Advisor Marketing: Marketing to Women in a Box
If you market to women or want to, this may be one of the most important posts you will read.
At a luncheon I just attended, a trust officer from one of the largest trust companies shared that his company sees the opportunity and is working to increase their market share of the affluent female market niche. They plan to conduct “Women & Money Workshops”.
When done correctly, workshops are a Marketing Best Practice when not they are a waste of time and money. The first key to success with works focusing on females is to avoid one of the most common, fatal mistakes of all, “Marketing to Women in a Box.”
Marketing in a box is a generic one-size fits all and is a waste of time and resources for attracting affluent clients.
If you were a dog trainer, how effective would your results be if you used the same techniques to tame aggression in Pit Bulls and Yorkshire Terriers?
While it is obvious that dogs have different personalities, why do so many advisors and companies lump females together and use the same strategy for all women? If you (or the company with which you work) includes “Marketing to Women in a Box” strategies in their advisor marketing plan, you must stop.
To better understand the differences, let’s take a minute and review personality profiles of affluent females. The personality types range from traditional to non-traditional and combination (which is a blend of the first two).
Types
Traditional
Occupation: Mothers, Wives & Homemakers
Personality: Amiable (friendly) & Expressive (talkative)
Combination (mixture of Traditional & Non-Traditional)
Occupation: Combination of a Wife / Mother with a Career
Personality: Blend from Amiable (friendly) to Driver (bottom line)
Non-Traditional
Occupation: Executives & Business Owners
Personality: Continuum from Driver (bottom line) to an Analytic (detail oriented)
These personality types are a continuum. For example, a combination female who is more traditional will resemble a traditional type woman (passive and amiable).
The personality profile dictates how these females will respond and react. For example, traditional and traditional-combination affluent females may not complain about their frustration with their advisor or service provider without the advisor soliciting their feedback. Instead they complain to anyone who will listen. When the first opportunity presents itself, she will leave often without any notice or discussion.
Traditional and traditional-combination personalities are more interested in shopping, kids, friends, school, church and fun than their non-traditional female counterparts. They would prefer spending time with those close to them. They would also prefer to attend a social event than listen to a financial advisor talk about technical details. To win this woman’s business, you must respect her feelings, gain her trust and create a relationship so she feels comfortable and knows that you truly care about how she feels.
Compare this to a non-traditional female personality type. She is concerned with the bottom-line results and is actually interested in the alpha and beta of her portfolio. She is bright and will likely know more than her advisors. She also doesn’t have time to waste, so the workshop content better be what she wants.
If your Marketing Best Practice includes tapping into and marketing to Affluent Women, follow these steps to ensure your workshops and other training methods dont fall into the “Marketing to Women in a Box” category!
1. Choose a Niche.
Determine the type of affluent females you are marketing to so you don’t waste your valuable resources on a workshop that will likely not produce the results you desire.
2. Conduct an AskLearnRiches(tm) research questionnaire campaign.
A great Marketing Best Practices strategy includes research. Your research questionnaire needs to provide you with every detail about your ideal affluent women prospects and referrals. Interview all sources including clients, prospects, centers of influence and reciprocal referral partners. The information you compile will provide the topic content for your seminars and workshops.
3. Choose Your Reciprocal Referral Partners.
Once you have conducted your research interviews, create reciprocal, referral relationships with your referral partners who will present at your workshops and help to market your advisory firm.
4. Plan Your Monthly Feeder Workshop Schedule.
Once you find the most popular topics your affluent female prospects and clients want (from research), revise your Marketing Best Practices strategy to include these topics in your monthly feeder workshops and to avoid “Marketing to Women in a Box”.
5. Follow up with Your Affluent Women Seminar Attendees
One of the easiest Marketing Best Practices that will increase your success with financial workshops is the follow-up after the workshop. Most advisors don’t follow-up after the seminar which is the kiss of death; especially with affluent women. Because traditional and combination women are the most likely personality types to attend a workshop and are also interested in the Return on Relationship (as compared to the Return on Investment for non-traditional women), follow-up is not an option – it is mandatory. Financial advisors who create a follow-up relationship marketing campaign in their marketing best practices for their seminar attendees, will ultimately save money and attract more of the affluent women seminar attendees to their practice than almost anything else they can do.
If you want more strategies and insight on how to market to women out of the box, go to Marketing To Women.
