BLOG
Thoughts
&
Musings
The 52: Your Social Media Posts Should Be About the Client, Not You
Week 44: Stop talking about yourself; start talking to your prospect.
Week 44
Your Social Media Posts Should Be About the Client, Not You
Recently, whenever I’m on LinkedIn, my feed is filled with advisors talking about themselves—the awards they’ve won, the new employees they’ve hired, or some other personal story. If you want to use social media as a marketing tool, most of your posts should focus on your prospective client, not you. As Donald Miller says in his book Building a StoryBrand, when it comes to promoting your business, you are not the hero of your story—your client is. While it is OK to brag occasionally, your posts should tell a prospect how you are helping them in their life’s story, not telling them about your life story.
The 52: A Niche May Require a Creative Fee Structure
Week 43: A straight AUM fee structure may not work for your niche.
Week 37
A Niche May Require a Creative Fee Structure
Pre-retirees and retirees are a popular client type for RIAs because they fit well into the AUM model. But when you specialize in a niche, you may find the traditional AUM fee structure doesn’t work for your prospects. For example, business owners who are starting to plan for the sale of their business may not meet your investable asset minimums today but will have a windfall in three to five years. Or perhaps you work with attorneys who are more comfortable paying a retainer because that is how they charge their own clients. When working with a niche, you may need to adopt a creative fee structure to monetize the opportunity your niche presents.
The 52: The Two Best Channels to Promote Your Content
Week 42: Promote your content to people already interested in it.
Week 42
The Two Best Channels to Promote Your Content
As you begin to create content, the question is, how do you get people to see it? Social media is often the go-to answer, but most advisors don’t have a large enough network for this avenue to work. Here are two more effective channels to promote your content:
Influencers: Ask the people who already have a network of prospects you want to reach to share your content. An influencer can be a person or an organization your target market follows and trusts, such as centers of influence, publishers, social media influencers, YouTubers, and podcasters, just to name a few.
Search engines: Optimize your content for search engines to help your ideal prospects find the answers to the financial questions they are researching and, as a result, find you.
The 52: How to Differentiate Your Firm
Week 41: If you want to sound different, you have to be different.
Week 41
How to Differentiate Your Firm
I often hear financial advisors ask how they can differentiate from other advisors who say they do the same thing as their firm (even if they don’t). Instead of asking yourself, “How do I differentiate?” ask the question, “How do I become incomparable?” If you want to sound different, you have to be different in a way that is obvious to your prospects. Here are five ways to do that:
Focus on a niche that most advisors don’t exclusively serve (e.g., United Airlines pilots).
Be an expert in an area most other advisors don’t serve (e.g., the Federal Employees Retirement System).
Develop a unique proprietary process that can’t be compared with any other firm’s process. (Hint! Not the CFP Board’s seven-step financial planning process or CEG’s wealth management process.)
Have a unique distribution method (e.g., your office is in an Airstream you drive to the client).
Offer best-in-class customer service. (This is extremely difficult because the only way for this to work is through widespread word-of-mouth from your existing clients—think Ritz-Carlton and Nordstrom.)
The 52: You Aren’t Imagining It. Closing Web Leads Is Harder
Week 40: Your close rate for web leads will be lower than average.
Week 40
You Aren’t Imagining It. Closing Web Leads Is Harder
Many financial advisors covet website leads—those prospects who reach out because they found you on a Google search. It feels like they are the answer to easy marketing. But web leads aren’t always quality leads. Compared with leads from other marketing sources, such as referrals, web leads are generally less qualified, more likely to shop around for advisors, or less likely to commit to hiring an advisor. For these reasons, you can expect your sales close rate to be much lower than your average for other leads. While web leads may mean the marketing is easier, they also mean the sale is harder.
The 52: Update Your Headshots
Week 39: Headshots should be taken every 3 to 5 years.
Week 39
Update Your Headshots
The “Team” page is usually one of the three most visited pages on a website. That is why this page needs great bios and professionally taken headshots. If your website still features headshots with you in a suit, arms crossed, in front of a photography backdrop, it’s time for an update. Today’s headshots use native backgrounds—usually outside or in your office—and the body language is candid and relaxed. Wear the same attire in your headshots as you would in a meeting with clients. And make sure to get both portrait and landscape versions so that you have flexibility when deciding on options for your website.
The 52: New Discovery: Visual Capitalist
Week 38: Sharing a new tool I discovered.
Week 38
New Discovery: Visual Capitalist
While doing some research recently, I came across a site called Visual Capitalist. While I’m not usually a fan of canned content, these visuals are compelling and could complement your original content, such as a blog or newsletter. You can use the graphics for free if you provide proper attribution and link to the original source, or you can buy a license to modify them for your brand.
The 52: Choose a Marketing Agency Based on Your Approach
Week 37: Pick an agency that matches your approach.
Week 37
Choose a Marketing Agency Based on Your Approach
How do you know which marketing agency will be the right one for your firm? We recommend you pick an agency that matches your marketing approach, whether that is a transactional, relationship, or expertise approach.
If you use a transactional approach, a direct lead company like White Glove could make sense. If you use a relationship approach, a company that can help with referrals, like The Client Driven Practice, might be the right fit. Or if you use an expertise approach, a firm that can help position you as an expert through content marketing, like Kaleido Creative Studio, may be the way to go.
By first choosing the right marketing approach, you will find it easier to select the right marketing agency.
The 52: Start Planning for the Holidays Now
Week 36: It’s that time of year again.
Week 36
Start Planning for the Holidays Now
The calendar has just flipped to September, which means it’s time to start planning your holiday cards, gifts, and events (live or virtual). It’s even more important to get an early start this year because COVID-19 means production and shipping are taking longer than usual. Make it your goal to have your holiday affairs planned by the end of September if you want to avoid headaches.
The 52: Google Reviews Can Positively Impact Your Web Leads
Week 35: Can reviews help drive business?
Week 35
Google Reviews Can Positively Impact Your Web Leads
Back in May, the SEC allowed financial advisors to use popular review sites like Google My Business and Yelp. While most firms we work with have adopted a “wait and see” policy when it comes to using these new marketing channels, we have had a few firms embrace reviews with positive results. They have seen dramatic improvements in their local search engine rankings or have received feedback from prospects that the online reviews influenced their decision to contact the firm. While these developments are anecdotal and only a small sample size, early results suggest that getting reviews on Google My Business can positively impact web leads.
