You're listening to Financial Adviser Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisers 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 TheAdviserCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisers grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:31.7]
James: Financial advisors, welcome to the show! Today we're going to talk about three of my favorite marketing strategies that are working right now. This is going to be a great episode, I know I say that a lot, but it really is and I hope you get a lot out of it. But I do want to start with a warning, make sure you think independently, if you're subscribed to my inner circle newsletter, or if you're on my email list, you've probably heard me talk about copycat financial advisors before. These are the advisors who copied someone else who copied someone else and it's just a never ending vicious cycle of stagnation. It's like quicksand for your business. Not only does it keep you stuck, but it slowly pulls you down. So learn to think for yourself and make judgments based on your own business. [01:18.3]
And here's a specific example of what I'm talking about. I currently use my own website for my webinar signup page, even though the webinar software I use has prebuilt pages that are proven to convert. So if people were to look at my webinar signup page and take it at face value, they might assume that the reason I use my own page is because it has a higher conversion rate. That's wrong! That's actually just completely wrong. My webinar sign up page actually has a lower conversion rate than some of the out of the box pages. The real reason why I use my own webinar up page is because I do a lot of retargeting. And in order to do the retargeting, I've got to have people on my website and yes, I know you can do retargeting with out of the box pages, but there are certain things that I do that you literally cannot do with out of the box pages. So refrain from telling me that it's possible. I know it's possible, but my specific type.
Jonathan: I don’t care. [02:16.9]
James: My specific type of retargeting is not possible. But guess what? Nobody can see the strategy there. So if people were to come in and say, LOL, I'm going to copy this webinar page because it can convert, they would actually be hurting their businesses. And the same is true and financial advisors copy other financial advisors. They don't look beyond the superficial stuff and the, they can't see how the parts integrate with the business as a whole. So I hope that makes sense. Like if you were to look at my webinar signup page and you were just going to copy it because you're like, Oh, well, James must know what he's doing. This must work well! I'm just telling you straight up. It does not convert as well as some of the out of the box stuff. It just doesn't. But for my business and based on my independent thinking, it works well with my goals. [03:04.5]
And financial advisers I mean, you, you, I know you understand this at a deep level, because if a client came up to you and said, I want to invest just like Warren Buffett, you will probably say, well, what are your goals? Or if they came to you and they say, I want to invest like Harvard's endowment or Yale's endowment say, well, do you have their goals? Do you want to buy rainforest? Because I mean, that's what Harvard does. I didn't know that until recently, but they buy a bunch of rainforest allegedly and you will figure out, well, do you have the same goals as Harvard? Because if you don't, maybe it's not a good idea. So think independently, think for yourself and let's get into the marketing strategies. [03:45.2]
The first one is email, not a shocker. Email is so effective for financial advisors and it still blows my mind to this day, even though I've got appointments on autopilot, I mean, I've sent in tested more than 2 million emails. That's what it says on the sales page. At this point, honestly, it's probably more like three and a half million. I haven't counted in a while. It was like; it's probably three and a half million emails. I've monitored workflows. I've structured various different campaigns and all this stuff is still exciting to me. So if you aren't aware, according to McKinsey and company email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined just nuts. That blows a lot of people's minds. According to Y-charts, people prefer email over, over all other forms of communication. And it's not even close. We even did an entire podcast episode on this concept alone, it's called ‘Clients Desperately Want Their Advisors To Do This’.... I don't remember the episode number, but that's the title, go back and listen to that episode. [04:44.4]
Clients and prospective clients, they're begging financial advisors to use email, any advisor who doesn't use email marketing I'm just telling you straight up they come across as tone deaf to people. Cause they're like, please email me, I want you to email me. Email is how I want you to market to me. And then when you don't do it, you just look out of touch, you look out of touch with reality, you look incompetent, it's just telling you like it is. According to Forester people are twice as likely to sign up for your email list as they are to interact with you on Facebook. And this blows a lot of people's minds as well and it's all true. Now you might be thinking, Holy moly, that's a lot of real data. I'm not just giving you stories and not just giving you theories. All this stuff you can just Google it. You can find out for your stuff. It's all real information. But wait, there's more because according to the AARP, 45% of middle-aged Americans would rather go to the dentist who they meet with a financial advisor. So guess what overcomes that skepticism? Email! [05:45.2]
And according to OptinMonster 58% of people check email first thing in the morning before anyone else or anything else I should say. I don't do that, I used to do that. I realize like what waste, right? I mean, waking up in the morning and checking your phone right off the bat. It's just like getting sucked into the day. You've got no control. Yeah, screw that. But 58% of people still do it. And if you want to learn more about email marketing, go back and listen to episode number 32. I'm trying to reference a lot of different episodes. Jonathan, I hope I’m not.
