Happy Holidays Note from Marie Swift + Animated Greeting from Impact Communications, December 202212/17/2022
One of the greatest joys of the season is spending time with family, friends, colleagues, and clients who share similar values -- including an appreciation for all the blessings that we enjoy at this most wonderful time of the year. In the spirit of giving this year, we have decided to share our plan for making charitable donations -- instead of sending holiday gifts to our business friends and clients.
Better yet, if you click the graphic below to show your support,
we'll donate another $10 to our existing charitable hunger donation plan. In 2016, I wrote an article for NAPFA's Advisor magazine on how to create a marketing plan using the P.E.S.O. Model as a framework for success. We refer to this framework so often in our client work and speaking engagements that I thought I would unearth the PDF and repost it here since so many of you continue to ask for a foundational explainer on what the P.E.S.O. Model is and why it is so important for financial services professionals to embrace.
Women in Finance: Have you ever been pegged as an assistant or support person -- when you're not?7/2/2022
In a recent post on LinkedIn, Sheryl Hickerson, founder of Females & Finance (who is also a good business friend of mine and a super sharp marketing pro), asked: As a Woman in Finance, how many of you have you ever been mistaken as the assistant versus the advisor at a conference? This got me thinking about my humble beginnings when I actually was an assistant to a highly-successful advisor. In case this helps anyone, I typed up a few thoughts and will post them here. In addition, at the very bottom of this post, I will link back to the LinkedIn conversation that Sheryl started in case anyone would like to comment on the topic.
In this Swift Chat video conversation, Marie Swift of Impact Communications speaks with John Mackowiak, Chief Business Development Officer, and Dirk Pearson, Chief Product Officer at Advyzon, a comprehensive technology platform and portfolio management solution for financial advisors and investment managers that includes portfolio management, customizable performance reporting, trading and rebalancing, client web portals, client relationship management (CRM), client billing, and document storage. Advyzon helps advisors streamline their operations so they can focus on growing their business.
The trio discusses the growth of the company, Advyzon's new Quantum Rebalancing tool, and a few teasers of upcoming features Advyzon is working on. Happy Holidays Note from Marie Swift + Animated Greeting from Impact Communications, December 202112/22/2021
One of the greatest joys of the season is spending time with family, friends, colleagues, and clients who share similar values -- including an appreciation for all the blessings that we enjoy at this most wonderful time of the year.
Are you a good communicator? How do you know? In this article, 4 Keys to Mastering Client Conversations, Marie Swift of Impact Communications offers some ideas that bubbled up during her work on a new paper, Mastering the Conversation: A Guide to Excellent Client Communication, which Heather Kelly and the Advisory Solutions Team at Allianz made available in 2022.
No name/email needed to access PDF: https://tinyurl.com/MTCGuide We can all think of people in our lives who are smart as the dickens but they seem to lack emotional intelligence. They don’t seem to understand that tone matters, that body language and facial expression matters, that words matter. It’s not always what they say but how they say it – and when – that seems a bit ham-handed.
In the study we conducted in 2020, Impact Communications found that when it comes to reassuring clients during turbulent times, “I care” communications are way more important than “I know” communications. Of course, communicating effectively was not easy during the worst parts of 2020 and the dog years of 2021.
So, how do you master even the toughest of conversations? This article will dive deeper into the topic. You will also find links to resources and ideas for becoming more resilient yourself as a "first responder" of sorts. Being quoted by a respected journalist in a prestigious publication can differentiate you from other financial planners who may not make the grade as the outlet’s vetting process unfolds. When you are seen as a source in media articles, the perception is that you are a more credible expert than a competitor who is not regularly quoted. Plus, being seen on a high-ranking website can significantly improve SEO (search engine optimization) factors for your firm and make you more visible online. How do you endear yourself to a journalist so that you are more apt to hear from them again in the future?
Impact Communications founder and CEO, Marie Swift, shared with RIABiz reporter, Lisa Shidler, the personal considerations she uses for assessing whether she will or will not travel to conferences and business meetings this fall. Impact Communications does not have a company mandate for staff travel, as every team member is allowed to think through the options and make their own personal determinations. This is an interesting article with lots of nuance. Read the full article by Lisa Shidler in RIABiz.
Marie also provided comments to InvestmentNews reporter Jeff Benjamin. Read Jeff's article for helpful thoughts from Marie and other people interviewed. Read on to see Marie's full comments as submitted to the publications. When Financial Advisor magazine asked for my perspective regarding a recent social media hailstorm, I was happy to provide a few comments.
As is normally the case whenever any of us submit comments, we should never expect everything to be included -- but we do need to provide enough context for the reporters to understand our position and, most importantly, to provide a few "quotable quotes" that are simply too good not to use. In this Swift Chat video conversation, Marie Swift of Impact Communications, Inc. (Impact), speaks with Claire Akin of Indigo Marketing Agency (Indigo). While Impact and Indigo both offer content creation and social media / digital marketing solutions for independent financial advisors, the firms have different strengths and philosophies -- in fact, Impact and Indigo may even cross-refer depending on their initial assessment with the advisory firm. See if you can spot the differences in this fun and interesting conversation.
What's the state of business travel, you ask? This article from Associated Press writer David Koenig quotes Impact Communications' CEO Marie Swift.
2020 was certainly a tough year, for so many people. No one was immune. Everyone had concerns. But here at Impact Communications, the firm I founded 28 years ago, we are grateful for the lessons learned, the problems solved, and the families we fed. We are tighter as a team, stronger as individuals, and more grounded than ever before. At Impact Communications, one of our hallmark phrases is "dedicated, discerning, driven." That certainly was the case for Team Impact, only doubly so in 2020 right up til now, May 2021.
Now that the vaccines are working and travel is more safe, we are excited about the prospect of seeing old friends and new at industry conferences this fall. Please look for us, say hello, and let's compare notes. So far we are slated to be at:
In this Swift Chat video conversation, Marie Swift of Impact Communications speaks with Victor Gaxiola, co-founder of TechGirl Financial. The topic: How communications have changed for financial advisors and their clients due to the coronavirus lock-downs and why TechGirl Financial decided to double-down on their communications.
 Every single one of us has had to adjust our expectations of what is “normal” now. While some have used the term “new normal” to describe the work-from-home and shelter-in-place realities we are all experiencing, others continue to point out that things are changing quickly enough that now there is really just the “next normal” followed by the “next normal.” Sometimes it can feel like pushing through a patch of fog.
But while these have been challenging times for us individually and as a nation, not every advisor is struggling. In fact, some advisors are thriving. You’ll meet three such advisors during this important webinar: Pushing through the Fog: Marketing that Works for Advisors Today Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 4:00 pm ET
 A few weeks ago, Claire Aiken of Indigo Marketing asked me to be her guest on her marketing podcast. I was delighted to accept. In this 20-minute conversation we discuss:
Many people – including journalists and prospective clients – find new sources and service professionals by stumbling upon them, not searching for a business or person by name. Time and time again we hear stories of advisors who can directly attribute new client activity and business growth to their online efforts – and some have even received surprise television appearance invitations and media requests from journalists seeking qualified experts to help with their stories. The lesson: have a good website and LinkedIn profile, and then add other digital assets over time (for example: a YouTube channel, Facebook page, Google+ profile and/or Twitter stream). After reading this blog entry, be sure to use the Diagnostic Tool (newly updated for 2018) to see if there are gaps in your online presence.
|
About
|
RSS Feed
|
Stay Connected
|
|
Phone: 913-649-5009
©2021 Impact Communications, Inc.
|