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: Hey, financial advisors. In this episode, we're going to talk about seven things my most successful emails do to get clients for financial advisors. I recently analyzed a few hundred emails I wrote specifically for advisors. My goal was to figure out what separated the best emails from all the rest so I could replicate them. I went through them with a fine-tooth comb. I looked for patterns and similarities, and everything I could find and anything I could find to explain their success. I'm going to reveal what I found in this episode. [01:03.0]
But, first, I want to go back to something I talked about in last week's episode. Last week I talked about why your website should repel 95% of people. In fact, I believe all of your public-facing marketing material should be repulsion based. You find gold by getting rid of dirt, and the better you are at getting rid of the metaphorical dirt, the more gold you will find, and one of the points I made in last week's episode is that repelling prospects will dramatically improve your business economics. I should have put some real numbers or examples in front of you, so I'm going to do that now.
Let's say you have two financial advisors. Financial Advisor 1 takes anyone with a pulse. Financial Advisor 2 is very selective. They both book 10 appointments from their website. At first glance, you might see a problem with that. You might say, “Okay, James, hold up. Wait a minute.” You might think, isn't Financial Advisor 2 going to get fewer appointments in the real world than Financial Advisor 1? [02:03.2]
Not really, because what Financial Advisor 2 loses in volume of website traffic and visitors and things like that he makes up for in specificity, meaning, even though he has fewer website visitors and fewer prospects compared to the advisor who works with anyone with a pulse, the prospects are more likely to set an appointment. But either way, just imagine 10 appointments. They both have 10, okay? It’s my show. I make the rules. They both have 10.
Advisor 1 has a 20% close rate, so one out of five. Advisor 2, because he works specifically with a niche and repels the wrong people, has a 40% close rate, two out of five, and that's actually pretty darn conservative, which means, conservatively, Advisor 2 will get twice as many clients with the same appointment volume. The reason that's so important is because Advisor 2 did not work twice as hard. They all had the same number of appointments. They invested the same amount of time. He just positioned himself better. [03:07.0]
When you repel the wrong people and attract the right people, you waste less time. You take fewer calls. You have fewer appointments. You have fewer bad appointments. You have fewer tire kickers. You spend less time convincing. You spend more time advising. You free up your time to do whatever you want. The benefits go on and on. It really begins to impact the economics of your business when you reinvest the time you save into other parts of your business and marketing assets, and getting better at serving your existing clients, because then Advisor 2 who has fewer prospects can grow a lot faster than advisor o Advisor 1, because Advisor 2 is just pouring gasoline on that fire.
That's all I wanted to share with you, because I really should have shared that in the last episode, but let's get into today's topic, the topic for this week, which is what I've learned analyzing emails I've written for financial advisors. [03:58.4]
Last year, I analyzed nearly 3,000 emails that I wrote for myself for my personal email list, and I found very interesting patterns. I shared those in an Inner Circle Newsletter issue, so out of respect for Inner Circle members, I am not going to share those patterns here. After all, they paid for the information and I'm not going to reveal for free what they paid for. This is something different, but the information will still be extremely valuable if you're a financial advisor who wants to get clients, because, like I said earlier, I analyzed a few hundred emails I wrote specifically for financial advisors, and I analyzed them to see what patterns the best ones had.
Before I begin, I want to make it clear that they all usually did these things. These seven things are not present in every single winner that I had, because there are always edge cases and there are always these weird emails that practically print money with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. However, these seven things can put the odds in your favor, because they won more often than not. They came up again and again and again. So, if I were designing an email marketing campaign for a financial advisor and my life was on the line, I would probably put all of these things, or try my hardest to put all of these seven things into the email. [05:15.4]
So, let's begin. No. 1: they begin with a pain point, not education, not teaching. So many financial advisors screw up their marketing by trying to educate and give value. What you want to do is begin by saying something like this. “I hear this a lot from people in their 50s,” or “After years of helping physicians plan for retirement, I've noticed something interesting.”
Financial advisors who try to teach, on the other hand, will begin their emails like this. They will say, “Here's how to optimize your retirement,” or “Here are 10 reasons why you should consider Roth IRAs,” and I just think to myself, please, no, anything but that. I am just so sick of this IRA and Roth IRA content. [05:56.0]
The reason that beginning with a pain point works is because the readers recognize themselves before you explain anything, and that helps you build credibility. It helps you bypass skepticism. What's weird to me is that this is common knowledge in the marketing world and it's done in so many other industries. Yet financial advisors, for some reason, completely ignore it.
