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: In this podcast episode, I'm going to talk about a weird way that I've been building my email list over the past few months. It's something that I haven't seen anyone else ever talk about. Yet it's something that's worked extremely well for me. Let me tell you exactly what I've been doing. [00:46.2]
I've been running online ads campaigns to get new subscribers to my Inner Circle Newsletter. These are not huge campaigns, by the way, simply because I want the right type of person to subscribe. I do not want to cast a wide net in this scenario, or actually, in very few scenarios, do I cast a wide net, just so you know. But these campaigns are $50–100 per day, nothing crazy. Some of the campaigns are actually $5 per day, because the metrics get all out of whack if I try to spend more. It's a whole thing, but just think in your mind $50–100 per day.
Some of the ads have been getting clicks for three or four cents. Each one campaign has gotten more than 10,000 clicks for an average of four cents each. Other ads are getting clicks for 50 or 60 cents each. I bring that up because a lot of financial advisors focus on trying to get the lowest cost per click possible, or the lowest this or the lowest that, but what you really want is the result.
What if you got a bunch of clicks for four cents each, but not the result you really wanted? Then it wouldn't even matter. It would still be a waste of money. That's why I have campaigns running with such a wide variety of costs, because I care about what actually works. If the four-cent campaign gets results, that's cool, I'll keep it running. If it does not get results, then I'll turn it off. If the 50-cent ad campaign isn't getting results, of course, I'll turn it off. If it is getting results, I will let it run. [02:04.8]
Now, it's funny that I say “actually works,” because the truth is that these ads are horrible at what I have them set up to do, which is attract Inner Circle members, and to be fair, it kind of makes sense and it was a dumb move for me to even try to run ads like this, because the Inner Circle Newsletter page has the lowest conversion rate of any page on my website, meaning, out of everything I offer at this point—more than a dozen products and different ways that you can get involved in my world, and videos and podcasts, and all that stuff—people are the least likely to subscribe to the newsletter. Isn't it crazy? But rightly so, because I put up a bunch of barriers because I don't want just anyone to subscribe.
So, if you think about it from a conversion-rate standpoint, it is absolute dog crap. The sign up page is 7,500-plus words long. I clearly say it is not for everyone, and it's relatively expensive at $99 per month. Of course, “expensive” is a relative term, but it'll be even more expensive at $199 per month when I increase the price on January 1, 2025. [03:11.2]
Now, keep in mind, everyone who subscribes before that date will be locked in and grandfathered in at the $99-per-month price.
To make matters worse, from a conversion rate perspective, there's a little terms-and-conditions box that you have to check to become an Inner Circle member to complete your purchase at that time. You basically need to acknowledge that you're getting billed today and then every 30 days after. I think that's actually the law. I had someone consult with me and tell me that, I needed that. This was years ago, I don't even remember. I just try to follow the law as it's written or whatever, the FTC regulations. I try to make sure that I am abreast of all of that stuff.
So, if you know anything about marketing and getting high conversion rates, you know that little check box right there on your checkout page wrecks conversion rates, so the page isn't exactly frictionless, the signup page and the checkout page, and the whole process isn't designed to maximize conversions. It certainly isn't, because it's not for everyone. [04:08.1]
However, something interesting is happening. Depending on the campaign, roughly 1–2% of the people who click on those ads, the cold ads to the Inner Circle Newsletter signup page, end up subscribing to my email list. The reason that's extremely fascinating is because I don't have any opt-ins on the newsletter signup page at all. That means people are clicking on the ads, landing on the Inner Circle signup page, reading for a little bit and then thinking to themselves, Who the heck is this James Pollard guy? Let me check out more of his stuff.
