You're listening to “Financial Advisor Marketing”—the best show on the planet for financial advisors who want to get more clients, without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal.
James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard.
James: Financial advisors, listen up, especially if you serve people who are in their 60s, because a record 4.1 million Americans will turn 65 this year. That statistic comes from Jason Fichtner, Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He also estimates that this surge will continue until 2027. What does this mean for financial advisors? It means that this is quite literally the greatest time in American history to be someone who helps people transition into retirement, specifically at that age, which is the traditional age for retirement. [01:05.8]
If you were to go up and down the street and poll people on what age they think of when you say retirement age, most of those people will say 65. So, if you're someone who helps people around that age, then the next few years can be a gold rush for you. It also means that if you're not buckling down and getting serious about how you can stand out to these people, you will miss out on the best time ever to be a financial advisor serving this age group.
This demographic shift isn't just a temporary blip. It's a wave that's set to continue for years. This surge of retirees presents a unique opportunity for financial advisors who are prepared and willing to adapt their services and their marketing to meet the needs of this age group. It's about understanding not just the financial aspect of retirement, but the emotional aspect, the psychological aspect and all of the transitions that come with it. If you're a financial advisor, this is the time to reassess your approach. Are you providing the value that speaks directly to the concerns, goals and dreams of people entering retirement? [02:08.8]
It's not just about managing money either. It's about managing life changes. Your services, your business, and your marketing should reflect that. This could mean offering more personalized retirement planning. It could mean focusing on lifestyle planning or providing resources on healthcare, social security, even leisure activities. I mean, retirees now want to do more stuff. They want to travel. They want to help. They want to volunteer. They want to consult, and we're going to talk about that in a little bit.
Moreover, I think this is an era of really more relationship voting than ever before. The financial advisors who thrive are going to be those who not only understand the financial stuff, but also those who build trust and demonstrate empathy, because, people, that's no longer just table stakes. You have to step it up. Remember, for many people turning 65 isn't just a number. It is a significant life milestone that brings with it concerns, fears and hopes, and you can be there to help. [03:03.6]
Furthermore, this is the time to leverage technology. I'm going to talk a little bit about this as well. You can use social media to reach your target audience, and while it's true that people 65 and older may not be as active on social media as younger generations, they are still online. They're looking for valuable information. They're looking for financial advisors. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn can be powerful tools to connect with and educate potential clients.
This is a golden opportunity, and it really is. I want to make sure that I state that it is truly a golden opportunity. It calls for continuous improvement on your part. You can invest in yourself, not just with me but with other people as well. You can understand retirement planning, estate strategies, tax implications. You can just sharpen the saw, because this is the gold rush coming for you.
I don't want to brag too much, but I've been helping my Inner Circle members with stuff like this for years. A lot of the marketing tactics and strategies that I share in the monthly physical newsletter is stuff that works really, really, really well with 65-year-olds. Plus, I've had thousands of back-and-forth conversations with Inner Circle members and I've seen that they are doing a fantastic job with this age category. [04:09.6]
Obviously, I can't promise any results and I don't want to write any checks that my butt can't cash. However, I found that Inner Circle members, they tend to have a lot of success when using my marketing strategies, and for this specific age group, it's pretty much like printing money. I must admit it is a wonderful feeling knowing that I can go up to almost any financial advisor and immediately spot a few things that can improve his or her profits. It is a rush and I love to do it.
Now, I'm not going to give away my proprietary information and a free podcast episode. I save my best stuff for Inner Circle members and Inner Circle members only. However, I'm going to give you a taste, a teaser of how I like to market to this group.
First, a common question I get from financial advisors is “Can I market to this group on LinkedIn?” Financial Advisors asked me that question because I have an entire video training program called How Financial Advisors Can Get Clients with LinkedIn, and since a lot of financial advisors help people retire and transition to retirement, they ask me that question. [05:04.8]
The answer is yes, you can mark it to them. Yet, you should be aware that they're likely not as active on LinkedIn as other groups, because they're retired or about to retire. LinkedIn is overwhelmingly made up of people who are in the workforce. That's obvious. But I want you to view LinkedIn in this lens. There are 4.1 million people turning 65 this year. Out of those people, how many do you think are on LinkedIn? Even if the answer is 1%, that's 41,000 people. How many clients do you need to have a thriving business?
