The global pandemic has impacted the financial advisory industry in ways never before experienced. Looking back, there was a time when most firms, and subsequently agents, only had one way of reaching customers: through a direct sales force or through traditional marketing approaches. Print ads and telemarketing used to be favoured by many Financial Consultants.
In the age of digitalisation, plunging subscriptions for traditional print media and stricter regulations against cold calls, have made these methods less effective. We need to adapt. Enter: the hybrid marketing model.
What is Hybrid Marketing?
Hybrid marketing is a promotional approach that combines the best of both worlds in traditional and digital marketing. Instead of focusing solely on online platforms or in-person touchpoints, hybrid marketing merges them to create a more effective and extensive outreach plan. It mixes and matches marketing approaches from both categories, utilising methods both new and old to maintain a consistent brand image and build a seamless customer experience.
Often known as omni-channel marketing or multi-channel marketing, the concept of a hybrid marketing model is novel and broadly defined. While there is no clear consensus on its precise definition as yet, we know that it aims to deploy brand awareness and, ultimately, provide goods and services by merging brick and mortar endeavours with digital marketing ones.
Agile enough to bridge the gap between marketing channels that seem to bear no common ground, the hybrid marketing model is a truly fresh and exciting strategy that better engages, communicates, and markets to customers in a digitally evolving world.
Why a Hybrid Strategy Works
Despite the rise in popularity of online marketing, traditional marketing methods such as billboards, pamphlets, TV commercials, and radio spots don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Traditional marketing may even be more crucial in certain scenarios and to certain audiences! The sphere of digital marketing and its pervasiveness amidst data privacy concerns can turn away potential clients. It’s no secret, either, that virtually anybody can create a profile or page and promote it online.
Those wary of scammers and digital fraud are likely to remain sceptical of online marketing efforts. To many who have grown up before the digital age, a business that invests in traditional marketing often comes across as more legitimate and trustworthy. As a result, it’s highly unlikely that traditional marketing will disappear altogether in the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, a hybrid marketing model enables you to reach more consumers. You could, for example, use online marketing to target millennials. But you’re far less likely to reach older generations with the same level of success. To maximise your opportunities and touch base with diverse clientele, you should use multiple channels to promote yourself online and offline. Hybrid marketing increases your reach and gives you more chances to convert a consumer into a buyer.
For a Financial Consultant who is still finding their footing, it pays to be prepared. Starting off with a hybrid model offers you the opportunity to discover what works best for you. Is it SEO? LinkedIn marketing? Or perhaps your winning smile and sales pitch? Even in a situation where you might find yourself no longer able to afford your multi-channel strategy, you’d have determined where your expertise lies and can focus on whatever your business needs.
Tips for the Modern Consultant
1. Ensure Consistency Across the Board
For an individual who relies largely on a personal brand, having that brand relay a consistent message across channels is essential. First and foremost, we look at the overall image of your profiles and pages. It certainly goes without saying that using different colour schemes on your website, business cards and in your print ads will disorient your audience. Colour consistency helps to reinforce your branding across marketing channels.
Scheduling is another factor to take into account. An effective, integrative marketing plan makes sure that the marketing materials go live on all channels at the same time. No, it doesn’t mean that you should over-saturate your platforms with content all on the same day. It simply means you should strive to see to it that your potential client’s offline to online transition is a seamless one.
2. Don’t Copy and Paste Your Content
While consistency in branding, messaging, and experiences is important, they should also feel natural in their surroundings. Running a hybrid model doesn’t mean you should be posting the same things on every platform possible – you’ll need to adapt your content to each channel individually. Consider the nuances of each platform and be creative while tailoring your material to fit the medium!
A mail-out brochure, for example, should focus on all of the products or services you have to offer. When utilising social media for marketing, on the other hand, it’s better to focus on brief but powerful messages that establish a strong brand identity. In the end, the messaging must be consistent. However, the way you deliver it should be specific to the platform.
3. Collect Data at Each Touchpoint
Don’t let the opportunity slip past – always think about how you can turn in-person connections into valuable digital data! Emails, phone numbers, and addresses are all information that you can use to follow up with your customers after an exhibition, talk or live webinar. It’s important to keep in contact digitally after a face-to-face event and continue the relationship or retarget them later on.
Making the Most of Hybrid Marketing
Hybrid marketing is not a passing fad. It’s a comprehensive digital marketing strategy built on firm foundations of the various marketing approaches available and how they interact with one another. To be an effective hybrid marketer, you must be willing to investigate trends, refresh your skillset, and put your research into practice.
Against a backdrop of accelerating media and technology complexity, evolving privacy regulations, and rising consumer expectations, it’s clear that a combination of offline and online strategies is the way forward.
The important components to success as a Financial Consultant in Singapore are conviction in your trade, an unmatched work ethic, and hybrid marketing methods.
In the future of marketing, we can expect that diversified efforts will give consultants an upper hand in improving the finances and, therefore, the lives of their clients.
