Important tasks that a Financial Advisor and Insurance Agent can do to build their business.

If you are a Financial Advisor or Insurance Agent and have been around Internet marketing for any length of time, you ’ll agree that everyone is talking about how important building a list is for your business. And in a real sense, it’s true that you cannot really claim to have a successful business if you don’t have a group of people who have signed up to receive your emails and are poised to follow your advice and buy the products or services you recommend.

Marketing is very personal, not distant or automated. Until you begin to build the relationship with each of your readers, as if you were talking to each person one by one, you may be deceiving yourself about your long - term chances of success online. So how do you get started? I am going to teach you so keeping reading to find out!

Do I really need a list? YES!

If you spend any time researching digital marketing, you'll find out quickly that there are some people who say list building is not as important as it used to be and that you can get along very well in digital marketing without having a list at all. 

Don’t believe a word of this nonsense!

List building and digital marketing are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. Building a list is simply the most important task that a Financial Advisor and Insurance Agent can do to build their business. 

Any so-called "guru" who advises you that you don't need to build a list is giving some of the worst advice available anywhere on the Internet, and that's saying a lot, because there is a lot of bad information out there. Here is some good information. 

Trust me, a quality list protects your business. Neglecting to build a list could endanger your chance of achieving long-term profits, residual's and could even endanger the viability of your business. The CAN SPAM Act of 2003 placed new restrictions on marketers who send bulk e-mails without the consent of the recipient . Everyone hates spam and unwanted e-mails, and this law made it more difficult for unscrupulous digital marketers to send unsolicited e-mail messages.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out what a few hundred or a few thousand unsolicited emails could do to your lifetime profits and residual income. Not only do you need your own list, but it must be an opt in list, which means the recipients have confirmed their willingness to receive your email. It’s all about treating your clients as you want to be treated. 

A powerful bargaining chip for Financial Advisor and Insurance Agents.

Those that are succeeding online spend a significant part of their day focused on building their own list. It's never a secondary activity; it's the main thing. 

In a real sense, if you don't have a list, you haven’t defined your target audience, and you can’t even get out of the starting gate. A quality list can be a powerful bargaining chip when trying to take your business to the next level. For example, behind every successful joint venture is the power of list synergy. When two or more Internet marketers combine their lists, they can exponentially increase the power of each list alone. 

However, if you don’t have a list, you won’t even have a seat at the table. Therefore, there’s no question that list building and digital marketing are two sides of the same coin. Ask any well-established and successful digital marketers what the most important part of their business is. The answer: list building. 

Now you know that the first requirement for a Financial Advisor and Insurance Agent is to have a quality opt-in list. There are three kinds of lists, but not all of them are created equal.

1. The first kind of list is the one that you can buy. A cursory search online will reveal all kinds of e-mail lists available at cut-rate prices. However, the quality can also be cut rate. You cannot build a solid list by buying thousands of e-mail addresses at a time.  I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS APPROACH!
2. The second kind of list consists of potential customers. These lists are valuable because they include people who have visited your website and opted in to your mailing list. Thus, they have expressed interest in you or your product, but they haven't bought anything yet. You would be making a serious mistake to underestimate the value of such a list simply because the members haven’t bought anything yet. 
3. The third kind of list is the most powerful and consists of customers who have actually purchased your products or services at least once. These customers form the backbone of your digital business and provide the greatest recession-proof cash-building strategy on the Internet today. The best thing about the third list is that the customers have already demonstrated their willingness to spend money with you at least once. 

For this reason, they are more likely than the other two groups to spend money with you in the future. 

Ok, so how do I start building my own list? 

So now you may be thinking, "Okay Mark, I'm convinced. Tell me how to build my list." There's all kind of advice out there about how to build your list, but a few general principles have remained constant for a long period of time. These techniques are effective and practically universal for any kind of business. 

Get your name out there!

The most basic way to build your opt-in list is to write short articles and submit them to article banks. Don't worry if you don't know what this is or have time to do this I can help you. This simply means that you write about 300 to 400 words of helpful advice on a particular topic, and you submit the article to a directory that allows other websites to use that content while giving credit to you as the author. But here’s the important point related to list building: The beauty of submitting articles to a directory is that you can include a resource box with your name, your website URL (also referred to as a backlink), and a short description about yourself. When readers click the backlink to your website, you have an opportunity to build your opt-in list. 

Submitting articles to directories is not rocket science, but you do have to be careful that your content is always helpful and well written. For this reason, you must ensure that your articles have eye-catching titles and solid content. 

The process of posting on blogs, groups and forums takes time and a considerable amount of perseverance. You'll probably need to dedicate at least an hour a day, every day, if you choose to employ this strategy. However, as your name begins to show up in various contexts, you'll notice three main advantages: 

1. blog comments, group and forum postings act as free advertising, 
2. good quality content will enhance your credibility, and 
3. backlinks from popular websites can increase your own ranking in the search engines. 

You'll want to make sure that the time you spend online is strategic. This means that you want to post on blogs, groups and forums that have a high page ranking, which will in turn enhance the value of the back link to your own web site. 

Perhaps you are not blessed with writing ability, or maybe you are very tight on time and can't devote the effort necessary to write articles. Not to worry, I can help develop your articles for you. 

Whatever method you choose to build your list, remember that nothing can substitute for an established customer list (a list of customers who have paid for your products or services at least once) and your solid online credibility. 

Here's a thought...

Have you ever thought of using a business card to build your list? You should. It’s very cheap and can be quite effective when offered one-on-one to a potential client. Many Financial Advisors and Insurance Agents have noticed a new appeal for traditional media marketing because consumers are inundated with online offers and might actually read your sales material if they could hold it in their hand. Even a simple postcard with some teaser copy and a website address can do wonders for building your list. 

Of course everyone's favorite topic is free advertising. There are some methods that you can use that won't cost you any money at all. However, it's important to remember this principle: money buys time. If you don't want to spend any money for marketing your website, you're going to need to invest some time.

It is crucial to note that you will always have to pay something for advertising: either your money or your time. So in that sense, nothing is really free. 

As your name begins to surface in online venues visited by your target audience, your reputation will become more established, as long as the content you are producing is of the highest quality. 

The advantages of using the above methods are not just short-term profits.

Financial Advisors and Insurance Agents who develop an established customer list and a measure of credibility online are in a most enviable position: Your name, and the credibility that goes with it, is your most valuable asset for continuing online success. Here’s the formula: 

Why is credibility equally important to list building? It's the difference between being an unknown and an authority figure within your niche. 

The established customer list will add to your online credibility, but you must also elevate your status by writing and submitting articles to directories, posting to blogs, commenting in groups, and so forth. After you've made a name for yourself in your niche and are on your way to developing widely recognized credibility, then the only other piece of the puzzle is a valuable product or service you provide.

Good luck and please let me know if and how I can help.

 I enjoy helping people reach their greatest potential. If you are looking to take your marketing efforts to a new level where you are actually seeing real results, please contact me to schedule a meeting with me.

PHONE: 248-420-9272

EMAIL: [email protected]