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, I've got a special, extra-long episode for you this week. This is my 100th episode, and I decided to celebrate by doing a live zoom call with a few financial advisors to just hang out and talk about marketing. We talked for an hour, recorded it, and now it's this podcast episode. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to reach this point of having 100 podcast episodes. I couldn't have done it without The Podcast Factory.
If you're interested in starting your own podcast, it's ThePodcastFactory.com and I couldn't have done it without everyone who tunes in and listens every week, the financial advisors who follow the advisor group.com, the inner circle members, everyone involved.
I know my podcast personality tends to be grumpy and arrogant and whatnot, which is still mostly the real me don't get me wrong. But I mean, when I say I am truly grateful for everyone who listens, you have no idea how much it means to me. [01:26.9]
And let's take a minute to think about all the work that goes into making 100 podcast episodes. If each episode is 20 minutes long on average, that means so far, we've created 33 more than 33 hours of audio content. And that includes transcripts and social media images and videos for each episode, there's a lot of work and most of the episodes are just me and producer Jonathan talking.
Now, sure I've had a few interviews on the show, but it mostly it's just been us and me. Now, of course, I want to do more interviews in the future, but I want everybody to realize how crazy it is to have that type of content come from mostly one person and to go so deep on a specific topic, Financial Advisor Marketing.
I did a little research before the show and I came across these stats. This comes from someone who analyzed the cast box podcast directory, and he found that 12% of podcasts only have one episode, just one. 6% haven't made it past two episodes and half of all podcasts have 14 or fewer episodes. And as you create more episodes or fewer and fewer shows that can match you and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. So I will keep adding to the total number of episodes, but I want to bring up that fact because podcasting is a long game and content marketing is a long game. [02:44.2]
And I know that if you were my listeners, they've asked about starting podcasts, they've asked about content marketing, and I got a couple of questions about content marketing on the show that we're going to listen to today.
The podcast, there is a medium based on showing up and letting your audience know that you're there for them. And I know I joke a lot and I can be offensive sometimes, but I am there for financial advisors and that is what makes this strategy so powerful. It's what makes content so powerful is genuinely being there for people. So with all that said, I want to thank you again for listening. I appreciate you more than, you know, now onto the show. [03:22.3]
First question I got from someone was, do you use a content marketing calendar and plan your content in advance? I do not, but I recommend financial advisors to plan out their content in advance. And you use a content marketing calendar simply I've done it so long and I've done it for so much different pieces of the blog and the podcast and the emails and the newsletter that I don't really have to do it anymore. It comes naturally, but that's kind of like saying, you know, if you're an expert power lifter, like you shouldn't have to focus on your form every single time, but a beginner definitely should focus on the form. Content marketing calendars they're extremely helpful. And the basic idea is you're going to take like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you post five times a week or create five times a week or whatever it is, and you're going to have like a certain topic one day, maybe it's based on your personality the second day, it's going to be based on the type of person that you help. The third day, it's going to be a video explaining like your background. Third, fourth day is gonna be like a photo. If you pay attention, I do a lot of the same stuff and I vary it within the podcast.
I vary it within email marketing. I vary within social as well. I am not as active on social as I want to be cause I have stuff to do in a business to run, but that is like the way to do it. And I totally 100% recommend that you create a content marketing calendar if you're getting started with content marketing for sure. Jonathan, do you use content marketing calendar within The Podcast Factory or do you not? [04:51.3]
Jonathan: I don't personally use one, but my team uses one to get the posting schedule on.
James: Yeah. Umm…Let's start from the bottom here. I'm working on a messaging sequence on LinkedIn for a niche, how would you do it? Examples of messaging and timing. Well, I start off with what not to do and that is to message right away. I mean, that's the obvious don't do that. What you want to do. This is actually interesting. So we're currently revamping the whole LinkedIn approach that we have. I haven't mentioned this publicly really. So what used to work is more like a direct approach, meaning like here's some content, are you interested? Let's talk, let's have a meeting whenever.
With coronavirus and with the pandemic and with everybody hopping online and everybody doing that like I literally think about it this way. If you go through LinkedIn trainings, there are just a million of them out there. There's John Nemo, there's LinkedSelling, there's Helen Pritchard I think, they're just a bunch and they all advocate this approach. And so people do it and naturally it makes sense. You pay for a course or something and people are training you, so you do this, but it becomes saturated. So what is actually working now better than like, literally anything that we're seeing is permission-based marketing and that's nothing new. [06:00.1]
But it's essentially, Hey, I noticed you're in this niche. I've actually got something, would you like to see it? Rather than I've got this thing, here's a link, subtle difference, but makes all the difference in the world, it's more, permission-based. Personally as a marketer I like that better because it's all about filtering people.
If I start with a hundred, I want to know how, what it's going to take to get down and down, down, down, down to the people who are interested in people who are going to send an appointment. Permission-based marketing as a way to filter them immediately. Timing as far as timing goes, that is really up to you, as you create your content as you and obviously you don't want to send it every single day. But I don't know if you were here when I talked about the content marketing calendar and you could just put a little reminder in your calendar, Hey, reach out to Joe, Bill, Sally, whoever that will be at ringless voicemail. What is your opinion? I per… I have no idea. Okay.
I've never used them. Have no opinion, JR I know you you've recommended Joe Polish, some of his stuff, and he is a big advocate of ringless voicemail. So do you have an opinion? [07:06.1]
Jonathan: I actually have used more text messaging than ringless voicemail. But where are you? Are, these are the questions you pulled up because what I want to do here really quickly is you guys are here, drop your questions in the chat, whatever questions you have here they start. I see they're coming in. I'm going to try to bring you on live so you can interact with James a little bit.
James: Oh sure.
Jonathan: And get clarification, but drop your questions in there, so I know I can prescreen them and load them up. But yeah, we, we use ringless voicemail. I only use it to a small group. It's my clients and you've probably gotten one before if I have your real number, I don't know if it's your real number, but usually to, to bolster up, show ups for, for calls and things like that. But I don't use it on a big scale. The real estate guys we work with though use it on a big scale. [07:51.7]
James: Sure. Let's see. Am I going to the next question that I got from someone who wasn't here? It's a simple question. The reason I pick these four, because I think that they apply more to everyone. Is it possible for a niche to be too small? Yes and no. The way that I like to think about niche marketing and it's different from what a lot of people will tell you, a lot of people would just say to pick something and that's good to an extent, but you want to think of it more as layers.
