The best marketing strategies, tactics, and trends for new financial advisors from experts inside and outside of the industry.
Gary Vaynerchuk with tips on delivering on “hooks,” prioritizing YouTube thumbnails, considering Instagram’s green screen feature, and experimenting with content format [YouTube Short]:
“Dustin and I were talking about on our trip this week, ‘Do we need the hook from the thumbnail to be delivered on in the first 2 or 3 or 4 seconds?’ We really believe we do. If my hook says ’30-to-40-year-olds you should be thinking about LinkedIn’ and if my opening line is like ‘Before we get into that…’ In 2 seconds you may lose that audience.”
4 Tips To Boost Your Social Media Game [Gary Vaynerchuk, GaryVee]
Taylor Schulte with actionable marketing lessons on everything from the biggest mistake he sees advisors making and how to define your target audience to an effective call-to-action framework and dealing with the fears of “pressing publish” [Podcast or Video]:
“One of the first things I did was get really clear about who my ideal listener was. Stop talking to everybody and get really crystal clear on who my ideal listener was. Identify the pain points of my ideal listener and then craft all of the content to speak and help address those pain points. Just that tweak alone was wildly helpful, not just in terms of traction and downloads and subscribers, but it also made my job a lot easier producing content. Once you know exactly who you’re talking to and what their pain points are, I mean, I have a giant Google doc of topic ideas. Sometimes I hear from advisors like, ‘How do you know what you’re going to talk about next?’
There is no shortage of topics and a little dirty secret in podcasting: topics that have performed well in the past are great topics to repurpose again in the future. If we’ve covered Roth conversions in the past, it doesn’t mean we can’t cover them again. What you’ll find out is your listeners don’t latch on to every little word that you’re saying. So, you might say it a little bit differently or they needed to hear it two or three times. So, it’s just made my job as a podcaster and a content creator a lot easier. So, fast forward to today and we’re approaching 2 million downloads. We get 40,000 or 50,000 downloads per month and, yeah, it drives 98% of all of our new revenue here at the firm.”
Video Timestamps:
- Family board meetings: 00:00
- Driving business through a podcast: 10:13
- How should you invest in media marketing?: 16:15
- Starting a podcast: 20:38
- Defining your target audience: 24:55
- Human connection in Zoom advising: 31:23
- An effective call-to-action framework: 37:34
- Client engagement standards: 49:01
- A business model that frees up your life: 58:25
- Batching client meetings: 01:04:55
- Does content creation get less scary over time?: 01:11:28
- Personal and marriage therapy: 01:14:17
- Doing business and life with flexibility: 01:21:28
Podcasting Playbook For Financial Advisors & Building A Business You Love By Managing Client Expectations With Taylor Schulte [Brad Johnson, Do Business. Do Life]
Katelyn Bourgoin on the law of reciprocity and how you can incorporate it into your marketing [Article]:
“In 1974, Sociologist Philip Kuntz ran a hilarious study. He sent out 600 Christmas cards to people he’d never met, and the wild thing? Phil ended up with over 200 replies… From. Total. Strangers.
Why are we telling you this (I mean apart from the fact it’s funny)?
Because reciprocity is a powerful technique…
…
Giving is good for business.
It’s a win-win: your customer gets something extra and you get increased loyalty.
Business is all about building relationships with customers–you can start building that relationship with a freebie.”
Reciprocity [Katelyn Bourgoin, Why We Buy]
From defining your values and inventorying your strengths to demonstrating expertise and networking, Justin Welsh on how to improve your personal brand [Article]:
“It’s true what they say, ‘You must stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.’
Your values are the cornerstone of your personal brand. They’re what you believe in, the principles you hold dear, and the standards you set for your work and life.
For example, one of my core values is building my business around my life, not the other way around. I value spending time with my wife, traveling with my family, and not overworking myself just to make an extra dollar. These core values permeate every aspect of my business. I won’t pursue a venture that may get in the way of me living life the way I want to.
Your values might be different. Maybe you prioritize innovation. Or perhaps community is your driving force. Whatever they are, they should be clearly defined and evident in all aspects of your brand.”
How To Improve Your Personal Brand In 8 Ways [Justin Welsh, JustinWelsh.me]
ICYMI: If you’re considering publishing a book to boost your credibility with prospective clients, a framework for writing, publishing, and distributing [Article]:
“For most advicers, book sales are a practically meaningless metric of the book’s success. The real way to value a book is to ask, “Did I put more assets under advisement? Did I get speaking engagements? Did I enhance my thought leadership status? Was I able to convince spouses of prospects who weren’t in the room for the sales conversation that I’m the right person? Do I now own my intellectual property?” And so on. You can make a few bucks from selling a book on Amazon. You can make $15 or $20 if you print the book and sell it in the back of the room when you speak. But all of those numbers pale in importance compared with getting new clients. And that’s the main reason to do a book.”
How Financial Advicers Can Write, Publish, And Distribute Their Own Book To Create A More Effective Impression On Prospective Clients [Michael Levin, The Nerd’s Eye View]
FiComm’s Candice Carlton on how public relations (PR) fits into your marketing strategy and how to connect authentically with prospective clients [Podcast or Video]:
“The mix of what is marketing versus PR has significantly shifted. We like to think, right now, PR is really about, as I said, getting in InvestmentNews or RIABiz or whatever that is, or Barron’s. Some really incredible beautiful places that you could potentially be. It’s valuable for third-party validation.
But it’s really a tactic within the marketing mix. So all of those things will build awareness, people will get to know who you are, but then what? So, you have to have a marketing strategy and a foundation to be able to actually implement effective PR.
So what does that mean? You should have some content of your own that you’re distributing: your YouTube, your podcast, your TikTok, your blog — whatever that is, you should have some kind of long-form content, social media, and then a really compelling initial offer for prospects to come in the door.”
Video timestamps:
- Candice’s background: 0:34
- “Old School” marketing versus “New School”: 2:24
- How to connect with prospects authentically: 5:39
- Limiting financial jargon: 8:20
- How to allocate between marketing & PR: 11:25
New Skool Marketing With Candice Carlton [Ross Marino, Shift With Ross Marino]
An in-depth look at how James Conole added $120M in under 12 months with his YouTube channel including his content creation process, his call-to-action strategy, and more [Podcast]:
Timestamps:
- James’ origin story: 2:00
- Jame’s initial marketing strategy: 11:40
- The tech James uses: 24:40
- James’ content creation process: 27:00
- How James uses A.I.: 34:15
- Video length: 40:25
- Compliance process: 1:03:15
- Closing advice: 1:06:25
“When I started, I used my iPhone connected to a $20 lapel mic from Amazon. We had a lot of success with that. In fact, if you look at some of the most popular finance YouTubers, they’re not even financial advisors. They’re people that have retired and they’re just walking around their house on their iPhone talking about their transition and what they learned and here’s what was difficult, and you’re going to experience loneliness. You’re going to experience loss of purpose. It’s just people talking into a camera. Their thumbnails aren’t super high quality. Their videos aren’t highly produced. So, if all you have is an iPhone and a lapel mic, you’re going to be just fine.”
Explosive YouTube Growth Strategy: How James Conole Added $120 Million in AUM From YouTube in Just 12 Months [Steve Sanduski, Between Now And Success]
Seth Godin with a collection of marketing maxims [Article]:
“‘Trust is worth more than attention.‘
‘Helping people get to where they seek to go is more effective than hustling people to persuade them to go where you’re going.‘
‘Choose your customers, choose your future.'”
Eight Marketing Maxims [Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog]
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