ProspectMatch Lead System Review and Comments
“I am very happy with the professional handling of the [ProspectMatch] lead system. The booklets are professionally written and make a great impression. I have had 31 leads and set 5 appointments so far.”
— Garry S., Huron, OH
ProspectMatch Lead System call 866-452-8354
Would you also be satisfied with ProspectMatch if you got 5 appointments for every 31 prospects sent? At $18 each, Garry has invested $558 and if he closes just one of his appointments, may earn $3,000 or more. While successful financial professionals seek profitable ways to invest like this, its unfortunate that others struggle as they strive to save their way to greatness. Strategic investments, like outsourcing prospecting to ProspectMatch, gets your business growth on the fast track.
http://www.prospectmatch10.com
Prospect Match helps financial professionals who are wasting time and earning too little. If you are earning less than $100,000 a year, you're either not serious, or doing the wrong things and we can show you what to do. If you are earning $100,000-$300,000 annually, you've figured some things out. But those who use our systems see their income top $500,000 annually because they spend their days doing marketing the right way, talking to motivated affluent prospects and they sell the right way
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
ProspectMatch How to Be a Wealth Manager
If you want to get into the wealth management business, here’s some very good news. You don’t need to know much about managing wealth. In most cases, these practitioners simply find the money (i.e. get the clients) and then hand their money off to third party money managers who pick the stocks and bonds. So if you want to be a wealth manager, all you need to know is how to prospect (i.e. get clients), create and maintain relationships.
One of the best places to start is to read this article and then give a copy to your prospects. You will then be one of the better wealth managers around because being a great wealth manager is about managing psyches and relationships, not about managing wealth.
Why Investors Fail
My apologies to the high-IQ investors out there, but when it comes to investing, smarts don’t matter. Whether an investor is intellectually gifted or below the norm is irrelevant, as plenty of Ph.Ds have lost money in the market. What matters are your emotions and the actions you take as a result of those emotions. What you read below are the results of studies with real live investors, like yourself, and how they behave with their investments.
It is imperative to realize that you are at the mercy of your emotional reactions, and you don’t even know it. The field of Behavioral Finance studies and explains how emotions and cognitive errors influence investors and the decision-making process. Here is a sampling of what behavioral finance studies have found so that you can hopefully notice these tendencies before you are afflicted.
Investors suffer from overconfidence.
You might even think of yourself as timid, but in their book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich provide evidence that simply by believing he can actively manage an investment portfolio, an individual who is not professionally occupied in the financial services industry (and some who are), probably suffer from overconfidence. Further, they reason that the problem of overconfidence should end at the point at which it leads to a significant loss. But actually, the opposite is true. When people make a mistake, they blame it on someone or something other than themselves.
Harvard psychologist Eileen Langer explains that when events occur that confirm the correctness of one’s actions, the individual is highly likely to attribute the occurrence to his own ability. On the other hand, when events do not fall in one’s favor, proving perhaps that the individual has been wrong or mistaken, he is most likely to attribute these occurrences to events out of his control.
Investors are overly optimistic.
Optimists exaggerate their own abilities and underestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes over which they have no control. Instead, they tend to exaggerate the degree to which they control their fate. Take this example of car drivers: When asked the following — As compared to other drivers you encounter would you say your driving abilities are average, above average, or below average? — 80% of the responders answered above average. It would be nice if this were the case, but surely many of these drivers are overestimating their driving skills based on my drive to work today.
Another way to view optimism is to look at what behavioral economists call the “planning fallacy.” Belsky and Gilovich offer an example in which Montreal was selected to host the 1976 Summer Olympics. The mayor had announced that the entire cost would total approximately $120 million and that track and field events would take place in a stadium with a first-of-its-kind retractable roof. While the games went off without a hitch that summer, the roof was not implemented until 1989 and ended up costing $120 million alone, almost as much as was budgeted for the entire Olympics.
In their study, Capital Budgeting in the Presence of Managerial Overconfidence and Optimism, Simon Gervais, J.B. Heaton and Terrance Odean found that optimism is most severe among more intelligent individuals. It would seem the smarter you are, the more confidence you have in your ability, which, in terms of the stock market, can cost you a fortune.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Within hours of the market’s close, “experts” will appear on television or speak on the radio with great confidence as to why the market acted as it did. Seemingly they give the impression that such actions were so obvious that they could have been predicted beforehand. But the truth is, if an event had been predictable, it would have been predicted causing the actions of many to prevent it from happening in the first place. Robert J. Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University, found that at the peak of the Japanese market, 14% of Japanese investors expected a crash. After the crash, the number of investors who said they’d expected the crash more than doubled, reaching 32%.
