I received another call from a financial advisor this week who saw us in the July cover story of Journal of Financial Planning . He owns a nice sized practice and has been in the advisory business and financial planning profession for almost three decades. Smart guy. He has a law degree from a top institution and other crown jewels he has earned along the way.
Like most financial advisors , I’ll call him “Roger”, he is trying to stay digitally relevant and top-of-mind. Roger may not be a millennial but he is bright. He understands the importance of taking a somewhat bullish approach to marketing as he was all too happy to talk to me about his website, blog, and Twitter account, with a kind of pride one uses to describe their own children.
And like most advisors in their late 50’s, Roger’s life is pretty darn good and he loves going to work. It shows. Roger has grown his practice and six-figure AUM organically by way of referrals—a majority from raving fan clients and a smaller percentage from CPA and attorney referrals.
But those were the good ole’ days.
Roger’s pipeline is quickly drying up and he’s scurrying to reinvigorate the business with the magical marketing trifecta – website, blog, and social media – designed to push him to the top of the sales funnel faster than you can say ABRACADABRA!
The only problem is it’s not working. And he can’t understand why???
“I blog.”
“I tweet.”
“I even send my clients and centers a personalized email video right to their inbox!”
Gee whiz I thought…In that case, there should be a line of clients waiting outside your door like you’re giving away fidget spinners!
Not.
Related: Is Social Media REALLY for You?
When I begin to go down the digital rabbit hole and dig for evidence, patterns or lack of thereof tell a different kind of story.
No matter what I say to Roger, his response is always the same.
I already tried that. It didn’t work.
The Scorpio in me pushes back.
“Roger, have you ever thought of creating a multi-touch marketing initiative for your centers, beginning with a case study outlining who you help, how you work with clients, and a story about taking a client from point a to point b?” “We can begin to evaluate the merits of the campaign / ROI based on downloads of this case study and even track visits to a dedicated web page (aka landing page) that links directly to our case study. And guess what…we can measure email opens rates, new email sign-ups and growth of our newsletter distribution list to see whether we’re on track.”
And since I was on a roll, “Roger, how about a little personal touch such as a handwritten personal note thanking them for prior referrals or an invitation to play golf. It’s summer. No one wants to go to lunch and just sit there.”
Rogers brain shifts gear and we share an ah-ha moment.