That's a major lesson for financial advisors, especially because hiring a financial advisor isn't a frictionless process either. It's very unlikely that someone will land on your website for the first time and be so impressed that he or she feels compelled to set an appointment right away, so you need something else. That's one of the reasons I'm always talking about building marketing assets. You need other stuff. You need somewhere else for your prospective clients to go when they have a first impression of you and they like you, but they don't want to do the thing that you want them to do yet, which is probably to set an appointment. [05:17.0]
There's this weird gray area, and it's not just with websites. It's with LinkedIn profiles, too, and if financial advisors have podcasts or YouTube channels. Let's say that someone interacts with you online or wherever for the very first time, and that person likes you and wants to hear more from you and wants to stay in your world, but doesn't want to set an appointment or become a client right away. You should be thankful that people operate this way, because if they didn't and they just felt compelled to become a client of any financial advisor immediately upon the first impression, then client-retention rates would be extremely low. So, you should be thankful for this, but you also need to be cognizant of it in your process. [06:01.4]
In my case, people are reading a little bit about the newsletter and the fantastic results it gets for financial advisors, but they're not going to make that sort of commitment during the very first time they encounter me. Instead, they go to another page and another one sometimes, and another one sometimes, and eventually they end up subscribing to my email list.
Do I recommend that you blindly copy this exact strategy that I'm telling you about? No, I don't. I do not recommend that you send a bunch of traffic to a page that isn't related to your goal. In my professional opinion, it is still better to send traffic directly to a landing page offering a lead magnet.
I still do that, by the way. I'm just sharing this story with you, because it is a strange little discovery I had in my business and I wasn't even looking for it. It's pretty awesome, too, because if I'm getting clicks for four cents each and roughly 2% of people subscribe to my email list, that means I'm getting email subscribers for about $2 each, even if I pay 50 cents, and I get a 1% conversion rate. [07:01.0]
That still might make sense, because, let's do some quick math, if I pay $50—so, 1% and then 50 cents, that makes $50—for a high-quality email subscriber, that might seem like a lot. But is it really? Because the conversion rate on the exact type of person I want as an Inner Circle member tends to be a lot higher, simply because when they see what I offer, these types of people, when they see what it is that is in store for them, it makes perfect sense to them and they usually join quickly.
Let's say that 10% of all of these people who join my email list end up subscribing to the newsletter. That's high, but, again, these are extremely targeted people. That means I am effectively paying $500 to get a subscriber, so $50 per subscriber to the email list and then 10% of those will subscribe to the Inner Circle Newsletter. That's $500 per subscriber. I just want to make sure that you're following along. [07:58.7]
Now the question becomes, how long does each subscriber stay? Let’s just talk about revenue now. I don't want to get too complicated with the net income and all this stuff. Let's just stick to revenue. $99 in revenue is generated per month. That means each subscriber needs to stay, on average, six months before I even break even. That is totally fine with me, by the way, especially because Inner Circle members tend to stay subscribed for years.
So, here's another lesson for you. I gave you a major lesson earlier. I'm giving you another major lesson right now. Stop focusing on stuff like how much you're paying per subscriber or cost per click or whatever, and focus on the economics of your business. What do you actually want?
Chances are your goal is not to have the biggest email list. Chances are your goal is not to get the most website traffic. Chances are your goal, at least I hope so, if you're listening to me, is to build personal wealth for yourself. You should focus on the economics of your business and how those economics are structured to generate personal wealth for you. [09:05.0]
If I were to walk up to a random marketer and say, “Hey, I'm paying $50 per email subscriber,” then that person would have a heart attack. That person would start telling me how stupid I am and how that's too much for an email subscriber, and how I don't know what I'm doing and all of this nonsense without knowing the actual context of my business and the economics of my business, because in this particular case, I will pay $50 per email subscriber all day, every day.
In many cases, the economics of a financial advisor's business allow for similar effects, because let's say a financial advisor makes $4,000 per client. If that's you, how much can you pay or spend or invest to acquire that client? A lot, right? I think a lot of financial advisors stay stuck because they view their businesses as paychecks or something when they should view their businesses as vehicles to build personal wealth. [09:57.8]
Again, build personal wealth. What do you actually want? Because when I say something like, you can spend several thousand dollars to acquire a $4,000 client, then they immediately start thinking about the money that they're not going to have in their paycheck or whatever. That's limited thinking, because is your goal to get a bunch of paychecks or distributions from your business in the short term, or is it to build personal wealth and large personal wealth over the long term? [10:22.2]
Listen up, financial advisors. This is something special I'm doing exclusively for people who listen to this podcast. If you subscribe to the Inner Circle Newsletter over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, I will send you a collection of seven copyright-free emails, personally written by me, that you can use right away to begin getting more clients.