Investor hindsight can be troublesome when in hindsight an investor sees what was a reasonable investment as a foolish gamble and then he blames his advisor. And after what seems to be an inevitable drop in the value of a stock, he will wonder why his advisor did not suggest selling it earlier. Hindsight can lead to advisor scapegoating. Still, if that stock had seen a gain the investor would more likely congratulate himself for the investment decision.
Finding patterns and correlations where none exist.
It is a human instinct to seek patterns, i.e. familiarity, in a random series of events. This all-too-human characteristic can be disastrous in the world of investing. What typically occurs is that investors attribute much more meaning to an event because of those that precede it. This leads investors to perceive trends where none exist and to overreact and take action as a result of these false perceptions.
For example, how many times have you heard the following sort of generalizations from your friends:
“When the Republicans are in office, the market goes up/down” (fact is, the record of both parties is about even). Or, “The Stock Market always rises in election years” (you need only look at the most recent election year to find the error in this statement, the stock market was down 9.1% in 2000). It’s human nature to look for and fabricate patterns and truisms when none are there. It’s a natural yearning to make sense out of non-sense.
Investors Lose by Not Taking Losses Quickly.
How many times have you thought, “But it’s a good company, it will go back up.”
A study by Terrance Odean of the University of California at Davis, argues that investors are quicker to realize their gains than their losses. Odean analyzed the daily trading records and monthly positions of 88,000 investors at a large discount brokerage. The data spans 10 years and over 2 million common stock trades. Investors in his study traded too actively, were under diversified, clung to their losers, and bought stocks that happened to grab their attention. They were also overconfident and motivated by the desire to avoid regret. The difficulty in the evaluation of thousands of investment alternatives also contributed to their poor trade results. One of Odean’s findings was that investors were much more likely to hold on to losers and sell winners.
The investors in Odean’s study were those who disregarded or didn’t believe in the value of a financial advisor. They thought they could do it on their own. Odean’s study proves that the surer they are, the worse they do: 20% of the investors who traded most often earned an average net annual return 5.5% lower than that of the 20% least active traders.
Prospect Theory, originally described by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, says that individuals are much more upset by prospective losses than they are cheered by equivalent gains. Therefore, the loss of $1.00 would be twice as painful as the pleasure received from a $1.00 gain. Researchers have also found that people are willing to take more risk to avoid losses than to realize gains. In other words, when faced with sure gain investors are more likely to be risk-averse, while when faced with sure loss, they turn into risk-takers. Just think how this pattern could affect the average investor. One bad investment decision will threaten him with a sure loss, which will lead him to take more risks in order to avoid this loss.
Familiarity and locality.
Individuals place too much emphasis on what is familiar to them, and as Belsky and Gilovich point out in their book, “The problem with the idea that you should ‘invest in what you know’ is that people over-confidently confuse familiarity with knowledge.” Gur Huberman of Columbia University has found that investors favor investing in local companies with which they are familiar. Huberman found that there were no rational reasons behind these investments other than the comfort familiarity brought to the investor. The companies in your area are no better or worse than those in any other area. Just ask Californians who fell in love with technology stocks.
Herd mentality.
Investors are particularly susceptible to herd mentality. This is true for a number of reasons. Investors will follow the herd to avoid the possible feelings of regret should their decisions prove incorrect. An individual will find it easier to rationalize a loss on a popular stock than a loss on an unpopular stock. During times of uncertainty when one does not know how to behave, the fact that many others are following a certain plan is a compelling reason to mimic them. The higher the stakes, and the larger the uncertainty, the more likely an investor is to go with the flow.
For example, Money Magazine compared the reported fund results of five funds over a one year period (December 31, 1995 to December 31, 1996) to the average investor results as measured by actual investor accounts in these funds during this period.
The shareholders average return was minus 15.08%. The funds’ average was 22.94%. The difference in results comes from the fact that the average investor invests once the fund has already risen in price and gets out after the fund declines.
