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7 deadly financial advisor marketing sins exposed, Pt. 3

By Joe Simonds

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This is part three of a series. Go here for part 1 and here for part 2.

In this series, I’m addressing the seven deadly financial advisor marketing sins that continue to cost advisors like you tons of money. In this article, I’ll cover sins five through seven. 

These marketing sins pertain to all marketing channels, not just digital marketing. However, a majority of them pertain to Internet marketing, merely because I have found that to be the future of marketing in this industry. 

The great news is that all of these can be corrected quickly. The big question is, will you make the changes and implement them where needed? 

5. Doing seminars and not building an email list of every person who ever attends your seminar 

I have yet to meet a seminar producer who books and brings on 100 percent of their seminar attendees as new clients. No one is that good, and it is impossible to find continuous prospects who are all in buying mode and ready to convert into clients right away. 

For those of you who have been through any kind of sales training in the past, you might recall the stats that say it can take up to seven different marketing messages in front of a prospect before they finally morph from a somewhat interested prospect into a highly motivated prospect/soon-to-be client. 

I have found that, for my business, the same stats run true. That is why I email all of my financial advisor prospects once per week with new, valuable information.

And I have found that in some cases, it has taken over 18 weeks of continuous weekly emails before someone made a purchase. 

The tough part is you just never know what you might say or convey that will cause the prospect to get into buying mode. The important part is just being consistent with high-value content. 

Here is how you can begin to build a huge email list and get closer to converting 100 percent of your seminar attendees over time. 

pizza

Your new seminar rule:

The meal is free as long as you can provide a valid email address. That simple.

And if they don’t have an email, then you probably don’t want them as clients, as they will be tough to communicate with, tough to give updates to, and tough to add value to as a client in the future. 

At the end of the day, this is your seminar. You are paying for the meal; you are providing free value, and the rules are yours to make. 

Let them know the reason you must have their email is that you send out a free retirement tip once per week that is usually only reserved for your top clients. Make them feel special for giving up this information.

And remind them that if they ever feel that the weekly email doesn’t add value, that they can unsubscribe with one click. Most prospects and clients will have no issues with this.

And then, once you have these emails, you can easily build an automated drip sequence with any CRM or email autoresponder. 

Here’s a tip: 

Drip email your list, and continue adding value to your list forever. Don’t stop after just a few weeks.

That is one of the biggest mistakes I see financial advisors make. You never know when someone might need you.

It could be two months or even two years until they inherit money, sell a company, retire, etc. And you want to be the name that pops into their head immediately after they know they need some help.

There isn’t a better way to stay top of mind than a weekly email or newsletter. 

blog

6. Not having a blog or a site that does your selling/educating/nurturing for you 

Before I started my first blog, I seriously thought blogging was only for stay-at-home moms who were sharing thoughts about knitting, soccer games, and the like. Little did I know that blogging would end up changing my life.

Let me explain the big disconnect with blogging and, more importantly, how it can benefit you as a financial advisor. 

I found out pretty quickly that a blog is simply an online platform to get your message, your sales literature, your value-add, and your sales funnel in front of your ideal prospects. When presented like this, do you see how powerful a blog could be? 

Think of your blog multiplying yourself so that there are various version of you out there selling, educating and marketing on your behalf 24/7 — because that is what it becomes when done correctly. 

Let me tell you what has happened to me from financial blogging. 

I have an online calendar where advisors can book up to 30 minutes of my time — and my calendar gets booked up every week. These appointments all come from random advisors that I have never spent a dollar marketing to or calling on directly. One of my first questions I ask the advisor when we speak is, “How did you find out about me?” 

The majority of advisors answer that they came across my content (blog/video/hangout) after doing a Google search.

Most importantly, the majority of these appointments are booking because they are wondering how they can begin to work with me (and become clients of mine). 

Can you see how powerful this is? My blog:

  • has become a replication of me
  • is educating for me around the clock even if I am not working
  • has become a platform to attract my ideal prospects
  • has become a lead and sales funnel that brings my prospects one step closer to becoming clients without my even having to speak to them directly
  • has turned into an entire pre-sales system on autopilot

And you can do this, too. 

To get started, set up a blog on WordPress and begin by simply answering your clients’ and prospect’s top questions:

  • What do people ask you at your seminar?
  • What do client’s or prospects email you about the most?
  • What concerns do they have?

social media

7. Not being on social media sites for people to find you

Now, I am a firm believer that you can’t grow a successful practice using social media alone. And anyone who tells you that all you have to do is post Facebook links, tweet out financial information, or add links to LinkedIn and you will become rich, is doing you a disservice. 

Yes, those platforms are crucial to your overall success, but they can’t work successfully unless you have the prior six sins fixed.

For instance, even if you posted incredible content on Facebook but had no call to action or way to capture the interested party’s information, you are missing the big picture of why you post to social media in the first place: to add value and to drive them into your sales funnel. 

Here is what has worked well for me:

    • Use social media to promote and share any and all of your blogs, videos, content, etc.
    • Always have some kind of call to action or a link where they can go learn more.
    • Create sharable content that encourages your prospects to share it with their friends.
    • Always post on Facebook (your business and personal pages), LinkedIn, Google+ (this is great for Google search engine exposure), and Twitter (optional).

If done correctly, not only will you build a tribe of followers, but new people will begin to find you, follow you, and will even become your clients over time. 

Conclusion 

If you can eliminate the seven deadly financial advisor marketing sins from your practice, then prepare to see your practice take off in the very near future. For most of you, fixing these sins might seem overwhelming and insurmountable. My advice is to conquer one at a time. You will find out that each marketing sin by itself is not that scary, and once you start to see your changes working, you won’t want to stop. 

It’s time to automate your practice a bit more, time to recreate yourself and let your “autopilot” start bringing in qualified prospects for you around the clock. Most importantly, it is time for you to start working smarter, not harder. 

Question: Which of the seven sins are you most interested in fixing as soon as possible? I would love to hear your feedback below in the comment section.

See also:

7 ways to attract the perfect life insurance prospects every month

10 goals for marketing success

50 best ways to generate leads: 1-10