I call these my “objection-busting” emails, because they are designed to overcome the biggest objections financial advisors face. All you have to do is send me an email letting me know you’ve subscribed and I will reply with a link where you can download them for free.
I originally offered these in the May 2024 Inner Circle Newsletter issue, and it was one of the most popular bonuses I've ever given away. Today, these seven objection-busting, copyright-free emails are only available to listeners of this podcast, because I'm not mentioning them anywhere else. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to subscribe today. Now, back to the show.
Here's another way to think about it. I don't want to go off on a tangent on this because I think I'm going to talk about this in a future podcast episode. Would you rather have $100 today or $200 next year? That's really what it's like. People just get so hung up, “Oh, no, I'm not going to have that dollar today. I'm not going to have that. I need that money right now,” and it hamstrings them completely.
I can't remember if this was in the last episode or a few episodes ago, but I mentioned how if a new business owner starts making a bunch of money and spends it on material possessions, that person is pretty much guaranteed to be a moron, because the return on investment from certain marketing channels in your business, especially in the early days, is so, so, so much higher than a Mercedes or a nicer house, whatever material possession you'd spend your money on. You should focus on keeping the main thing, the main thing, focus on building personal wealth. [12:15.0]
Now back to the strategy. I didn't want to go off on a tangent. Let's talk about how I'm building my email list. I began thinking to myself, Hmm, if I can send cold traffic to the Inner Circle Newsletter signup page and have people bounce around and end up joining my email list, what would happen if I just sent direct-mail pieces to the people I would like to subscribe to in the newsletter? So, I did exactly that. You see, I practice what I preach. I tell financial advisors to do email marketing, and guess what I do? Email marketing. I tell financial advisors to do direct mail, and guess what I do? Direct mail.
I wrote up a sales letter really quickly. I could have made it 10 times better if I spent more time on it, but I just wanted to get it shipped, no pun intended. Also, it took a lot of pressure off from making it a, quote-unquote, “good” sales letter, because I had zero expectations. I knew in the back of my mind, I'm doing this to get people involved in my world not to subscribe to my newsletter, so I guess I didn't push as hard as I could have. But maybe it actually made it better because I didn't push. Hmm, something to think about. [13:16.8]
I ended up writing six pages. I like going for six pages almost every time, because that is typically the max you can put in a regular envelope with a first-class stamp. Can you squeeze in more? Yes, I've gotten away with more, but I've also had the USPS complain at me because they couldn't fit it through the little slot that they use. It's like something that they have to be able to fit through in order to scan. I don't know, I don't know, they just told me that they would not take it, that I had to put more stamps on it. But I have never had three pages printed front and back fail me. That has always worked every single time, three pages printed front and back into a regular envelope, the No. 10 envelope with a first-class stamp. Right now it's 73 cents with that thing on it. That gets mailed every time. They have never rejected that. [14:05.1]
I'm not going to give away exactly what I said in the letter. This is a free podcast episode, after all. I can't give away all of my secrets for free. But the basic gist went something like this: “Hey, you should really pay attention to this letter. Make sure you read the whole thing.” Then after that, I introduced myself. I built a little bit of credibility. “Hey, here's why I'm credible, and my name is James Pollard and you should listen to me because of X, Y and Z.” I made sure that the recipient knew I was the real deal and that I could really help.
Then I immediately segued into “This is why you should read the letter. This is what's in it for you. This is why you should pay attention,” and I focused on the recipient. I basically said that this can help you do this and this and this, and even better, since it was a direct-mail piece I had—and this is important, this is another major lesson here for financial advisors who want to get better with marketing—with direct mail, you have complete control over the recipient. Since it was a direct-mail piece that I was sending out, I had complete control over who would receive the letter. [15:04.7]
That's one of the coolest parts of direct mail, because even with something like online ads, you don't have complete control over who clicks and who doesn't. If you have a landing page on your website, you don't have complete control over who subscribes. With direct mail, you control which address goes on that envelope, so I could truly write the letter as if it were for one person.
