Need advice on how to market my Dad's offline business.

11 years ago

Does your dad target a local, national or global market for the product?

Is there a defined group of people who would be interested in your dad's product?

There are many ways to generate leads. Consider:

Email marketing - capture leads via SEO, PPC, Media buys (banner ads), article syndication, blogging and possibly offline methods.

Straight up website sales with a telephone number - again generate traffic via methods set out above under email marketing.

Basically any methods used to market other products can be used ... just define the market and reach out to them in some way online and offline.

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jokerthief

11 years ago

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xlfutur1

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jokerthief

It's a national market.

The target client would be someone who is married , between 40-60 with an income of 80K per year and up with over 50K in liquid assets. That's the ideal client but younger people with fewer assets and less income can be decent leads too.

You can find those prospects all day long in infofree.com Have a really good copywriter put together a killer and very personalized 3 letter sequence to send to those leads. Hone in on their wants and needs. You can test letters until you get a good response. The EDDM idea is good, but a personalized series of letters may be much more targeted and get into their minds more.

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ewenmack

11 years ago

Yes next in importance to the list is the killer direct response message.

lists.nextmark.com is an even better source of specialized lists.
Unlike infofree, they have lists of buyers of all sorts of financial products
and those who bought via mail.

You can split by country, State, nationality,
Price they paid, how recently they bought,
Repeat buyers of list. All things which influence the
response rates.

Best,
Ewen

Originally Posted by xlfutur1

You can find those prospects all day long in infofree.com Have a really good copywriter put together a killer and very personalized 3 letter sequence to send to those leads. Hone in on their wants and needs. You can test letters until you get a good response. The EDDM idea is good, but a personalized series of letters may be much more targeted and get into their minds more.

Thanks
1 reply

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bizgrower 11 years ago

Interesting EDDM discussion:

Why EDDM Is a Bad Deal for Marketers
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- DABK 11 years ago
  
  Faulty article, concentrates only on cost, doesn't even address ROI.
  
  Yes, sending to every door means you're sending to people who are not going to buy from you. Ever.
  
  But that's not the whole story.
  
  Lots of the comments were fun to read and pretty much repeated the same thing (what I wrote above).
  
  Originally Posted by bizgrower
  
  Interesting EDDM discussion:
  
  Why EDDM Is a Bad Deal for Marketers
  
  Thanks
  
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BarbaraMcKinney

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jgant

Does your dad target a local, national or global market for the product?

Basically any methods used to market other products can be used ... just define the market and reach out to them in some way online and offline.

Do agree with this. Before anything you must define your target market and everything will come as it planned. There are so many methods to capture your target all you have to is to use the right approach. You can mix or use all of these method given in this post.

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guypeleides

11 years ago

Find out who has your target client already and make help them with their business. Eventually, they will reciprocate and use it as a tool to generate leads.

For example, let's say your target clients are super rich guys. I might do some free investment advice at the local yacht club and then ask them to put some business cards at the counter and stuff.

More detailed advice is difficult without have more details about what it is you do.

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XanBarksdale

11 years ago

With a budget that large I would hire a qualified professional to do it for you. There is no sense in "learning on the go" and wasting a lot of money. Hire someone that does this for a living and let them take care of the banners, copy, ad placement, etc.

With that said, if I had a budget to work with like that I would probably buy ad space on high end websites like Forbes, Robb Report, Entrepreneur. Have him write a short "report" and offer that to people in exchange for their email address.

If he is as good as you say he is you need to get as many people as possible to see his site and read his testimonials. You just need to make sure that they're people who have the money it takes to invest in his program.

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jokerthief 11 years ago

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- jpsween88 11 years ago
  
  You could go to the Warriors looking to hire section and post a thread then conduct an interview like any sane business person. Personally I would have to agree I think paying someone might be best. If I were in your shoes, I'd be looking into PPC and super targeted keywords. Other than ppc there is so much to the finance market so its hard to say what would be best. Social media, seo, forums ... I'm sure you could easily have people view your dads product, but do they need it is the question - target the people that "need" this service
  
  Originally Posted by jokerthief
  
  Do you know any good services who do this and do any of you guys know how I go about evaluating who is good and who is not?
  
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  Please do not use your signature to promote affiliate/MLM programs
  
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Paul Guilfoyle

11 years ago

Hi jokerthief
Not sure whether this is of interest to you. However,you could learn how to do a lot if not all of this for yourself relatively easily (depending on you starting skill set).
The best place I ever found for anyone wanting to learn how to help offline business with online marketing is at the site below. It is outstanding. I am an affiliate but this is not my affiliate link.

