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.

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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).

The many numbers behind your marketing ROI

By Anthony O’Brien, for Professional Planner, October 9, 2017

Calculating the return on investment (ROI) is an age-old question when it comes to allocating a budget for marketing.

Unquestionably, a marketing budget and determining an appropriate ROI are linked. However, they are not the only numbers you should be considering when formulating your marketing and sales approach.

Start with the strategy…including your numeric targets

Regular readers of my posts will be aware that I believe fervently in starting with a strategy. Planning is crucial to producing a winning marketing program right. That said, it’s quite astonishing how many businesses still fail to include their revenue and margin numbers in the strategy process.

Three marketing elements you can’t afford to ignore

By Anthony O’Brien, for Professional Planner, July 3, 2017

 

There’s a common view in the business world that marketing is a combination of “pretty pictures and nice words”. In other words, marketing is purely about brand and communications.

It’s one of my personal frustrations about marketing, and to be honest there’s much more to being a strong marketer than running campaigns and building engaging copy.

I’ve long been a believer in the theory that for a marketing strategy to work, the person writing the plan needs to truly understand your business, its balance sheet, fulfilment processes, how it generates new revenues, and so on.

What’s in a statistic?

By Anthony O’Brien for Professional Planner August 28, 2017

Recently, the Financial Planning Association sent me a media release detailing its latest research on Australians’ attitudes to finance. It left me pondering the way we use research and statistics in marketing.

A valuable statistic can add punch to your marketing activities. An attention-catching figure is easy for people to digest and understand, and can give weight to a specific claim you’re making. For example, one of the stats from the FPA research reveals that: “80 per cent of working-age Australians are stressed about money and finances, with one in four indicating acute stress levels.”