If you're selling cars, for example, your email will likely open with a line like, “Are you tired of seeing newer cars pass you on the road every day?” or “Have you ever wondered what safety features your family is missing when they're on the highway?” That is much better than “Let me tell you why our dealership is the best,” or “Here are 14 features that you need to know about the new Lexus,” whatever, TX, I think is one of the nicer ones, the big SUV.
No. 2: they reframe the problem away from personal failure. Now, look, I am not one of those people who gets intimidated by the word “failure.” There are people out there who think that that is such a nasty word and nobody should ever be called a failure, but I understand that the word “fail” is a verb, and if you are failing, then you are a failure. At least, that's my take on it, because it's a verb, okay? [07:10.4]
If you're swimming, you are a swimmer. If you're walking, which, again, this is a verb, you are a walker. If you are talking, you are a talker. If you're failing at something, then you are—complete the sentence for me—a failure. It doesn't mean that's your identity, though. You're not a failure when you stop failing or you stop doing the thing that you're failing at. It's not your identity.
When you stop swimming, are you still a swimmer? I would say, no. If you're not walking, you're not a walker. You become a swimmer when you're not swimming if you tell yourself that you're still a swimmer, but if you're currently failing at something, then, yes, based on the way verbs work, you are a failure at that point in time.
With that said, I highly advise against saying that in your emails. This is something that you're going to “Do what I say, not what I do,” because the best emails I've written for financial advisors actually remove that shame and they redirect it from personal wrongdoing. [08:12.0]
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.
I've mentioned this in the past, but I've done private research, which has found that the number one reason why people don't hire financial advisors is intimidation. There are several reasons that they give, but all of those reasons fall into this intimidation category, and as cliché as it sounds, one of the best ways to eliminate that intimidation is to give people a way to save face.
For example, not saving enough money or not having enough money is an excuse people will use to not hire a financial advisor. They're intimidated that the advisor will judge them for how little money they have based on their age or something, or a story they tell themselves, like people with $2 million are like, Oh, it's not enough because 5 million is rich, or people with $500,000 think, Oh, it's not enough because a million is rich, or whatever. [09:57.0]
That's why you say something like, “When people feel uncertain about retirement, they often assume they haven't saved enough. In reality, the issue is usually clarity.” So, by saying that, you're reframing the problem. They think, Okay, whew, it's not my fault. I did not fail at saving enough money. I'm not a failure. I just don't have clarity. That's what I don't have. I just don't have clarity.
So, then they're more likely to book an appointment with you. I must warn you, however, this is a double-edged sword, because it will get you more appointments, but you must have your stuff in order if you want them to be qualified. I personally do not do this. Again, this is “Do what I say, not what I do.”
I do not give financial advisors an out for why their marketing is terrible, because if a financial advisor can't bring himself or herself to spend 10 or 15 minutes per day on marketing activities, then there's really nothing I can do. I'm not going to create a scapegoat. I'm not going to give the financial advisor an out or a way to save face, because it just is what it is. It really does come down to personal responsibility and initiative at some point. But if you want more appointments from your emails, that will do it. [11:04.8]
This is one of those things where it applies to financial advisor emails, but when I analyzed my 3,000, or nearly 3,000 emails last year, this is not something that I did. I did not give financial advisors excuses or ways to save face.
No. 3: they introduce one big idea, one organizing idea that changes how everything makes sense, so focus on one. For example, here are some big ideas from successful emails I've written.
“Hiring a financial advisor doesn't have to be intimidating.” That came up a lot.
“Not investing is riskier than investing.” A lot of people say, Oh, I'm worried about the market. The market is too low right now. The market is too high right now. The market has been flat for too long. They make up all of these excuses and stories to tell themselves how they're avoiding risk.
Another idea is the idea that a financial plan is a living document. It is not just this thing that you create one time and then put in a binder and put that binder on the shelf. It is something that changes with you, that adapts with you, and that grows with you. These are all ideas that were in emails that I wrote specifically for financial advisors. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, because you can kind of figure it out yourself. [12:10.3]
One idea. Do not talk about retiring early and then pivot to something else, and then something else and something else. Do not talk about how a financial plan is a living document and then go to Roth IRAs and then HSAs. Do not do that. Just one main idea.
