The Role Relationship Marketing Plays For Retirement Planners

When it comes to retirement planning, relationship marketing plays an important role. By building strong relationships with clients, retirement planners can better understand their needs and goals. This, in turn, allows for more personalized and tailored advice. 

In addition, by maintaining a good relationship with clients, retirement planners can stay up-to-date on their financial situation and make changes to their strategy as needed. 

Finally, when clients have a good relationship with their retirement planner, they’re more likely to refer family and friends, which helps grow the business. In short, retirement planners who focus on relationship marketing are more likely to be successful in the long run.

Types of Relationship Marketing

There are several types of relationship marketing out there today. Some of the more common include basic, reactive, accountable, and proactive relationship marketing. Let’s look closer at each!

Basic Relationship Marketing

Basic relationship marketing is all about creating and maintaining strong relationships with your customers. It’s about understanding their needs and desires and then delivering the goods and services they need in a way that exceeds their expectations.

It’s not just about making a sale, it’s about building a long-term relationship that will bring repeat business and referrals. To do this, you need to cultivate trust and mutual respect. You need to be genuine in your interactions, and always put the customer first.

It takes time and effort to build strong relationships, but it’s worth it. Happy customers are more loyal, more likely to recommend you to others, and more likely to come back again and again.

Reactive Relationship Marketing

Reactive relationship marketing is a term used in business to describe the process of developing and nurturing customer relationships in a responsive and timely manner.

It’s important to be reactive to customers’ needs and concerns to provide them with the best possible experience. This involves tracking customer feedback and complaints, as well as monitoring social media channels for any mentions of your company or product.

It also involves being proactive in reaching out to customers who’ve had a good experience with your product or service, to thank them and encourage them to spread the word. By establishing proactive and reactive relationships with customers, you can create a loyal fanbase that will continue to do business with you.

Accountable Relationship Marketing

Accountable relationship marketing is a new way of thinking about marketing that emphasizes creating and maintaining long-term relationships with customers. 

Rather than simply trying to sell them a product or service, accountable relationship marketers focus on creating value for their customers and building a rapport with them over time. 

This approach can result in more loyal customers and higher sales over the long term. To be successful, accountable relationship marketers need to be good at communicating with customers, listening to their needs, and being proactive in addressing any problems that may arise. 

They also need to have a strong customer service orientation and be committed to providing high-quality products and services.

Proactive Feedback Relationship Marketing

The best way to think of proactive feedback is that it’s relationship marketing on steroids. Just as in traditional relationship marketing, the goal is to build and maintain strong, lasting relationships with customers. But in proactive feedback, the focus is on getting real-time feedback from customers so you can course-correct on the fly and keep them happy. 

That involves engaging with customers at every step of their journey and constantly soliciting feedback so you can improve the customer experience. It’s a never-ending cycle of trying to make your product or service better and better so that customers keep coming back for more.

These are all types of relationship marketing you’ll put to use with handwritten notes for retirement planners. 

Now let’s jump into learning more about retirement planning!

What is Retirement Planning?

Retirement planning is the process of creating a financial strategy to ensure a planner’s clients have enough money saved to cover living expenses during retirement. There are a number of factors to consider when creating a retirement plan, including retirement age, desired lifestyle, and estimated lifespan. Many people choose to work with retirement planners to develop a personalized plan that meets their unique needs.

There are a variety of retirement savings options available, including 401(k)s, IRAs, and annuities. Retirement planners can help a person choose the best option for their situation. They can also provide guidance on how much someone should be saving each month to reach their retirement goals.

Creating a retirement plan is an important step in ensuring a comfortable retirement. Working with a retirement planner can help make the process easier and less overwhelming.

Who Needs Retirement Planning?

As retirement approaches, many people begin to think about how they will spend their golden years. For some, retirement is a time to travel and explore new hobbies. Others see it as a time to relax and enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle. 

Regardless of the retirement goals, it’s important to plan ahead to make sure the needed financial resources to support a chosen lifestyle are in place. That’s where retirement planners come in. 

