You're listening to Financial Advisor 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 TheAdvisorCoach.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: Welcome to another week another episode of The Financial Advisor Marketing podcast as always, I am your host, James, I don't play no games, Pollard. And I am recording this after a long day so, I'm a little loopy. I've had painters in and out of the Pollard palace all day long. They've been painting the bathrooms upstairs and to say that these people were slow, is putting it nicely. They were here for a long time. They were here for a lot of time yesterday. They were here for a long time today. So, I am glad that they're going. I would rather have them work slowly and get it right than to rush and screw everything up. So, I am thankful that they did a beautiful job. It's gorgeous here in the bathrooms at the polar palace. So, when I am doing my business, washing my hands, of course, I will have a beautiful, beautiful setting. [01:17.8]
This week I want to take a look at something that can strap a rocket ship to your business. It's something that when done correctly, it can generate more leads than you know, what to do with. It can also save you a ton of time because you will be generating qualified leads instead of just anyone with a pulse. I'm talking about landing pages. A landing page is designed to get someone to take a specific action typically to become a lead. If you're involved in my world, you'll hear me talking about opt-in forms and landing pages designed to build an email list, however, strictly speaking, a landing page can be a contact page and appointment page and email signup page or more. It's basically designed to convert visitors into leads. If you ask most marketers about landing pages, they will point you to things like opt-in forms, book giveaways, contest, and so on. Those are all designed to capture information. So that is what a landing page is designed to do. So, these things technically are landing pages, but in the financial advisor world, even the calendar page, the appointment page is technically a landing page because it directs people to become leads. If someone doesn't interact with you at all, but sets an appointment, that person is still a lead, so, in my world and in the financial advisor world, it is a landing page. [02:33.1]
Now, before we get started, I want to clear something up. My belief is that landing pages should be designed to strike a fine balance between quantity and quality of leads generated. This means if you take my advice about landing pages, you will almost certainly be able to generate more leads by following some other marketer’s strategy. I don't dispute that, but the way I do it typically leads to higher quality leads and that’s what you want, so, you can get more. In it, you can swipe a credit card online and run online ads and just put it into countries like India, Pakistan, just get tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of people for super cheap pennies on the dollar compared to America. But they're not going to be qualified for you. And I talk about this with my email marketing program. When I tell financial advisors that they don't need a large email list, I would say that the number two biggest objection I get to my email marketing program is financial advisors thinking they need thousands of people on their email list to make it work. And that is not true. The key is to convert the people you already have, and you raise your chances of converting those people when they are higher quality. [03:40.5]
Let's think about this. What would you rather have? Would you rather have 1000 email subscribers in a 1% conversion rate, which works out to be 10 appointments, or would you rather have 500 email subscribers in a 5% conversion rate, which is 25 appointments. So fewer subscribers, higher conversion rate equals more appointments. So, I am in the focus on conversion rate camp and focused on getting more subscribers because obviously that's what you want. You want more subscribers, and you want a higher conversion rate. If you can do both, then you are a unicorn. You are very special. That is a story for another podcast about how I get high conversion rates, but I will let you in on a little secret. The biggest objection I get, I would say that, yeah, the second biggest objection is thinking they need a big email list. And the biggest objection is they're worried about compliance, but what they don't realize is that the best financial services emails do not talk about money or investments whatsoever. So, like I said, I will kind of cover that in the future. That's a story for another podcast episode. [04:42.1]
Back to landing pages, you could also take someone's advice and get far more qualified leads. So, you could take someone else's advice and you could get far more leads. Like I said, you can just get tons and tons and tons of leads, but they won't be qualified. You could also take someone else's advice and get far more qualified leads, but you wouldn't get very many of them. Theoretically, it's possible to have this really long survey with a multi-step funnel and all these other things, you could make people jump through tons of hoops to get to you, and they wouldn't be more qualified. I don't argue with you there. They would be very, very, very qualified, but only a few people would ever make it through. I found that my approach it's a very nice mixture of generating leads while keeping the quality high. It's what allows me to outperform every other financial advisor marketer in the entire world, as far as I can tell. I've been asking people to show me their numbers for years. So far, I haven't had a single person who has beaten my numbers. So, it is what it is until somebody comes up. I will take that title; I suppose. That sounds super arrogant. I don't mean it in an arrogant way, but I'm just saying I put it out there before. I've done challenges where I'm like $10,000, not $10,000, $1,000 goes to people who showed me that their email approach beats mine. I'll give you a thousand dollars cash that has since ended, but I did put it out there in the past say thousand dollars, I'll give it to you in cash, if you can prove that your emails beat mine so on and so forth. [06:04.4]
