The 52: Become a Guest on a Podcast

Become a Guest on a Podcast

One way to get in front of a large number of people in your niche is to be a guest on a podcast. The time you invest into being a guest is minimal—usually just a few hours, including preparation, recording, and promotion. Yet it potentially gets you in front of hundreds or thousands of people in your niche.

To become a guest on a podcast, you can reach out directly to the host of shows you are already aware of and pitch them on the value you would bring to the show and its audience. You can also use podcast-matching services like PodMatch.com or PodcastGuests.com to find opportunities.

The 52: Don’t Hide Behind Development

Don’t Hide Behind Development

Marketing is about getting your name in front of your prospects. That can mean speaking to a group, networking, or actively participating on social media, just to name a few.

Yet so many advisors hide behind developing their marketing instead of interacting with their prospect community.

A common scenario would be spending your allocated marketing hours each week perfecting your website and obsessing over search engine optimization in the hopes that prospects will just find you. In this case, you would feel like you are spending a lot of time on marketing, but in fact, you aren’t moving the needle.

Instead, you would be better off having a mediocre website and spending your time actively getting in front of prospects, directing them to your website to schedule an appointment.

Ask yourself: Is your marketing time spent developing or interacting? While development is important, it should be a fraction of the time you spend interacting.

The 52: Be Consistent with Your Niche Message on Social Media

Be Consistent with Your Niche Message on Social Media

When starting with a new niche, make sure you communicate a consistent message on your social media posts. Your goal is to be known as the go-to person in your niche, so every post needs to be clearly for them. If you start integrating non-niche content into your posts, you’ll fail to reinforce the positioning you are trying to establish.
For example, let’s say you are an individual advisor in a larger RIA, and you have decided to focus on the niche of employees with equity compensation in a specific industry. Every post should address the things that are top of mind for this niche (e.g., how your RSUs are taxed). Do not post other content your company is creating, such as economic outlooks or blogs on non-related topics like estate planning.
You need to be laser focused on communicating that you are an expert in one niche. Every time you post a non-niche topic, you are failing to differentiate yourself.

The 52: By the Time You Need Marketing, It’s Too Late

By the Time You Need Marketing, It’s Too Late

Marketing is an investment of time, money, and energy. And like any investment, it takes time to see a return.

When you get to a point when you need marketing to keep your business going, it’s too late to do much. Just like a prospect coming to you with $150,000 in assets who wants to retire this year, there just isn’t enough time for the investment to pay off.

If you need prospects immediately, focus on outbound sales. Pound the pavement, make calls, and hit up your referral partners.

If you want your business to easily generate prospects in the future, focus on marketing now. Establish your identity, build your reputation, and put systems in place to execute consistently.

The 52: Not Every Firm Should Niche

Not Every Firm Should Niche

Through our work with financial advisors, we have discovered the easiest way to market is to specialize in a niche. However, not all firms should niche. Here are four situations where focusing on a broad market is the better choice:

• Firms in small, close-knit communities with widespread name recognition

• Firms where the owner is going to sell to an outside entity in the next five years

• Firms that consistently generate enough referrals to achieve annual growth goals

• Firms with outside investment that can spend significant money on national mass marketing campaigns

The 52: Sell Solutions, Outcomes, and Transformation, Not Products or Services

Sell Solutions, Outcomes, and Transformation, Not Products or Services

Many advisors focus on selling their services, such as investment management, financial planning, and retirement planning. But prospective clients aren’t looking to purchase a service—they want a solution to their problem, a specific outcome, or a transformation.

In your marketing, help your prospects visualize the transformation they will experience after working with you. For example, instead of promoting “retirement planning,” say: “Have a plan so you can stop being afraid of spending your hard-earned money and start enjoying the best years of your retirement.” The second message is not only more desirable to your prospect but something they’ll want to pay you to help them achieve.

The 52: Marketing Strategies for the Introverted Financial Advisor

Marketing Strategies for the Introverted Financial Advisor

Introverted advisors don’t always see themselves as marketers because so many of the people held up as “good marketer” role models are extroverts. You know them. They constantly self-promote on social media and can be seen at every event, and you feel like they are literally everywhere.

If you are an introverted advisor, this type of marketing can be exhausting. But being an introvert doesn’t mean your marketing has to be less effective. Here are three strategies introverted advisors should follow to be successful marketers:

Strategy 1: Focus on a niche. When you take a rifle, not a shotgun, approach, you’ll find that your efforts spent interacting with people in the niche community will multiply much faster than if you target a broader market.

Strategy 2: Take advantage of content marketing. Content marketing allows your expertise and knowledge to shine, helping you overcome the extroverted characteristics usually associated with good sales and marketing people.

Strategy 3: Utilize digital channels. These channels allow you to network from the comfort of your home or office and give you the opportunity to think before you “speak.”

The 52: Dictate Your Blog

Dictate Your Blog

Do you struggle to write a blog consistently? Consider dictating your first draft. By talking through your article and having it transcribed, your blog becomes an editing exercise instead of a writing exercise.

There are plenty of speech-to-text services available, but it can be as simple as opening a Word document. When the dreaded blank page appears, instead of typing, click the “Dictate” button on the home menu and start talking. You’ll soon find your blog being typed in front of your eyes.

The 52: How to Use Text Message Marketing

How to Use Text Message Marketing

While not widely used by financial advisors, text message marketing (also known as SMS marketing) is of great interest to many advisors. This is because text messages have higher open and response rates than emails.

If you plan to use SMS marketing, a good rule of thumb is to employ it for important or time-sensitive messages such as:

1. Appointment or event confirmations and reminders

2. Reminders for documents you are waiting on from a client or prospect

3. One-time follow-ups after an event, appointment, or download of an ebook or other resource

4. Outreach during urgent or catastrophic events (e.g., hurricanes, pandemics, 2008-style market crashes)

5. Upcoming financial deadlines (e.g., quarterly taxes being due, Medicare open enrollment period)

While SMS marketing can be impactful, it’s important not to overdo it. Otherwise, people will opt out or, worse, form a negative impression of you. Make sure to avoid:

1. Sending unsolicited messages

2. Promoting your content (e.g., weekly marketing commentary)

3. Overdoing it (e.g., don’t send a series of texts after a prospect downloads an ebook)

The 52: How Much Does It Cost to Self-publish a Nonfiction Book?

How Much Does It Cost to Self-publish a Nonfiction Book?

In her guest post, “Why Self-publishing a Nonfiction Book Is So Dang Expensive,” book-writing coach Stacy Ennis reports that her clients spend anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000-plus publishing their books. Many spend around $20,000 to $60,000.

Self-publishing is supposed to be cheap, right? But when you factor in all the tasks and people required to “self-publish”—such as book coaching, content editing, copyediting, proofreading, cover design, interior book design, copywriting for marketing materials, ISBN, e-book conversion, audiobook production, website design, marketing, and publicity— you can see how the price tag adds up.

The good news is, most advisors who publish a book will make back their investment many times over. Not through book sales but through the many doors a book opens for them: speaking engagements, new clients, and more.

In other words, “a book is worth a million dollars in revenue.”