You're listening to “Financial Advisor Marketing”—the best show on the planet for financial advisors who want to get more clients, without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal.
James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard.
James: Financial advisors, hope you're doing well. Welcome to another episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. As always, I am your host, James “Smoking Meat and Packing Heat” Pollard. I hope to entertain you and show you a better way of thinking. One way I do that is by presenting you with actual data, studies and proof, instead of, oh, gee, I don't know, telling you feel-good anecdotes and pulling stuff out of my butt. [00:56.6]
This week is going to be no different because I'm going to discuss the 2022 Investopedia Financial Literacy Survey. They surveyed 1,000 adults from Generation Z, 1,000 adults from the millennial generation, 1,000 Gen X’ers, and 1,000 baby boomers, about their financial habits, their financial worries, what they're looking for, stuff like that, and here are some key takeaways right off the bat. I'm just going to throw these stats at you just to give you something right away.
Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults are invested, but only one in three say they have advanced investing knowledge, and I know this is framed as being low. You're supposed to be shocked by this, like, Gasp, only one in three say they have advanced knowledge, but I'm not even sure that it's a third of adults.
But the good thing is you don't need anything advanced. I know a lot of accredited investments, for example, get pushed as sexy deals for rich people in the marketing world. In real estate marketing, they're called dumb doctor deals. The real estate is and it's just something that you don't need. It's not necessary. Can you do it? Sure, but you can get to multiple seven figures with index funds. You don't need advanced stuff to invest in a broad market index fund, I'm sorry. [02:12.8]
About half of those surveyed said they had a deep understanding of keeping a budget, paying taxes and saving. That's good. I like that. The internet is a go-to source for investing in financial education for the younger generations, specifically 45% of Gen Z uses YouTube; 47% of millennials use internet searches and 40% of millennials also use YouTube.
Now, this is true, but I don't want you to think that these people are searching for financial advisors on YouTube. They're not. They're looking for content on YouTube, and if that content is provided by a financial advisor, then it opens the door for a potential business relationship. They're looking for entertainment. They're looking for videos. They're looking to watch something while they're eating lunch, while they're taking a break, while they're hanging out at home, while they're in the doctor's office, waiting, while they're on the subway, on the train, on the bus, in their Uber, whatever. They're looking for content, and if the content just so happens to be provided by a financial advisor, then good stuff can happen later. [03:17.4]
I have an Inner Circle member with more than 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and he is consistently putting out content that attracts people. Is he getting clients from YouTube? Yes. Are there a lot that come from YouTube? I don't think so. I think he shared … I'm going to have to look at an email from him. Is it a lot of work? Yes, but he's creating assets that will continue to work for him no matter what he's doing.
If you look at his subscriber count and his views on a tool like TubeBuddy or something, you will see that he's growing exponentially, and one of the pieces of advice I gave him was to do reaction videos, like financial advisor reacts to bad financial advice or financial advisor reacts to TikTok videos or TikTok influencer financial advice, stuff like that. [04:02.3]
When he took that advice, YouTube's algorithm picked him up and started showing those videos to people all across YouTube, and since it's got TikTok in it, which is a hot keyword right now—financial advice is a hot [keyword]. We're not necessarily the hottest keyword, but influencer financial advice, the influencer part would be a hot keyword—people are more likely to view it, which is why I think YouTube picked it up in the first place.
Now, are these highly-qualified people? Are these people with hundreds of thousands of dollars of investable assets? Are these people who can pay $3,000 to $4,000 for a one-time financial plan and a couple hundred dollars per month for ongoing financial advice? Not necessarily. Most of the time, no. I'm not going to sit here and tell you, Oh, yes, they are. They're completely qualified. It's tons of qualified traffic.
But when you have tons of thousands of people viewing your videos and you only need a handful of clients per month to add a million dollars per year to your business, you can see, hmm, it's not such a bad deal. It's basically a high-volume, low-success-rate strategy, but it works. Why? Because the videos work independently of your time once they are created. You create the videos, you put them out, and they continue to get views. [05:17.1]
I'll give you another specific example. I'm a fan of the Money Guy Show with Brian Preston on YouTube. His most-viewed video right now is literally “Financial Advisors React to Money Advice on TikTok.” That video at the time of this recording has 1.2 million views. His number two video is 500,000, okay? So, you can see there is a huge difference here, and I would bet dollars to donuts, it’s because YouTube's algorithm is pushing that video, because I’ve seen it again and again and again. Then his number two, number three, number four, number five videos, they're stuff like “Model 3 Problems: What Tesla Isn't Telling Us”, “The Economics of Owning a Tesla Model 3”, and “Tesla Model 3 Accessories”. [06:01.0]
Are the people watching these videos, looking for a financial advisor? Probably not, but these videos serve a purpose. They rack up views. They add legitimacy to his channel, and I imagine they've had a massive trickle-down effect to all of his other videos. If 500,000 people watch the Tesla video, and let's just say, 10% of those people think, Who the heck is this money guy? and they watch a couple other videos and a small percentage of those people make it down the rabbit hole to his website, to his course, to work with him, then it is worth it. This is how it works.
