Insights

How to Build a Marketing Plan for Your Forex Brokerage

October 2, 2016

Running a business without targeting the right customers is like driving a car off-road: there’s no clear path ahead, going from A to B is random, and no future plans can be laid off. This is a solid management principle and it is valid in the forex brokerage industry as well.

A solid brokerage house is built on a strong inter-departments relationship as customer service, sales, IT and marketing departments should head in the same direction. Management is responsible for the vision, and people in this departments are responsible for executing that vision.

In order to reach the targeted customer group, a marketing plan is needed. There are two instances when a marketing plan is needed, and they are quite different: when the brokerage is established, and ongoing marketing after the launch.

 

Marketing Plan Before Launching the Brokerage Business

Starting any business is the subject of a business plan that takes into account expenses and incomes for at least three years forward, and marketing costs are part of the initial plans. These marketing costs will generally be estimated in a budget and these are one-time costs designed to make traders aware of a new brokerage.

Such a budget includes the costs of building a website, opening social media accounts and advertising in order to reach desired customers. A full social media presence involves accounts on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., including setting up a Google AdWords account.

Advertising at this stage should only consider letting people know a new brokerage house exists and the purpose is to drive traffic to the website. Any social media campaigns should target the desired customer group: male and female aged 18+, countries where the forex industry is more popular (Japan, US, United Kingdom, Singapore, etc.), and any other details that can help further divide until the right customer group is found.

 

Constant Marketing Campaigns

After launching the business and having a constant presence, it is time to let people know more about the products and services the broker is offering. Another reason for constant advertising is to let people know about specific discounts or promotions at any one time a broker may have.

Incomes are not constant in this industry as there are periods during a year when traders are not that active (hence, commissions are not generated). Such periods include summer months, Christmas and starting of New Year, etc. In order to supplement the lack of incomes during these times of the year, brokers have all kinds of promotions like welcome bonuses, etc., in order to attract new clients.

However, a constant marketing budget needs to be set up, ideally a monthly budget. This budget should consider promoting the business on social media, Google, and other search engines, as well as placing banners on other relevant websites.

Moreover, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) costs are falling into this category as well. These are monthly costs designed to bring traffic to the website and represent a marketing cost as traffic is generated by link-building on other online media sources.

The purpose of a marketing campaign is not only to attract new clients, even though any new client is a gain. A marketing campaign at this stage can, for example, target only awareness at the customer’s end. This way, marketing campaigns, and budgets can be split throughout a yearly business cycle.

Therefore, a solid marketing plan should be made on a yearly basis, and the budget should be split into three categories:

  • Promotions during less-active trading periods.
  • Monthly awareness campaigns to the relevant customers.
  • Constant SEO activity in order to rank on first pages on Google and other relevant search engines.

Having a marketing plan is mandatory for any business, including a brokerage. Ideally, this marketing plan should be built on a budget that is directly linked to monthly incomes the business generates, so strong months would result in more money to be spent on marketing campaigns.

This way, it is impossible for traders to miss the broker’s offering and it is a great way to quickly drive customers to the business.

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