The more layers you add in theory, the better, but in reality, like in the real world where we operate, it's really hard to market to people with a bunch of layers. An example of that would be your niche would be chemical engineers. And then the layer would be chemical engineers in Iowa. Then the layer would be, you have an account minimum chemical engineers in Iowa with $500,000 or more in investible assets. It is significantly more difficult to market to, with three layers than it is to market to just one. And it also depends a lot on the marketing strategy that you're using. [08:53.0]
But I mean, for example, you can just, I don't know if chemical engineers is, is an interest on Facebook, but you can just put chemical engineers in there and then layer that if you're virtual with a top 100 wealthiest zip codes in the United States, and you've got an audience is absolute gold, but here's, here's the thing. A lot of financial buyers, when they learn about first learn about online advertising, they learn about marketing and they're trying to get affluent clients and people with investible assets, like the whole deal.
What they will do is they'll, they'll see someone give the tip like 100 most affluent zip codes in America. And they'll say, Oh boy, Oh, goodie. I'm going to plug this into Facebook and I'm going to be the one to get the clients, but they don't realize that Ken Fisher's company is advertising on there. Every single lead gen company in the United States is also trying to generate leads for financial advisors with that same targeting. Your only advantage and I mean, this sincerely is the layer.
That's literally it, because the lead generation companies are not, they'd be silly of them to layer like just doctor or just chemical engineer over the wealthy zip codes, because it wouldn't be profitable for them. And it wouldn't make sense because that's not their model. [09:58.8]
Their model is just to get as many affluent people, as many wealthy people as possible. But when a financial advisor with a specific business who serves a specific type of person throws that layer on top, it becomes much more effective, but it is possible to have too many layers, so I will say that.
There's appointments on autopilot, show me how to get into email software and set up an auto responder. No, because that will be a disservice to people going through the program because any company, they have the how-tos and how to set it up, that the money is in knowing what to say on the emails.
That's really it. Are there any questions coming in? [10:36.1]
Jonathan: Let me, I have one from Robin and one from Jim. I'm going to bring up Robin, if you're listening I’m asking you to unmute right now, Robin, I saw your question about, What to focus on when first getting started?
Robin: Hey.
James: Hi.
Robin: How are ya?
James: Hey Robin, I'm wonderful. What would you recommend I focus on when getting started, given the fact I can't legally market myself or prospect till after I pass my exams? You should be focused on trying to find areas where if you choose a niche market and if you follow my philosophy, it's basically niche and a multiple marketing strategies.
What you want to do is identify where your niche is hanging out is very simple, but it varies based on the niche that you choose. You want to find the magazines, the blogs, the centers of influence influencers, people who have large LinkedIn followings that you can leverage to get in front of them.
Because if you have a list of people and places that are important to your niche, you can hit the ground running rather than trying to ask a million people who do you know, and go into family and friends and creating that little list with 250 people. It's silly. You want to be able to identify who you want and then where they are and just go after it.
Robin: Right. [11:47.2]
James: I know that's a super broad answer, but that's really it.
Robin: Yeah. I've been working on the niche, but it's kind of like interesting your last comments about the, I kept going between too broad and too small and am I keeping people from myself and that sort of thing so that's kind of where I am right now.
James: So the, what typically works best? Now, obviously it's going to be it's can vary based on your situation. Cause you may have connections that nobody knows about and you may have a completely different world, but if someone were just starting from scratch and I had to paint with a broad brush and I had to tilt the odds as much in my favor, as I possibly could, I would choose an occupational niche.
Robin: Okay.
James: The reason is because you can find them on LinkedIn. It's very, very easy. And there are lists out there that are magazines or trade journals. Like that's why, whenever I talk about a niche more often than not, I will talk about occupations. Does that make sense?
Robin: Yes, definitely.
James: Awesome. Well, thank you. I appreciate you. I am so glad that you're here and we'll move on to the next question. [12:49.6]
Jonathan: Nice (crosstalk) all of a sudden. All right. I see, we've got, let's get Jim here asking about webinars. I'm going to see if I’m able to pull you.
James: Oh that…oh boy, webinars. You were asking me about that yesterday. Jonathan
Jonathan: Let's let Jim, Jim, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to unmute you. You ask your question and then we'll have a little back and forth and maybe we'll have other voices and just me and James. So I'm asking to unmute you there and.
Jim: I'm here, man. Thank you.
Jonathan: Boom. Welcome Jim.
Jim: Yeah. Thanks Jonathan. And, Hey James. Good to, good to see you. Yeah, just checking in on this webinars, man, I mean, in a world of COVID, it just appears that attendance is a little tough or at least driving people to these things is a little difficult. So want to know if you had any thoughts or strategies in this particular environment. [13:39.8]
James: So if you go, so I actually have an entire article about it. If you go to TheAdviserCoach.com. Well, let's just see here, webinar financial advisor, let's see Google it and see if it comes up. Let's see, Yeah, if you just Google webinar, financial advisor, I'm number one in Google for webinars strategies.
And that's an entire, you can read that and I'm not just going to tell you, send you on your way until you read the article, but it's there if you want to look at it. What you should really be focused on is the quality of the people attending over the quantity.
There are so many people out there they get like. in psychology, there's a term called penis envy. They get like marketing envy. And they was like, Oh, well this person had a thousand people show up to their thing. And I don't have that many people.
Well, did did a certain percentage of them actually become clients? With webinars if financial advisors can't use their traditional methods touted by marketers. So if you just research webinar marketing, they'll say, well, you just send paid traffic to it and you get a bunch of signups and then you talk on there and you convert them. [14:45.4]
Well, it's not really that simple because you've got compliance issues, you've got scripting issues. You've got a different type of content that you use on your webinar. Direct, just old-fashioned direct outreach, again, this is simple stuff. It sounds simple, but it's just, it is what it is. It's outreach.