A contributing factor to herd mentality and investor overreaction is the inordinate amount of financial news available. Investors who rely heavily on financial news stories for advice aren’t necessarily any better off, and in most cases they fare worse than those who ignore news stories altogether. Belsky and Gilovich recommend that investors avoid “hot” investments and tell them that they are, “… probably better off disregarding most financial news.”
Have you seen yourself in any of the above examples? If you’re ready to give up—wait—there’s an answer. Experienced financial advisors know about these problems and can act to keep you from committing these financial “sins.” Winning at investing is less important than avoiding mistakes resulting in financial loss. Use an advisor and let those other people make the mistakes.
My recommendation is that you give your funds to a portfolio manager, nowadays called wealth managers. Your own emotions and money just don’t mix.
http://www.prospectmatch10.com
One of the best places to start is to read this article and then give a copy to your prospects. You will then be one of the better wealth managers around because being a great wealth manager is about managing psyches and relationships, not about managing wealth.
Why Investors Fail
My apologies to the high-IQ investors out there, but when it comes to investing, smarts don’t matter. Whether an investor is intellectually gifted or below the norm is irrelevant, as plenty of Ph.Ds have lost money in the market. What matters are your emotions and the actions you take as a result of those emotions. What you read below are the results of studies with real live investors, like yourself, and how they behave with their investments.
It is imperative to realize that you are at the mercy of your emotional reactions, and you don’t even know it. The field of Behavioral Finance studies and explains how emotions and cognitive errors influence investors and the decision-making process. Here is a sampling of what behavioral finance studies have found so that you can hopefully notice these tendencies before you are afflicted.
Investors suffer from overconfidence.
You might even think of yourself as timid, but in their book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich provide evidence that simply by believing he can actively manage an investment portfolio, an individual who is not professionally occupied in the financial services industry (and some who are), probably suffer from overconfidence. Further, they reason that the problem of overconfidence should end at the point at which it leads to a significant loss. But actually, the opposite is true. When people make a mistake, they blame it on someone or something other than themselves.
Harvard psychologist Eileen Langer explains that when events occur that confirm the correctness of one’s actions, the individual is highly likely to attribute the occurrence to his own ability. On the other hand, when events do not fall in one’s favor, proving perhaps that the individual has been wrong or mistaken, he is most likely to attribute these occurrences to events out of his control.
Investors are overly optimistic.
Optimists exaggerate their own abilities and underestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes over which they have no control. Instead, they tend to exaggerate the degree to which they control their fate. Take this example of car drivers: When asked the following — As compared to other drivers you encounter would you say your driving abilities are average, above average, or below average? — 80% of the responders answered above average. It would be nice if this were the case, but surely many of these drivers are overestimating their driving skills based on my drive to work today.
Another way to view optimism is to look at what behavioral economists call the “planning fallacy.” Belsky and Gilovich offer an example in which Montreal was selected to host the 1976 Summer Olympics. The mayor had announced that the entire cost would total approximately $120 million and that track and field events would take place in a stadium with a first-of-its-kind retractable roof. While the games went off without a hitch that summer, the roof was not implemented until 1989 and ended up costing $120 million alone, almost as much as was budgeted for the entire Olympics.
In their study, Capital Budgeting in the Presence of Managerial Overconfidence and Optimism, Simon Gervais, J.B. Heaton and Terrance Odean found that optimism is most severe among more intelligent individuals. It would seem the smarter you are, the more confidence you have in your ability, which, in terms of the stock market, can cost you a fortune.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Within hours of the market’s close, “experts” will appear on television or speak on the radio with great confidence as to why the market acted as it did. Seemingly they give the impression that such actions were so obvious that they could have been predicted beforehand. But the truth is, if an event had been predictable, it would have been predicted causing the actions of many to prevent it from happening in the first place. Robert J. Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University, found that at the peak of the Japanese market, 14% of Japanese investors expected a crash. After the crash, the number of investors who said they’d expected the crash more than doubled, reaching 32%.
Investor hindsight can be troublesome when in hindsight an investor sees what was a reasonable investment as a foolish gamble and then he blames his advisor. And after what seems to be an inevitable drop in the value of a stock, he will wonder why his advisor did not suggest selling it earlier. Hindsight can lead to advisor scapegoating. Still, if that stock had seen a gain the investor would more likely congratulate himself for the investment decision.