OfflineBiz.com

Good luck and all the best,
Paul

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BillyParadise

11 years ago

Another option and go to a company like commission junction and just pay per lead. This begs the question - how many leads can you handle?

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adisini

11 years ago

Build a website for your Dad and make a campaign in Adwords. Maybe you need to spent some bucks but it's effective method.

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bizgrower

11 years ago

He should be building his referral business as well.

I'd also suggest guest blogging on relevant blogs.

Study the forums, yahoo answers, ask.com, and linkedin and facebook groups... for people who seem to be looking for and asking questions about things that your Dad has the solution.

If you hire, make sure they have done or can do marketing in his regulated industry.

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thattaway

11 years ago

Every business needs the basics: website, lead bait and autoresponder series. When it comes to targeting peoples' finances, nothing says credible expert like having a book. You can PM me if you would lie help in making your father a published author.

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DaniMc

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jokerthief

It's a national market.

The target client would be someone who is married , between 40-60 with an income of 80K per year and up with over 50K in liquid assets. That's the ideal client but younger people with fewer assets and less income can be decent leads too.

Originally Posted by jokerthief

My dad sells a very unique financial product that leads to very satisfied clients. Each prospect that my dad converts into a client is worth between 5 and 10 thousand in commissions. He converts about 50% of his leads into clients. He needs more leads and I suggested that a little IM should do the trick seeing as my dad could easily conduct his interviews virtually with Go to Meeting.

Seeing as how lucrative each client is my Dad can easily afford a four or five figure a month marketing budget. So how would you guys go about setting up a marketing system that could bring in 10-20 leads per week?

Many thanks for your ideas (well actually I can only push the button once, so one thanks I guess

)

With that demographic and those margins, there is plenty he could do. I would skip online for now until he gets a clear system ironed out, then you will know exactly what to promote.

1) He could offer a $1000 referral payment to his past customers. This will get them talking!

2) He could find EXPERIENCED financial product sales people and pay a hefty commission for deals that are closed.

3) The most basic tenet of marketing: figure out who you want to sell to, then figure out where they hang out, then go hang out with them or advertise to them.

This demographic consumes all sorts of offline media. Local small newspapers and magazines that cater to this demographic are not very expensive to advertise in.

Things like Val-Pak could work well because you can segment to specific neighborhoods and upper income people use coupons even more than lower income.

He could give a small seminar and promote it via local radio talk shows. On Saturday mornings most AM stations have local talk shows that feature this sort of subject. He could be a guest (they are hurting for guests) and advertise his seminar while talking about the product. People DO listen to these shows and financial products are a perfect fit.

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sandalwood

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jokerthief

My dad sells a very unique financial product that leads to very satisfied clients. Each prospect that my dad converts into a client is worth between 5 and 10 thousand in commissions. He converts about 50% of his leads into clients. He needs more leads and I suggested that a little IM should do the trick seeing as my dad could easily conduct his interviews virtually with Go to Meeting.

Seeing as how lucrative each client is my Dad can easily afford a four or five figure a month marketing budget. So how would you guys go about setting up a marketing system that could bring in 10-20 leads per week?

Many thanks for your ideas (well actually I can only push the button once, so one thanks I guess

)

If your opening sentence is correct and it is "a very unique financial" product, he should be rolling in referrals. You do say he converts 50%. That is a heck of a conversion ratio and if it is as good as your remark "leads to very satisified clients" suggests, how come he isn't getting referrals hand over fist?

Something doesn't sound right. Having been in the financial field since 1985 there isn't anything unique. Of course, he could have created a product that only he sells. W/o more information it is not easy to give concrete suggestions.

Not down playing the product just saying I've seen 'em all come and go and basically unique isn't how they are described.

If you are allowed to PM, send me one w/more details and maybe I can make some solid suggestions.

Tom

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Darren Tan 11 years ago
I definitely agree with Dan McCoy to skip online first.

My personal thoughts in addition:
- 80/20 rule - find out the demographics of his best clients before deciding on marketing channels as you don't want to waste resources on prospects that just "might be interested"
- go to all his direct competitors to buy their unconverted leads
- proactive referral system is a must e.g. host an event to thank all his past clients and encourage his past clients to bring another friend who is still not benefiting from the service
- partnerships with diamonds, coins, gold and silver companies
Regards,
DT
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Defacto

11 years ago

EDDM postcard marketing to select zip codes in well to do neighborhoods. 14.5 cents (soon to be 16) postage and have a professional marketing designer do the layout. EDDM does not have to be local. There are printing companies that will prepare and ship the bundle to any post office you desire for mailing.