Let's move on. The very first element of a high converting landing page is the headline. I'm going to give you some lessons from David Ogilvy, who is one of the greatest advertisers of all time. He's been responsible for some killer headlines. And here is what he had to say. This is an exact quote, “Your role is to sell. Don't let anything distract you from the sole purpose of advertising.” The goal of your landing page is not to be clever, it's not to be witty. It's also not to prove how creative you are. And one of his books Ogilvy talked about how he hated, absolutely hated when his employees referred to themselves as creative. Nobody cares about you being creative. They only care about what's in it for them. So, I want to give you one of my favorite headline’s secrets. Are you ready? Here it is. [06:54.4]
Clearly explain what people are going to get when they go through your landing page. That's it. I know that seems simple, but it's the truth. Financial advisors typically don't set as many appointments as they otherwise would because they don't clearly explain what people would get as a result of the appointment. Financial advisors, they typically don't get as many email subscribers as they otherwise would because they don't clearly explain what people get when they sign up. I could go on. What are people getting? Make it clear what you are giving away, what people are getting in exchange for their email address, in exchange for the time, in exchange for the appointment, make it clear. Your headline sells what people are getting. You're not going to be cute. You're not going to be fancy. You're not going to be creative or witty or clever. You were going to tell people what they get. If you're offering a PDF guide, titled tax secrets for people who own S corporations. And I want you to notice how that is niche specific and how that alludes to a burning problem. Those are lessons in and of themselves. Then your headline would be something like this. Are you an escort who wants to save money on taxes? And then you could go into your body copy, which would read something like this. [08:05.0]
If so, I've got something that I think can help you. And then you describe what you're giving away. You don't have to get cute. Don't have to get witty. You describe what you're giving away. Are you an escort owner who wants to save money on taxes? If so, I've got something that I think can help you. It's this PDF guide, it's 134 pages were tax strategies designed specifically for S-corp oweners and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now, David Ogilvy also said, and I quote, “On the average five times as many people read your headline or the headline as the body copy.” When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar. Let me be clear. You should not spend the same amount of time on your headline as you do with the rest of your landing page. So, if you, your headline is one sentence, you don't want to spend the equivalent of one sentence in your body copy. It should take way more time because most people will read your headline and make us not decision about if they want to move forward. The more effective your headline is, the more people will move forward. This just basic math, just basic marketing. My advice is to write 25 headlines. Yeah, I know that's a lot wham, wham. We're going to complain. Do you want some cheese with that wine? How about I call the wambulance? So, write 25 headlines and pick your favorite five. Then take those five, your favorites, the ones that you really, really like based on your knowledge and your expertise with your niche market. Take them and show them to people in your market. Not other financial advisors, not your family members, not your friends, people in your target market and have those people tell you which headline they like best. Now here's how to tell if you have a winner. [09:46.4]
If people ask you where they can get, whatever it is that you're offering, you have a winner on your hands. If they say something like, wow, that's really great. That's a good headline. And they don't follow it up with where can I get this thing? Like if you show it to S-corp owners, they want the title I gave and they say, oh, well, what are some of these strategies? Or where can I get this? Or do you have this available yet? Then you have a winner. If they don't say those things, you don't have a winner. And I want to repeat myself. Your job is not to be creative; it is to sell. If one of the greatest ad men ever says that he hates it when people call themselves creative, that should tell you something. This man has generated tons and gobs, heaps, truckloads of money. If you want to get more clients, ditch the creativity. [10:35.3]