Finding patterns and correlations where none exist.
It is a human instinct to seek patterns, i.e. familiarity, in a random series of events. This all-too-human characteristic can be disastrous in the world of investing. What typically occurs is that investors attribute much more meaning to an event because of those that precede it. This leads investors to perceive trends where none exist and to overreact and take action as a result of these false perceptions.
For example, how many times have you heard the following sort of generalizations from your friends:
“When the Republicans are in office, the market goes up/down” (fact is, the record of both parties is about even). Or, “The Stock Market always rises in election years” (you need only look at the most recent election year to find the error in this statement, the stock market was down 9.1% in 2000). It’s human nature to look for and fabricate patterns and truisms when none are there. It’s a natural yearning to make sense out of non-sense.
Investors Lose by Not Taking Losses Quickly.
How many times have you thought, “But it’s a good company, it will go back up.”
A study by Terrance Odean of the University of California at Davis, argues that investors are quicker to realize their gains than their losses. Odean analyzed the daily trading records and monthly positions of 88,000 investors at a large discount brokerage. The data spans 10 years and over 2 million common stock trades. Investors in his study traded too actively, were under diversified, clung to their losers, and bought stocks that happened to grab their attention. They were also overconfident and motivated by the desire to avoid regret. The difficulty in the evaluation of thousands of investment alternatives also contributed to their poor trade results. One of Odean’s findings was that investors were much more likely to hold on to losers and sell winners.
The investors in Odean’s study were those who disregarded or didn’t believe in the value of a financial advisor. They thought they could do it on their own. Odean’s study proves that the surer they are, the worse they do: 20% of the investors who traded most often earned an average net annual return 5.5% lower than that of the 20% least active traders.
Prospect Theory, originally described by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, says that individuals are much more upset by prospective losses than they are cheered by equivalent gains. Therefore, the loss of $1.00 would be twice as painful as the pleasure received from a $1.00 gain. Researchers have also found that people are willing to take more risk to avoid losses than to realize gains. In other words, when faced with sure gain investors are more likely to be risk-averse, while when faced with sure loss, they turn into risk-takers. Just think how this pattern could affect the average investor. One bad investment decision will threaten him with a sure loss, which will lead him to take more risks in order to avoid this loss.
Familiarity and locality.
Individuals place too much emphasis on what is familiar to them, and as Belsky and Gilovich point out in their book, “The problem with the idea that you should ‘invest in what you know’ is that people over-confidently confuse familiarity with knowledge.” Gur Huberman of Columbia University has found that investors favor investing in local companies with which they are familiar. Huberman found that there were no rational reasons behind these investments other than the comfort familiarity brought to the investor. The companies in your area are no better or worse than those in any other area. Just ask Californians who fell in love with technology stocks.
Herd mentality.
Investors are particularly susceptible to herd mentality. This is true for a number of reasons. Investors will follow the herd to avoid the possible feelings of regret should their decisions prove incorrect. An individual will find it easier to rationalize a loss on a popular stock than a loss on an unpopular stock. During times of uncertainty when one does not know how to behave, the fact that many others are following a certain plan is a compelling reason to mimic them. The higher the stakes, and the larger the uncertainty, the more likely an investor is to go with the flow.
For example, Money Magazine compared the reported fund results of five funds over a one year period (December 31, 1995 to December 31, 1996) to the average investor results as measured by actual investor accounts in these funds during this period.
The shareholders average return was minus 15.08%. The funds’ average was 22.94%. The difference in results comes from the fact that the average investor invests once the fund has already risen in price and gets out after the fund declines.
A contributing factor to herd mentality and investor overreaction is the inordinate amount of financial news available. Investors who rely heavily on financial news stories for advice aren’t necessarily any better off, and in most cases they fare worse than those who ignore news stories altogether. Belsky and Gilovich recommend that investors avoid “hot” investments and tell them that they are, “… probably better off disregarding most financial news.”
Have you seen yourself in any of the above examples? If you’re ready to give up—wait—there’s an answer. Experienced financial advisors know about these problems and can act to keep you from committing these financial “sins.” Winning at investing is less important than avoiding mistakes resulting in financial loss. Use an advisor and let those other people make the mistakes.