Once I got done with the offer part about why the recipient should take action, I went to the call to action, where I said, “If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, but the letter didn't end there. Oh, no, no, no, no marketer worth his or her salt within the letter there. I added in a PS, where I recapped the value of the offer, why it was important to act now, and then I added another call to action at the end of the PS. It was the same one, “Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching.” [15:53.7]
If all of this seems like a lot of work, it's not. Just trust me, it's not a lot of work. Even if it is somehow a lot of work for you in your perception, trust me, having a winning direct-mailer is worth the work, because if you have a slowdown in your business or extra time, you could fire off a few of these and meet your prospecting goals for the day.
If you have a winning direct-mail piece, a printer, some stamps and envelopes, and paper in your office, you will literally never fail to meet your prospecting goals, as long as you're able to send the stuff out, and I guess as long as your prospecting goals aren't too extreme, like contact a thousand people every single day. I mean, let's just be realistic. But if you have regular normal-financial-advisor “want to make high six-figures, low seven-figures” whatever goals, then direct mail is a pretty, pretty great way to get there.
Let's say I sent these direct-mailers on a Monday and the recipients got them on a Friday, and let's say that I only sent them to financial advisors in Arizona. On Friday night, I would check my tracking software and I would see that I got a bunch of email opt-ins from IP addresses in, you guessed it, Arizona. [17:04.1]
Oh, and then on LinkedIn, I would go to the “Who's viewed your profile” section and see that several financial advisors from, yep, Arizona viewed my LinkedIn profile. Of course, I guess it is certainly possible that it's a coincidence and some Paul Revere-like figure rode through the streets of Arizona screaming, “Subscribe to James' email list. Subscribe to James' email list.” However, I think it's much likelier that they got my direct-mail letter and subscribed.
Oh, and people did actually end up subscribing to the Inner Circle Newsletter. That's kind of cool, because, again, I had low expectations. In my mind, this direct-mailer would have worked even if zero subscribed right away. The lesson here, again, lesson, lesson, lesson is that your business structure should be set up in such a way where you can easily play the long game. If you cannot play the long game, then your business economics cannot compete with someone who can. [17:59.2]
What do the numbers look like? Email subscribers from direct mail can be really tricky to track, especially because people use email addresses that can't be identified, like, I'm sorry, “sexykitty69@aol.com.” I don't know if that person's from Arizona or not. People also bounce around a lot on the website. They use VPNs, all this stuff. But simply estimating or guesstimating, I suppose, I am fairly confident that roughly 3%, I mean, 2–four%, somewhere in that range, roughly 3% of all the people who received my mailer ended up getting involved in my world in some way.
That's conservative, by the way, because in my mind, getting involved in my world includes following me on LinkedIn, subscribing to my email list, subscribing to the Inner Circle Newsletter, or even sending me an email directly letting me know that they're interested in learning more. But let's just stick to email subscribers. If I spend $1 per mailing, that means I'm getting email subscribers from direct mail at that 3% conversion rate for $33 each. I will triple and quadruple down on that because I can control who receives the letter. I can be extremely targeted, and I have all sorts of tricks up my sleeve for the future and how I'm going to do a lot more direct mail. [19:14.8]
I'll also add one thing. I like direct mail because it's private. I'm not a fan of the whole build-in-public thing that people do on social media. Now, I think it's kind of silly. I like to operate under the radar, because let's just be real here. You have no idea if I'm going to send 50 letters in the next month or 5,000 or 50,000. You just don't know and I like it that way. It's something to think about, something to consider. The privacy aspect of marketing and certain marketing channels is highly underrated, in my opinion.
All right, that's it for this week's episode. I know it was high-level. I hope it got you thinking. This is something I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. I would be so far ahead right now if I knew this. Either way, I'm glad I'm telling you now. I'm glad I'm paying it forward to you—and I will catch you next week. [20:02.7]
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