The second element of high converting landing pages for financial advisors is a strong reason why. This is the reason why someone should do whatever it is you want them to do. This is where you dig a little deeper into what's in it for them. So, let's keep going with that example. It's the tax secrets of people who own S corporations. I think that is the title that I put up there. Yeah, I think the tax secrets of people who own S-corporation something like that, you get the idea. Why should people want that? Well, because it can save the money. Well, why do people want to save money? Because they can use the money to do other things. Like what? Travel, spend time with their families or load up on Buffalo, wild wings, who knows? You have to do your market research and figure out what people want. You could also ask why should they opt in today and not tomorrow or next week or next month or next year? Is whatever you're offering going away? Do you have any bonuses? Are there any limited spots on a calendar? That is one of the best ways to increase urgency as a financial advisor is to display your tie-ins on your calendar. And if there aren't that many of them hint, hint, wink, wink. If there aren't that many of them, you can probably set more appointments. [11:51.7]
Hmm…One reason why live webinars work well is because they have an inherent sense of urgency. I don't know how many webinar ads you see online, but I see a lot and every single one has comments like these. When's the replay? Will there be a replay? I want the replay. These people feel so entitled to a replay, but I tell you what if there's no replay and you have a hard start and a hard end time, and they want it badly enough, they'll show up. Suddenly that meaning isn't so important. Suddenly going to Starbucks for the grande, frappuccino with extra whipped cream and caramel drizzles on top isn't so important. Perhaps you can add a similar sense of urgency to your landing page. [12:39.4]
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. [13:02.0]
The third element of high converting landing pages for financial advisors is something that may or may not work for you. So, use with caution it's social proof. Social proof was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book, Influence. And it's basically when people copy the actions of others, people look to see what the crowd is doing. People feel more comfortable with a product that has 100 reviews instead of one with a zero reviews, that sort of thing. They're looking for restaurants on Yelp, where people have commented and said how awesome it is versus another restaurant where they're like all this place isn't so good. They're looking to see what other people do. Early adopters or adapters or adopters. I've seen both. They tend to set the trends for a lot of people because of social proof. And I'll shoot straight with you. I've seen social proof increased conversions. And when it does increase, conversions is typically by a lot. However, I've also seen social proof, decreased conversions, and my case too much social proof tends to decrease my conversions here at The Advisor Coach. And let me tell you why? [14:07.9]
Every so often I will get an email from a financial advisor asking if he or she can talk to any of my existing inner circle members before subscribing. And I'm like, excuse you. First it's only $99 per month. If you need a background check with three references and verified signatures and like certifications before parting ways with $99 per month. And you're a financial advisor, holy moly, then you need to keep the money. Do not, I forbid you to spend that money because you need it. Second, I like to say this. When someone asks that question, I've had men and women ask me this question. That's why I say he or she. So, I'm inclusive here because people have asked us. Here's what I say. I say no, but if you subscribe, I would like to use you as a reference for people who ask in the future. Will you be a reference for me? And they either ignore me or say, No. It's goofy. Who wants to be called up like this? Like would you really stop your day to have someone call you and ask you 25 questions about the thing that costs $99 per month? And you're a successful financial advisor. Let's say you make a million dollars per year. Do you really want to be bothered with that? No way. [15:15.0]
I used to have testimonials on my opt-in pages, like email marketing and the webinars and stuff like that. But I had like, it blows my mind that I've even had to do this, but I'm just shooting straight with you. I'm being transparent with you here. I had financial advisors asked me to take their testimonials down because they were getting hounded by people asking for reviews and stuff. Keep this in mind. This is for a free opt-in free, completely free, but it gets delivered by email where people can opt out at any time. There's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every single email where people can opt out at any time, they wished. My landing pages, they got tens of thousands of views. So even 0.1% of those people reaching out to financial advisors who were listed as testimonials, it just, it added up to dozens and dozens of people. Emailing, calling, messaging, the people who left testimonials, looking them up on LinkedIn, just hounding them. And I don't want them to do that either. So, I took the testimonials off. Financial advisors have to be careful about social proof because of compliance concerns. But one thing I see financial advisors doing is sharing how many times their thing has been downloaded or sharing how many clients they have or showing that their calendar has been booked. There's that calendar thing again and so on [16:33.8]
The fourth element of a high converting landing page for financial advisors is ease of use. Once people are on your landing page, it should be easy for them to get whatever it is you're offering. If that's something for an email opt in, it should be easy for your visitors to give you their email addresses. If it's setting an appointment, that appointment should be easily set. The biggest takeaway I can give you here is that you shouldn't ask for information unless you absolutely need it. I've said this before on the podcast, I've shared it in the inner circle newsletter in more depth, I see financial advisors asking for zip codes and phone numbers and all this nonsense that they don't really need. Strip it down to the bare essential so you can maximize conversions here. [17:18.3]