You figure out the person that you want to go after. You say, I am having this webinar at this time, it's going to be about this topic. I'd love to have you attend. Honestly, the email that I sent for this is a pretty good template. I said stuff like, let's see, we're recording this.
It's at this time, this place, if you want to attend, I would love to have you. So it's an invitation. It's not necessarily like you're ramming it down their throat. Here's this thing attend, attend, attend. If you want to attend, I'd love to have you. Here's the link may, if you can make your webinars live personally, if you want to scale and you just want to record a webinar one time and you want to automate it, that's possible. And that's why I talk about in the article, but just being a hundred percent transparent with people, live webinars, work better cause you can actually talk with people and make real connections. [15:49.3]
Now I have an automated webinar cause I don't, I don't have all the time in the world, but stuff like this is what you want to do. Just direct outreach, nothing fancy and it works. And I hate to keep rambling on. But Jonathan asked me about this yesterday, literally yesterday. And we talked about how removing automation from our webinars, because I used to have a deadline timer on mine. I used to have these, the HTML and all the fancy stuff in the background, removing that and saying like, my assistant will send you the stuff or real human being will talk to you has, I mean, it's unbelievable how much more effective the webinar is, but anything that you can get, like this will work better. [16:28.6]
Jonathan: I'm going to jump on there with James, just because I think that you, you see this all the time because we do it with our business is just like having regular conversations with people is our job. We're all salespeople. We're all trying to get accounts and clients and anything we can do to have a conversation with someone I'm with you.
It's like get rid of the automation, get into a conversation to the point where I, if I'm doing sales things, I'm like just text me and we'll have a quick conversation because I'm trying to close deals. I'm not trying to build automations. And I think too many of us get into that thing where we're trying to make some fancy machine, but at the end of the day, what do you want? Do you want a new client in a relationship that's going to last a lifetime? Or do you want some cool dude, dad that you can tell your friends you have? I don't. I mean, I don't think there's any competition there. All right. Let's I'm jumping in because I love this live stuff. So we got Roy, thank you, Jim, for that, Roy I want you to.
Jim: Thank you Jim, I appreciate you.
Jonathan: I'm gonna bring you in Roy, Roy Wiley. I'm going to unmute you. And then if you can just ask your question and then James can hit you with the answer and then any follow ups you need. We're all waiting for you, Roy, there he goes. [17:40.9]
Keith: I'm actually Keith.
Roy: I’m Roy and this Roy over here.
James: Thank you Keith and Roy. Hi, thank you so much for attending by the way.
Keith: No problem. So I'm new your world and I'm also relatively new advisor and one area that I'm trying to get into that our company does not currently have someone doing is cold calling. And so if you've covered this in the past a lot, I apologize, but what are some of the major mistakes you see people making with cold calling? Why wouldn't a cold calling campaign work, which may be some of the things I'm doing and what are just some of the common mistakes you see, and how would you recommend improving those? [18:19.4]
James: So as with any marketing dog where there's always people out there who like cold call, just pick up the phone, don't be scared, just call people. Then you got people who are like cold calling is dead cold calling doesn't work well, anything works right? If you do it properly and you do it enough, anything works.
The biggest mistake that I just tell you, the biggest mistake with cold calling is not following up. And it's not integrating some other form of marketing or prospecting, I guess, in this case, into your sequence. So I know you mentioned that you were new to my world. The number one thing that I try to hammer home to financial advisors is to have multiple marketing strategies. And this is the reason why this is one of the many reasons why. Multiple marketing strategies is the Holy Grail, it is the backbone of everything I do. It, it's one of the things that like one of the secrets that are hidden in plain sight that I use in consulting. So there is a book I'm going to send you to someone else's book. There's a book called Combo Prospecting. And I'm going to look that up because if Amazon will load for me, I can't remember the author. Yeah, of course Amazon's not loading, but there's a book called Combo Prospecting and it's got like a, a glove, like a boxing glove on the front. [19:28.1]
And it talks about when you call you follow up with an email, if possible, if you have the person's email. You can follow up with a handwritten note. That's also a thing that works incredibly well. You're basically increasing the number of follow-ups and you're, you're varying the medium and you're varying the message. A lot of people, when they try cold calling, they will call and leave a voicemail, let's say for the first call. Then they'll call again and leave the same darn voicemail. Not going to work like, yes, you're following up and yes, it may be better than the person leaving only one voicemail. But when you vary the message, you say, Hey, I called you last Wednesday about X, well, actually it just occurred to me that I wanted to speak with you about Y, because Z. Then you have a different message, something that they can respond to, but it's essentially follow up, really. [20:18.9]
I think you had, there was a second question. You said the big, the mistakes, and then reasons why they wouldn't generate appointments. That's essentially the reason is if they're just calling once and they're just, what is it called? Smiling and dialing. It's just so like 1980s, but it still works, it still works. I am not one of the people who bashes cold calling, but I love the phone in conjunction with other marketing methods. And I tell you what's really effective. At this point I am more known for email marketing than anything else because the stats on email marketing are just unbelievable. And the way that we do email marketing is just plain text talking about a story or whatever, and then a link to a calendar. But when you just send a short email, like, Hey, I thought of something or I'm doing this special thing, or I'm having a client appreciation event. If you want to RSVP, give me a call here and you have your phone number, it can generate the calls. And that's just another example of using multiple marketing strategies. [21:21.2]
Roy: And do you recommend using or leaving a voicemail?
James:Yes, I do. So I don't remember the exact stat, but if you just Google, what percentage of voicemails get returned? It's like 4.8, 5%, something like that. It may have changed, but if you, and that's the first one, right? This has been exactly my point. So if you leave 20 on average, now your mileage may vary. You'll get one back. That's just the stats. And as you go through the people who return your call, like the numbers will work in your favor. That's the part of prospecting that is like the numbers game. So, I hope that helps. I do appreciate you for being here. And this is awesome that you're new here in new and the whole world. It's an amazing career that you've chosen and just follow the systems and let them work for you.
Guest: Tony Hughes I think was the name of the author you were talking about.
James: Yeah, that sounds familiar. Yeah.
Roy: Combo Prospecting, Okay.
James: Hmm…hmm.
