How to know if your marketing is working
In thinking about ROI for marketing activities, here's a good article on the topic of marketing plan measurement written by Ron Carson and the team at Carson Group: How to know if your marketing is working.
They say and we echo this:
They say and we echo this:
- Marketing is an investment. And like any smart investment, it must be tracked, measured, and compared to other business investments to determine that you’re spending your money wisely.
- Tracking execution should be done on a weekly or monthly basis to ensure that the activities you planned for are happening.
- Calculating the ROI for both individual initiatives and the overall plan is important to understand what is working, and how well so that you can invest in the winners and either tweak or eliminate the losers.
- Calculating marketing ROI can be difficult because marketing is most effective when implemented over a long-term basis, with multiple touches. The goal of your marketing initiative or campaign can also further complicate calculating ROI. For example, if the goal of a given marketing activity is to increase brand awareness—which will in-theory eventually lead to increased sales at some future point—accurately measuring return today could prove nearly impossible.
- The art is in identifying marketing activities that provide return over both the short- and long-term.
- When interacting with a new client inquiry, be sure to ask where they heard of you and what marketing tools they may have encountered. Did they check out your social media or website? Did they attend an event? Did they receive a campaign mailing? How have your existing clients reacted to your marketing efforts?
- Using both in-person and online surveys can help you gather feedback on your marketing campaigns and how much impact they are having. You can also gather data about which target markets and client segments are most responsive in order to make adjustments if needed.
Helpful background articles
As a primer, here's an article Marie Swift wrote for NAPFA Advisor magazine on the P.E.S.O. model: https://www.impactcommunications.org/uploads/1/0/6/6/10668420/foundational_peso_jan_2016.pdf.
Here's a deeper look at what matters most in the marketing and selling process via two articles written by Marie Swift for MarketWatch and Barron's:
1. Teaching People How to Invest is Some of the Best Marketing an Advisor Can Do (MarketWatch)
2. To Build Assets, Don't be Timid (Barron's)
As a primer, here's an article Marie Swift wrote for NAPFA Advisor magazine on the P.E.S.O. model: https://www.impactcommunications.org/uploads/1/0/6/6/10668420/foundational_peso_jan_2016.pdf.
Here's a deeper look at what matters most in the marketing and selling process via two articles written by Marie Swift for MarketWatch and Barron's:
1. Teaching People How to Invest is Some of the Best Marketing an Advisor Can Do (MarketWatch)
2. To Build Assets, Don't be Timid (Barron's)
Advisor X Case Study
Here's a quick summary that we sent to Bob Veres for his Inside Information profile of Impact Communications, in August 2020. Bob was looking for a marketing case study – so we created the X case study, below, with verified numbers:
X Wealth has been working with Impact Communications since September 2014. They were referred to us by John Furey of Advisor Growth Strategies. Keep in mind this acronym: P.E.S.O. as you read the case study below – the P.E.S.O. model plus an ongoing commitment to a collaboration with Impact Communications and applying themselves internally to keep marketing activities a priority is the key to their success.
9/30/14 – X was at $51.5M AUM
X Wealth began a multi-year retainer-based relationship with Impact Communications that focused initially on garnering earned media attention to create a halo effect and help educate the general public through a series of community college classes, published articles, videos and comments on the X website and via credible third-party media outlets (e.g., local Fox 4 station interviewed Our client 3 times in a short time span about what it means to be a fiduciary, how to find one, etc.). Impact focused almost exclusively on the E in P.E.S.O. (earned/media attention) in the early years.
Media attention and new clients (methodology/philosophy is described in my Marketwatch article) began to accrue. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teaching-people-how-to-invest-is-some-of-the-best-marketing-an-adviser-can-do-2017-07-24
We started adding in the other elements of the P.E.S.O. model as time unfolded, with a heavy emphasis on the O (owned/website,blog/videos) and the S (social media sharing). We kept doing the E (earned/media attention).
12/31/16 - X had a 53.7% growth rate in 2016
In July 2017, we announced via a news release that X Wealth had a 53.7% growth rate in 2016. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ohio-based-X-wealth-recognized-as-top-investment-advisor-with-over-53-percent-growth-rate-300491401.html
12/17/18 – X was approaching $170M AUM even after shedding 100 smaller accounts
On December 17, 2018, Ann Marsh revealed in a story for Financial Planning magazine that X Wealth shed about 100 clients (made sure they had a good fiduciary home with Facet Wealth). At that time, about 18 months ago, even after the transfer of assets to Facet, X had about 200 clients and was approaching $170M AUM. He realized he wasn't putting their best interests first by keeping them. https://www.financial-planning.com/news/how-one-ria-fiduciary-offloaded-100-clients. So, the numbers were: $166.86MM AUM = 17.76% growth in 2018 (with 14.48% less clients, due to shedding clients to Facet).
7/28/20 – We were on a strategy call with Our client, a CFP, and partner/wife X. They said they were now at $220MM AUM and 220 clients. Impact then began focusing more on the O (owned/podcast/blog/website) and the S (shared/social) in P.E.S.O. now for them than the E (earned/media attention) and the P (paid/ads)
2/16/21 - We were on a strategy call with Our client and he said they were now at $250M AUM and 200 clients.
8/7/21 – We were on a strategy with Our client and they were then hovering at around $300M AUM.
6/15/22 – Investor.com states that X Wealth has 5 advisors, manages $311M and provides investment advisory services for 263 clients (remember that there was a market correction going on at this time so asset values were down).