Let's slice that number again. We sliced it down to 41,000. That's 1% of 4.1 million. Let's slice it. What is 1% of 41,000? That's 410 people. Even if those people are merely leads for you, not clients, not prospects, not even qualified leads, even if they're just straight up leads, people on a list somewhere, that's still a lot of leads, and you still only need a fraction of them to become clients to have a wonderful business. [06:07.2]
Let's say that the 65-year-olds retire from their jobs or their careers. Many of them will still do some sort of volunteering or consulting work. Those are two things that they're likely to do, especially if they retired from a high-income career that required a lot of skill, on consulting, for sure. And volunteering is fairly common among higher-net-worth individuals, which means LinkedIn is kind of like a filtering mechanism in and of itself, because if you see someone either doing consulting or volunteering, then chances are that person is a viable financial advice client.
Another thing I want to share with you is I don't really recommend retirees as a niche. I think it's far too broad, just like I don't recommend so called niches like women. What do you mean? Half the population. Or business owners? There's 30-plus million small business owners in America. What kind of business owners? What kind of women? Who are they? What do they like? What do they have in common? That is when you get down to a niche. [07:02.6]
So, if you're going to target 65-year-olds, I would strongly recommend layering that group of people with something else. Maybe it's a demographic, like 65-year-old women, or 65-year-old people in Florida. Maybe it's a psychographic, like 65-year-old Christians or something like that, 65-year-old conservatives, I don't know, whatever.
But the reason you want to layer it a little bit is because it makes the targeting much better, because if you're doing something like running online ads, then your advertising will be far more effective if you can define your targeting a little more. Going broad with millions of 65-year-olds won't work as well as getting specific and adding “women” or “Florida,” or “Christian” or “conservative,” or whatever to your targeting. You just want to make it more specific.
Speaking of online ads, I think online ads are some of the best ways to reach people in this market. I think there's this weird belief that older people don't use social media, and that's wrong. Sometimes I look at people who say that, and I think, Have you been on Facebook lately? Facebook is flooded with older people. [08:05.6]
You could launch a Facebook ad targeting people in their 60s and then layer it with whatever additional targeting and get super specific. That specificity is what makes the ad work so well, because you were calling out an ultra-targeted type of person. That, by itself, draws attention.
If someone came to me, not even came to me, if someone had an ad online and I saw that ad, and it said, “This is for men in Upper Delaware who serve financial advisors,” I’d be like, Holy crap, that's me. I would click on it. It would get my attention. I would be foolish if I didn't click on it. That's kind of what I want you to get. If you want your marketing to be extremely effective, you need to create it and put yourself in a position where people would be foolish not to act on it.
That's probably the most valuable thing I've said in the past few podcast episodes. If you can truly get that, if you can make it so people feel foolish not clicking your email link or not reading your headline a little bit more, or not digging into your LinkedIn profile, then you have really unlocked a way to get a lot more of the green stuff. [09:06.0]
Also, there are certain words that people over the age of 65 prefer more than younger people. For example, the word “dedicated” gets a way bigger response from them than the word “passionate.” But guess what? Younger people respond more to the word “passionate.” Did you know that? Words matter. They also like language like “achieving objectives” compared to “living the life you want.” Did you know that? It’s true. But how many financial advisors have you seen talking about helping their clients live the life that they want when they're targeting people in their 60s and beyond? That's because they haven't done the research. They haven't tested this stuff like I have. [09:44.6]
Hey, financial advisors. If you'd like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James' monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, “The James Pollard Inner Circle”. When you join today, you'll get more than $1,000 worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren't available anywhere else. Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more.
Another marketing strategy I want to give you if you're someone who is marketing to people in their 60s is a little something called selling against type. Now, I want to be fully transparent with you, this is not my original idea. I did not come up with this. This idea comes directly from Gary Bencivenga who many people consider to be one of the greatest copywriters of all time.