My recommendation is that you give your funds to a portfolio manager, nowadays called wealth managers. Your own emotions and money just don’t mix.
http://www.prospectmatch10.com
Monday, July 11, 2011
ProspectMatch Launches A New Facebook Page
Prospectmatch has launched a facebook page to keep everybody informed about the Prospectmatch system.
http://www.facebook.com/prospectmatch
http://www.facebook.com/prospectmatch
Friday, July 8, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Prospect Match Exclusive Annuity Leads
“I already produce 8 million per year, and the ProspectMatch program will permit me to write an additional 3-5 million a year in annuity premium and gain new business. What is most important about ProspectMatch
to me is that each lead is exclusive. I just started working
the annuity leads and have written over $500,000 in premium.” —Jim
K. St. Louis, MO
If you use any type of lead system, insist that the annuity leads (or
other insurance or investment leads) are exclusive or use another source.
It makes no sense to pay and hunt prospects to be in competition
with other agents. Jim is a sizable annuity producer, already writing
$8 million in annuity premium and knows that the exclusive annuity
leads from ProspectMatch will allow him to get a substantial increase in business.
Jim also understands the value of allowing prospects to qualify themselves.
The ProspectMatch leads don’t receive an email or any type of solicitation.
These prospects did a search on the Internet, of their own interest, seeking
information and answers about annuities or tax savings.
You cannot get a better prospect than one who has demonstrated their own initiative.
http://www.prospectmatch1.com
to me is that each lead is exclusive. I just started working
the annuity leads and have written over $500,000 in premium.” —Jim
K. St. Louis, MO
If you use any type of lead system, insist that the annuity leads (or
other insurance or investment leads) are exclusive or use another source.
It makes no sense to pay and hunt prospects to be in competition
with other agents. Jim is a sizable annuity producer, already writing
$8 million in annuity premium and knows that the exclusive annuity
leads from ProspectMatch will allow him to get a substantial increase in business.
Jim also understands the value of allowing prospects to qualify themselves.
The ProspectMatch leads don’t receive an email or any type of solicitation.
These prospects did a search on the Internet, of their own interest, seeking
information and answers about annuities or tax savings.
You cannot get a better prospect than one who has demonstrated their own initiative.
http://www.prospectmatch1.com
ProspectMatch Annuity Leads and Prospects Review
ProspectMatch Annuity Leads and Prospects
"I already write over $7 million a year and am always looking for effective lead programs. When I found ProspectMatch I was obviously skeptical at first. However, after using the system for only three months, I've gotten over 465 leads and have written $2.46 million since 1/9/08, and this includes one case for $1.65 million! And the most important thing about ProspectMatch is that they GUARANTEE the exclusivity of these leads. If you meticulously follow the training that ProspectMatch has outlined on their website, I guarantee you it will work." —Vince L., JD - Denver, CO
When it comes to any type of marketing system or program, skepticism is reasonable as many do not work. Vince was hesitant regarding the ProspectMatch™ lead system and justifiably so. However, given the minor financial commitment, he calculated that if he could just get a few quality annuity leads, he would noticeably enhance his income. There are agents and advisors that allow skepticism to stop them from growing their business. Because they have tried different marketing systems in the past that did not yield results, these professionals assume that nothing works. So their skepticism determines their business success, or lack thereof, and one opportunity after the other passes them by.
Do the math on Vince's $2.4 million in annuity sales at 8% commission. He generated $192,000 by not allowing his skepticism to run his business. Is your cynicism costing you a huge opportunity to gain clients and income? Do you think, "since other methods have not worked, ProspectMatch cannot work? "
See and hear what other agents and advisors found when they tried ProspectMatch.
For details on gaining clients call 866-952-4065
http://www.prospectmatch1.com
"I already write over $7 million a year and am always looking for effective lead programs. When I found ProspectMatch I was obviously skeptical at first. However, after using the system for only three months, I've gotten over 465 leads and have written $2.46 million since 1/9/08, and this includes one case for $1.65 million! And the most important thing about ProspectMatch is that they GUARANTEE the exclusivity of these leads. If you meticulously follow the training that ProspectMatch has outlined on their website, I guarantee you it will work." —Vince L., JD - Denver, CO
When it comes to any type of marketing system or program, skepticism is reasonable as many do not work. Vince was hesitant regarding the ProspectMatch™ lead system and justifiably so. However, given the minor financial commitment, he calculated that if he could just get a few quality annuity leads, he would noticeably enhance his income. There are agents and advisors that allow skepticism to stop them from growing their business. Because they have tried different marketing systems in the past that did not yield results, these professionals assume that nothing works. So their skepticism determines their business success, or lack thereof, and one opportunity after the other passes them by.