The postcard would not sell the service outright, but would be the first step in a sales funnel of course.

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MIB Mastermind

11 years ago

That's like shooting with a shot gun instead of a sniper rifle. Just not targeted enough.

EDDM, correct me if I'm wrong, stands for "every door direct mail?" every door is not your target market, sure you can select certain zip codes but this is still a splatter gun approach.

Sounds to me like they know there target market very well, if so this can be used to rent "very" targeted mailing lists that fit the demographic very well. Also lends itself to joint ventures with companies who have a similar target market.

Originally Posted by Defacto

EDDM postcard marketing to select zip codes in well to do neighborhoods. 14.5 cents (soon to be 16) postage and have a professional marketing designer do the layout. EDDM does not have to be local. There are printing companies that will prepare and ship the bundle to any post office you desire for mailing.

The postcard would not sell the service outright, but would be the first step in a sales funnel of course.

Thanks
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Paul Guilfoyle 11 years ago

Originally Posted by MIB Mastermind

That's like shooting with a shot gun instead of a sniper rifle. Just not targeted enough.

Absolutely agree with this and is what I was alluding to in my post no.34

All the best,
Paul
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jokerthief

11 years ago

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DaniMc

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jokerthief

We already have offline marketing. My dad works the entire state of WI and is tired of driving around and is about to get a setup that will allow him to work virtually. We want to get an online system up and running because the potential is huge. We are looking to expand the firm and hire other advisors. We want to get enough leads where we can create an FMO. Online is the cheapest way to do this.

The internet is the future. Offline marketing is becoming less and less effective each year in our industry. Hardly anyone in the industry markets well online. The game is wide open online IMO so this is where we are going to focus our attention.

You need to prepare for the fact that you will struggle at first.

Think of the fundamental changes you are making to the ENTIRE business.

First, your dad needs to get used to fulfilling online. You need to realign your entire business around the new delivery method. This is no small task and is FULL of risk.

Second, you are completely overhauling the entire lead generation system. This is also FULL of risk. You are in essence starting a whole new business. Tread carefully.

It would be best, IMO, to tackle one thing at a time.

First, I would develop the virtual web-based fulfillment portion first. This will get your dad off the street and allow him to work from home.

Then, you can just realign your offline marketing to send people to the virtual sales/fulfillment process.

After all of that is ironed out, you can begin promoting online ALONG with your offline ads. These offline ads are your bread and butter. Keep them going until you have securely figured out how to do the online thing.

Eventually, once the whole online system is working well, you could cancel your offline.

Personally, if my offline advertising is bringing profits, I would keep it going and expand it nationwide - directing people to the online process. Then, you can add the online marketing and you will be getting hundreds of prospects from both sources. Don't stop something if it is working. It doesn't have to be all offline or all online.

And, the idea that offline marketing will EVER stop being effective is completely wrong. It will ALWAYS work.

Thanks

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bizgrower

11 years ago

Don't neglect the publicity/expert route on radio, tv, print.
In a nutshell, he makes himself avilable to specific members of the press in these outlets
as someone they can call for information. You can read more elsewhere for more iformation. One thing that works is to follow these journalists on twitter and start the relationship that way - especially if their outlets' website is an active one and they are active on Twitter.

It should be a no cost way to get the word out.

Dan

Originally Posted by jokerthief

We already have offline marketing. My dad works the entire state of WI and is tired of driving around and is about to get a setup that will allow him to work virtually. We want to get an online system up and running because the potential is huge. We are looking to expand the firm and hire other advisors. We want to get enough leads where we can create an FMO. Online is the cheapest way to do this.

The internet is the future. Offline marketing is becoming less and less effective each year in our industry. Hardly anyone in the industry markets well online. The game is wide open online IMO so this is where we are going to focus our attention.

Thanks

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jokerthief 11 years ago

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- ewenmack 11 years ago
  
  I assisted a client recently with her financial service.
  
  She was sourcing money for a particular group.
  
  She also collects same size fees.
  
  Once you can narrow down who the group is
  it becomes easy to get the message into their
  hands.
  
  Direct mail in her case is the best.
  
