Two easy client Communications to celebrate the Fourth of July

Communicating with clients has never been easier.

Communicating with clients has never been easier.
I hope you had a chance to read the 50 practice management ideas shared in the print edition of Investment News this week. The ideas were shared during the June 9 webcast, so take a minute and identify the two or three you can start to implement right away. The ideas I covered focused on communicating with clients during the summer months.
Here is one communication you can deliver in the next day or so to share with clients the meaning of the Fourth of July and to wish them a happy holiday weekend.

The challenge: The holiday is a time of parades, beach getaways and celebrations with family and friends around the country. This is a weekend to celebrate, so take a few minutes right now to wish your clients a happy weekend and share a the meaning of independence. The challenge is to communicate effectively with your best clients before the holiday weekend begins on Friday.
The solution: Here are two ideas that come from top advisers we work with. Both are easy to implement, take just a few hours to complete and are cost-effective.
The first is to send a Fourth of July holiday card to your top 30-40 clients. One adviser said he didn’t have time to mail cards to all his clients. Agreed. The best practice here is to purchase 30-40 cards, run labels for your top 30-40 clients, stamp the cards and sign them. This is a perfect job for an intern or assistant. A personal card is one of the most meaningful touches to clients.
If you would like to communicate to the rest of your clients, consider an e-mail card or the strategy below.
Outsource the job of sending out cards to clients by using an outside service such as Corporate Greetings Inc. (www.corporategreetingsinc.com). They will send a handwritten card out to your clients for holidays including the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and birthdays for about $2.50 per card. You send the company your database, select the holiday cards with mailing dates and they take care of the mailings for you.
The second strategy is to e-mail a poem or story about the meaning of the upcoming holiday. One website for poems and stories about celebrating Independence Day is www.mrfreefree.com. One easy communication is to e-mail the poem to your clients and wish them a Happy Fourth of July weekend. The time is less than one hour, there is no cost for the poem and the results are priceless. Staying in touch with clients, especially the ones who represent the majority of your revenue, sets your practice apart and gives you a competitive edge.

Maureen Wilke has spent 20 years in marketing and wealth management with firms including Nuveen Investments and Sequoia System International. She has worked with thousands of advisers to increase the effectiveness of their practice and has developed The CONNECTED Advisor practice management system to help product distribution teams and advisers on practice management strategies. Sign up for the free Stay Connected newsletter at www.connectedadvisor.com.