Retirement planners can help clients assess their current financial situations and develop a plan to ensure they have the resources needed to live the retirement they want. They can also help navigate the often complex world of retirement investing, making sure the money is working hard to support future goals. 

Whether someone’s just starting to think about retirement or they’re already retired, retirement planners can help make the most of those golden years.

Retirement Planner Marketing Basics

Before we head into the power of handwritten notes for retirement planners, let’s take a look at where to start – marketing basics. 

• Start by creating a website and social media profiles: If you already have a website and social media profiles in place, fantastic. If not, it’s time to get going. The process isn’t difficult or expensive, but there are a few things to keep in mind. One is consistency. The color scheme, font choice, image, and your brand voice all need to be consistent across the web. Your name needs to be consistent as well. Your website and all social platform user names need to match exactly.  
• Use content marketing to attract leads: Content marketing includes things like blog posts, articles, and infographics. While current events tend to get more traffic when the topic is hot, evergreen articles pull in traffic for years (even decades). Ask yourself, “what does my target audience want to know about retirement that I can provide expert advice on?” Use keyword research to refine the article for the best results on search engines.  
• Nurture leads with email marketing: As people visit your evergreen retirement planning posts, offer the option of signing up for a weekly newsletter. 80% of the newsletters you send need to be 100% free of any sales language. You should always include a call to action (CTA) because readers need you to tell them what step to take next, but never a hard sell.  
• Keep clients happy and engaged with follow-up communications: Here’s one place where handwritten notes for retirement planners come into play. People love to feel valued by the professionals they work with. Handwritten notes done right builds trust and loyalty among your clients. There’s even a sense of reciprocity when receiving a handwritten note, so recipients are more likely to contact you.
• Measure your success and continue refining your marketing strategy: Across all marketing strategies, including email, social media, content, and handwritten notes, measuring campaign performance is crucial. This information tells you where you need to make changes and, soon after, the results of those changes. No matter the business, marketing campaigns need to be adjusted regularly to stay at maximum effectiveness.

Why Handwritten Notes for Retirement Planners?

In an age of automated marketing, personalized notes are essential because they provide a sense of uniqueness. Here are four additional reasons why you need to use handwritten notes for retirement planners.

• Emails generated by automatic systems are predictable and robotic. If you open your inbox at any time, you’ll receive the same message as thousands of others. When it comes to personalized messages, handwritten notes are the ideal alternative to the thousands of auto-generated messages that flood our inboxes every day.
• What matters is the thought. Don’t bombard your customers with 100 emails or 28 postcards! Nearly 100% of handwritten notes are read, and 5x as many people respond to them as average direct mail. Creating meaningful relationships takes only a few pieces per year.
• Marketing efforts are complemented by handwritten notes. A cohesive experience for the customer must be created by integrating all of these communications. A handwritten direct mail piece gives you the opportunity to appeal directly to your customers in a personal, eye-catching manner. This method of driving response is another way to grow your business!
• When your product is consistently useful, people will trust it because they know they can count on it. When they see this, they are more likely to buy from you than from someone else. Consistency breeds trust and trust grows profits.

Types of Handwritten Notes For Marketing

There are three types of handwritten notes predominantly used in today’s marketing landscape. All are claimed to be “handwritten,” but as you’ll see not all are created equal. With advances in AI technology, handwritten notes for retirement planners are simple to write and send at scale, but you have to choose the right type of note if you want an amazing open and read rate!

• Printed notes with a handwriting font.

Open any word composer on your phone, tablet, or computer and you’ll come across handwriting fonts. Some of the more popular include Reenie Beanie Font, Wild Youth, Homemade Apple, and Marrisa. But, rest assured, there are hundreds to choose from. 

With high-quality paper and print quality, there’s no doubt printed handwritten notes will look like the real thing – at first glance. However, all it takes is a single smudge test (lick your finger and try to smear the ink) for someone to tell the difference. 

Printed notes with a handwriting font are the least effective form of handwritten notes for retirement planners.

• Printed notes with a traditional font that’s “signed.”

Imagine a typed letter with a signature at the bottom. That’s exactly what printed notes with a traditional font that’s “signed” looks like. Depending on the “signature” these handwritten notes for retirement planners can look real, similar to the notes using a handwriting font. 