January 2024 - new numbers coming soon + an in-depth interview on "how to become the RIA of choice" with Advisor X.
Bottom line:
X went from $51M AUM to roughly $300M AUM in just less than 8 years (even after sending 100 clients via transfer to Facet Wealth in 2019 and enduring market downturns in 2020 and 2022) by "simply" following the P.E.S.O. marketing model that Impact Communications embraces.
We had Jonny Swift use his mathematical genius (he holds a Masters’ Degree in Predictive Data Analysis) to do a couple calculations:
So ... if your firm took a similar trajectory, you could see similar results. Keep in mind that it takes a year or so to build momentum and start seeing the results and the magic really kicks in about year #3.
Here's a quick summary that we sent to Bob Veres for his Inside Information profile of Impact Communications, in August 2020. Bob was looking for a marketing case study – so we created the X case study, below, with verified numbers:
X Wealth has been working with Impact Communications since September 2014. They were referred to us by John Furey of Advisor Growth Strategies. Keep in mind this acronym: P.E.S.O. as you read the case study below – the P.E.S.O. model plus an ongoing commitment to a collaboration with Impact Communications and applying themselves internally to keep marketing activities a priority is the key to their success.
9/30/14 – X was at $51.5M AUM
X Wealth began a multi-year retainer-based relationship with Impact Communications that focused initially on garnering earned media attention to create a halo effect and help educate the general public through a series of community college classes, published articles, videos and comments on the X website and via credible third-party media outlets (e.g., local Fox 4 station interviewed Our client 3 times in a short time span about what it means to be a fiduciary, how to find one, etc.). Impact focused almost exclusively on the E in P.E.S.O. (earned/media attention) in the early years.
Media attention and new clients (methodology/philosophy is described in my Marketwatch article) began to accrue. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teaching-people-how-to-invest-is-some-of-the-best-marketing-an-adviser-can-do-2017-07-24
We started adding in the other elements of the P.E.S.O. model as time unfolded, with a heavy emphasis on the O (owned/website,blog/videos) and the S (social media sharing). We kept doing the E (earned/media attention).
12/31/16 - X had a 53.7% growth rate in 2016
In July 2017, we announced via a news release that X Wealth had a 53.7% growth rate in 2016. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ohio-based-X-wealth-recognized-as-top-investment-advisor-with-over-53-percent-growth-rate-300491401.html
12/17/18 – X was approaching $170M AUM even after shedding 100 smaller accounts
On December 17, 2018, Ann Marsh revealed in a story for Financial Planning magazine that X Wealth shed about 100 clients (made sure they had a good fiduciary home with Facet Wealth). At that time, about 18 months ago, even after the transfer of assets to Facet, X had about 200 clients and was approaching $170M AUM. He realized he wasn't putting their best interests first by keeping them. https://www.financial-planning.com/news/how-one-ria-fiduciary-offloaded-100-clients. So, the numbers were: $166.86MM AUM = 17.76% growth in 2018 (with 14.48% less clients, due to shedding clients to Facet).
7/28/20 – We were on a strategy call with Our client, a CFP, and partner/wife X. They said they were now at $220MM AUM and 220 clients. Impact then began focusing more on the O (owned/podcast/blog/website) and the S (shared/social) in P.E.S.O. now for them than the E (earned/media attention) and the P (paid/ads)
2/16/21 - We were on a strategy call with Our client and he said they were now at $250M AUM and 200 clients.
8/7/21 – We were on a strategy with Our client and they were then hovering at around $300M AUM.
6/15/22 – Investor.com states that X Wealth has 5 advisors, manages $311M and provides investment advisory services for 263 clients (remember that there was a market correction going on at this time so asset values were down).
January 2024 - new numbers coming soon + an in-depth interview on "how to become the RIA of choice" with Advisor X.
Bottom line:
X went from $51M AUM to roughly $300M AUM in just less than 8 years (even after sending 100 clients via transfer to Facet Wealth in 2019 and enduring market downturns in 2020 and 2022) by "simply" following the P.E.S.O. marketing model that Impact Communications embraces.
We had Jonny Swift use his mathematical genius (he holds a Masters’ Degree in Predictive Data Analysis) to do a couple calculations:
- 385% total growth rate over the last approx. 8 years
- Roughly 5x'd their AUM in just under 8 years ($51.5M AUM to $300M AUM)
So ... if your firm took a similar trajectory, you could see similar results. Keep in mind that it takes a year or so to build momentum and start seeing the results and the magic really kicks in about year #3.
Put the P.E.S.O. Model to work for you!
Building the RIA of Choice
In this Swift Chat, Marie Swift speaks with Tony D'Amico, Founder and Managing Partner of Fidato Wealth, an award-winning SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) based in Ohio, about the journey of building an admirable firm that stands out as the RIA of choice for both clients and talented professionals.
From the challenges faced in attracting the right talent to the evolution of the firm's culture and processes, Tony provides valuable nuggets of wisdom for those navigating the complexities of the financial services industry. Discover the milestones, the focus on comprehensive wealth management, and the commitment to servant leadership that set Fidato Wealth apart in this illuminating discussion.
From the challenges faced in attracting the right talent to the evolution of the firm's culture and processes, Tony provides valuable nuggets of wisdom for those navigating the complexities of the financial services industry. Discover the milestones, the focus on comprehensive wealth management, and the commitment to servant leadership that set Fidato Wealth apart in this illuminating discussion.
