Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Running Your Business

It's the difference that matters

By Jay Nagdeman

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

The cornerstone of effective marketing is “positioning”– a concept that has increasingly gained importance since it entered the marketing literature almost 50 years ago. For an agent, your positioning is what sets you apart from the competition. It provides a prospect a clear reason to become a client. Your future success depends upon your ability to build and sustain a perceivable marketplace advantage.

An effective positioning strategy provides a firm foundation for all your marketing and promotional efforts by focusing on your competitive advantages and relevant marketplace differentiation. Positioning can also help you make important strategic determinations — such as how to build the greatest value into your business — and clarify your vision and mission. The focus provided by effective positioning will enable you to concentrate resources on marketing and promotional approaches that appeal directly to your target market(s) and offer the greatest opportunities for success.

To develop a singular, differentiated positioning, you should:

  • Create a vision that leverages your strengths and taps into a need in the marketplace. Many agents have found that specialization is their key to success.
  • Formulate a strategy to realize that vision by determining how you can best reach your target market.
  • Implement that strategy with multi-dimensional programs that skillfully combine a number of market-driven approaches such as seminars, direct mail (both electronic and traditional), articles in local papers, or speaking at local business events.

Finally, your positioning should never lose sight of the fact that success follows truth. To be most successful, you must always be able to deliver — or hopefully over-deliver — what you are promising the marketplace.

This article is adapted from a new book, The Professional’s Guide to Financial Services Marketing: Bite-Sized Insights for Creating Effective Approaches (Wiley Publishing), by Jay Nagdeman. For more information, visit www.FinancialServicesMarketingBook.com.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.