard or
33¢ per letter or $0 for emailing)
TIP:
Free
Information Kit One of our most
popular marketing tools is the "free kit" idea. By
default, it is turned on when we turn your site on,
but you can disable it at any time. The content of
the kit default to products we can sell you, but
you can make the kit be anything you want. It can
be just our products, just your products or a
combination of the two. It's up to you. But the
concept is (as always) to get people to contact
you. For a couple bucks of free information, people
are willing to volunteer their contact information,
when they otherwise wouldn't. Don't underestimate
the value of the word, "free."
Your Time Investment: (None)
Cost to Implement: (A couple dollars for the
brochures and postage)
TIP:
Word
of Mouth Perhaps the most overlooked method of building
interest and traffic to your site is the most
basic: TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. Talk it up. Inform
every caller of your
site. How
many phone calls do you get in one day? What do you
think would happen if you asked every caller,
"Do you have Internet access?
We have an incredible wealth of free educational
material on our site which you can read at your own
pace without costing you a penny." Did you
know that more than half of the people who call
your office have access to the Internet? You'd be
surprised how many seniors have a child or
grandchild with Internet access. And a good many of
them will love going to your site to pre-educate
themselves!
Your Time Investment: (Almost none)
Cost to Implement: (None)
TIP:
Lead
Tracking Make sure you track your leads so you will know
who came to you from your web site. When you get an
e-mail or free kit request, it is obvious they came
to your site. But what about a phone call? One
great suggestion is to add a unique extension
number to the phone number you advertise at your
site (e.g., 310-728-2665 x50). If you can, try to
make sure this number goes straight to one person's
phone. That way, you can have ONE person receiving
and documenting all the Internet calls, and asking
if they have an extension number. When they say,
"Extension 50," you know the person came from your
site!
Your Time Investment: (Almost none)
Cost to Implement: (None)
Send Us
Comments and
Feedback
Let us know what ideas you are trying and how
they are working for you. Are you have great success with
another technique? Did one of your marketing attempts bomb?
We'd love to hear from you. Just e-mail us at marketing@estateplanning.com
!