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By Ben Kulis, Simplicity Lone Beacon’s Operations Manager
No matter the industry, marketing departments are under constant pressure to deliver results while juggling multiple projects, campaigns, and deadlines. This is also true for advisors. Setting up efficient workflows is the key to thriving in today’s ever-changing marketing landscape. Here are some foundational tips for evaluating and implementing internal processes to save time, reduce errors, enhance collaboration, and ultimately help you gain new clients and strengthen relationships with your current ones.
These tactics are the backbone of any successful marketing department. They ensure that tasks are completed on time, resources are allocated effectively, and high-quality deliverables are produced.
Now, let’s look at some actionable tips you can utilize:
- Define Clear Objectives and Goals
Establishing clear objectives and goals before starting any project is essential. This helps everyone understand the project’s purpose, target audience, and expected outcomes. It is helpful to think of marketing as being in the manufacturing business as there are many pieces that need to work together for success.
- Create Detailed Project Plans
Develop comprehensive project plans that outline all tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. Use project management software like Trello, Asana, or Monday.com to keep track of progress and allocate your resources effectively.
- Automate Repetitive Tasks
Identify repetitive and time-consuming tasks like data entry, email marketing, or organic social media posting. Invest in marketing automation tools such as HubSpot, MailChimp, and Sprout to automate these tasks, freeing your time for more strategic work.
- Implement Content and Asset Libraries
Maintain a centralized repository for marketing assets, including images, videos, templates, and branding guidelines. This allows anyone on your team to access and reuse assets easily, reducing the time spent searching for or recreating content. Developing authentic content is key, which is why it is always great to draw from your own experience. Learn how by reading, “How to Transform Your Financial Knowledge into Compelling Content.”
- Standardize Templates and Processes
Develop standardized templates for reports, presentations, and other deliverables. Standardization ensures consistency in quality and reduces the time required to create each of the documents from scratch.
- Streamline Communication
Collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams can be used to centralize communication. This eliminates the clutter of email threads and allows for real-time updates and discussions.
- Conduct Regular Training and Research
Invest in ongoing training for your team to keep them updated on the latest industry trends and tools that are available. Curious to learn more? See our blog “Marketing Insights for Financial Advisors in 2024.”
- Monitor and Analyze Performance
Track and analyze your performance metrics regularly. Use data-driven insights to identify bottlenecks in your workflows and make data-backed decisions to improve efficiency.
- Seek Key Stakeholder Feedback
Engage with key stakeholders within your company to gather feedback on current performance and processes. Use their insights and your predetermined performance metrics to make necessary adjustments and ensure you meet their expectations.
- Bundle your tactics
As Simplicity Lone Beacon Co-Founder John Capuano points out in his blog, “Bundle Up…Your Marketing,” taking a siloed approach to marketing doesn’t work. Look at all the elements you have running currently and see what can work together, whether live events, social media, or email marketing. These should all be working in concert together to achieve results.
You might be looking for a few quick tips to transform your marketing operations. However, it doesn’t just take a plan of action and knowledge of key insights. It takes hard work. You’ll have to invest time and money to create an infrastructure that works for your team, and effectively delegate personnel to manage these new workflows, whether it includes using content and project management calendars, upkeeping content libraries, analyzing the performance of digital campaigns regularly, and much more.
The Simplicity Lone Beacon Difference
The bottom line is that efficient marketing workflows are essential for any advisor’s success. Implementing these tips and strategies can save time, reduce costs, enhance collaboration, and deliver exceptional results, but this isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution; true innovation is an ongoing process. Our team at Simplicity Lone Beacon specializes in providing marketing operations and solutions to your firm with a tailored focus on the financial advisory business. With a marketing partner equipped with the tools, expertise, and proven track record, you can take the hard labor and guesswork out of constructing a successful marketing system yourself. In short, you can focus on what you’re good at while thriving in the modern world of digital marketing.
About the Author: Ben joins the Simplicity Lone Beacon team, having most recently worked in the public relations sector developing marketing and PR campaigns for national brands within Science, Healthcare, Tech, and Professional Services. Before that, he spent over a decade in broadcast radio, creating integrated campaigns for clients and elevating brands. Ben began his marketing career working for the Kraft Group, leveraging the power of the Patriots brand through new media and the grassroots crowd-building efforts of the New England Revolution.
Outside of work, Ben is an active volunteer in youth sports and has served on the Games and Management Team for the MA Special Olympics for nearly 20 years. He lives in Woburn with his wife, Marie, and three children.
