NAILBA Perspectives Spring 2020 | Page 38

SOCIAL MEDIA Marketing on social media, regardless of budget Thanks to social media, you don’t need a huge budget or an ad agency to market your practice well. Instead, with a strategic plan and a few helpful resources, you can craft an engaging, professional image that reaches your target audience for just a couple of dollars per day. Start small If your practice doesn’t post regularly on social media, start there. It doesn’t cost anything to maintain a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and seeing two to three posts a week helps keep your business top of mind for prospects and clients. If you’re not sure where to start, check out Life Happens Pro for a variety of social media marketing resources built for financial advisors. Or, if you’re an MDRT member, the member toolkit offers a library of customizable social media posts and branded imagery. “Deciding on monthly themes can also help guide your content.” Ana Sofia Rodriguez D., MBA, is a 15-year Qualifying and Life MDRT member with two Court of the Table qualifications. She is an Associate Director at Grupo Inverseguros and is located in Panama. 38 Perspectives Q2 2020 Be strategic and professional If you’re posting regularly, host monthly social media strategy meetings with your staff to make sure you’re sending a strong, consistent message across each platform. Deciding on monthly themes can also help guide your content. For example, if May’s theme is life insurance, your posts can play off of Mother’s Day and remind your audience that purchasing life insurance is one of the greatest gifts to show you care. It’s essential your posts are professional and visually engaging, but you don’t need to spend a lot on a graphic designer. If you’re more of the creative type, Canva is a free and easy-to-use graphic design site. If you prefer to outsource, Fiverr’s search platform lists a wide range of freelancers at a variety of prices, with some services starting around five dollars. Put your money where your audience is To ensure your posts are reaching your target demographic, select one or two posts that did well organically and allocate a few dollars a month to “boost” them, testing which one performs best with your target audience. There are tools in each social platform to help you further identify and define your audience and you can narrow based on age, gender, location and industry, though the level of granularity differs among platforms. Once you plug in who you want to reach, the platform will recommend ad spend. Keep in mind that the broader your audience is, the more you should expect to spend, so it’s smart to keep it niche. For example, if your target market is new dads in Chicago, arrange for your ad on life insurance to pop up on Instagram whenever a 22 to 35-year-old man walks into a specific hospital in Chicago. Twenty years ago, we had no guarantee that the pricey ad we placed in the newspaper would reach its intended audience. Now, it’s easier than ever to connect with our target demographic when they’re most likely to need our services. The key is to post consistently, keep your posts engaging and professional, and don’t be afraid to experiment with “boosting” a post or two. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can turn prospects into clients, all on a budget that works for you.