Netting new clients

There is no doubt that referrals are the preferred way to grow our practice but sometimes clients don’t always send along the right type of prospects. Also, what if you want to target a specific market such as business owners for the first time? Direct mail has helped us grow our practice and target specific markets over the years. Here’s how it works and how it can work for you.

Decide on the campaign

Our campaigns always centre on our Life Goals Financial Planning Workshops. The theme of the workshop is different than the typical economic update or investment management workshop because it focuses on helping clients afford and achieve their life goals.

We start with an introductory letter paired with a flyer promoting the upcoming workshop. We then follow up with a couple of reminder letters or postcards. For printing postcards, we work with Paulsen Communications.

Decide on the message, call to action

In our introductory letter we explain how we help clients achieve and afford their life goals with life goals financial planning. We also mention that we keep our clients up to date and on plan with a Client Dashboard. Most of the focus though is on the call to action. In our marketing, the call to action is to phone and RSVP for the upcoming workshop, emphasizing that seating is limited.

Decide on the target market

We’ve chosen to use Canada Post’s Unaddressed Admail. First, you narrow down a postal code area from one of their maps (10,000 to 40,000 households). We’re in the east end of Ottawa so we’ve focused on the suburb of Orleans surrounding our office.

Next, you can target more specifically within that postal code area by choosing actual letter carrier routes (200 to 800 households). For example, if your target market is seniors, you can choose routes that go through neighbourhoods built in the 1960s.

When we were initially choosing specific letter carrier routes we used Google’s Street View to virtually “drive” our routes to ensure we were targeting the right neighbourhoods. It was much faster than driving up and down those streets!

Unaddressed Admail allows you to choose to deliver only to houses, apartments, or businesses allowing you to target just a luxury high rise or only business owners. The cost for Unaddressed Admail™ is $0.14 per item compared to $0.59 for a regular stamp.

Be prepared for the response

To prepare for the RSVP calls, we always meet as a team (advisor and administrator) to review our RSVP form as well as the content of the marketing campaign the day before it is scheduled to be delivered. We even quiz each other on questions that might come up during the call to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Sometimes when people call to RSVP for a workshop, they already feel ready to create a plan and they’ll schedule a planning meeting instead of attending the workshop. Our call to action is to get RSVPs for the seminar, however, scheduling a planning meeting is even better.

Response rates are very difficult to estimate but it’s pretty safe to say that mailing to 500 people won’t get you the results you’re looking for. You’ll want to target at least a few thousand homes multiple times in order to fill a workshop.

Once you’ve chosen your routes, stick to them so that you gradually build brand awareness over time from shear repetition. You’ll likely achieve results only after you get the urge to quit, so be persistent and don’t give up.

Best of luck!

Mathieu Paradis, B.Comm., CFP, CLU, FMA is co-founder of AdvisorPractice.com which offers advisors practical solutions to transition to a financial planning practice and offers a 12-week training program. He is a financial advisor and offers his clients comprehensive life goals financial plans.