Customer Reviews

The Professional's Guide to Financial Services Marketing: Bite-Sized Insights For Creating Effective Approaches

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a good read and I highly recommend it for the financial services professional. Mr. Nagdeman conveys experience and wisdom. In my experience as a business coach and consultant, I've come across many financial services professionals who are stuck in a rut using the same marketing techniques as everyone else and trying to keep up with their competitors. This book instills structure and "Tactical Implementation" using branding as foundation, to help financial service professionals to differentiate themselves.

The author sums up this problem neatly when he writes, "Unfortunately, many financial services executives fail to distinguish between strategically oriented, integrated marketing programs and specialized marketing activities implementation activities. For many, the 'M-word' is clearly a synonym for advertising or various others forms of promotion and tactical implementation - from direct mail programs and brochures to convention activities and chachkas." This illustrates the core problem with marketing in this industry- too much copycat behavior, too little differentiation. The real benefit of the book is the knowledge that you gain after establishing this problem, teaching you what to do to stand out and gain clients.

This book is a great addition to the library of the seasoned Financial Services professional, and a good foundation for the novice just entering the industry.

Not one of my favorite marketing books. In fact, I cannot recommend it. It might have been worth reading some five or ten years ago, but not today in 2009. Why were there two chapters on promotion - 4 and 7? Why was there no mention of online social media marketing? Why no talk about blogs? Why no talk about Twitter? Why no talk about ebooks, self-publishing? Why no talk about the need to create an online presence platform in order to brand yourself an expert and authority in your field? The reason this wasn't talked about is because the book is not worth all that much. It had an introduction and nine chapters as follows:

0. Introduction
1. Creating an extraordinarily effective marketing organization
2. Strategic planning
3. Tactical Implementation
4. Promotion
5. Effective sales support
6. Supporting strategic decision making
7. Promotion in the Internet Age
8. Strategies for long-term success
9. Afterward

The financial services industry is much like the legal industry. Both fields are full of highly trained/qualified professionals who have become commodities. If you merely get your license and hang out a shingle you cannot differentiate yourself from the crowd. As a result, you are a commodity and your ability to effectively market yourself and your business is a steep uphill battle. This book merely tells you to grin and bear it while you try to climb the hill.

For this book to have been valuable it would have emphasized that trying to climb the hill is wasted effort. To differentiate yourself you have to establish yourself as an expert and authority in a niche part of your field. You will have to do writing, speaking, seminars, workshops, and build an online presence though a stellar Web site, blogs, article postings, ebooks, and social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

I wanted to give the author the benefit of the doubt. So I visited his company Web site. It was slow moving, and didn't fit into my monitor screen. It wasn't interactive, and it felt outdated. Maybe the author has had success stories regarding marketing efforts for clients in the past, but I doubt he is successful in 2009 - at least what he presents in his book is not a recipe for success. 3 stars!

5.0 out of 5 stars
A Real-World Resource for Financial Marketing Professional

By John Hurley


As a thirty-five year veteran of the financial services industry who has led the marketing efforts of several broker/dealers, I found this book to be both informative and insightful. What makes this book invaluable to the financial services professional is that the author understands from first-hand experience the unique mindset of financial services professionals when it comes to marketing and promotion.

As I see it, the author's approach is ideal for getting financial professionals to "loosen up" and consider many new ideas. Each of the book's short chapters addresses a single marketing or promotional concept and encourages readers to consider its applicability in their business activities. The author pays special attention to strategic approaches that will help create "relevant differentiation," and also offers thoughts on how a variety of implementation approaches can be adapted for use in connection with financial products and services. While some of these approaches may be "old hat" in other industries, many are still in early stage adoption in financial services circles. Online marketing offers a perfect example of a potent marketing tool that the financial services industry is just beginning to explore. As a result, the book stresses the critical importance of the Internet and online marketing to the future of our industry and offers suggestions for effective online marketing.

This book adopts the tone of a discussion between financial professionals, rather than of a battle cry to do away with all the traditional approaches in favor of anything that is new and different. Instead, it discusses how each new concept can be effectively integrated in different marketing initiatives as part of the ongoing evolution of the financial services industry in this country. It is particularly relevant to the current times as financial services marketers seek new beginnings. I highly recommend it to anyone in the financial services industry who is serious about taking their marketing to the next level.

As someone who works with and coaches financial advisors on a daily basis, I highly recommend you read "The Professional's Guide to Financial Services Marketing".

This book draws upon the author's 20 plus years experience as a leader in the financial services marketing industry, and challenges financial advisors to "be the CEO of their own companies" by approaching their marketing as any consumer products company would. The book walks you through the marketing process, from strategic planning through tactical implementation. Each section focuses on a particular piece of the marketing puzzle and is filled with tactical step by step "how to's" along with real life commentary.

The book covers all the angles you would expect, and some that you wouldn't. For example, many financial advisors fail to harness the power of their sales support for marketing, promotions and referral gathering. The book covers this in detail.

There is no mention of blogging or social networks, but these sorts of tactics are usually not allowed by broker dealers for compliance reasons so I appreciate the author only focusing on tactics and ideas that can be implemented in the real world of financial services.

At the end of the day, many financial advisors talk about marketing, but very few know how to do it effectively. This book is the FA roadmap to marketing success, and should be required reading for trainees and 20 year veterans alike.

Five stars!

This is a great book for anyone involved in selling financial products and services. While some of the chapters are more applicable for a large financial organization than for an independent Financial Advisor like myself, I was able to get several ideas that I believe will help me generate significant incremental business. I especially like that each short chapter deals with a separate marketing concept and can stand alone. You don't have to read it all at once or even read the chapters in order. It is a great reference tool that you can consult whenever you need some new ideas. Personally, I found the most valuable chapters to be those that discussed ways that I can create more customer-focused communications and marketing materials.

This is a fine introductory marketing text for those somewhat new to the field, but you'll learn precious little about the unique challenges of successful financial services marketing. The book is peppered with examples and tales from GM, wine stores, John D Rockefeller and even "The Music Man", plus some very brief references to the obvious practices of huge financial services companies (who knew: AFLAC markets with a duck), but very little about what distinguishes financial services marketing from the marketing of consumer product goods, or many other products and services.

Judging from his bio, Nagdeman has a lot of experience in financial services marketing, but apparently you'll have to hire his firm if you want to know what he's learned over the years.

This book provides an excellent framework by which the marketing process for Financial Services Firms can be designed and implemented.

One of those books you can refer back to in time, as it provides a solid foundation of specific marketing approaches that might be considered by the Firm.

In The Professionals Guide to Financial Services Marketing, financial
services marketing guru Jay Nagdeman offers readers a wide variety of proven business-building techniques that can be applied in today's environment. The book presents a wide range of approaches offering financial service marketers ideas and strategies to grow their business.

This book represents a pleasant read and a great resource for financial
professionals who want to think out new marketing approaches and have the
motivation and desire to build and maintain a solid business model.