Even if the signature is real, written in pen and smudgeable, the traditional font leaves the recipient feeling like the sender sat next to a stack of notes and just signed them without considering what was written. 

Printed notes with a traditional font that’s “signed” are about as effective as using a handwriting font. There’s a better option. 

• AI-created ink on paper notes.

The best of the best in handwritten notes are created by AI-driven robots that hold real pens and write with perfect pressure, slant, and flow. These robots use a base font, but programming tells them to make small changes in each letter, press firmly for that signature pen on paper look, write in uneven lines (not parallel like printed fonts), and more. 

When partnered with a handwritten envelope, AI-powered handwritten notes for retirement planners are the most effective with a near 100% open and read rate. 

What Makes Handwritten Notes So Successful?

Many years ago, handwritten marketing was the go-to option for businesses of all sizes. Then, technology took over and everything turned digital. The digital impact grew and grew until a worldwide pandemic forced everyone to stay home. That’s when people realized just how much they missed handwritten communication. In addition to the desire for human connection, handwritten notes for retirement planners are also effective because:

• Higher open and engagement rates.

It is estimated, by several experts and research, that handwritten notes have open and engagement rates near 100%. 

• Reaches decision-makers more often.

The sorting process in homes and businesses involves going through the mail to throw away the useless junk mail. Mass mailings like flyers tend to go first. Bills tend to go into their own pile. What’s left are handwritten notes for retirement planners that can’t be thrown away because the sorters aren’t familiar with the sender. At home that means opening and reading these notes. In business, it means that handwritten mail makes it all the way to the decision-makers who hold the purse strings.

• No one sends written mail anymore.

According to the United States Postal Service, the average household receives only 10 pieces of handwritten mail each year. Compare that to hundreds of email and text messages a day and it’s easy to understand why handwritten notes for retirement planners are so effective.

• Handwritten notes are saved.

Harvard Business Review shared a story in 2013 of a man who received a handwritten note from someone who recommended a book over lunch. According to the recipient, “I barely knew Bridgett, but her note said that I’d helped her organization and that she appreciated it and wished me luck. It was a gesture that stayed with me and forever led me to view Bridgett as a thoughtful person.” 

When your handwritten note makes someone feel special and appreciated, they keep it and display it. The recipient wants everyone to see the time and dedication put into the message. Displayed notes are read by passersby, thus introducing you (and your brand) to more and more people. This is basic word-of-mouth marketing, it’s free and very effective.

• Personal, customized communication builds trust and value.

Based on a publication by CLIMB Professional Development and Training from Portland Community College, effective personal communication works by “building trust, [creating] better relationships, and [increasing] engagement.”

How to Use Handwritten Notes at Scale

When a company “scales” its marketing campaign, it means it’s increasing the amount of money and resources invested to reach more people. This can involve increasing the budget for advertising, hiring more people to work on the marketing team, or expanding the distribution channels through which the campaign is being delivered.

One of the benefits of scaling a marketing campaign is it can help a company achieve economies of scale. This means that as the company invests more money in its marketing efforts, it will eventually generate more sales at a lower cost per sale. This can lead to increased profits and a higher return on investment for the company’s marketing efforts.

While scaling is exactly what you want to be doing as a business, it’s impossible for a retirement planner to effectively scale a growing handwritten notes campaign by hand and here’s why.

Imagine you want to start a handwritten notes campaign with a list of 500 contacts. If it takes 10 minutes to write a single handwritten note it would then take 83 hours to finish. That’s 83 straight hours so no pauses, no drinking, no eating, no sleeping – nothing but writing notes. 

Then there’s the fact that personally sending 500 handwritten notes comes at a relatively high cost. You’ll have to pay for the stationary, 500 stamps, pens, and labor. At a pay rate of $20 an hour, you’re talking more than $2500 for 500 notes. A handwritten notes service charging $3 per note would only charge $1500 and it doesn’t take 83 hours to complete.

You need a handwritten notes service!