Jonathan: All right. Thank you guys. So it looks like we have another question from Brett. Brett, I am going to unmute you and you can go ahead and ask your question. It's a niche question. So I will unmute you. [22:24.7]
James: Yeah, I see that. It's, it's a lead pilot one.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: Yeah. And I,
Brett: Perfect.
James: I need to go back and say like, just, you can Google lead pilot review. The Advisor Coach is number one in Google for that. Have you read that article?
Brett: I have, yes.
James: Okay.
Brett: I've been bouncing back and forth. So I listened to your podcast with Samantha Russell. And then I also did read that and I kind of tabled it for a while and I'm thinking about it again, because as I'm thinking through, I guess doing some actual content that I'm creating most likely like articles, cause I'm doing weekly articles on my website, but right now it's more of the, kind of the, the ones that are already created and they're not specific to my niche. Some just wanting to know, do you think that lead pilot's a good tool for that? Or is there kind of a good, I guess strategy to, for me to just kind of brainstorm those different topics and articles to provide that value to, I guess my prospects. [23:22.9]
James: So Lee pilot is a completely different beast because while they have content, that's like, ready-made, you can choose your niche that they, the different categories that have like athletes and students and things like that. I don't recommend that people use that content. Now it's better than nothing if you're going to do nothing. But like for someone like you, who's already creating content, the content you create, that's tailored to you and your business, it will smoke theirs. And I'm a partner with, or an ambassador with Lead Pilot. So like me saying that.
Brett: Right.
James: It's a pretty big deal, but it's just, it's just the truth. It is just the truth. So you deciding whether or not you want to use lead pilot comes down to a math equation. If you are I think there's a section in an article where I come, I talk about the price between how much they charge and how much everyone else charge. If you're not, you're not hiring a freelancer.
Brett: Sure.
James: To create your content, that's like 1200 bucks a month. If you're not using an email marketing system or whatever, you wouldn't use theirs, that's another cost that you can take out. So if you're creating your own stuff, you really could have just, you could get a Buffer account or a Hootsuite account for much cheaper. You could get OptinMonster or Leadpages. [24:31.7]
Brett: Hmm.
James: Or Sumo. Those are all software that collect leads. You could get that in conjunction with buffer, and that would still be cheaper than Lead Pilot if cost is your primary consideration. But the, I guess the real point is that if there is an advisor out there who's already using social media automation and they're hiring a freelancer and they've got a different software for email and they're doing all these different things under different roofs, Lead Pilot is amazing cause it can combine everything under one roof. It gives you all the analytics. It's, it's literally the best solution I've ever seen as far as having everything together is concerned. But for someone like you, you can probably just piecemeal the thing. Eventually you're going to want to complete it.
Brett: Sure
James: It's not a question of if; it's a question of when. Because eventually your business is going to be bigger.
Brett: Sure.
James: It's going to make financial sense to where like, you're, you're going to get Lead Pilot at some point. It's just not now, if that makes sense. [25:24.8]
Brett: Yeah, it does. And, and really just the second part of that question is I guess, as I'm creating my own content, that's specific to my niche, which is teachers, I guess, where is a good spot just to say, Hey, I'm just going to start cranking out, whatever thought, you know, maybe it's conversation I had with a teacher and I'm just going to start cranking that out. I mean, I've listened to quite a few of your stuff, but a lot of your products and services.
James: Hmm…hmm.
Brett: So like, I kind of know like where your stance is on it, but I guess, should I just start cranking them out or, or is there a better place to just start thinking of, you know, where should I check out other people who I know have the same niche and kind of see what they're doing? Yeah. I mean, if you've got any thoughts on that. [26:07.8]
James: So yes, and yes, you should be checking out what they're doing. And there's a tool called BuzzSumo.com. And you can just do buzzsumo.com. You can type in the word teachers and you can see what the most common or most popular article is for teachers and that'll show you the what's gotten the most shares. A stealth way to do it is you'll find somebody like, for example, let's say there's somebody on LinkedIn with 10,000 followers and they specialize in teachers. My wife used to be a teacher by the way, so I know that there's like Mr. Science, there's teachers’ pay teachers.
Brett: Hmm…hmm.
James: There's a lot of famous teachers on there. So if you find someone you can go, if they post a lot of articles on LinkedIn, seriously, like you can just go down and you can say this one got 60 likes. This one got 120, this one got 487. There's something there that resonates with teachers. Now you never, ever, ever want to plagiarize or copy. There are people who plagiarize my stuff all the time and it's, it's no fun, right.
Brett: Sure. [27:01.3]
James: For me or them. And so never, ever plagiarize or copy, but you gotta take whatever the thing is that is in there that they're responding to, whether it's emotion, whether it's a certain topic and go from there. For example, so I actually have an inner circle member who specializes in teachers. And one of the things that works really well is Oh my God, like when the kids are bad in the classroom, they have a specific word for that. Like child, not child control, but there's something like that, classroom management. So the stuff about.
Brett: Hmm…hmm.
James: Classroom management has been working well for him. And that's something that's not related to finance at all. It's basically, so he'll send an email and it'll say something like your kids are going crazy, you don't know how to control them. So you learn about classroom management skills in the same way I'm helping you with your finance management and I'm helping you get your finances under control. And that type of Segway works really, really well for him. So that's what I got for you. I don't know if that helped, but I hope it did.
Brett: Perfect. Thanks.
James: Yeah. Thank you.
Jonathan: Awesome. [28:02.2]
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 one thousand dollars’ worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren’t available anywhere else.
Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [28:24.5]
Jonathan: All right, so I see that we have Omar. Omar, I see you have a, well, thank you for the congratulations. And I see you have a question, so I'm going to bring you on here. Let me get my Lauren Rodriguez. Yes. Unmute yourself and have at it brother.
Omar: All right. Hello everybody. Hello, James. Thank you for. Congrats on the, on the podcast.
James: Thank you.
