A Marketing Guide for RIAs: Develop a Networking Strategy

Step 2:  Identify Networking Opportunities

Once you have identified exactly who you want to meet, research where these people congregate.  Don’t limit your search to traditional networking events like BNI or Chamber of Commerce.  Consider professionals associations, charitable organizations, social clubs, community groups, conferences and alumni associations to name a few.  Networking can take many forms including attending an event, joining an association and volunteering on a committee.  The more creative you are in finding different networking opportunities, the less likely your competition will be there.   If you aren’t sure where to find your target market or COIs, use LinkedIn as a research tool.  Find a prospect or COI in your network you would like to replicate and see which associations and groups they list on their profile.  These may be organizations you should consider joining as well.  You may also want to consider attending casual events that are posted on Twitter (Tweet Ups) and Meetup.com.  Once you have completed your research, use the boxes below to write down the networking opportunities you will consider attending to meet both your target market and COIs.

Networking events should be included on your marketing calendar like all of your other marketing activities.  Begin by setting a goal for how many networking events you want to attend per week or per month.  A goal of one event per week is a good place to start for someone just starting to network.  Then add the events to your calendar on a monthly basis.  This will ensure that you are networking on a consistent basis.  It is more effective to focus on a few groups and associations and attend their events on a regular basis rather than attend a wide variety of events one time.

Step 4: Create a Follow Up System

Meeting your ideal clients and COIs is only one part of converting your networking efforts into clients.  More likely than not, meeting someone once will not result in a new client.  You will need to create a system that ensures you are staying top of mind with your networking contacts.  Ideally you should stay in touch on a monthly basis.  To do this, you will need to utilize a combination of follow up methods.  Check the methods below that you plan to use to follow up with all of your networking contacts:

Step 5: Track Your Networking

Like all forms of marketing, some of your networking activities will be worthwhile while others will not be.  To measure which events are working and which ones are not, enter all of the contacts you meet into your CRM system or on a spreadsheet (see example below).  Create a field or column indicating the contact’s information, where you met, and when you met.  On an annual basis, review all of your networking contacts and identify which activities produced the best contacts.  If the networking hasn’t lead directly to new clients, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your networking based on the quality of the contacts you have met.  In other words, which activities have introduced you to the types of people you want as clients or the types of COIs who have access to your ideal clients?    By noting when you met, you can begin to estimate how long you should expect to wait before your networking activities begin to pay off in the future.

Networking, like all good marketing, is a long-term strategy that requires a clear focus, a systemized approach and effective follow through.  If you create a strategy using this focused approach, you will find that networking will be one of your most effective marketing strategies.

About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for Registered Investment Advisory firms. Kristen works with individual advisors and firms to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.