Get to the point

I accept it is difficult to market private client services to a prospective client who could, quite literally, be anyone you pass on the street. However, that's no excuse for relying on 'box ticking' marketing. Spending money to repeat what you've always done does not equate to efficiency or, more importantly, cost-efficiency.

Once upon a time you could sponsor a roundabout, buy some space in the local paper or take a billboard at the local railway station; sign a cheque; and put away your marketing plan for another year. Job done. Whether or not this actually generated any work was of no consequence. The fact you'd signed off the order meant you'd 'done some marketing'.

Today, it is a very different world.

Competition is everywhere. It's on the internet. It's on the high street, with household-name retailers now offering legal and financial advice. Even the banks are getting in on pretty much every act with a distinct advantage. They have an interactive (and I would say overly aggressive) market-facing tool: the teller. Tellers give the banks face-to-face contact with their clients every day, which in turn provides them with the opportunity to introduce the offer that gives them the most commission that week.

Obviously you don't have the resources to compete with giant PLCs. Intensive TV campaigns are out and we'll leave haranguing people while they're shopping to others. But where does that leave you? How are you going to compete?

The first thing is to look at your marketing plan. Look at what you're spending and then look at the return that each line of spend is generating. I don't mean woolly things such as brand awareness or goodwill, I'm talking cash. If each pound you spend doesn't return more than £1.01 (or, more realistically, £2), it isn't working.

Market tactics

Then have a think about your clients and the ones you'd like to have. What is your market? How would you like your practice to develop? Once you have that picture in your mind (we call it a brand cameo), you will know where your clients congregate, what they read and make more informed decisions as to how they buy professional advice. Once you have all of this information to hand you can choose your tactics accordingly.

And what are those tactics? Well, they're not sponsoring roundabouts or buying advertorials in the local free sheet (whatever the salesperson says its circulation is, more than 85 per cent go in the recycling without even being opened).

It's about becoming visible to those client cameos you've created. If you would like to become visible to foreign nationals looking at relocating to the UK, I suggest you need to get closer links to the high-end estate agents in your area - after all, it's tricky to move without a house.

If you want to attract the 'yummy mummy' market, you need to be visible in the places where they tend to hang out, such as spas and fitness clubs. Perhaps you could even host a fashion show in conjunction with local retailers. That type of event would not only generate some local press coverage (standard editorial that costs nothing and is of far greater interest to the reader), it would also gain you instant access to the shops' clientele.

To gain access to young up and coming professionals with a view to keeping them for life, informal lunchtime clinics for managing local businesses may be an option.

These aren't just examples for illustration, these are initiatives I have seen work. The end result of each led the fee earners to build profile in the right areas. More than that, they were able to engage on a personal level with their clients and develop a relationship that not only led to work but also generated much more via referral.

And until someone shows me a roundabout that can do all that - sponsored or otherwise - I will not be dissuaded that this is real marketing.

Douglas McPherson is director at Size 10 1/2 Boots

He writes a regular blog about marketing for Private Client Adviser