In the latest Elementality podcast episode, industry experts Abby Morton, CFP® and Jeff Morgan, Head of Marketing at Elements, reveal six game-changing marketing strategies for financial advisors.
You’ll learn how to:
- Build trust with potential clients quickly
- Craft messages that resonate with your ideal clients
- Keep your practice top of mind and generate referrals
- Create effective calls to action to guide prospects
- Identify the best marketing medium for your strengths
- And more!
Abby and Jeff’s insights have helped countless advisors succeed.
Listen now to get the actionable advice you need to take your marketing to the next level.
Transcript
Abby Morton: So we recently have been working together on creating like guides to help people know how to use elements. And one of the guides that we’ve created recently has been all about. Helping people know how to use elements in like a marketing context prospecting tool, right? , and as I was putting this guide together I came up with six tips that as i’ve talked to advisors over the years as I Really try to figure out what works and what doesn’t work.
So jumping right in. Like I said, this is six tips that I’ve put together.
And tip number one is. No and trust. So what do I mean by that? We want clients or prospects that we’re reaching out to, to have this no and trust factor.
What that further means is that they know you, they like you, they have a way to understand who you are, where you’re coming from, what are the problems you solve for [00:02:00] them? And that they have some semblance of like trust, right? If they don’t know you from anyone else walking around on the street, they’re going to have a harder time engaging with you Especially in a financial planning context because financial planning is so personal It has a lot of baggage that can come along with it, shame guilt worry stress anxiety We could go on and on probably right?
That no and trust factor I think has to be there before they’re willing to basically Give up all of their personal financial information So talk to me a little bit about your experience jeff with Like in the marketing context of and having clients buy How does this no like interest factor weigh in and factor into the whole thing?
Jeff Morgan: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think that this is a great insight that you’ve pulled from the experiences of a lot of successful advisor marketers. So no and trust to me when I hear that is all about building a relationship [00:03:00] with your prospective customers and with your existing customers.
It’s a marketing is like an ongoing thing that we do. From cradle to grave, if you will in a relationship. The no part of the marketing process is all about getting that first introduction. If you think back to that dating analogy, when you go into a bar,
Abby Morton: Yep. We talked about this on a previous episode, so if you didn’t hear it, go check out that episode because we’ve talked all about how marketing is like dating.
Jeff Morgan: Yeah, exactly. And so you go, you see that pretty girl across the room, you get introduced. And the goal there is to get to know each other. And as the relationship progresses, you move into okay, now I been an in like with this person and my daughter, she’s 13 right now. She’s been in like with a bunch of boys recently.
It’s funny that I can’t really tell what the difference is between a like and a [00:04:00] love. But I’m
Abby Morton: hope no love. Let’s hope no love is happening yet for the 13 year old.
Jeff Morgan: might’ve been a love that got slipped into a text recently, and we had to talk about the difference between and love, though, it’s all about just like building rapport.
It’s about making sure that they your prospective customer like your personality you’re as an advisor, you’re selling yourself first and your services. Second, they have to like being with
Abby Morton: I like that. Yeah, I like that.
Jeff Morgan: So make sure that your personality is coming through in all of your marketing, because. If they don’t like you, they’re not going to hire you.
And then the last factor there is like combining like your personality with your expertise. So now we’re saying, okay, you like my personality. I’m a fun person to be around. And. You’re also really competent. You also really know your stuff. And I know, your stuff, because you’ve demonstrated that value in some clear and [00:05:00] tangible way through your marketing materials.
To me, as you work your way through, no, like trust, when you get down to trust, then it’s like time to get them to schedule a consultation and to make that pitch for your services. Once they say yes. And they commit to you in that relationship. You want to be moved into the love category. So I might add love to the end of this. Somebody becomes a customer. Now it’s your job to make them love you. So they’ll stick around forever. And even if things aren’t going well in the market or something goes wrong in the relationship, they are willing to overlook it because. They trust you, they like you, and they know that you’ve got your best interests at heart.
Abby Morton: I love it.
