The 52: Define the Purpose of Your Content

Week 31

Define the Purpose of Your Content

When developing content for your website, consider first the purpose of your content. Here are some options:

1. Nurture relationships (e.g., canned newsletter content)

2. Generate leads (e.g., ebook, recorded webinar)

3. Establish expertise and credibility (e.g., original blogs, original videos)

4. Change mindset (e.g., blog on why hiring a financial advisor is better than DIY)

5. Search engine optimization (e.g., blog on how to find a financial advisor in San Diego)

6. Demonstrating client experience (e.g., case studies, testimonials)

7. Behind the scenes (e.g., press release on the company winning a Best Places to Work award)

Once you know your purpose, you can craft your content with the end result in mind.

The 52: Match the Sales Experience to the Client Service Experience

Week 30

Match the Sales Experience to the Client Service Experience

Use your sales process to train your prospects to be good clients. Often, advisors will bend over backward to convert a prospect only to shift expectations once the paperwork is signed. If you take a prospect’s call immediately the first time they call in, they will expect you to be available every time they call as a client. But if you teach them to schedule a time to talk as a prospect, they’ll do the same as a client. By matching your sales experience to your client service experience, you’ll attract the right kinds of prospects to your firm and train them to be good clients.

The 52: Provide a Unique Service that Solves a Unique Problem

Week 29

Provide a Unique Service that Solves a Unique Problem

The next tip in our series on how to simplify your marketing is to provide a unique service that solves a unique problem. When you provide the same or similar service as thousands of other advisors, you have to do a lot more marketing to get noticed over your competitors. Do you think you can make more marketing headway with the message “We help clients achieve peace of mind during retirement” than the largest financial firms with the biggest budgets?

When you provide a unique service that solves a problem for a specific niche (e.g., “We develop estate planning strategies for blended families”), it’s immediately obvious how you are different. And when you are truly different, you don’t have to spend as much time, money, and energy promoting that message.

The 52: Focus on a Niche

Week 28

Focus on a Niche

The next tip in our series on how to simplify your marketing is to focus on a niche. When you focus on too many audiences at the same time (e.g., pre-retirees, widows, and young professionals), you need different messages and different campaigns to make sure you resonate with each group. This not only creates complexity but also increases the volume of marketing—which means more of your time, money, and energy—that you must do to achieve results.

The 52: Focus on What Moves the Needle

Week 27

Focus on What Moves the Needle

The next tip in our series on how to simplify your marketing is to focus on what matters most. Too often, advisors spend their time on marketing activities that seem fun, easy, or interesting instead of the ones that actually move the needle. For example, a firm changes the images on their website when they could be reaching out to influencers who can help them get in front of their niche. Advisors feel validated that they are spending time on marketing, but they aren’t producing results. When you focus on only the activities that make an impact, you don’t waste your time on frivolous exercises that don’t get you anywhere.

The 52: Do the Marketing Activities You Enjoy

Week 26

Do the Marketing Activities You Enjoy

In last week’s tip, I introduced the concept of simplifying marketing to make more of an impact. One way to do this is to focus your marketing on the activities you love, such as nurturing relationships, teaching financial concepts, or optimizing your website. When you do something you love, your marketing becomes easy, and you are more likely to implement consistently. When you do things you don’t enjoy, it’s easy to put them off or do them poorly, neither of which leads to success.

The 52: Do Less Marketing

Week 25

Do Less Marketing

I’m a fan of Greg McKeown and his books Essentialism and Effortless. In a nutshell, his philosophy is to do only the things that matter and then make those things easier. This philosophy can easily be applied to marketing. In an industry that always tells you to do more marketing, maybe the secret is to do less but do it better. Here is what happens when you attempt to do too much marketing:

• You fail to implement consistently and never gain traction.

• You focus on volume over quality and just add to the noise.

When you simplify your marketing, you can dive deeper and focus on quality so that your marketing becomes more controlled and can have more impact. In the coming weeks, I’ll talk about how you can simplify your marketing to get better results.

The 52: Go with the Marketing Flow

Week 24

Go with the Marketing Flow

Marketing effectiveness ebbs and flows with the seasons, and your marketing activities should match the natural rhythms. Here are the times when you should accelerate your marketing and when you should let your foot off the gas:

• Winter through early spring (January–May): This is a prime marketing window. Take advantage of it by focusing on serious educational topics for your events and content, and include strong calls to action to schedule an appointment.

• Summer school break (June–August): This is a less effective time for marketing, so keep your activities light, such as social events and fun content topics. Spend your extra time planning for the marketing you will do in the fall.

• Early fall (September–mid-November): This is another prime marketing period. Take advantage of this short window to do as many campaigns as you can before the holidays.

• The holidays (mid-November–New Year’s): This is probably the least effective period to market your business. Focus on relationship activities, such as sending cards, gifts, and invitations to social events. This is the perfect time to strategize next year’s marketing plan.

The 52: Build Your Email List

Week 23

Build Your Email List

Your email marketing list is one of your most valuable marketing assets. While social media sites can be a good way to reach new audiences, you have little control over those channels. The social media companies can change their algorithms or policies, nullifying your previously successful marketing efforts. Alternatively, your contacts can decide to reduce or quit their use of social media, making it impossible to reach them. But with email, you own the list, you control the message, and somewhere between 30% and 50% of the people on your list will open your email. Make building your email list a marketing priority.

The 52: Don’t Focus on SEO If No One Is Searching

Week 22

Don’t Focus on SEO If No One Is Searching

I’ve been writing a lot about search engine optimization (SEO) lately, but should SEO be a priority for every advisor? The answer is no. Here are two examples when SEO will not do you any good:

1. You are in a smaller community where people aren't searching online to find a financial advisor.

2. Your niche doesn't know to look for a professional like you (e.g., a financial advisor for veterinarians).

Basic keyword research will tell you if people are searching for “financial advisor [your area]” or “financial advisor for [niche].” If the search volume is low, that means no one is searching for you. Don't spend more time on SEO other than standard website best practices. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that people in your network want to consume and share.