Back in the early 2000s, he retired, and his whole career throughout the entire thing, he was so secretive. He kept everything behind closed doors. He guarded his methods and tactics and techniques that he used to outperform other marketers and copywriters. But he gave a seminar at the St. Regis hotel in New York and recorded it. Then he sold DVDs of the recording for $5,000 each. [10:53.7]
To some of you listening, $5,000 for a couple of DVDs might seem like a lot of money, and it might be. But I think the right way to think about it is like this: What are you getting in return? Is $5,000 a lot of money to learn at the feet of one of the greatest copywriters to ever walk the planet? Is it a lot of money to have him tell you exactly what he learned over 40 years of writing and with more than a billion dollars’ worth of split tests under his belt? I don't think so.
See, that's the problem with a lot of financial advisors, too. They can tell you the price of everything, but the value of nothing. They say, “Oh, that cost $1,000. That's a lot of money.” Yet, they don't think about how the $1,000 might return to them many times over if used properly. I've always found it strange that financial advisors talk about investing all the time, yet they struggle so much to invest in themselves, generally speaking. Generally speaking, okay? I know I'm painting with a broad brush, but there are many financial advisors who do incredible work. They have no problem investing in themselves. They don't really have limiting beliefs. However, some advisors do. [11:54.3]
These advisors will also use projections that, for example, might be 8% annual rate of return. That means that if they invest $1,000, they will end the year with $1,080. But that same $1,000 invested in themselves and their businesses could yield so much more than that. So, just from a straight up dollars-and-cents perspective, it probably makes more sense to invest in yourself and your business.
I don't want to make this about me and turn this into a sales pitch, because it truly is not about me. However, I will use myself as an example. I like to think about return on investment like this. Let's imagine you're a financial advisor and you're currently making $200,000 per year, and you invest $1,000 with me any way you want. Maybe you get a couple programs. Maybe you join the newsletter. It doesn't matter, right?
What I'm trying to tell you is that the $1,000 represents one half of 1% of your income. Let’s say that I somehow help you increase your income by 1%. That's it. Nothing outrageous, no big claims, just 1%. I hope you increase your income by one measly percent. If I do that, then I will have doubled your investment. Do you realize that? [13:02.3]
That's how I view investing in myself and it's why I gladly, gladly got Gary Bencivenga’s farewell seminar, the DVDs of him talking at the St. Regis, because I knew that even if the information inside only helped me a little bit, it would be more than enough to pay for itself.
Anyway, one of the things that he talked about in that program and in his speech is the idea of selling against type. What that means is that you actively go against the grain of whatever your market is used to seeing. For example, the golf market is inundated with claims about improving your swing and hitting the ball harder. If you were to sell against type in that market, you would talk about how you don't help people improve their swing.
Or if you want to sell against type even more, you can talk about how you help people get a better score by making their swing worse. That is just phenomenal. If you were to put an ad out and say, “Get a better golf score by worsening your swing,” that is going to get attention. [14:00.4]
But this is not about golf. This is about financial advisors helping people in their 60s, so let me give you a specific example about how you can sell against type with that market. Lots of 55-and-older communities are targeted with, quote-unquote, “the free chicken or steak dinners.” You know what I'm talking about. They show up, get this little sales pitch disguised as a presentation and get hounded for weeks after.
The reason this happens so often in the 55-and-older communities is because they get compiled together into these mailing lists and people rent them over and over and over, and as a marketer, I'm not even mad at them. That's what mailing lists are for. But I'm going to give you some free game here. What you want to do is acknowledge that that is happening to them. You want to call it out and sell against it. That means you say something like, “Aren't you tired of the so-called free steak dinners from financial advisors who only want to sell you stuff?” Boom, you got their attention now. Why? Because you're selling against something that is so common. Then you can segue into your message. [14:59.0]
This method is so effective that I personally use it all of the time. I do it when I talk about all the coaches, consultants, gurus, experts, and lead-gen companies that promise financial advisors to get six quadrillion new clients in four nanoseconds or less or your money back. I also do it when I talk about how financial advisors get all of these LinkedIn messages from people making big promises and big claims about how they can help them grow their businesses and systematize everything. It's ridiculous.