Jeff Morgan: that’s my thought around that.
Abby Morton: I love how you broke it. I had no, I didn’t think about it in like a context of a progression, but I like that. I think that’s a really good [00:06:00] idea to think about it in this progression of do they even know you exist? Then they’re starting to like you and engage a little bit more with your content or at least watch what you’re seeing a little bit more or saying a little bit more.
And then they come down to a point where they’re like, okay, I trust what they’re doing and I want to engage with them. So I love that. The other thing I was thinking as you were talking is we talked a lot about this, even elements. Do people engage with a brand like the name elements, or do people engage with Abby Morton, Jeff, Reese, who do people engage with and people would rather engage with other people.
And so I think that’s important to keep in mind that as we’ve done research and thought a lot about that, that clients. People want to interact with other people rather than necessarily brands, right? And so how can you help show some of your personality, maybe show a little bit of your family life, show what you’re into in terms of hobbies, help them know, I think that you’re a human being, I think that is going to help develop this, the and the trust factor furthermore, because they’re getting to see glimpses into who [00:07:00] you are as a person.
And so I thought that was really applicable in this context.
Jeff Morgan: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that the balance towards a personal brand and in engaging with a person instead of a brand in the context of a financial advisor’s marketing is especially on that side, because any time your business. It’s a service business where you’re selling your expertise. You really are selling yourself.
You are the inventory of that business. So if you’re selling candy bars, it might be a little bit different. You might want them to engage with the KitKat brand in some way, but when you’re selling yourself and you are the inventory, then you’ve got to really like pitch who you are and like, holistically, what kind of a person are you and what value do you bring to the table?
What’s your personal value prop?
Abby Morton: Yeah, I love that. Totally.
Alright, so tip number two is focus on their pain, [00:08:00] right? I think oftentimes we, as business owners, I get caught up into this all the time. People are going to care about this thing that I’m telling you Quick onboarding and it’s so fast, right? Like that’s not their pain, right?
Their pain is the end client is I have this financial question or this financial pain, or I came into this money that I don’t know how to invest or where to. Put it I don’t know if I’m taking the right steps for retirement. Am I on track? Those are the questions clients are asking and so I think as we can more Create content that is appealing to their pain right appealing to their questions appealing to The reasons why they’re coming to us in the first place and starting with that in our marketing content Starting there like thinking about what is the end consumer of my content going to get out of this?
Why do they care about watching this? I think when you flip that switch in your mind of caring more about their pain rather than what you think is like great about your company, I think really helps people then [00:09:00] realize why they would want to hire you, for example.
Jeff Morgan: Yeah, I really love that. One of the ways that I think of that in my own mind is that when I’m marketing, I want to have radical empathy for the person that I’m trying to pull into my world. And in order to do that, I have to put myself in their shoes. I have to learn how to talk like they talk.
I have to learn how to think like they think. I have to like, imagine myself experiencing the things that they experience. And as I do that it makes it possible for me to articulate this is the pain that I know you have, and this is the way that I can help you solve it. A lot of times.
Advisors and brands in general, like when you go to their website, what’s the 1st thing this is what we do. And this is our credentials. And this is [00:10:00] my
Abby Morton: Yeah,
Jeff Morgan: It’s all about
Abby Morton: I’m a CFP here’s my process, and we’ve done that too, right? But I think I agree with you of what about them? What do they want? Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Morgan: now. It’s important that they know that you’re a financial advisor, but you can accomplish that in 3 words, right? The rest of it needs to be about. Them and what their pain is and how you’re going to help them solve it. And I really like the Donald Miller story brand approach to this, where he starts with, there’s a challenge and there’s a guide and the guide helps the hero of the story.
That’s having the challenge, find the solution. And so you, as the advisor in that story are the guide, not the hero.
Abby Morton: Okay. Is
Jeff Morgan: and you’re just there to help them along the way. And so if you think of that as you like, build your messaging it really helps to helps you to [00:11:00] articulate the benefit that you bring to the table in a way that resonates with.