Omar: You’ve this really good. Appreciate it. The question is just like the previous speaker, my niche is also on teachers, so I specialize, try to specialize on 403 Bs and stuff, right. So you always mentioned have different ways of market, you know, direct mail and on the LinkedIn and all that. But what, what happens when you don't have a physical address to sale to send them a direct mail piece like teachers,? What are the ways do you recommend to market them? [29:10.8]
James: So I'm going to answer that in two parts. The first part is that you could get their address. One of the campaigns that the same inner circle member that I just mentioned, the one, one campaign that he's running that does really well. And you can apply this really to any niche is where you send them a book that they like. So you can just Google most popular books for teachers. Okay. And one of them is Teach like a Champion. Every teacher in America has read that book. There’s a book by Andrew Hallam, I think called Millionaire Teacher and that is a book that has worked well. You buy, I don't know if you can buy those books in bulk, but just follow the logic here. You buy the books in bulk. Okay. You have a page on your website I want to send you the book in, in the marketing world, it's called a free plus shipping offer and people like Russell Brunson do it all the time. Dan Henry, these, these like online marketers do it a lot and also it works, right? So you'll say, I want to send you a Millionaire Teacher for free. All you got to do is pay the shipping you ship the book, it’s a gift. You got the address. You can follow up with handwritten notes. The only downside to that is that it can get expensive, if you don't qualify them.
Omar: Hmm. [30:18.8]
James: If you have a page on your website, what you would need to do is you'd have a page on your website or you need to have a way to qualify them at some point. Like, please don't get this, if this is only for people who XYZ and that may be a little rude or crass to some people, but it's going to save a lot of money. You just say, just explicitly, this is only for people who are interested in securing a financial future or interested in financial planning, that type of thing. So then you can get their address. There are leads companies like Hoovers, but I think that they would just send you the school address. So that's not really much help there. But you can target teachers through, if you're allowed to use the online ads platforms. I know some advisors aren't allowed to advertise online like that but if you are, you could just find educators within Facebook, within Twitter, within LinkedIn. Let's see here, I know you mentioned LinkedIn and you're like, well, what are some other ways to market?
Omar: Hmm.
James: But LinkedIn should have a bunch of teachers. Where, where are you? Like what city? What's the, what's your location?
Omar: Houston, Texas. [31:19.1]
James: Houston, Texas. So let's play a little game. I'm typing in teacher into LinkedIn and I'm going to filter. Why is my location set as Brazil, that's weird. So Houston currently at 68,000 results for teachers. So let's just cut that in a third. It's still 22,000. It just to filter out all the people who aren't active, who are never going to respond, who don't have 500 connections or whatever. That's more than enough last your, entire career. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't be too worried about my other marketing methods. It's, it's nice to combine them. I mean, for the address specifically, I wouldn't be worried about finding that address and sending them something in the mail.
Omar: Yeah.
James: Yes. It helps you don't need it, but it does help.
Omar: So you just do the numbers.
James: Yeah. Thank you.
Omar: Thank you.
James: That's awesome. I appreciate you being here.
Omar: Thank you. [32:11.3]
Jonathan: All right. Awesome. Let's see. So we got questions scrolling in. I see Neil, Neil, I am going to mute you back to objection handling just in case there's more than one Neil. It's Neil with the question about objection handling. Neil, I'm going to ask to unmute, and then you can hit us up with your question brother.
Neil: Evening guys thank you for speaking with me. Great to be part of this. Thanks James for the invite and Jonathan. Yeah so my question, the objection handling, we all kind of get it. Most times is going to be something, but particularly with COVID, it's kind of like having a lot of people, nervous, nervous nellies out there. You can maybe turn a couple and round to understand the benefits in investing. And this is one of the ironies I find with our industry. It's like the best time to invest is times when people feel the worst, right? [33:03.9]
James: Hmm.
Neil: So it's like trying to get that around and try and convey that with content, with maybe some kind of things you can refer to, because I'm always a bit of an adage of like, you know, a picture or an article speech, a thousand words, as opposed to sitting there with a client and talking to them and saying, look, there's nothing. There's no frame of reference. So in your experience, James, and even Jonathan as well, I mean, I've been in the industry for like 10 years, but what have you find has been kind of sharpest way to get around objection handling because that's somewhere I would like to get better at because I lost the case there yesterday, like 200,000 quit. I mean, he didn't want to invest at the moment. He had had a final sort of a defined benefit Pension scheme payout. He is going to be waiting until maybe March next year or so. That's kind of something I would like to be able to hit better next time it comes up. Thanks. [33:51.4]
James: So the specific objection is I want to wait. I want to time the market essentially.
Neil: Well, essentially when till things get better, the whole kind of COVID thing. We've always had this before. I mean, you know, the, markets been a bit rough. We've seen this before, like 2008. We've seen this in like, you know, emerging markets, currency crises that fed everything in 2013 and it always comes around. But I think it's more pronounced these days because the media is so hell bent on coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus, run for the Hills, you know? [34:19.1]
James: Hmm…hmm. So let me find this. Let me see. I know the perfect resource that can help you. I'm going to try to find it.
Neil: Yeah, sure.
James: I hope I can find it.
Jonathan: Give up a vaccine for this.
Neil: I found Pfizer. I'm good.
James: So I'm going to paste a link in the chat so everybody can see it. And this is something that you can.
Neil: Thank you.
James: It's on Reddit. So don't judge me, but there's a lot of good stuff on Reddit. Do you want to work this into your conversation? Okay. I got it in front of me. Now there's a story about, you don't have to read it right now and I don't want people to read it because it's long. I'm just going to give you the list.
Neil: Hmm.
James: You can a hypothetical person called Tiffany's terrible timing. And then Brittany buy at the bottom and then slow and steady Sarah. So what happened is, and you can read the actual numbers. So they all saved the same amount for the same amount of time, but they invested at different times like some people were waiting out. So terrible Tiffany invested at the absolute worst times and over $96,000, this that are over 40 years, the $96,000 she saved is now worth 663,000 and some change. Brittany buys at the bottom and she was perfect. And she bought at the absolute bottom and like, she superhuman, like no one has ever been able to do this, but she did. Right. And the same 40 years, her $96,000 grew to 956,000. Okay. So you've got terrible timing. Like she buys the top it's 663. Then he got Brittany by at the bottom it's 956. Here's where it gets freaking insane. [35:52.2]
Neil: Hmm.