To give you the flip side of the coin, here are some of his worst-performing videos. “Watch This Before Rebalancing”, “Exposing the Truth About Vacation Homes”, “How to Get Rich Without Even Trying”, “The Stock Market Is Rigged”, “The Average Savings Rate in America”, and if you're smart, you'll see a theme here.
I think Brian is incredibly intelligent. He's a wonderful business owner. I was recently in Tennessee. I wanted so badly to go, visit the office and meet him, but I didn't have time to do it. Brian, if you're listening, I want you to come on the show and talk about YouTube. [07:10.4]
But, financial advisors, I want you to notice the worst-performing video titles tend to be a little bit more direct. They tend to be about money directly. People who are on YouTube aren't necessarily typing in “the average savings rate in America.” If it's suggested to them, then they might watch it. People will trickle down, but you must start with some other form of content. Keep that in mind.
Enough about that. I want to get back to the Investopedia survey. One of the questions Investopedia asked was, “Which financial skills are important for you to learn today?” This is a wonderful question. This is something that I am so glad that we have. We have the internet. We have these companies that are doing surveys, doing research, and we can just piggyback on that. We can make our businesses better by using these surveys. [08:00.8]
Here are the responses. I'm going to go through and I'm going to throw a lot of numbers at you, but I'm going to try my best to make sure you get them without getting confused.
For Gen Z, when they were asked, “Which financial skills are important for you to learn today?” 34% said, “How to do my taxes.” Ding, ding, ding, ding. If you are someone who is targeting Gen Z, here you go, the number one answer handed to you on a metaphorical silver platter is “How to do my taxes.” If you're targeting Gen Z, make sure you have content about this. Thirty-one percent said, “How to reduce debt.” Hmm, student loans, probably a big deal. Credit card debt, probably a big deal. Thirty percent said, “How to build or improve my credit score.” Thirty percent said, “How to save for retirement,” and 30% also said, “How to avoid fees.”
Let's go through this one more time. I want to make sure that you get this. I want to actually help you. I want to improve your life, improve your business. If you're driving, hopefully, this soaks in. You can always come back and you can listen to the episode. Gen Z said, “How to do my taxes,” “How to reduce step,” “How to build or improve my credit score,” “How to save for retirement”, and “How to avoid fees.” [09:14.2]
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 $1,000 worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren't available anywhere else. Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more.
Let's go to millennials. The number one financial skill that is important for millennials to learn today, as reported by actual millennials aged 26 to 41—I should have mentioned that before. Gen Z is aged 18 to 25. Millennials were 26 to 41—31% of them said the most important financial skill for them to learn today is “How to build or improve my credit score”; 28% said, “How to save for retirement”; 28%, “How to reduce debt”; 27%, “How to avoid fees.” Very similar or similarish to Gen Z, just flipped around a little bit. [10:17.8]
But then number five, the fifth most important financial skill, 26% of millennials said, “How to plan for financial risk.” Hmm, so this is something different. If you're targeting millennials versus Gen Z, you probably want to talk about financial risk. If you are targeting Gen Z, specifically, and you're talking about financial risk, it's not going to work as well. This is why you need to create different content. You need to, depending on your audience, because different topics are going to hit differently for different people.
Gen X. Let's take a look at the Generation X response. Number one, 30% said, “How to save for retirement”; 26% said, “How to build or improve my credit score”; 24% said, “How to reduce debt”; 24% said, “How to avoid fees”; and 24% said, “How to plan for financial risk.” [11:16.5]
Let's go back here. I want to take a look at the number one for Gen Z. It was “How to do my taxes.” Number one for millennials, “How to build or improve my credit score.” Number one for Gen X is “How to save for retirement.” So, you should be prioritizing these topics differently based on who you are targeting, and Gen X is aged 42 to 57. The number one most important financial skill in their eyes based on their perception is “How to save for retirement.” This should not necessarily be a shocker to you.
Unfortunately, I see financial advisors, not always, many of them are good about this. They talk about student loan debt. They talk about building a credit score, but they talk about building a credit score for someone who isn't as interested or they talk about how to save for retirement for Gen Z. [12:08.6]
It's like, yes, I know you think it is important, financial advisor, and I agree with you. It is extremely important for Gen Z to plan for retirement, but you want to fish where the fish are. You want to enter the conversation that they are having in their heads, and if Gen Z says they are most interested in how to do their taxes, you start with that.
The reason I brought up the YouTube channel thing is because, if people get in through the channel by watching Tesla videos or watching TikTok reaction videos, who are you to fight that? Give the people what they want and let them find the other content.