The hero of the story who should be your client.
Abby Morton: that a book? I’m not familiar with Donald Miller. Is that a book I can read or how can I learn more about that?
Jeff Morgan: Yep. Yeah. Donald Miller. He’s a pretty prolific author. He has a lot of books, but one of those books is called story brand. And I’d highly recommend getting that book and reading it. If you have to write messaging for your business, it’s amazing. Great framework.
Abby Morton: Great tip there. We’re giving you even some books. You can go check out. I love it.
So right along with exactly what you’re saying, Jeff is know their language, know the questions they’re going to ask. That’s literally one of my other tips. So tip number three is going to be.
Know their lingo, right? Know the unique challenges, know their language that they’re speaking. So I’m going to divide this up into kind of two parts. Part number one is you have a specific niche, right? So at Dennis advisors, I literally came in [00:12:00] learning what is a comb beam? What is an associate? How do they go to school?
When do they start buying into a dental practice? What what other types of equipment do they need? Do they own their buildings? Do they not, right? Like you have to learn the whole landscape as to all the potential problems and challenges That niche could potentially have and when I sit down with a potential client and I’m saying, okay What do you want to buy your comb beam?
What do you think about buying an office? Let’s talk about when you’re hiring your next like staff member or associate dentist They’re like blown away that me as a financial advisor knows all this language Instantly that’s like the no and trust like the trust factor right is like Going off in their mind because I’m instantly telling them exactly what they know and what they hear every day in their business.
Now my second part is okay. You don’t have a niche, right? So what are then the unique languages that I learn right? I hear a lot of advisors talking about the main thing that brings clients in my door, Roth conversions, right? Or I help people do these more complex, maybe real estate investments [00:13:00] or right.
I’m sure in every single practice, there’s unique things that you do that bring people into your door. So talk about those like no, and be the expert on those unique things. So that trust factor again, is. Is heightened because they’re like man, there’s no one better that can put this estate plan together for me Then you know, jeff morgan, right?
Like he knows what he’s talking about He talks about it all the time like he’s the expert there And so I think knowing your lingo or knowing their lingo I think can go in both ways. What would you add to that?
Jeff Morgan: Yeah I think that this is critically important to speak in their language instead of your own. A lot of times as experts, we use our own language and jargon to quickly, because what we’re trying to be is really concise as marketing messaging. Experts, right? And the most concise way to explain something is to use the jargon.
But we need to put it in plain language. Or in the language [00:14:00] of our prospective client or existing clients, so that they feel like you’re describing Abby, like they’re connecting with you, like the, you’re in their head, you’re taking up space in their head. My. My personal experience with this is I owned an agency for a marketing agency for about 18 years.
And there is this, there’s this, agency consultant named David Baker, and he would publish articles and emails and I got subscribed to it somehow. And every time I read one of those articles or emails or one of his social posts, it was like he was sitting in my office all day long watching what was going on and like commenting on it and giving me advice.
He knew me as an agency owner better than I knew myself because he had used pattern matching across Thousands of other agency owners to be able to say, this is a common thing that all agency owners are [00:15:00] experiencing. And I’m going to write about how to solve that problem. And that pattern matching is 1 of the reasons why picking a niche is so powerful, because now, you’re describing, about comb beans, and, about student loan debt, and, about all these things that are really specific to dentists and their experience.
And so you when you walk into that room that you automatically going back to know trust, you gain trust. They really trust because you speak their language. And imagine if you get compared to a competitor. Who isn’t specific to dentists. So they go and they get two quotes. One is from somebody who can speak their language.
The other one cannot, even if your price is double, they’re more likely to pick you than they are to pick your competitor. That is not specialized. I can’t. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to follow this particular tip of yours. It’s really [00:16:00] powerful. And
Abby Morton: I didn’t think about that. I can charge more and likely still get the client just because. I know their problems. I know their lingo and I’m talking to that unique challenges there. So I love that
Jeff Morgan: you can do that because you are more a real expert, right? You are an expert for them. You’re not just a generalist. You are a specialist. A specialist and just like going to the doctor, you can go to a general practitioner and they can be like let me take your temperature and let me take the basic vital signs.