What to Look For in a Handwritten Notes Service

A simple search for handwritten notes will bring up many retailers offering the service, but not all these companies offer the same note quality, turnaround time, and results. When searching for a company to write handwritten notes for retirement planners, ensure they use/offer:

• High-quality stock: If you pick up a note and the card bends in your hands, you didn’t choose a high-quality handwritten notes service. Card stock should be no less than 100-lb weight. Services that use 110+ lb weight are even better. Envelopes should be in the 70-80 lb range.
• Handwriting options: How many handwriting options do you have to choose from – one or two? The best handwritten notes services offer more than a couple handwriting styles because they know the customer wants the option to choose a style that reflects the business personality and brand.
• Real ink pens: Using real ink pens may seem like a given, but many handwritten notes services choose to use smudge-proof pens and fine-tip markers. Yes, these notes are still handwritten, but without that smeared result from the lick and smudge test, how is the reader supposed to know it’s an authentic handwritten note? The effectiveness is in the details.
• Personalization: How detailed can the personalization be for handwritten notes? If you don’t have the option to send a note with detailed customization, choose a different provider. You should be able to personalize more than just the name – there should be options to adjust the wording so each note is unique to the recipient.
• Traditional stamp: Printed postage ruins everything a handwritten note for retirement planners offers. Remember, the envelope must be handwritten and the stamp applied by hand to qualify as a high-quality handwritten note.
• Fast turnaround time: You don’t want to sacrifice quality for speed, but a service that takes weeks to send handwritten notes isn’t an option. Let’s say you’re sending thank-you notes to clients who recently signed up for retirement planning. Thank-you notes are supposed to be delivered within days of the transaction, so waiting two weeks just isn’t on the agenda. The best services offer turnaround within one business day.
• Ability to scale: Starting out maybe you’re sending 100 handwritten notes for retirement planners each month. Then, a celebrity talks about the importance of planning for retirement on a few major social media sites and suddenly the world wants to learn more. Does the service give you the option to change from those 100 notes a month to 1000 or 10000? It should!
• All-inclusive pricing: When you’re quoted a price from a handwritten notes service, ask upfront if that price is all-inclusive. The price should include the card stock, envelope, stamp, and all fees. We’ve found far too many companies that hide fees that come back to bite the retirement planners in the bud before they even get started on a campaign.
• Option to add collateral: Can you add a gift to your handwritten notes? Maybe you want to include a gift card, gift certificate or Nest candle. Then again, you may want to add a business card. Always choose a notes company that offers you the option to store collateral to add to your handwritten notes.
• Dedicated account representative: You’re new to handwritten notes for retirement planners, so how are you going to know what templates work best or how often you should send notes? You need an expert by your side to maximize effectiveness every step of the way. High-quality notes services offer dedicated account representatives for every client.

How to Get the Best Traction With Handwritten Marketing

Before we get into the details of how you can use handwritten notes for retirement planning, let’s look at a few things you want to keep in mind. The idea is to gain traction with notes from the first send.

• Don’t sell with every note: This one’s easy. The 80/20 rule says that 80% of your messages should be imparting valuable information to the receiver. The other 20% of the time you use marketing to sell. Now, this 80/20 works across all communication platforms, including social media. Handwritten notes are best used as a means of building relationships and trust between company and client.
• Make use of tracking options: If you can’t measure the effectiveness of your handwritten notes campaign, how are you going to adjust if necessary? QR codes are the optimal tracking option for handwritten notes. Results are measured by the number of scans per send. If your first send comes back with only a few scans, partner with your account representative to make some changes for the next send. One small change can mean all the difference between two scans and 200.

Take time to research a target audience: Niche marketing has proven to be an efficient strategy. Using things like age, location, median income, and others, you can narrow down each target audience to a specific type of person. You’ll compose a set of handwritten notes for one, specific niche and another for a different niche. The more you narrow your target audience and customize it to that audience, the more effective your handwritten notes campaign will be.

Retirement Planning Triggers for Handwritten Notes

There’s no set age to start retirement planning – but the earlier the better. People who start and maintain retirement planning at a younger age tend to retire more comfortably when the time comes.