  If I was personally working with you or your dad,
  I'd be spending more time on identifying who
  your ideal client is much better than what you've stated.
  
  Next stage would be crafting the right message
  to them and the right response mechanism.
  
  For the older generation, and these are often the best prospects
  for financial products, everything offline works best.
  
  And since your dad gets a high closing rate over the phone
  asking for the call would be the ideal call to action.
  
  Best,
  Ewen
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  DABK 11 years ago
  
  Like others have said, identify exactly who your dad wants as clients. Then figure out where they live (what papers they read, what sites they go to, who else sells to them).
  
  Next, you figure out what they consider a great offer.
  
  If you find out that tons of them read a particular magazine or blog, place ads there (preferably ads for more info, that can be sent to them via mail... or email... so you can contact the interested ones again and again).
  
  You could also figure out where they live, literally... Chicago's wealthiest places are the Northshore suburbs (Sheridan Road Magazine is written especially for them) and the Gold Cost neighborhood... Each area has them.
  
  You can send them postcards and letters, videos and cds), etc.
  
  You could make friends with accountants who work with the people your father is looking to attract, with the real estate agents who sell houses in their neighborhoods, with their attorneys and the people they talk to about their money.
  
  You cold also network... join the clubs they join, participate in some of the activities they participate in.
  
  The ways are many, once you know the who, it becomes a heck of a lot easier.
  
  Thanks
  
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jokerthief

11 years ago

We are not abandoning our offline marketing or establishing anything radical. Instead of giving presentations offline exclusively, we are going to start doing some of them virtually with Go to Meeting. We are just looking to establish a presence on the internet--not totally redesign our business and rely 100% on leads from IM.

Thanks

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misterme

11 years ago

You should test first to see if conducting sales via Go To Meeting is going to be as effective as your dad's in person face to face sales. Him doing that in person may be a big factor in making those sales.

Thanks
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Aaron Doud

11 years ago

Originally Posted by misterme

You should test first to see if conducting sales via Go To Meeting is going to be as effective as your dad's in person face to face sales. Him doing that in person may be a big factor in making those sales.

This is what I am thinking I would never buy a product that could get to that level of commission without meeting in person.

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kellyyarnsbro

11 years ago

Congratulations! you are just on the right place. There's so much more in this forum that can help you and your Dad's business. Enjoy.

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NewParadigm

11 years ago

Build an informational authority site with videos, blogs etc...use that as a funnel to build your list. Have him teach a class in your local community education program. A great source of hot leads when they pay you to teach them a bit. A little PR work can get you on local radio as an expert guest or even news casts on TV.

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elCapitan

11 years ago

I was a Marketing Director for a financial service company for more than 2 years, I know the ins and outs of this specific industry. I helped them with %800+ profits in 14 months.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested, and I can confirm where I worked and chat with you (or your dad) about specifics.

Thanks

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ambrking

11 years ago

If your father has a big marketing budget, you can hire an appointment setter to set meetings and generate leads. If the budget is limited, you can try social media, SEO and email marketing.

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Paul Guilfoyle

11 years ago

There is an interesting lesson in itself from this thread.
Largely the thread is a catalogue of possible approaches to solving the issues.
Some are viable, others plain crazy

There are very many different approaches and it demonstrates that a bespoke approach which fits the client's circumstances is what is required.In other words the consultant needs to get to know the client's business and fully understand his requirements,goals,business plan,stategy,personality et al etc.They will then be able to recommend a bespoke solution which fits.
Without engaging a warrior to undertake this project probably the only person on this thread who would be in a position to do this is the Op. This was why I recommended he take a look at

OfflineBiz.com

I am an affiliate but this is not my affilaite link.

Even if he decided not to do this himself but enagaged a consultant the information he would find here would put him in a great position to check out the consultant's credentials and recommendations.

Interesting thread.
All the best,
Paul

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MobileMarketingMogul

11 years ago

Set up a website, get an email list going of prospects through seo traffic, paid traffic and you will be laughing

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Defacto

11 years ago

I have clients who use EDDM with very satisfactory results. 1 to 2% usually which when you consider the ROI is impressive. This is perfect for carpet cleaners, lawyers, and contractors. A pool contractor I know has secured a high paying contract using EDDM and that one deal is well worth the cost of the campaign, many times over. I had my graphic artist create a "winter special" for pool construction and he got several leads and one confirmed sale so far. If you look at that "negative' article mentioned above it is by a lead company. A little biased I would guess...

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Need advice on how to market my Dad's offline business.

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