When I say that, I get financial advisors’ attention, because it's real. They're experiencing it. Then I sell against type when I say, “I'm not going to make any big claims. I'm not going to make any huge promises. You might get results with me, you might not.” That's a hundred percent true, by the way. You might get results if you implement what I tell you. For the most part, I have no control over you implementing, but it's just the way that I phrase it, and when I sell against type, it is so effective. [15:52.1]
This approach of selling against type is incredibly powerful because it cuts through all the noise and the usual hype that people are bombarded with every single day. It's just refreshing and it stands out because it's different. It's like telling someone in a world where everyone is shouting that they have the solution, and you say, “Hey, I might not have all the answers, but let's figure this out together.” That's the approach I personally take and it works well for me, but your mileage may vary. Hey, wait a minute, did I just do it again?
It's also smart from a legal perspective, because some of the marketing tactics that people talk about are straight up illegal. You cannot make unsubstantiated claims, and when people say things like they can get you 50 booked appointments in a month or your money back, do they have substantiation for that? Can they prove it? Will their books support the fact that they gave the money back? If you can truthfully and a hundred percent back something up, then it is legitimately, or at least I should say, it probably is deceptive advertising, which is against the law. [16:50.4]
So, from a legal standpoint, I try my hardest to say things like “Your mileage may vary,” or “Your results depend on you,” and that sort of thing, because not only is it truthful, but it sells against type, making it more effective than tactics used by the people out there stretching the truth, to put it nicely.
When you position yourself this way, you're not just another salesperson trying to push a product or service. You become a trusted advisor, someone who understands the real-world problems and frustrations that your prospective clients are experiencing. That level of empathy and honesty, it's rare, really, and it resonates with people.
Now, applying this concept to your business as a financial advisor, think about what's common in your industry that you can position against. Maybe it is the overuse of financial jargon that makes clients feel alienated. You could sell against type by using plain, straightforward language that makes financial concepts accessible and understandable. Or maybe it's the pressure to invest in certain financial products. Maybe it's FOMO. You can take a different approach by focusing on empowering your clients to make informed decisions. You're not pushing them. You're not pressuring them like so many other people are. You're just giving them information. You're giving them the opportunity to make a decision. [17:56.0]
Financial advisors, especially those serving clients in their 60s, this is their moment, and if that's you, then this is your moment. As we've discussed, with a record number of Americans turning 65, the potential for growth in this field is unprecedented. But it's not just about recognizing the opportunity. It is about seizing it with the right strategies, the right messaging, and the right mindset.
I've shared insights from my own experiences from legends in the marketing world, like Gary Bencivenga, and I cannot stress that enough, it has helped me tremendously. I want you to remember, the approach of selling against type is not just a tactic. It is a perspective shift. It's about understanding what your market is tired of and then offering a refreshing alternative.
For those in 55-and-older communities, it's about recognizing that fatigue from the steak dinners or free steak and chicken, like, Come on out and I'm going to pitch you to death for some steak that's not even that good and it's probably well done or medium well, which is absolutely a sin against humanity. Medium rare always. If you don't cook your steak medium rare, then there's something wrong with you. I jest. I jest, kind of. [18:59.2]
I urge you to take this seriously. Think about your marketing efforts. And remember, while I share these strategies and insights to help you, the real work starts with you. It's about taking these ideas and adapting them to fit your style and your market, and implementing them with consistency and integrity. The success of these strategies depends not on their novelty or even a trend like 4.1 million people turning 65. It doesn't even depend on that. It depends on you applying them thoughtfully and persistently.
As I wrap up this podcast episode, I want you to reflect on what I've told you today. I want you to consider how you can apply the concept of selling against type to stand out in a crowded market. Most importantly, remember that in a world full of promises and hyperbole, being genuine, empathetic and transparent can be your greatest marketing asset.
Thank you for tuning in. I look forward to sharing more insights and strategies with you in the next episode. I will catch you next week. [19:55.5]
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