But her main marketing initiative is Christmas in July. Sixteen years ago she delivered a special surprise to her top 30 clients, with her kids as delivery helpers. Now her staff goes out and delivers to 400 client homes and offices. The surprises are different every year. Pies. Cinnamon rolls. Magazines. Popcorn. Tortes. She tries to find specialties made in Omaha, where her office is based. She says it’s about getting into their homes. Seeing what their life is like.
“I try to touch everyone I meet in some way,” Kropp said. “They become friends first then find out I’m a financial advisor and come to me for that.”
Violeta Salud, an Investacorp advisor in her 60’s, lives in a small town, Lake Wales, Florida: population 15,000. “If you really want people to know who you are,” said Salud, “you have to get out there and repeatedly say who you are. I try to get free publicity every chance I get. I’ve been the PTA president, the chairman of the board for an organization that serves people with special needs, and so forth. I am very active in civic and community activities. I try to get in the headline as much as possible.”
Salud has held client appreciation events for 15 years but became bored speaking about investments, so started entertaining her clients and their friends. Changing from education to entertainment works for her gregarious personality and brings more clients to the fold. Examples: she brought in a dance troupe from Tampa; she collaborates with local colleges and the music departments to help them fundraise.
Like Salud, Kropp has also held women’s events—one where everyone gets a mani/pedi; and family events such as a ball game that’s open to family and friends. Kropp holds five educational events a year; for instance, she brought in a motivational speaker to talk about dealing with stress and sent everyone home with a long-stemmed rose. She hosted a Medicare event and asked clients to bring friends.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
“The steering committee and I thought long and hard about the agenda for this conference,” said Desmond in her closing comments. “The feedback we received from the advisors attending was been overwhelmingly positive. Some of you are asking for an annual in-person forum, much like this one, and have given us your wish list of sessions for next year. In addition, many of you have expressed a strong interest in using digital communications such as webinars, teleconferences, a community discussion board and video, to keep the conversations and connections alive between institute meetings. We are extremely pleased with this response and will, as a steering committee, be discussing next steps,” Desmond said.
As I was finishing up this article for Financial Planning (some 34,000 feet high as I wing my way to another conference), I received an invitation from the committee. I’m happy to report that I’ll be one of the first webinar guest speakers for the Ladenburg Women and Finance Institute in 2013. My topic on the February 12th webinar will be “Demystifying Social Media and the Digital Reality.”
WHAT’S AHEAD
As always, if you’ll be attending any of the conferences below, tackle me and let’s chat. Otherwise, you can post your comments on the discussion thread below or interact with me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
- Jan. 28-30: FSI One Voice in San Diego
- Jan. 30 - Feb. 2: TD Ameritrade conference in San Diego
- Feb. 6: Sourcemedia private client event in New York City
- Feb. 11-13: T3 Technology Tools for Today conference in Miami (use code T32013IC to save $50)
- March 27: FPA Kansas City social media workshop in Overland Park, Kansas
- April 9-10: Tiburon CEO Summit XIV in Manhattan, New York
- May 14: National Trust Company of America conference in Las Vegas
- May 19-21: Investacorp national conference in Puerto Rico
- June 9-12: Securities America national conference in Washington, D.C.
Marie Swift is a communications consultant in the financial services industry. Learn more at www.ImpactCommunications.org. Follow @marieswift on Twitter, “like” ImpactCommunicationsInc on Facebook, or search for Marie Swift on LinkedIn.
