| Financial seminar marketing is the quickest
way to grow your financial business. It allows you to do a face-to-face,
credibility-building meeting with 40 or 50 prospective customers at a time.
In fact, in the last 8 years, financial advisors that were
making $50,000 per year saw their incomes soar to over $1 million a year.
But the market has changed drastically.
How the Financial Seminar Marketing Business Has Changed
Five years ago, you could get a 2% response rate for a
financial seminar mailing. Today you are lucky to get a quarter of that. Why?
Because the same mailing houses have been sending the same
mailer, with the same headlines and the same bullets for years. The people getting these
invites are simply throwing them away. That means your profits are going into the dumps!
Now, don't get me wrong.
I highly recommend that you utilize seminars in your
marketing mix, regardless of your profession. However, if you want to build a highly
profitable 6 or 7 figure income financial practice using seminars, then you must spend
some time picking the right mailing house to send out your seminar invitations.
Top 7 Questions You Should Ask Your Seminar Mailing House
Before Hiring Them:
1. Are you a seminar marketing company or a postcard
printing company?
There is a huge difference between lead generation direct
mail and seminar invitations. When you work with a mailing house company that does NOT
specialize in seminar invitations you are rolling the dice with your hard earned money.
2. How will you make sure my seminar invitations stand out
from my competitions?
This is one of the MOST important questions to ask. You
must make sure that your seminar marketing mailing house will help you write successful
copy and headlines for your invitation. Make sure NO ONE else is using it in your
territory. If they are using the same old copy and headlines they have been using for
years RUN away fast. If they cannot help you create something unique to you and your
specialty, you are wasting your money.
3. What is Your Guarantee?
Many mailing houses offer response guarantees as a way to
get your business. However, most have no intention of ever honoring their guarantee. When
the response comes in below the guarantee, (and it invariably does) they will continue to
offer you discounts on future mailings instead of giving your money back.
4. What are the niche markets you work in?
In order to succeed in seminar marketing, you need to work
within a niche. The more specific your niche is the better. It is extremely helpful to
work with a mailing house that specializes in your niche. When they understand and have
experience with your niche, you are much more likely to have success using them to fill
your seminars.
5. Who Will Be My Seminar Marketing Liaison?
Make sure that you're assigned a professional at the
mailing house to walk you through the whole mailing. You need someone to make sure that
the mailing is done accurately and on a timely basis. A little mistake on an invitation
can send people to the wrong address or at the wrong time, costing you thousands of
dollars.
6. What is your turnaround time?
Seminar mailing is very time sensitive. Your mailing needs
to hit on a certain date. Most large mailing houses will tell you that they have a 30 day
or more turn around time. This will make planning your seminar very difficult. A long
turnaround time is an indicator of a large print house vs. a smaller, more service
oriented mailing house.
7. What is Your Pricing? What are all the services included
in that pricing?
Remember, cheapest is not always best. Best value for your
dollar is what you should be shooting for. Do they give you unique and creative
invitations? Have they been able to explain to you why they will make you more successful
than other mailing companies will? Do you get the feeling that they are truly interested
in your success? Or do they just want to mail some junk out for you to make a buck on you?
Seminars can skyrocket your business if you do them right.
Hiring good vendors is high on the list of doing things right.
So invest some time in finding the right mailing house. It
will save you thousands of dollars in the end.
Once you find a great seminar invitation mailing house,
your seminar marketing begins to work just like a big ATM machine. Do a seminar...Grab a
bunch of happy new. clients. It's that simple. |