James: Slow and steady. Sarah. Now, obviously past results are not an indicator of future results. But slow and steady Sarah who invested every single month and just didn't… ignored everything. Coronavirus didn't matter. Pandemic didn't matter. Election didn't matter. Slow and steady Sarah, her nest egg grew to 1.386 million, which is better than the person who bought at the bottom. Now, of course you can't promise results I understand that. But if you put the facts in this, just the story, the hypothetical, the case study, whatever in front of somebody, they now understand at least intellectually, there's a difference between intellectual understanding and emotional understanding. And I don't have time to get into that, into that today. You want to be in the inner circle for that, but buying at the bottom like perfectly still is $400,000, less than just slow and steady. And people say it, then it becomes a math problem for people. So that, that is like the link in there. You can have that for all the stats, the guy who posted that, the Gerrish Schneid Gerrish Schneid, he is posting some amazing stuff online about finance and it's just next level. So hopefully that helps, but I love that resource, that's why I wanted to share it. [37:11.3]
Neil: That's great. Yeah yeah time in the market rather than timing. Yeah.
Jonathan: Slow and steady baby. All right. So what I'm going to do gang is I've got another question up here. Drop your questions in the chat so we can hit James up and get some free consulting out of him. And then we'll bring you up next guy up. And I'm not even gonna why haven't said last names and I'm not going to try his, but Nicholas and you're talking about direct algorithm.
James: I recognize Nick. He sends me a couple of emails. I know this guy,
Nick: Glad to hear. I'm really excited to meet the both of you. I feel like I know you guys, I've literally been listening to you for the past year and a half of my life. So I'm really excited. [37:50.3]
James: That means we've done our job.
Nick: Exactly. Yeah, so my question and James, you might kind of be familiar with it. So I'm about a year and a couple months, I guess, into my financial advising career. My firm is a bit of a hybrid between like an IRA, but we're still brokered under mass mutual. So it's a bit of a challenge, but we're working on it, getting the inbound marketing part, set up, email marketing, you know, everything that you talk about. But right now it's pretty much strict direct outreach. I was wondering, cause James, I I'm pretty sure you started out doing a lot of direct outreach when you were building your business. Was there any sequence you use that worked better than maybe just, I don't know if I'm explaining this right, but like my sequence is just email, then call voicemail and other email LinkedIn message. Like, is there anything that you can really put together between all the different marketing methods that you've seen works I guess a little bit better. [38:45.3]
James: So as far as direct mail, essentially, I used to do a lot of lumpy mail and okay. So I found the bank bag. I'm going to put that in the chat and we'll give you an idea of what it looks like. So it's a bank bag. So there are some companies out there who will say, absolutely not. There's no way you can ever do this, but the, you know, IRAs or whatever, a little bit more creative and they can push back on compliance a little bit more. But essentially any three step sequence from 3dmailresults.com tends to work better than just a standard mailer on old fashioned letterhead on explaining who we are and we're new to town and I'm trying to get introduced to everybody in the neighborhood like that kind of thing. That's just old stuff that doesn't work as well. The lumpy mail, if you've noticed a theme works way better. [39:40.7]
When I got the question about teachers and the book, even if you were to mail those cold, that would get, I know that would get really, really, really expensive. But if you bought them in bulk and got them for like $2 a piece and you mailed that out, like they're going to get a book in the mail and they're not going to resist that. And you would have the paper inside of the book. And I learned that the hard way through when I was mailing at The Adviser Coach, I sent people a gift of one of the books that I had had a long time ago. And I didn't put the letter in the book and I figured people were smart enough to open the package and take the book out and then see the letter and read the letter. I was sadly mistaken. People were emailing, emailing me, thanks for the book. And then like a month later they would email asking for something. I was, I was like, the link was in the letter. They were like, what letter? That was a nightmare. So a bit of a tangent, but if you're going to mail the, well, put the paper in there. [40:34.1]
But as far as overall sequence, when it comes to prospecting, like I explained with the Combo Prospecting. So the combo prospecting approach works. Like it is not my original thinking. It is the Tony Hughes, I think that was him. He, like it works. And he's the one who's pioneered best just like the call, email direct mail, the sequence. Handwritten notes work extremely well. So in the November issue, I talk about essentially handwritten notes and the right way to do it and what you can include in your handwritten note, like a little gift. I know you're limited to $25 a year, but there, there are ways to do that. And I have some examples in there as well, so you can use that. You said email, call voicemail, good, LinkedIn handwritten notes and referrals. Yeah. So that's essentially the sequence. You're just combining them and making them more effective. [41:26.2]
Nick: Okay. Yeah, that sounds great.
Jonathan: I’m gonna.
James: I don't want to give a, I don't want to give too much away, but in the December issue, I know that I'm talking about, I shouldn't say no because we could put it in January or whatever, but we're, we're talking about a specific way to get referrals through content and email. The basic idea is that you are encouraging people to share content. On LinkedIn sometimes I will post content that is more or less like, should you hire a financial advisor or five reasons people should hire a financial advisor or five things you should look for when you're hiring a financial advisor. [42:04.3]
What happens when I post that content? So I never get a lot of engagement on LinkedIn or whatever, but the stuff that I do is very purposeful. People will share that content and it will lead to referrals for me. So people have replicated this and I have never explicitly said, like do this, but I've seen people doing it. They'll do like five reasons why I love teachers or something and it'll get shared and, and teachers will be like, see, we're awesome. And they'll share it. And guess who else is in the teacher's network? Other teachers. And so they'll see that you posted this thing five reasons why I love teachers and they will, some of them will filter down to reach out to you. Obviously not every single person, but that has worked well too. So that's like a way to get referrals. That's not necessarily here's this guy's name and number, but they just filter down. And if you add it with the content marketing calendar that I talked about at the beginning, if you have a year and you do that once a week for an entire year, it's 52 times your at bat and you just need one or two to like make your whole year. That's kind of how you got to look at it. But thank you. [43:06.3]
Nick: Thank you. You were very helpful.
James: Thank you for attending by the way. I'm glad to meet you.
Nick: No thanks for putting it on.