And I can diagnose a problem, but for actual treatment, I’m going to have to refer you out to a specialist because they do this all day long and just this one thing. And so it’s the same way with in marketing and sales, the more specialized you are, the higher price you can make. The higher price you can justify. That’s the word I was looking for.
Abby Morton: Yeah, I like it.
Okay, [00:17:00] so tip number four is to stay top of mind, right? Most people, I would argue, delay getting help from an advisor because it’s too painful. I’m going to, again, all those acronyms I said earlier, stressful, shameful, they’re embarrassed. There’s just not enough there’s no one like pulling them to like really get the help.
Easily you can put off doing your financial planning for a really long time. And some maybe never do it and just hope for the best, right? There’s no one telling them to go get a financial plan. So that’s why you really need to. continually create content so that you can stay top of mind so that when that challenge that problem that inheritance whatever it may be right there’s a million different ways and avenues that a client can finally decide to reach out to you want to be the person that they think about you want to be either that email in their inbox that instagram page that they always go to it’s going to take some time for them to be able to, again, build that know and trust factor.
And so you want to be that person [00:18:00] that’s like the first person they think about when that pain challenge like does arise. Do you have an example of that? Like in your marketing agency where someone finally decided to hire you or book you cause they’re just like, you were top of mind for them.
Jeff Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. I think that even at elements, we see this every day.
Abby Morton: Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Morgan: I love this tip because it is really speaking to this idea that marketing is like this ongoing machine that needs consistent fuel. To be effective, and so when at elements, advisors will hear about us initially, maybe from this podcast, or they’ll hear about us on social media and we start the relationship by hopefully giving a lot of value.
With no strings attached, we’re having this podcast right now to try to like, let advisors [00:19:00] know that we care about them and that we want to give them something of value. And so hopefully they’ll like us, they’ll know they’ll start to know us. They’ll start to like us. And then if we. Do a good job, they’ll start to trust us as well.
And then we’ll have an opportunity with them at the right time. Like you’re suggesting to invite them into more of a middle what I would call middle of funnel type conversation where we’re connecting. An advisor’s problems, maybe the problems they have with marketing with an element solution. And when we get to that point, then we’re at the perfect place to like, ask them if they want to schedule a demo with us.
And so you can see it in, in any marketing. It’s really all about being there at the right time, because at any time that you start marketing or that somebody is introduced to your brand, only 10 percent of your total [00:20:00] Perspective audience or perspective customer pool total addressable market is really in the market to buy today, maybe even less than that.
So
Abby Morton: today.
Jeff Morgan: and 2 are in market today. So you can pull those people in, but the 90 percent of people, you got to be there when they’re ready. And this is really true with financial advice, because we know from dentists, advisors, and from all the work that we do with financial advisors, that it’s the big life events that cause people to search out solutions.
And I just want advisors to think about who are you competing with that in that moment? Are you competing with other financial advisors? Maybe, but more than likely you’re competing against Google, right? Or now an emerging competitor is AI solutions like chat, GBT. And so you have to [00:21:00] be more, so much more relevant and top of mind in their life to compete with the ease of getting a solution from Google, right?
And you have to like, this goes back again to the expertise idea. Google is going to give me general advice But this person can give me really specialized expert advice. And so that’s why it’s important to be there all the time, because they’ll go to Google 1st. You got to somehow like, be take up residence in their head, like we’re talking about before so that they think they’re like, I could use Google, but the answers will be better if I go to Abby.
Abby Morton: Yeah it’s what you said earlier felt like that guy was sitting in my room and knew what my problems were like, of course, you’re going to go to that person who you know and trust cause you’ve seen them all the time. We’re like, that guy’s literally speaking to me. And now I actually have a problem or a challenge or a pain I want them to solve.