If you start with “How to save for retirement for Gen X,” they say it's the most important financial skill for them to learn today, 30% of them say how to save for retirement-- If you are super-duper interested in reducing risk for people, okay, you don't start with reducing risk. You start with how to save for retirement, and then you go to risk. You open the door. Okay? Does that make sense? [13:14.5]
Let's move on to the baby boomers. Baby boomers, aged 58 to 76, the number one most important financial skill based on what they said, 1,000 baby boomers, is, drum roll, please, “How to make sure my financial information is safe online.” Ooh, 32% said that. “How to make sure my financial information is safe online.” We didn't even see that with Gen Z, with millennials, with Gen X. We didn't see that at all, but baby boomers, it is number one for them.
If you're targeting baby boomers, here is a great golden content idea, “How to make sure your financial information is safe online,” and I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do. First of all, you use a password manager, okay? I love LastPass. It’s incredible. I have it across multiple devices. [14:05.8]
Yes, I know that there are maximalists out there who will say that it's not open source and you want something that is open source. KeyPass, I believe, is open source. But one reason I love LastPass is that I have the family plan, okay, and I have it set up to access my wife's stuff and my wife can access my stuff.
Let's say that I get hit by a bus tomorrow, okay? My wife can request access to my account and I have a certain amount of time to deny her request. I think I have it set for 48 hours. I think you can set it for a couple hours, 24 hours a week, whatever. There are a couple options, okay, but I have it set for 48 hours. Let's say I'm dead, okay? She requests access to all of my passwords, all of my bank accounts, all of my brokerages, all of my social stuff, all my business stuff, and because I'm dead, I can't say, Hey, no, don't give her access. [14:59.3]
So, 48 hours goes by. She now has access to everything I have. She can go in and she can handle business and vice versa. If she gets hit by a bus, I can request access to her stuff. I get access to all her passwords. It's just super easy. You don't need these weird filing systems. You don't need these weird services that it's just … No, you don't need that. You need a password manager, okay? You need a password manager so you can go in and you can handle your business.
Another thing I strongly, strongly, strongly, strongly recommend for people is to use multifactor authentication. However, don't depend on your cell phone. I'm not going to get too deep into this. Yes, I am a bit of a security nerd in my personal life. There are things that can happen called SIM swaps. It is very rare, but it is possible. The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, when he was CEO famously got targeted by a SIM swap. I think Jeff Bezos got targeted as well.
You want to use something like a Google authenticator if possible. The one reason I don't really like Google authenticator is because it's typically limited to one device. The authenticator that I use is called Authy. A-U-T-H-Y. The reason I like Authy is because I can have it on multiple devices. I can have it on my office computer. I can have it on my laptop. I can have it on my cell phone. I can have it on my iPad. [16:16.2]
If I have an authenticator like Google authenticator or some other authenticator on my phone, okay, and I lose my phone, I'm screwed. But if I Authy and I lose my phone, then I just go to my iPad and I’ve use it to get the two-factor authentication code, or if I lose my iPad, I can go to my office computer and I'm okay, everything is fine, and it is just a wonderful, wonderful service.
If you combine a password manager with two-factor authentication and you have good security hygiene, you have good password hygiene, strong, unique passwords for everything that you have with two-factor authentication enabled, then you should be good.
Please listen to me. Please, please, please do this. Do this. I am so sick of seeing people who get hacked and have problems with their accounts, and it's just unnecessary. Please, please research this stuff. Research password managers. Research multifactor authentication. You will thank me. [17:17.0]
But back to the baby boomer stuff. Number two, 28% of people or baby boomers said, “How to avoid fees”; 26% said, “How to reduce debt”; 23% said, “How to understand the fine print.” Hmm, very interesting. We didn't see this elsewhere either. Number five, 23% said, “How to build or improve my credit score.”
So, “How to understand the fine print.” If you're targeting baby boomers, this is a wonderful topic. “How to reduce debt.” Let's see, Gen X said, “How to reduce debt.” Millennials said, “How to reduce debt,” and Gen Z said, “How to reduce debt.” Everybody's in debt. Everybody's got debt apparently. They’ve got student loan debt. They’ve got mortgages. They’ve got credit card debt. So, that is the safe topic. [18:05.6]
If you're going to write for anybody and everyone, somebody with a pulse, then stick to “How to avoid debts.” Be the debt person. Dave Ramsey does this. This is Dave Ramsey's … oh my God, Dave Ramsey's entire shtick. That's how he appeals to everybody. But if you're someone who wants to target a specific niche, a specific age group, then write about the stuff that is interesting to them and them only, okay, and I just gave you all of this information.
I wanted to share this with you in case you're looking to create content or unique content ideas. I figured this would be good information for you because it eliminates the guesswork. You don't have to throw stuff against the wall to see if it sticks. You can start with these depending on who you're targeting.
So, that is it for this week. I hope this was helpful. If you're not already subscribed to my email list, make sure you go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/57, the number five and the number seven, so TheAdvisorCoach.com/57, and subscribe. I will send you daily emails, though, so do not, I repeat, do not subscribe if you're going to whine and complain about daily emails. [19:14.4]
But other than that, hope you enjoyed this. Hope you found it helpful. Thank you so much for listening, and I will catch you next week.
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