Jonathan: Nice. And the other ones, episode number 75 as well.
James: Yes. The 32 is called ‘How Financial Advisors Can Get Clients With Email.’ And I am starting to reference a lot of these because at this point I've got such a rich in such a deep content library. We're almost to 100 episodes, which is cool to even think about. Now of course, there'll still be some advisors out there who are like, I don't know. I don't know if he can really help me. [06:42.1]
I mean, I guess you're right. I obviously producer Jonathan cat's out of the bag. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing because only somebody who has absolutely no idea what he's doing can make 100 podcast episodes about a topic. That's the only person who could do it. If you're only going to be able to reach 100 podcast episodes, if you honestly have no idea what you're doing and like, you're just guessing, right?
Jonathan: You help them, one of them hits.
James: It just, I guess cat's out of the bag. I have no idea. Don't listen to anything I'm saying. I don't know anything about email marketing. I don't know anything about financial services marketing. I just somehow some way made it to almost a 100 episodes at this point.
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Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [07:52.4]
James: So you have that. And the next marketing strategy that I love is working right now is social media. And specifically it's LinkedIn. And I'm going to reference yet another podcast episode, it's called episode 41, it's ‘3 LinkedIn Marketing Rules For Financial Advisors.’ And the thing I love about LinkedIn is that it has scaled big den. Because once your systems are in place, it takes just as much effort to reach a thousand people as a duster, reach a hundred people. And then when you start interacting with people and you start messaging them and things like that, you can build real connections with people. And again, I mean, it goes beyond mere financial advising because yes, some people will become clients and yes, some people will not become clients. But some of the most profitable relationships I've had on LinkedIn they've had, they have nothing to do with my main business. I've had people, there's one lady in particular. She sent me a cold message on LinkedIn about how she could set up fresh books and do all types of fancy things with it and I hired her to do it. [08:56.4]
Because I was depending on QuickBooks and I wanted to have a backup in case I ever wanted to leave. Remember, one is the most dangerous number in business. I re I, I saw that I only had one accounting software. I was using QuickBooks and QuickBooks only. I was like, this is not good. I'm not taking my own advice here. I've only got one. So when she reached out to me just cold message, never looked at this lady's website before. Never heard of her had no idea what she did. She just straight up message me on LinkedIn. And I was like, let's do it. And think, so thinking about that. That was a completely cold message. And it's like, well, wait a minute. I thought cold messaging didn't work anymore. Wow, I'm I'm doing it. But yeah, social media is awesome. And I want to be clear. I love all forms of marketing that can scale. And the financial advisors who struggle to grow their businesses, they typically have problems scaling. They're stuck doing one-to-one marketing instead of one to many marketing. [09:47.4]
For example, I love direct mail because it has the ability to scale and grow. One of the bonuses that inner circle members get when they subscribe to the inner circle newsletter is actually an interview with Craig Simpson, who is one of the best, arguably in my opinion, the best direct mail marketer ever. The, the interview is specifically called ‘How financial advisors can get results with direct mail.’ This guy has sent more than 300 million pieces. So he kinda sorta knows what he's doing. But I mean, if you listen to some of these people out there, I mean, I guess he has no idea either. Just like me. I've got no idea. And Craig Simpson must not have a clue about how to send direct mail and make it work. I mean, he's only sent 300 million. I mean, does he really know what he's talking about? I'm still a little skeptical. I I'm going to need you to get to 500 million Craig, cause I can't take you seriously until you get to 500 million. So in all seriousness. It's one of the most valuable things I offer. If you want to check that out, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching. And I want to want to leave you with another note about social media. [10:49.8]
According to the 2020 LinkedIn state of sales report, a 44% of sales marketing teams have actually reported a decrease in responsiveness on LinkedIn ever since the coronavirus pandemic thing hit really hit in March, 2020. The responsiveness on LinkedIn has gone down dramatically on average. And that's the key here on average. You do not want to be average because anecdotally, I mean, based on what I've observed with financial advisors and inner circle members and everyone is that the financial advisors who have a niche are doing better than ever before. Because they stand out from everyone else. It's like a contrast effect. If you put your hand in ice cold water, and then you move it to lukewarm water, that water is going to feel hot. Like just burn your skin. Or at least it's going to feel that way. But I mean, if you just kept your hand in lukewarm water, you just be like, well, this is lukewarm. [11:46.7]
So what's happening right now is everybody's sucking on LinkedIn. Like it's all complete garbage, just hot. Most people I should say, just hot, garbage, hot trash. But then when your financial advisor and you work specifically with a niche and you come in with your hot garbage, hot trash, except yours is, Hey, I'm a financial advisor and I work with dentists. You're a dentist. Want to talk? I've got a blog that can help you here. I've got an email opt in here, but you can get my guide on dentists retirement tips or whatever. I've got a video here. I've got a YouTube channel. Maybe I've got a podcast. You give that to your dentist. You stand out like a Trump supporter at a Hillary rally.
