Consistency, Persistence, and Patience Pays!

Written By : Clifford Blodgett

Have you ever known a truly great fisherman? If so, he (or she) probably had one major trait: decades of steadfast desire and passion to fish at every opportunity possible.

That’s no coincidence! As with fishing, consistency and persistence pays with digital marketing, for several reasons:

It takes time to build an audience. Your success on social media platforms depends upon consistently reaching a large number of contacts. No one starts off on Day One with 5,000 “likes” on Facebook or 10,000 followers on Twitter. It takes time to build up your network of valuable contacts, attract them with your compelling content, and keep them coming back.

Trial and error is a must. A consistent effort means periodically reviewing your results, and adjusting your methods based on what works and what does not work. With online marketing, it can take time to figure out your best course of action. The key is to keep fine-tuning your content, and try different methods until you find your sweet spot.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is credibility. Most people today are wary of blatant advertising, aware that there’s always someone around the next corner who wants to sell them or sign them. It’s unlikely that a social media contact is going to read a few paragraphs, dial the phone, and ask you to provide them with an insurance review. Consistently offering them valuable, dependable content builds a rapport, credibility, – and trust.

You have competition. At any given time, there’s probably more than one fisherman on the lake. So who catches the most and biggest fish? Usually it is the guy who spends the most time with his hook in the water.

Put yourself in your prospective clients’ shoes: You’ve spent decades working to create a sizable nest egg for yourself, and you’re looking for a financial advisor to help guide some very important decisions. Are you going to call an advisor who just popped up on Twitter with one interesting article? Or the advisor whose name you know because you’ve followed them for months? It’s clear that a consistent and persistent effort should pay off and help you beat the competition.

One of the biggest mistake you can make in online marketing is giving up too early. Because it takes time to build an audience, gain their trust, and see a success in the form of new business or referrals, many financial advisors throw in the towel before they ever catch the big fish. In fact, you can count on some of your competition doing just that! But if you persistently fine-tune your efforts, consistently provide valuable content, and patiently give your efforts time to pay off, you can be that expert fisherman who always comes home with a great catch.

FOR INSURANCE PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC 14190 – 2015/3/5

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing, Social Media for Financial Advisors