Marketing can be categorised as Inbound or Outbound.

We all understand Outbound Marketing. It’s the traditional approach where the adviser initiates contact with a prospective client. This can take the form of placing an advertisement in a newspaper, engaging a telemarketer to call prospects, etc. Outbound Marketing is a proactive activity that seeks to reach prospective clients and have them initiate a call-to-action, e.g. phone for a complimentary appointment. It has a short-term focus, i.e. to create an immediate client response.

Inbound Marketing is where the client initiates the contact by themselves, e.g. finding the practice on-line by reading a blog Post or acting on a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend. Inbound Marketing does not generate a direct response to a piece of Outbound Marketing, but leverages the reputation of the adviser, their networks, and their on-line presence. Inbound Marketing is the set of activities which build the marketing assets that ultimately lead to prospective clients initiating contact.

Inbound Marketing is the future for advice based professionals because it leverages their expertise. This form of marketing builds long-term marketing assets consisting of Internet based professional profiles and a library of published content that is educational in nature, and that ultimately generates referrals and leads. When prospective clients conduct searches on topics relevant to their needs, they find the content and professional presence of the adviser.

A strength of Inbound Marketing is that most of the items published on-line are evergreen content, i.e. they don’t go out-of-date and will be available on-line for an indefinite period, e.g. a Post on a website and a LinkedIn profile. Traditional Outbound Marketing like an advertisement in a local newspaper has a limited life of a few days to attract clients. (Content on the Internet can also have a limited life, e.g. a Twitter Tweet without a Hashtag, however, most blog Posts have a long life.)

Demonstrate your expertise and competencies by using Inbound Marketing to build a powerful on-line presence which includes a library of relevant content published on multiple platforms. This includes the practice website having dedicated landing pages for specialist areas of advice and campaigns, blog Posts, social media profiles, published content, videos, Tweets, LinkedIn Posts, etc. All this content can be accessed by clients and prospects using search engines.

Inbound Marketing uses on-line content and search engine optimisation so it is easy for prospective clients to find the practice and advisers. This form of marketing is unlikely to generate immediate results, but like all strategic investments will reap significant benefits in the future.

Note: this information is taken from my free PDF download Financial Planner's Marketing Blueprint available from my website.