Jonathan: Nice one.
James: I guess now it'd be current. It could be a Trump supporter to Biden rally. But I mean, there's not really that many people.
Jonathan: At Biden rallies.
James: Political. Getting political.
Jonathan: There’s no rallies. They did it online. [12:41.3]
James: Yeah. So I'm not going to get political. I hate everybody equally. And I'm proud of that. I see some good things that Biden is doing. I see some terrible things to Biden's doing. I see some great things that Donald Trump is doing. I see some bad things, terrible things that Donald Trump is doing. And anybody who says that any candidate is a hundred percent good or a hundred percent bad. They're just delusional. Like you're just, I see people who are like, Oh my God. Biden is like our savior. I see people who are like, Trump is our savior. Just both of you, people are full of crap cause like you're ignoring the bad stuff both of these people are doing. And if you hate Trump and then you hate Biden, you're probably ignoring the good things that people would do. Like that's my take on it. Everybody's got good things and bad things. Just maybe one person got better, better, good things and less bad things who knows. [13:32.7]
But the final marketing strategy I love is referral marketing. But I do want to get one thing straight; a big mistake you can make with referral marketing is not having a defined type of referral you want. So the worst thing you can do is ask somebody who do you know, who can use my services? That's like the all-time, worst way to ask for a referral because it's not specific. You're not giving the person anything to work with, but if you had a niche and backdoor example, if you only work with dentists and you ask your dentist client to give you a referral to another dentist, all of a sudden things become easier. It's a much smoother process. Instead of all these fancy convoluted ways to ask for referrals. I mean, can you get referrals if you don't have a niche? Absolutely. I've written an entire book with 51 ways financial advisors can get more referrals. I talk about all types of different things financial advisors can do, but I'm giving you the shortcut here in the form of an image of an important piece of information. And that is this ‘Be more defined.’ [14:35.5]
And another mistake financial advisors make when asking for referrals is asking too soon. Because I know there are referral books out there that say you should ask in the first meeting. And maybe as soon as you've demonstrated some value, as soon as possible, ask for a referral, but it's not good. Because even if you take my advice and you have a clear niche asking this way, like too soon, it still puts people in an uncomfortable position. You're asking them to do something they're not necessarily prepared to do. Your clients should expect to give you referrals. It should be part of your overall process. They should see it coming. They know that the, like there's an expectation there to give referrals or at least that it's greatly appreciated that the expectation is like, Oh, well, you don't necessarily have to, but most people do. And I'm going to give you so much good service that you're going to want to have. Anyway. That should be the expectation. The last thing you want to do is just hop the question at the last minute of a meeting. It just it's sloppy. It's not tasteful and clients don't like it. [15:37.0]
So to recap, the three marketing strategies that I love that are also working right now, you've got email marketing. You got social, which is basically, I mean, anything that can be scaled, really including direct mail and then referral marketing as long as it's done correctly. So that is a wrap for this week
Jonathan: Wow, that was a short one. What do you have coming up next time, James?
James: It's probably going to turn into, what's an offensive rant, I guess. I mean the, the title is going to be ‘Stop Trying to Please Everyone.’ And I can feel it already. It's just going to trigger some people, but it'll be a lot of fun. We'll see what happens.
Jonathan: Now. I cannot wait for that one. Financial advisor marketers another episode is in the can. Thank you for tuning in. We will be back in your ear buds next time. [16:22.3]
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