Do the math on Vince's $2.4 million in annuity sales at 8% commission. He generated $192,000 by not allowing his skepticism to run his business. Is your cynicism costing you a huge opportunity to gain clients and income? Do you think, "since other methods have not worked, ProspectMatch cannot work? "
See and hear what other agents and advisors found when they tried ProspectMatch.
For details on gaining clients call 866-952-4065
http://www.prospectmatch1.com
Friday, July 1, 2011
Prospect Match Financial Advsior Enewsletter
Producing a Great Financial Advisor or Insurance Enewsletter
One of the best new technologies to come out of the Internet revolution was the advent of email, and one of the best ways you can use email to enhance your financial services marketing plan is to distribute a regular e-newsletter. Best of all, an enewsletter is free to send! By sending the enewsletter every 30 days, you will do more business from existing clients as well as convert prospects to buyers.
While it is common for financial advisors to send out a regular print newsletter, few have embraced the concept of an e-newsletter, despite the fact that it can be considerably less expensive to produce and distribute. Just as with any direct mailing you use for your financial advisor marketing plan, you need to create an e-newsletter that will be viewed by its readers as valuable, and not as junk mail. Your e-newsletter must be interesting and its message compelling. When it comes to the content, here are some tips:
1. Pick a single, target market. Don’t try to appeal to all audiences. Seniors will have different interests than someone 20 or 30 years younger. Target your message.
2. The title of your newsletter should identify the market. This should also appear in the subject bar on the email.
3. Headlines need to grab the reader’s attention. Keep them short and catch. For example, “401(k) Rollovers” isn’t as compelling as “10 Reasons to Rollover Your Retirement Plan.”
4. Keep articles short. 300-400 words works best. You can add links “for more information on this topic” that take the reader directly to your website.
5. End each article with an offer for a specific solution, or other encouragement to take immediate action. For example, offer them a free booklet on the subject, or a free quote, etc.
When it comes to the actual content of your newsletter, you have a number of choices. You can write your own content, or pay a writer for original articles. Your wholesalers may have articles that you can redistribute. You may be able to reuse the content you license for your standard, hard copy newsletter. Regardless of where you get the content, you will get the best responses from articles that create an emotional reaction in the reader, and encourage them to take immediate action.
Once you have addressed your content needs, you need to address the technical issues of distributing your financial advisor e-newsletter. The right software addresses these needs. Before you can select the software, you need to answer a few questions.
One of the first questions you must answer is whether to distribute in HTML or text only. HTML allows you to create an esthetically attractive product, and to create columns, add pictures and other graphics, and offers more flexibility with fonts, the formatting of fonts and paragraphs.
Text only is just that. Formatting is limited and graphics aren’t possible. One reason to offer a text-only product is because it’s universally accepted.
Fortunately most people can read an HTML email; but HTML email carries more risk of virus infection, so some users don’t accept it. It is best to offer both. It’s more work to produce two versions, but it eliminates the problem of reaching those clients that can’t or won’t accept HTML email.
If you wish to produce an HTML newsletter, you will also need an HTML editor, and a website where you can store the image files that you include. The images don’t store with the email, rather their location is stored, and a reference code will locate, and then display the image.
The cost of a software program to distribute your financial advisor enewsletter can vary from $40 to several hundred dollars. Knowing what features you want will help you select the right product. If you plan to produce a simple text only newsletter, most common contact managers have that capability. A few may offer add-on programs to manage HTML. You can also pay a small fee to icontact or constant contact, online enewsletter distribution services.
A stand-alone product will have features specifically designed for email. The better email distribution programs will offer you the ability to produce both an HTML and a text version simultaneously, and will auto-detect which format to deliver to each client. You should be able to import your distribution list from your existing contact manager. If you want your e-newsletter to be personalized, then you also want the program you choose to offer an email merge.