Jonathan: So gang, any questions drop them in the chat. I'm going to share what, uhh, what the Neely's did. They sent me a book and they put the letter in the book and what they did to take it one step further was they put it on a chapter that they thought was important to me about my son's college education. And put a little note there, look, speaking of Neely, he just shows up for the call. That's interesting. Ahh…but just to..
James: Neely, he’s here?
Jonathan: Yup. Brandon Neely just showed up. That's funny that we're talking about him. He must have known, but they put it in the book and then they've wrote a little hand handwritten note on the letter, folded up in the book to the page, thought this might be useful for you. So little things like that, like I don't forget that that was a year ago and I keep placing money with them because they thought about me. They thought about what I needed and they just gave me a little direction. That's what we're looking for is leadership. So you've got to know when it's time to lead people, Neely, I'm talking about you, if you’re here. [44:05.3]
James: Yeah, he sent me the same book. He sent the Pamela Yellen book.
Jonathan: Yeah, I got it right on the shelf.
James: Yeah.
Neely: What are you talking about me?
Jonathan: We were talking about you right when you showed up, bro, it's really odd.
Neely: Yeah.
James: So financial advisors, Brandon Neely, if we did an interview a while back, I don't know if you saw it or not. If you didn't, it's on YouTube, you just Google James Pollard, Brandon Neely, and it'll come up. They're doing like a lot of YouTube marketing and doing a lot of collaborations or whatever. So if there's anything you want to share with the clients now is the time because I don't do YouTube. I have a lot of videos, but I don't put them on YouTube. I have a lot of books and contents and stuff, contents content, but I don't put it on Amazon. We might do something with audible in 2021, but I don't put it on there because I like to retain ownership. And that's just a different business philosophy I have other people don't have to do that, that's specific to me. [44:59.0]
But The Grandma's Wealth Wisdom is Brandon's company and they do a lot on YouTube and they've grown, I mean 400 or so subscribers is like, not that much for big YouTubers, but when you're talking about a financial services company, that's a big deal and 400, I mean, watching your stuff and consuming your stuff. So is there anything you'd like to share while you're here?
Jonathan: I am unmuting him. He's trying to take over the call.
Neely: I didn't know I was going to be talking. I was just coming for, and I was actually doing a YouTube live on another channel recently or just now actually and building those collaborations, building those, the know like, and trust in building a community is really why I think it's important as we have clients. If you are in, I'm assuming people are in the financial services, right? So people forget about us because we don't talk to them every, you know, every six months or, you know what I mean? And so we want them to still like, be educating, still learning. And so that's why we have podcasts. That's why we have the YouTube. And it helps people then know like, and trust us to then jump on my calendar too. And so I think it's, it's a no brainer. [46:20.0]
James: So you're doing this stuff and I want to go back to what Neil said, and I'm wondering how it works for you since you're actually in the business that everyone's in here. Neil was asking about eliminating objections and we shared some ideas with him, but how do you eliminate objections through content? Is that part of what you're doing? Or they.
Neely: Yeah.
Jonathan: How’s it with you?
Neely: Yeah, whenever they ask questions or I will send them videos on certain things. So I'm specific in whole life insurance. So I have a video of why whole life and threats to avoid. And so I shared that or podcast to then say, here's some pieces that I think will be very helpful. And then it's my voice. I also use my mentor's podcast too, because sometimes it's not just your voice saying, this is great stuff. You should listen to me. But if it's somebody else saying this is great stuff as well, it kind of reaffirms that kind of pattern. So I'm always using content as they go through that process cause then financial services, you know, the process is slow. Really, really hard to they keep them warm to make the big sale is you want to keep them excited. [47:38.6]
James: Yeah. I think that's super helpful. I posted this or I think, I think we did or something on an email a long time ago. So we're here because it's the 100th podcast episode. This is being recorded to be edited. And this is going to; you're going to put Jonathan and his team through hell, because this is going to be a beast to edit. But this is the 100th episode and there's a lot of work and I'm extremely grateful and like, seriously, like I'm so appreciative. I know that sometimes it can be offensive and weird. And, but I, I really do appreciate everybody who's listening. I want to bring up this having 100 episodes is not just 100 times better than one. And that you can scale this down. Having three podcast episodes is not just three times better than one. The whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts, because when people see that you have a lot of content, they, it positions you in a different light. [48:37.2]
You have more credibility, you have more authority, there's more material to draw from. If you have, if a prospective client has objections with one episode, the chances of that objection being handled I don't, I mean, that's like a salesy term, but answered, I guess, is very low. But if they're listening to 20, chances are it's going to be answered. So that works really, really well. And they just build a relationship. And there are so many advisors now, especially since March of this year, they're getting on Instagram and Tik TOK and Snapchat and YouTube and LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn, but they're on so many different platforms, but you got to view it from your perspective, clients, eyes, the adviser is stretched so thin when they get on LinkedIn, they don't see that much activity. When they get on the website and they, they say, Oh, the advisor has a blog. Let me click on it. And they see a couple articles. Okay. Or they get to the YouTube channel, like, Oh, he's got a YouTube channel. Let me click on that. And you've got three videos because you're stretching yourself so thin. [49:43.1]
Compare that to somebody like me, where someone comes to me and I'm like, Oh, James has a podcast, let me check it out. A 100 episodes. Or they'd go to somebody like Brandon Neely, they say, Oh, the Neely's, they're not on Tik doc. I don't, I don't think, I don't think so. Are they, are you on Tik TOK?
Jonathan: You said no.
James: No. Okay. So they're not on Tik TOK and they're not doing all these crazy things. Now, like I said, everything works, but when you pick one and you go deep into that one thing, it is so much better than just going light on 10 different things. Now, when I talk about multiple marketing strategies, I'm talking about having social media in conjunction with direct mail in conjunction with your webinar in conjunction with your website. I do not mean take your social media account and branch it off into five different things.