It’s I’m instantly going to that person, right? It’s, These are also like intertwined like I was trying to decide are these six different tips. Is it one tip that’s [00:22:00] multifaceted, right? They’re also intertwined because I feel like each one of them build on each other and just help further iterate, like why you need them all together, right?
It just helps further strengthen your marketing message.
so I think along this line of staying top of mind, you were alluding to this just a second ago, but it’s important to integrate unique calls to action, right? So that’s tip number five, integrate unique calls to action. And what I mean by that is.
Just like what Jeff was saying, you need to have like a top of funnel, a middle of a funnel, a bottom of funnel way for people to interact with you, right? When they’re in that no stage, like trying to figure out who you are, they just want to listen to a podcast. They want to read a few, a free newsletter, or they want to listen to you on Instagram or YouTube, right?
Talk about a short little video or a problem you had with the client. Like they want this free content, right? This way that I can date you to see if I even like you to see if I want to continue to consume your content right Then along the way as they interact with you more Then you want to be able to find a way where you can gather some of their [00:23:00] personal financial information like an email maybe a phone number Things like that, right?
So then how do you bring them down even further into something that’s maybe going to require a little bit more for them, like joining a webinar, right? Reading a newsletter where you have to input your email before, things like that. And so it’s important to think about your marketing efforts and how can you diversify them in something that’s super easy to engage with down to something that like.
As low as, Hey, actually take time on your calendar and schedule time to come sit down and talk with me, either virtually or in person. Like what tips do you have Jeff for helping advisors to know, like all the, there’s a probably a million different calls to action. Like how can we help advisors know what are the good calls to action?
What works, what doesn’t work? And what advice
Jeff Morgan: 1 way I have thought about this.
There’s some really great Gardner research around this idea of aligning your marketing calls to action with the [00:24:00] buyer jobs to be done. When we think about jobs to be done, when somebody wants to hire a financial advisor, what are all the steps that they need to go through?
In order to make a buying decision and so we’re touching on those where we say, no and trust in a real generic sort of way. But if you get down to the functional job that they need to accomplish they need to realize that there’s a problem they need to recognize the problem that they have, sometimes that’s forced upon them, based on life events
Abby Morton: Yeah.
Jeff Morgan: and then they need to seek out a solution to that problem.
They need to narrow down the possible solution providers, then they need to validate if that solution provider is the right 1 or not, when they’ve narrowed it down, and then they need to go to their buying committee and in the. In the context of a financial advice with a normal client, that might be the spouse, right?
Or [00:25:00] the spouse and like other financial experts that they work with, like their accountant or something like that. If you think, if you break down all the different things that they need to do and then create content that helps them to complete those jobs, like I found the problem, I found a potential solution provider, help them narrow it down to just you, hopefully help them validate that you’re the right type of person with like social proof of some kind or testimonials, et cetera, and then help them.
To pitch it to their spouse, their significant other, to their accountant, to whoever else it is. And if you provide that, all that content so that they can easily finish their jobs, then they’re more and more likely to choose you as their provider. So that’s one way you can come up with unique calls to action.
And I would just say like some of it is like free value, no strings attached, like our [00:26:00] podcast, for example, some of it, you want to gate it. Like the more value you’re providing. You want to put a form in between you and that value so that there’s a value exchange. So they’re like I’m willing to give up my name and email address and phone number for that awesome guy.
That’s going to give me like a tax preparation checklist that will make sure that I never pay 30 percent taxes again, or something like that. Then you have their contact information and you can do more personalized marketing to them. So, that’s probably enough said on that, but there’s all kinds of great elements can help with those calls to action to offer a free assessment instead of offering a consultation feels like sales pitch assessment feels oh, I’m going to get something of value back.
Even if I don’t hire this person. So I really liked the elements for you.
Abby Morton: Yeah, that’s a good framing. Like, how can I get something out? Again knowing the questions they’re going to ask, like how can they benefit from whatever [00:27:00] it may be? Great idea there. All right.
So tip number six, the last one is do what is easiest for you, right? There’s a number of different ways to market, especially in like the digital world we live in today, right?
