AI and chatbots already leading the virtual charge

By Anthony O’Brien, Professional Planner, August 2, 2018

If you’re one of the 62 per cent of Australians purchasing online, you may have noticed a trend in the last few years. I saw it recently when booking flights with one major Australian airline.

During the process of, I was asked numerous times if I wanted help along the way, with a chat window appearing in the top left corner of the screen. It was made clear that ‘Jess’ was here to help me, and that if I had any questions, I could ask.

‘Jess’, of course, is not a real person and is a chatbot. It’s an example of how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing marketing and client services. This technology is already being used in financial services, and could be a core tool for planners.

Advertisements

PR and content marketing work best in tandem

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, 29 May 2018

Content marketing and public relations are similar beasts and don’t let the marketing cognoscenti tell you any different.

There are those who continue to believe PR is headed the way of the dodo, with the emergence of social media. It hasn’t – and it won’t. What has probably changed is the way savvy companies use PR in tandem with social media to reach more eyeballs.
Why combine PR with content marketing?

Quality PR and content marketing share common ground. Both try to generate content by tracking the latest developments and trends across the industries wherein they operate.

Market your advice to the next generation

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, 21 May 2018

Millennials are about to surpass baby boomers as America’s most significant living adult generation, according to population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Australia, it’s fair to say we’re headed in the same direction as the US. We also know the digital generation buy and consume products very differently to older generations, and have more disposable income according to the ABS.

Given the next generation’s burgeoning buying power and the imminent transfer of wealth expected from older to younger generations, the so called Millennial age cohort has become a lucrative client prospect for financial advisors.

For those marketing to Millennial clients, it’s important to ask whether what you’re doing is likely to resonate or is even in the right ballpark.

Ambiguous content is a bad idea

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, 30 April, 2018

Content marketing has been king for several years now, as companies clamour to reach and engage with their target audience.

The ubiquity of content marketing has subsequently created a fierce debate about what represents content and what is real news.

I read with interest a recent university study of PR professionals in the US that demonstrated 64 per cent of survey respondents believe that, within five years, most people will not be able to tell the difference between paid content, such as an advertorial, and real news journalism.

In the era of fake news, the line has unquestionably been blurred, as content and traditional journalism jostle to reach as many eyeballs as possible.

The long and the short of ‘thought-leadership’ vs sales

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, 26 February 2018

Agencies have different ideas about how to produce cut-through content. Some will tell you that the key is the quality of the writing or videos you’re dishing up. Others will tell you that if you don’t have your search engine optimisation and reach down pat, you’ll be behind the pack. But this advice addresses only the delivery of your content. You also need to make a decision about its purpose.

You must decide whether the content you are creating is to be used for thought-leadership or as sales.

Beyond Facebook

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, January 22, 2018

Last week we addressed possible marketing and sales resolutions for 2018, with embracing digital transformation at the top of our list.

With Facebook’s recent announcement that it is about to rejig its algorithms to ensure users receive more personal content than news feeds, marketers and business owners must reassess how they use digital marketing channels.

Digital transformation is more than social media

Digital transformation is driving everything we do in business today. It’s changing the way we interact with our clients and automate our back-office processes.

What is key person insurance?

By Anthony O’Brien for Money Magazine

Almost two years ago, we lost my long-term Corpwrite business partner, great friend and fellow Money writer Chris Walker to cancer.

I won’t dwell on the details of his illness but, over the past couple of years as his health deteriorated, Chris urged me to apply for “key person insurance” – sensible advice given his health status.

However, I’d had income insurance for years, and deemed it would cover me sufficiently if something happened – so I ignored Chris’s advice.

But some key-person insurance would have helped our business, Corpwrite Australia, mitigate the financial tribulations of losing Chris’s unique skills when he retired in January 2016.

It’s easy to see why video is taking over

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner, December 12, 2017

Video has been a marketing star of 2017 and its future looks even brighter. Cisco researchsuggests audio-visual content will represent 82 per cent of consumer internet traffic by 2021, up from 73 per cent in 2016.

If you don’t have video content on your website, then add it to your to-do list for 2018. A video is perfect for our busy times. It’s easy to consume, engaging and enables your business to tell a story in a short time. It’s also relatively cost-effective.

How to access disability funding through the NDIS

By Anthony O’Brien for Money Magazine, September 2017

The NDIS is set to transform the way the disabled get help and this guide explains what’s available.

For people with disabilities and their families, getting care and support can take a big financial toll.

In fact, Australians with disabilities have it tougher than their counterparts in many other nations, with our spending on long-term care for those under 65 less than half that of most Scandinavian countries and just over half the UK’s. The employment rate for disabled Australians is low compared with the OECD average, with 45% living in or near poverty.

If disability is a part of life for you or a family member, you want to make the most of the support available. Here I give a rundown of the government’s pensions and allowances, and the new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).