• 18-24 years old: College graduation occurs during this time. Getting out into the workforce and starting to invest money in retirement occurs around this time. Many retirement planners don’t think about marketing to this age group, but now is the best time to reach out. You can start with a handwritten note offering a free consultation. 
• 25-34 years old: From 25-34 years old people are finding their way around adult life. Maybe they decided to hold off on retirement planning until they were securely in a job they wanted to stick with. Now that they’re settled in a career, remind them to start financially planning for retirement now with a handwritten note for retirement planners. 
• 35-44 years old: Kids tend to enter the picture between 35 and 44 years old. Starting a family is often a reminder that time moves quickly and, before long, the kids will be out of the house and retirement will be upon you. This is the time when people start getting serious about retirement planning. 
• 45-54 years old: Starting at age 50, a number of retirement plans, including 401K and IRA accounts, allow participants to add “catch up” contributions that go above and beyond the typical contribution allowances. A handwritten note explaining the “catch up” process is the perfect choice for this age bracket.
• 55+ years old: From 55 and up the number of possible handwritten note triggers increases exponentially. As retirement planners know, the ages of 55, 59 ½, 60, 65, and 70 ½ are all perfect times to send handwritten notes for retirement planners. Topics can include early and mandated withdrawals among many others.

Handwritten Notes Templates for Retirement Planners

We’ve covered why you should choose handwritten notes for retirement planners, what you should look for in a handwritten notes service, and even age-based triggers for handwritten notes, but what are you supposed to write?

• 18-24 years old:

Dear [first.name],

Whether you’re just graduating high school or you’ve finished up your degree it’s never too early to start retirement planning. I’m [sender.first.name] and I specialize in [specialty]. I have a few creative and wildly effective retirement strategies I’d love to review with you. These tactics work especially well for people just starting out.

Would it be possible to share 5 minutes so I can show you how to make your money work for you?

I look forward to connecting with you.

[sender.full.name]

[contact.information]

• 25-34 years old:

Dear [first.name],

Now that you’ve settled into the workforce have you considered getting started on retirement planning? I’m [sender.first.name] with [sender.business] and I specialize in [specialty]. I have some proven-effective ideas about how you can save more for retirement without feeling a significant impact on your net income. 

If we can share just 5 minutes, I can show you how you can save more money for retirement starting now!

I look forward to connecting with you.

[sender.full.name]

[contact.information]

• 35-44 years old:

Dear [first.name],

The time has come to start saving for retirement and that 401k or IRA at your job’s not enough. I’m [sender.first.name] and my goal is to help people live a happier, more stable retirement. I’ve worked with people in [city] for more than [number] years and I just had to reach out to offer solutions for how you can save more money for retirement starting now. 

I’m interested in sharing just 5 minutes of your time to show you how to make your money work for you.

I look forward to connecting with you.

[sender.full.name]

[contact.information] 

• 45-54 years old:

Dear [first.name],

Retirement is creeping closer all the time – are you ready? I’m [sender.first.name] and I’ve been working with residents in and around [city] for [number] years. During that time I’ve had the pleasure of helping people grow their retirement savings beyond what they ever expected. 

I have some forward-thinking ideas to help you grow your money. Would it be possible to share just 5 minutes of your time?

I’d love to connect with you. 

[sender.full.name]

[contact.information]

• 55+ years old:

Dear [first.name],

Retirement is right around the corner – are you financially ready? Have you started saving? And if so, do you understand your retirement portfolio and what it means for you? I’m [sender.first.name] and I work to help people like you better understand their retirement savings and maximize the potential of their portfolio. I’ve been helping people in [city] for [number] years and I’d love to help you too!

If we can connect for just 5 minutes of your time I can share with you how you can help your money grow faster so you retire easier.

I look forward to connecting with you soon.

[sender.full.name]

[contact.information]

Handwritten Notes for Retirement Planners Just Work

In a world where digital communications are drowning everyone, a handwritten note for retirement planners is the perfect way to stand out from the crowd. They are wildly effective and with households only receiving 10 handwritten mailings a year, they’re bound to be noticed! Whether you want to send 100 notes or 1000, handwritten notes for retirement planning just work.