I had the pleasure of speaking to a number of advisers at an event earlier this month and in almost all cases, we had the same conversation around marketing and communications – advisers want to do more, but either haven’t got around to it, or are not quite sure where to start, given the many communication channels now at their disposal.

With this in mind, I thought I’d share with you my thoughts on the matter.

When it comes to marketing, the biggest temptation is to assess the various tools at our disposal and to then simply select the ones you would most like to use, or think you should use e.g.…‘we need to be on social media, everyone’s on social media’.

However, before you can determine which tools you are going to employ, you need to decide what it is you are looking to achieve – do you want more clients, deeper engagement with existing clients or simply to provide an ongoing service.

You are going to want to strike a balance and set yourself objectives that you are comfortable with, but that are as specific as possible, setting objectives that are meaningful and that you can measure.

For example, using increasing clients as a simple example, you can set an objective in one of two ways – ‘Grow customer base by 20% by year end’, or ‘Get more customers’.

Option one is very specific and gives you a clear end result to aim for. You could set levels (level one remain static, level two 10% and level three 20% increase – ask yourself – what will you be happy with at the end of it all?). On the other hand, Objective two is rather unspecific – if you take on one more client is that job done, or would you be looking for considerably more?

Now you have quantified what you want to achieve, you ‘could’ start to assess the many marketing tools at your disposal. However, if you can afford the time, I would strongly urge you to put a mini plan together before you start to look at the actual tactics that you will employ.

By creating a simple marketing plan, you will ensure that the right communications channels are used and that your business is represented in the way you want it to be. Looking internally, first at your business, and then at the wider market, will help you to answer some fundamental questions, such as:

• How do I want my business to be perceived?
• Who are my audience, how are they behaving, interacting?
• What do I offer, want to offer – is this different from other business in my area?
• What is happening around me that may affect this (e.g. politics, legislation)?
• What are the key strengths of my business?
• What opportunities are out there?

Using the information from your plan, you can now start to really quantify those earlier objectives, which in turn will make selecting your tactics pretty straight forward. For example:

• I’m going to introduce an integrated communication programme to existing clients to ensure they remain loyal and to increase penetration.
• I’m going to buy in some new data and commence a marketing campaign to attract new customers.
• I am going to align the business with three local solicitors to tap into a wider customer base.
• I am going to engage with all local businesses to increase my exposure in the corporate market and, in turn, to tap into the employees within each.
• I am going to add (product) to my existing product range (e.g. will writing, GI etc.).

Now for the good stuff!

Ok, enough planning, it’s time to move to implementation.

When I am asked about which channels to use, I always revert back to basics – Marketing Communications is about getting…

…the right message
…to the right people
…through the right channels

Devolving this further step – for me it’s simply about two words – ‘Integration and Relevance’.

• Ensuring you use a good spread of communication channels (print, email, web, etc.) is the backbone to any good communications strategy, but what’s more important is to ensure you are delivering your messages through the channels your intended target audience are actually using. Oh, and, of course, this is all a movable feast – consumer behaviour will change, you just need to look for the clues. Without going in to all the ins and outs of all the tools, the three key points I would recommend are:  Use email – it’s a quick and cost effective method to get targeted messages out en masse and with a management system, you can even track which clients have read what content
• A good looking, quarterly newsletter, either posted out or appended to your email is a great way to get your brand out there and to keep topical issues in the mind of your clients
• Social media – love it or hate it, your audience is using it, so I would urge you to have a presence. Don’t try and be everywhere, stick to one or two to get started, perhaps Twitter and Facebook

I hope this piece has been of use and that you are now ready to embark on the next chapter of marketing – good luck and see you on the other side!

Richard Ardron, DipMCIM Chartered Marketer, is marketing director of SimplyBiz