Your Estate Planning Marketing Might Be Working If ...

Posted by Jennifer Campbell Goddard, CEO

Interesting … clients will sometimes report a big turn-around in their practice: more profitability, more revenue, more clients and referrals … and then say no, it was not because of their marketing. Sometimes they will make incredible leaps of logic to explain why they believe marketing had nothing to do with the turnaround.

Years ago, I marketed trust services for a regional bank holding company. When the year-end financials came out, we found the company had reversed a three-year trend of decline and actually showed a nice, positive gain. Additionally, we had garnered multiple millions of dollars in trust assets under management, from a starting point of zero.

And yet – marketing got no credit for the success. Believe me, the leaps of logic used to explain why marketing was not responsible for the dramatic turnaround were … well … unbelievable!

Taking a page from good ole boy Jeff Foxworthy of You Might Be a Redneck fame, I’ve compiled Twenty Top Indicators from our clients that show their marketing is working.

Your marketing might be working for you if …

1. Your website ranks on Google’s Page One for search terms other than your name!
2. Your new video ranks on Google’s Page One for estate planning searches in your market area.
3. You logged 500 more new visitors to your website last month!
4. Your Profile Visibility on Martindale Hubbell ranks you #1 or #2 for your market area!
5. Your e-newsletter accounts for five or more of the top ten entry pages to your website.
6. New clients mention they downloaded your most recent Free Report from your website, printed it out and brought it in with them to discuss.
7. An editor from the financial section of your local newspaper calls and asks if he can quote you in an upcoming story.
8. Your blog post is picked up and reprinted with your permission in a financial or legal trade journal!
9. Your newest client was referred to you by a current client.
10. Your newest client was someone you met at a workshop last year (or two or more years ago).
11. Your legal and financial colleagues mention, “Gosh, it seems like I see your name everywhere!”
12. You are meeting better-qualified prospects more frequently!
13. Your revenue increases (at all, in this economy)!
14. You are invited to speak to other professionals, their clients or prospects.
15. You find you are enjoying your practice more on a daily basis.
16. You buy your wife a new car, and pay cash, when you were considering a bankruptcy filing just a few years ago.
17. A new client comes into your office with 12 issues of your newsletter printed out, three-hole-punched and organized in a binder!
18. You can pay all of your bills this month, invest in your practice, pay the tax man, and still take a nice check home for the family!
19. You work Monday through Thursday and take most Fridays off to spend with your family!
20. If your practice is busy and growing, you have a steady stream of qualified prospects and referrals from allied professionals, social media, direct mail and the internet … yet you spend only a few hours a month on your marketing, then you may have found The Essential Solution®!