If after reading this, you like the idea, but either don’t have the time or interest in pulling it together yourself, you still can use this powerful marketing tool by either contracting out the work to writers and programmers, or by purchasing one of the financial advisor e-newsletters that are available for you to license. A purchased e-newsletter can offer an additional advantage; FINRA reviewed articles.
In any case, whether you do it yourself, or buy one, distributing a financial advisor e-newsletter should prove to be a valuable addition to your marketing plan, and will help bring your practice into the 21st century.
See a sample of the Prospect Match financial advisor enewsletter here.
http://www.prospect-match.net
One of the best new technologies to come out of the Internet revolution was the advent of email, and one of the best ways you can use email to enhance your financial services marketing plan is to distribute a regular e-newsletter. Best of all, an enewsletter is free to send! By sending the enewsletter every 30 days, you will do more business from existing clients as well as convert prospects to buyers.
While it is common for financial advisors to send out a regular print newsletter, few have embraced the concept of an e-newsletter, despite the fact that it can be considerably less expensive to produce and distribute. Just as with any direct mailing you use for your financial advisor marketing plan, you need to create an e-newsletter that will be viewed by its readers as valuable, and not as junk mail. Your e-newsletter must be interesting and its message compelling. When it comes to the content, here are some tips:
1. Pick a single, target market. Don’t try to appeal to all audiences. Seniors will have different interests than someone 20 or 30 years younger. Target your message.
2. The title of your newsletter should identify the market. This should also appear in the subject bar on the email.
3. Headlines need to grab the reader’s attention. Keep them short and catch. For example, “401(k) Rollovers” isn’t as compelling as “10 Reasons to Rollover Your Retirement Plan.”
4. Keep articles short. 300-400 words works best. You can add links “for more information on this topic” that take the reader directly to your website.
5. End each article with an offer for a specific solution, or other encouragement to take immediate action. For example, offer them a free booklet on the subject, or a free quote, etc.
When it comes to the actual content of your newsletter, you have a number of choices. You can write your own content, or pay a writer for original articles. Your wholesalers may have articles that you can redistribute. You may be able to reuse the content you license for your standard, hard copy newsletter. Regardless of where you get the content, you will get the best responses from articles that create an emotional reaction in the reader, and encourage them to take immediate action.
Once you have addressed your content needs, you need to address the technical issues of distributing your financial advisor e-newsletter. The right software addresses these needs. Before you can select the software, you need to answer a few questions.
One of the first questions you must answer is whether to distribute in HTML or text only. HTML allows you to create an esthetically attractive product, and to create columns, add pictures and other graphics, and offers more flexibility with fonts, the formatting of fonts and paragraphs.
Text only is just that. Formatting is limited and graphics aren’t possible. One reason to offer a text-only product is because it’s universally accepted.
Fortunately most people can read an HTML email; but HTML email carries more risk of virus infection, so some users don’t accept it. It is best to offer both. It’s more work to produce two versions, but it eliminates the problem of reaching those clients that can’t or won’t accept HTML email.
If you wish to produce an HTML newsletter, you will also need an HTML editor, and a website where you can store the image files that you include. The images don’t store with the email, rather their location is stored, and a reference code will locate, and then display the image.
The cost of a software program to distribute your financial advisor enewsletter can vary from $40 to several hundred dollars. Knowing what features you want will help you select the right product. If you plan to produce a simple text only newsletter, most common contact managers have that capability. A few may offer add-on programs to manage HTML. You can also pay a small fee to icontact or constant contact, online enewsletter distribution services.
A stand-alone product will have features specifically designed for email. The better email distribution programs will offer you the ability to produce both an HTML and a text version simultaneously, and will auto-detect which format to deliver to each client. You should be able to import your distribution list from your existing contact manager. If you want your e-newsletter to be personalized, then you also want the program you choose to offer an email merge.
If after reading this, you like the idea, but either don’t have the time or interest in pulling it together yourself, you still can use this powerful marketing tool by either contracting out the work to writers and programmers, or by purchasing one of the financial advisor e-newsletters that are available for you to license. A purchased e-newsletter can offer an additional advantage; FINRA reviewed articles.
In any case, whether you do it yourself, or buy one, distributing a financial advisor e-newsletter should prove to be a valuable addition to your marketing plan, and will help bring your practice into the 21st century.
See a sample of the Prospect Match financial advisor enewsletter here.
http://www.prospect-match.net
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