No. 4: they establish authority and credibility—and this doesn't always mean listing your credentials and experience. In many cases, that's the complete wrong thing to do. Most of the time, the best way to build authority and credibility is by staying in your market’s world. Let your prospects know that you understand them and that you empathize with them.
One of the best ways to do this is to talk about your clients or prospective clients. Tell stories about the people in your market. Another way to do this is to highlight where you have been featured. If you're a financial advisor who works with corporate executives and you've been on a podcast whose audience is corporate executives, you can get a lot of mileage out of sharing that. [13:06.2]
In fact, some of the best emails have highlighted where the advisor has been featured and it's one of the best credibility boosters I've ever found. In Inner Circle members’ office hour sessions, we've had Inner Circle members bring up LinkedIn post and direct mail pieces, and the best ones are ones that talk about where the advisor has been featured, what the advisor has done in niche-facing marketing materials.
Podcast episodes, books, YouTube channels, media outlets, stories, all of those things establish authority and credibility without outright saying, “Oh, I have this certification, this certification, and I've been in business for 15 years,” even though that doesn't really mean that you have fixed have 15 years of experience, because you could have one year of experience repeated 15 times. But if you've been on a podcast where the audience is made up of people in the market that you serve, that is a huge credibility booster. [13:56.1]
No. 5: they create curiosity. Lots of advisors mess up here, too, because, again, they cannot resist the urge to teach and educate. If the email solves the problem completely, you have talked too much. Do not teach. Your best emails will be the ones that sharpen the question at the top.
Here's an example. “Most people don't actually retire later because they couldn't retire earlier. They retire later because no one ever showed them how to decide confidently. That distinction changes how planning should work”—and then, you stop. You resist the urge to overeducate. You leave the reader wanting clarity, not content. You don't want content. You don't want to teach.
I cannot stress this enough, if the email solves the problem completely, then, again, you have talked too much. Your emails don't need to be 5,000-word essays where you leave no stone unturned. In fact, you should leave a lot of stones unturned, because the stones get unturned in your meetings. That's kind of how this process works. [14:59.2]
No. 6: they repel the wrong prospects. We talked about this last week in the episode about why your website should repel 95% of prospects. This is one of the things that sets me apart from 99.99% of marketers, and it's the reason why my marketing materials do so much better for financial advisors. The best way to do this is to clarify who you do not serve. Who do you not work with?
For example, you could say something like this. “IF you're looking for a quick opinion or a one-time answer, this won't be a good fit. My work is designed for people who want to understand the trade-offs behind their decisions, not just the numbers.” You want to make it easy for the wrong people to self-select out. You want to say, “If you're this, then we are not a good fit. If you're looking for X, Y or Z, then I do not provide X, Y or Z. I cannot help you.” You want to do that. You want to make it clear who you are not for. [15:54.5]
Finally, No. 7: they end with an identity-based step. The best calls to action in the emails I analyzed were all about alignment. They were written like this—“If you want a plan that helps you feel steady instead of reactive, we should talk.” That's an identity-based call to action. You're calling out the people who want plans to feel steady. You’re calling out the people who want that steady feeling.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'd rather just tell you this. I took these winning email patterns and I made them a part of Pollard AI, which is my custom-trained artificial intelligence marketing coach. It is trained on all of my podcast episodes. Every product I've created, more than 1,000 pages of private marketing notes, and now these email patterns.
In fact, you can use Pollard AI to write winning emails in two minutes or less. I've recorded videos showing financial advisors how it's done. I've shared it on LinkedIn. Financial advisors are blown away that this is even a possibility for them. So, instead of trying to do all of this stuff yourself and trying to figure it out on your own, or hire an expensive copywriter, or do any of the other options available to you. You can let Pollard AI do everything for you. [17:06.8]
Pollard AI is available exclusively for Inner Circle members, and you can get instant access as soon as you join. That means, if you join now, you can begin creating world-class emails and other marketing materials in the next 10 minutes. You can check everything out for yourself over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching.
If you choose to implement this material yourself, you'll get way better results than your peers. That's awesome. I commend you for that. But if you're a smart business person, then you likely see the value in using a tool that can create these sorts of emails on demand whenever you want. You can also use it for website copy, direct mail copy, LinkedIn posts, and so much more.
Once again, you can check the Inner Circle out for yourself over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching. Either way, I will catch you next week. [17:57.5]
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