How social media marketing grows assets A case study D. Bruce Johnston, Zach Hedges and John Drachman.

How social media marketing grows assets

A case study

D. Bruce Johnston, Zach Hedges and John Drachman

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1. Establish thought leadership

2. Expand presence

3. Measure results

The marketing challenge for advisors

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Establish thought leadership

RIA wished to become the recognized authority or subject matter expert

Needed to define problem in terms RIA could resolved

Showed how RIA’s expertise led to client solutions

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1 RIA + 1 estate attorney = 1 thought leadership effort

Charles “Chuck” Steege, CFP®

Executive Financial Coach, President SFG Wealth Planning Services, Inc.

Enlisted the nearby support of a leading tax attorney to develop a team presentation

The effort: Conduct three timely executive compensation topics as webinars during the dog days of summer.

Save on taxes (especially with the AMT refundable credit)

Sound planning and stock options

Passing on your legacy. Plus: An advanced look at the 2010 IRA to Roth conversion opportunity

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The goals

Engage HNW only Seek select 10-15 clients with a minimum of $1 million in investable assets

Business development Most importantly, attract new clients and fees

Center of influence Employ a COI strategy to leverage expertise in new ways

Experiment with social media We showed them how to combine webcasts, e-mail, public relations and blogging in one low-cost, legally compliant package to:

Establish thought leadership

Expand presence

Measure results

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Three webinars on subject of executive compensation.

Webcast service links with press release, emails and blog

Webcast analytics provide attendance numbers, capture key contact information

Expand presence

1.

One interactive press release

Press release reaches 1000s of interactive business publications and blogs

Drive readers to contact capture in 1. above

2.

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Expand presence

Two sets of three e-mails linked to webinars, interview, select blog postings

Emails link to urls, webcast service

Drive to contact capture

3.

Interview with blogger sets keywords and concepts to be aggregated by other blogs, media outlets

Targeted blogging plays to aggregators, helps catalyze messaging

Drive to contact capture

4.

Google page 1 dominance for keywords

Aggregators absorb content, key words from press release, blogging activity

Result: Firm engages and attracts new AUM

5.

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Google page1 dominance for key words

I must find out more about the refundable AMT credit buried in last year’s stimulus bill.

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Smart Money, Dow Jones, Reuters, BusinessWeek

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Here come the aggregators: Goliath, Financial Content

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ADN, Germany’s TradingHouse, India’s Newstin

Also: AlphaTrade Finance, Web 2.0 Journal and more

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Measure the results

Webinar 1 Webinar 2 Webinar 3 Total

Attendees 12 3 9 24

Registered 16 17 11 44

Prospects 12 12 9 33

Existing clients

4 3 2 9

Replay viewed

1 1 3 6

Replay downloaded

1 0 1 2

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Measure the results

Engage HNW only

Gained new clients

Expanded relationship with some existing

Business development

Netted approximately $40,000 in new and ongoing fees

Some $4.0 million in new AUM

Timeframe: Eight weeks

“Overall we are very pleased with the results of the Webinar Series and expect 21 of the new prospects to eventually contact SFG for services” Charles “Chuck” Steege, CFP® SFG Wealth Planning Services, Inc.

Center of influence The collaboration between Chuck and Phil resulted in new exposure and new business

Experiment with social media An investment of less than $10,000 in a social media-driven thought leadership effort provided an outstanding short-term return