Don’t Halt Business Growth Because of the Holiday Season

Well, here we are in the last two months of the year. For some financial advisors, this is a time to wind down and set up for the next year. Some may have a mad dash to close as much business as they can through the month of November and ease off in December. However, there are several strategies that advisors and agents can use to make the most of the end of the year and finish strong.

Holiday Marketing

One of the main reasons advisors ease off toward the end of the year is because the period is loaded with holidays. This means that prospects and clients are likely focused on family and travel, rather than their big picture financial concerns. Advisors themselves may enjoy the ability to comfortably wind down, spend time with family, and reset for the new year. But this period presents several opportunities for marketing.

Now, you may know that a holiday—especially a big one like Christmas—is a great reason to touch base with you clients and prospects. Generally advisors will issue Christmas greeting cards to their existing clients and perhaps even to targeted prospects. It’s a nice way to keep your name in front of consumers and to show your current book of clients how much you appreciate them.

However, overlooked is Thanksgiving. This is arguably as relevant of a holiday as Christmas and presents another great opportunity to reach out to your target market. Plus, since not many advisors use Thanksgiving for holiday marketing, you will have a better shot of having your message stand out.

So what kinds of marketing should you do?

You may elect to do a simple holiday greeting card or you could incorporate the holiday into a marketing push around a specific program or service. (“Be Thankful for Lifetime Protection and Accessible Cash Value with our Life Insurance Solutions”). However you do it, be sincere, respectful, and professional with your holiday marketing.

Employ Pull Marketing

Perhaps you draw a lot of your business from seminars and presentations throughout the year. Many of the advisors and agents we work with run successful seminar programs. In our digitally driven world, seminars can still be very effective. However, at the end of the year, this style of marketing can be challenging. Since the last two months are busy for everyone, you might not see your usual attendance numbers and end up spending much time and effort on busted seminar presentations.

Here is where digital pull marketing solutions can work to draw consumers to you and help make up lost opportunities. Pull marketing generally refers to non-intrusive methods that work to draw consumers who have an interest in your services. This often includes SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click campaigns) and other digitals means of marketing. While a good marketing plan is going to incorporate many different platforms and methods, focusing on pull marketing can help overcome the challenges at the end of the year with push marketing. While pull marketing may not bring the same number of leads as a good seminar, it is not as time-involved and relatively inexpensive.

Use End of Year Tax Concerns to Target New Business

Toward the end of the year, consumers–especially high-earners and business owners–may have specific concerns about their tax liabilities. Some may be actively looking for ways to reduce their overall tax bill and some may be unaware of solutions for minimization. November and December present last chances to make choices that will have a positive impact for the year come tax time. These opportunities will vary depending on the consumer’s unique situation, but they are opportunities nonetheless. Beyond looking at deductions and credits, many of these beneficial tax arrangements may involve financial products like life insurance, annuities, and retirement accounts.

Incorporate Programs That Use Real-Time Leads

To squeeze the most out of the end of the year, you may want to consider using a real-time lead generation program to boost your production opportunities. Like pull marketing, real-time lead programs deal with consumers who have shown an interest in relevant topics and positions them to you. However, in the case of real-time lead generation, these consumers may be vetted, qualified, or further enhanced through an intermediate specialist lead-gen affiliate.