Are you a podcaster? Do you like to talk? Are you a writer? Do you really enjoy writing and sitting down and just getting your thoughts out on paper? Do you love like being on social media and doing like short, quick clips, or are you more like a long form person? And so maybe webinars are more of your vibe, right?
I think whatever it is, there’s a unique thing that’s going to speak to you, find out what that unique thing is, and then just go ham and creating tons of content around that unique thing. And then I would say Jeff loves this, but like use AI to then help you. Turn that unique one content that you love doing into a couple different other iterations of different kinds of content around that same topic.
So then you can appeal to everyone whose learning style might be different than [00:28:00] watching videos. I like to watch videos. My husband would rather read, right? And so we both want to learn in different ways. And so use AI to be able to help you do that. If you don’t do what’s easiest for you, you’re never going to do it, right?
You’re not going to be consistent. You’re not going to be able to continue to stay top of mind and be in front of the clients that you need to be. So that’s so important to just do what you’re going to be able to do. What, like, how would you find out, how do you realize Jeff what is that thing for you?
Do you have any tips on helping people figure that out?
Jeff Morgan: Yeah. Having worked with lots of people who wanted to be thought leaders over the years, some of who are thought leaders and other ones are just aspiring still. I would say that first of all, I totally agree with this tip. It’s find the thing that. you can do and you can do it efficiently.
And
Abby Morton: Efficiently. Yeah. That’s a big deal.
Jeff Morgan: yeah, back to dentist advisors, we [00:29:00] decided to go with a podcast and that’s because our founder, Reese Harper and his co founder, Ryan Isaac had really good chemistry together and they without prep could sit down and have a 60 minute conversation off the cut, done, hand off the file to a producer that could do a basic edit on it.
And then we could publish it. So it was the very most efficient way of getting really. Great content out in the world. And I’ll go back to my framework fire content. So it’s frequent, insightful, relevant, and entertaining. The Dennis money show podcast is all four of those things. And over. 10 percent of the total dental market listens to the dentist advisors podcast every week now.
And it’s just because it hits all four of those things. So I [00:30:00] think that you, that the efficiency, going back to your question, the efficiency thing is really important because if you can’t get content out there frequently, then you can’t stay top of mind. You can’t build that relationship. No and trust.
It’s all about making it, actually doing it.
Abby Morton: I think that’s important, the efficiency point that you bring in. Sorry to interrupt. But I’m loving that because I think you’re right that. Some people might want to be a writer, but they’re not that great at it, or they get too in their head, or it takes too long, or it’s not perfect enough, right? We often say 80 percent and done is better than 100 percent and never never published, right?
Never put out there. And so I love what you’re saying of like, how can I be efficient and actually get something out the door, get something that is actually across the finish line versus I never do because maybe I like that medium, but I just I’m too perfectionist about it.
Jeff Morgan: yeah I think this podcast is a good example. Cause if I were going to write up these [00:31:00] tips into an e guide of tips for financial advisors, it would probably take me hours to write it, because I would be like, Ooh, how should I say that? What’s the best way to say it? Ooh, I don’t like exactly the way that comes across.
I’m like missing something here. It would end up being really long. And it would end up being really time consuming. And this podcast is taking 35 minutes to record, like it’s so much more efficient and I think we’re getting across and people like video and audio and imagery is like a picture is worth a thousand words.
I think people will like us. They’ll know us, they’ll like us, they’ll trust us more from content that we produce in 35 minutes than they will in that guy that they would never read, so I’d probably for most people, I’d probably lean towards video, audio and imagery because of that reason.
But if you’re really scared of the camera, if you freeze up. In the moment, like I do a lot, then it might [00:32:00] not, you might go with writing because it’s just more comfortable for you, but this is usually the most, the easiest way to produce content frequently.
Abby Morton: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. It checks a lot of the boxes, right? All right.
I really hope that you found this content helpful. Honestly, advisors who do these six things, I think are super successful in everything that they do. So I’ll leave you with that.
Jeff Morgan: Thanks Abby. It’s been fun.