I want you to be amazing at LinkedIn, that way, when somebody gets to LinkedIn, they say, wow, this person knows his or her stuff, I am interested in this. I want you to be amazing at written content if that's your thing, that way, when they get to your website, they say, wow, this person has 50 articles that are all comprehensive and already for me to gain from, there's something there for me, they get to YouTube the same thing, same thing, same thing. So with a hundred episodes is like light years ahead of just two or three. It's just, it's not even close. [50:59.2]
Jonathan: So there's one more question. And I, I'm not a sports ball fan, but I think what you're talking to talking about there is having a deep bench, whatever it is like your, your third row of articles is as good as all these people spreading out different little pieces of content that aren't even as good. So just having good content and going deep, whatever method that is. Email, I would say.
James: Yeah.
Jonathan: Is number one. Email always can branch off of there. So we got a question from Stacy. Stacy, what I'd like to do is bring you on and unmute you so you can ask your question and if anybody else has any other questions, we're getting close to the end here. So drop them in there and we'll get to as many as we can. [51:41.9]
Stacy: Hi there.
James: Hi.
Stacy: I was asking our firm has a few different advisors and each one of us have our own specific niche. But I feel like our website and our social media platforms are getting a little messy because each one of us want to serve our client. Do you have a strategy for each one of us to kind of keep our things separate, but still be sort of you know, obviously associated with our firm. Does that make sense? [52:15.0]
James: Yeah. Yeah. I see, I see this frequently. So it's messy because, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. When they get to the website, they see stuff for one type of person and then another type of person and they get confused.
Stacy: Exactly. Yes.
James: So that happens when your content is visible on your website. I don't know what website platform you use. If you use like Weebly or Twenty over Ten or Wix or whatever, there should be a way for you to have the web that webpage hidden from your website, but have it still show up in search engines? The reason that's powerful is because people can still find you when they're searching for you, but they won't if they just go to your website, they won't be taken back by like other stuff. So on my website, on the, The Adviser Coach has a bunch of content that people just don't see. There are a lot of reviews. There are a lot of other business partnerships that it's just literally not visible on the website. I've got stuff with OptinMonster, I've got stuff with drip, people don't see that though cause it would be confusing. [53:14.0]
But what happens is when people search is drip worth it or OptinMonster review or whatever, they get to the website and they see the article and they go through the process. The same theory applied to financial advisors is this. If you've got Joe and Jill and Tony, and there are three different advisors with three different niches, you have their LinkedIn profile, catered to each niche, obviously. Then the web, the content on your website, it's hosted on your website. It's got your website domain. It's got all the credibility that comes from having a website, but it's just not in the menu bar, it's not public. [53:52.2]
So Joe will take the content to his niche and send it to his people. Jill would take the content for her niche and send it to her people and then so on and so forth. That way you still have a catalog that people can find you in search. People can still get in your world. You can still share it on social. And if Jill is serving doctors and she shares something online for doctors on, on LinkedIn and a doctor clicks on it, the doctor will never see. Now that's sounds shady or than it is, but the doctor will never see that you also serve chemical engineers.
Jonathan: Or doctor will see what's meant for the doctor to see.
James: Exactly. Exactly. Yup
Stacy: Cool, okay. Thank you.
James: You're welcome. And thank you for being here. So I, Jonathan, I actually had one more question that someone had put in. I don't think he's here, but he said, what is the purpose of content marketing? Sorry, if that seems unclear, but does it send people to an appointment page or calendar? Have them make a phone call, et cetera. So like, what is the purpose of content marketing? Because I had said in the original email, like we're going to be talking about content marketing. So the purpose is whatever you want to make it essentially.
And in my content marketing and then if financial advisors follow my full email philosophy; the call to action is essentially join the email list. And that will be the purpose of the content. It will be to get people onto a certain page where at the bottom or at the top or whatever they join the email list. Producer, Jonathan is actually a better person to explain this concept because he has, what's called The Big Ask Little Ask method where it dramatically increases the call to action conversions because you have, have a big ask and a little ask. So can you explain that? [55:40.9]
Jonathan: Well, thank you. And to me, the purpose of content is to keep people moving. That's what I'm thinking is because you want people, whatever momentum that they've already got going, you want to keep that going. And what I've done in the past, the biggest mistake I made in the past was just putting up a big roadblock and stopping that momentum cause I only had the big ask and it was book a call. People aren't ready to book a call, that's a big ask. And I mean, Brandon knows this because Brandon was my client for a year before I would book a call with him. That means the guy was paying me money, working with me and I still wouldn't give him my money and book a call with him. And that's a guy I know. And so you can imagine with strangers that you have no relationship with how hard it is to book that call and get financially naked. Cause that's what it feels like you're getting stripped down and sometimes it could be humiliating. So you gotta think about that. And so what is the momentum of their in your article, if they're in your podcasts what w what do they want to go next? If book a, call's not good what we have is the ball on that, the big ask, little ask. And what I like to do is move them to another piece of content. [56:51.8]
So maybe you're not ready to book that call now, but you're reading this article on how content marketing is awesome and a big ask, little ask keeps people moving. And so maybe an article about how to create more content or how to get better conversion you have other, and this is what we just talked about. The bench is deep, right? Not only do I have this piece of content, I've got this next one, and this next one in this next one, to keep your momentum going. Because these people are jumping locations with you. Whether they're jumping from an article to an email, from an email to a podcast, they're hopping locations; it's speeding up your influence. And eventually they're ready for that big ask. And, and the best part about it, when that big comes up, they think it's their idea. Meanwhile, you were setting up the foundation all along to keep the momentum going until they were ready to take that exit. So that that's the best way I can explain it. Thank you, James. [57:49.2]
James: You are welcome. So we are coming up to an hour and that's all we've got cause we got the cheapo zoom plan and we're going to be kicked out in an hour. So like a hundred episodes, like, honestly, I'm blown away. Like I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful. This has been amazing. And like, I couldn't have done it without you guys. I couldn't have done it without The Podcast Factory. It's so humbling and I hope to have a 100 more. So that's it. I think that's a wrap for today.
Jonathan: Thanks everyone. Thank you. Thanks a million. We'll get this thing cut up and I'm going to go ahead and end the call. Thank you, James, anything you need hit me up, brother. Peace
James: There you have it. That is a wrap for the 100th episode of Financial Advisor Marketing. Thank you so much for being here. I can't express how thankful I am to get to 100 episodes. Here's to the next 100. Thank you so much for listening. [58:44.3]
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