What do you want your visitor to do? That should be dropped dead obvious. Don't try to get creative. Remember David Ogilvy, one of the greatest advertising minds of all time, responsible for millions upon millions upon millions of dollars. This is his advice, not mine. So, you can listen to some marketing consultant off LinkedIn or Facebook or something who like has no idea or someone who has been proven to get results. So, David says don't be creative. Some guy on the internet says to be creative. Who you go and listen to? If you want someone to enter an email, say that if setting an appointment with you requires filling something out, say that. Don't leave anything to chance. Explain what you want people to do as if they're five years old, make it so they can't possibly screw it up. I am telling you; this is one of the best things that you can possibly do. Make it clear. What do you want? Say it don't be timid. Just say exactly what you want. Make it clear. Say, put your email address here, click this button, do this thing. Like if you have seen some of my advertisements to some of my landing pages, you might notice that sometimes I will have a video where I will literally go through the order form. I will literally tell people, Hey, if you scroll down, you'll see this calendar. And if you click this button, this is what's going to happen. And then once you click that button, this is going to happen. And eventually you're going to click submit or book an appointment. And this is going to take you here. I go through the entire thing. [18:41.4]
The fifth element of a high converting landing page for financial advisors it isn't the landing page at all. It's everything that happens after the landing page. Let me make myself clear. If someone fills out a form on your website and all that happens is a generic message that says, thank you for subscribing or someone will get in touch with you soon. You are missing a huge opportunity. The best thing you can do, once someone goes through your landing page is to send that person to a custom thank you page with whatever it is that he or she did. You're going to recap it. When people set an appointment with you, redirect them to a thank you page, talking about your appointment process, what a good decision they made and things like that. Reinforce what they've done. Recap this, like I said, congratulate them on their good behavior. If someone opts into your email list, redirect to a thank you page, talking about how, whatever it is will be delivered to their inbox. Say thank you for subscribing. Tell them what to expect in the future. If you email once per week, make that clear, tell them to whitelist, your email address. So, they receive emails from you in the future. Just whatever you do, don't have it just say thank you for subscribing and that's it. This is valuable that I really want you to use. [19:54.6]
I see this missed opportunity with webinars all the time, now that I've got webinars on the brain, if you want to increase your webinars, attendance rate, be redundant. Say how long it will be on the signup page, on the thank you page and in the follow up emails. Do the same for when it will be. This Wednesday at one o'clock, this Wednesday at one o'clock, this Wednesday at one o'clock. People need to be told multiple times. And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about the most powerful follow up tool of all time after going through a landing page, it is email marketing. If someone ops in by filling out a calendar invite by opting in straight up to an Opt-in form, by filling out a contact form, you now have something very valuable. You have the ability to add this person to your email list provided they know what they're getting, they know what they're signing up for. You can't just take random email addresses and add them to your email list, this is not how this works. You want to be very clear saying you for compliance. I obviously am not an attorney, but you want to be very clear saying I'm adding to your, adding you to an email list. I'm going to email you this much. I'm going to email you about this. You want to make sure that you put it all out there. It's just so crazy how effective your marketing is. I have so many articles. I have so many podcast episodes about email marketing talked about talking about this. But once someone goes through your landing page, you want to have a follow-up process because it will transform your entire business. If you want to learn about email marketing, I encourage you to go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar and register for the webinar titled "3 Counterintuitive Ways Financial Advisors Can Get More Clients With Email Marketing..." [21:34.7]
To recap the five elements of high converting landing pages for financial advisors are number one, a good headline. Number two, a strong reason why. Number three, social proof. Number four, ease of use and number five, a solid after process. The thank you page to follow up, et cetera. And if you haven't already subscribed to the inner circle newsletter, make sure you do so over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, because if you've been listening to these episodes and you think that you're getting the “good stuff,” then you will be blown away by what's inside because I do not. I repeat, I do not adhere to the old marketing philosophy of moving the free line or giving so much stuff away for free that people will be amazed by what's in the paid stuff. My philosophy is reward people who invest in themselves. And if that's you go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, and I will catch you next week. [22:30.0]
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