Many people think about marketing in terms of bringing on new clients. But what happens after clients sign on the dotted line? Of course, bringing in new clients is always important, but your firm’s marketing department can and should continue to be part of the client experience, keeping clients engaged and hopefully encouraging them to engage your firm for additional services.
Developing content for existing customers
Content has become a critical aspect of marketing in the past few years, and firms of all sizes use content to nurture and attract new leads. But a vast majority of that content is aimed at prospects rather than existing clients. And content aimed at existing clients is usually focused on upselling rather than engagement and retention.
Content can also be useful for keeping clients engaged, ensuring they feel appreciated and building loyalty.
To stay top of mind, leverage your marketing department for more than just selling to existing clients. For example, you can create content that:
Helps onboard new clients
Regularly updates clients on firm news and new service offerings
Gives clients opportunities to connect, ask questions, and share their experiences
Answers commonly asked questions and offers solutions to common pain points
To effectively deploy content to your existing clients, it’s important to meet them where they are. When you know who your clients are, what they need from you, and where they spend their time, you can create the type of content (blogs, videos, podcasts, email campaigns, etc.) they want and share it wherever they prefer.
Building your tech stack to keep clients engaged
Creating and sharing this additional content takes time. Fortunately, technology can help you scale your client engagement and retention efforts.
A customer relationship management (CRM) system can help you segment your client list. List segmentation is simply subdividing your client list into a number of smaller lists. You can group clients by industry, service line, interactions with your content, and more. This helps you refine your marketing messages for clients and get better responses.
Other marketing automation tools can help with repetitive tasks like sending marketing emails, sharing social media posts, and gathering data on your marketing efforts. You can then use those data points to connect to clients on the next step of their journey.
Setting SMART marketing goals
With marketing, it’s tempting to try out new tools, write new content and see what happens. But when it comes to marketing, we don’t always see immediate results. As a result, it can be difficult to determine whether your efforts provide a return on investment.
Your marketing efforts will be more targeted and effective when you set SMART marketing goals. Chances are, you’re familiar with SMART goals. They are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
For example, let’s say you set a revenue goal to increase revenue from existing clients by 10% by cross-selling additional services. That’s a specific and measurable increase in revenues. You determine that it’s attainable and realistic, and you give yourself a timeframe of the first six months of the new year (timely).
How you achieve that goal will depend on your unique clients and firm. For example, you could create an email campaign targeted at business tax clients that educates them on the benefits of your advisory services. Or create a video series on wealth management and share it with your individual tax clients. Those efforts are a lot more thoughtful and targeted than simply increasing your social media posting.
Marketing to existing clients is often overlooked, but it can have a tremendous impact on your bottom line. It takes a little effort, directed at the right clients in the right ways, to achieve truly meaningful results.
Are you ready to stop wasting money on business development and marketing initiatives that don't work?
Boomer Growth Consulting helps you create a clear marketing and business development roadmap that will help you reach more prospects and clients. Schedule a discovery call today and gain confidence that your firm's marketing and business development dollars are being used effectively.
As the Marketing Manager for Boomer Consulting, Inc., Heather’s primary focus is on developing the firm’s marketing strategy and brand awareness to help drive business results. She manages and executes marketing and business development initiatives, with daily oversight of the website, social media, and thought leadership content. In addition, as a part of the Business Development team, she provides leadership and strategic planning on marketing and communication practices for the firm.