Advice Line: How to Build a Marketing Funnel That Attracts Pre-Retirees (Ryan Kittredge)

Summary

Advisor Marketing Made Simple
Episode Summary: "Advice Line: How to Build a Marketing Funnel That Attracts Pre-Retirees (Ryan Kittredge)"
Release Date: July 23, 2025
Hosts: Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright
Guest: Ryan Kittredge from Clearpath Financial Partners

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Introduction

In this episode of Advisor Marketing Made Simple, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright welcome Ryan Kittredge, a seasoned financial advisor with 18 years in the industry and four years leading his own firm, Clearpath Financial Partners. Ryan seeks expert guidance on developing a robust marketing funnel tailored to attract pre-retirees—a critical demographic for his growth ambitions. The conversation delves deep into Ryan's current marketing efforts, challenges, and strategic recommendations to enhance his firm's visibility and client acquisition.

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Ryan's Current Situation

Ryan opens up about his firm’s current standing and future aspirations. With an Assets Under Management (AUM) of $195 million, he aims to scale to $500 million in the next five years. However, Ryan acknowledges the need for a more structured and effective marketing strategy to achieve this growth.

Ryan [00:31]: "The big question is really about the single most impactful top of funnel marketing initiatives that we could consider to increase awareness with our target client in local demographics."

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Ideal Client Profile

Defining the ideal client is pivotal for effective marketing. Ryan describes his target demographic as individuals nearing retirement—typically three to five years out—who are seeking comprehensive financial strategies to transition smoothly into retirement. These clients are characterized by:

• Age: 50 and above
• Assets: Minimum of $600,000 in investments
• Goals: Strategic withdrawal planning, tax optimization, and legacy planning

Ryan [00:52]: "Our ideal client is... people on that Runway to retirement... who have saved well enough to suspect that they may have enough but not know the most strategic way to source it from a tax standpoint... from how do we allocate and which accounts do we go to first and when do we claim benefits and so forth."

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Current Marketing Efforts and Challenges

Client Acquisition Channels

Ryan's client base primarily stems from:

1. Referrals: Both personal and non-traditional Centers of Influence (COIs).
2. Web Searches: Increasingly, clients find Clearpath Financial Partners online.
3. Local Radio Show: A monthly podcast-like radio segment aimed at increasing local awareness.

Ryan [04:14]: "We've had one potential, you know, qualified prospect who we have an upcoming meeting with, who reached out and said they heard us on the radio show and reached out."

Despite these efforts, Ryan notes a lack of significant revenue growth from his current initiatives, indicating a gap in the marketing funnel.

Website and Online Presence

Ryan admits that his firm's website doesn’t effectively communicate his value proposition or cater to his target audience's needs. The site lacks alignment with the content shared through his radio show, leading to a disconnect that may hinder client conversion.

Ryan [14:11]: "Just really quick, all those questions you mentioned are the questions that people are coming to ask us about. I know our website doesn't reflect that."

Marketing Budget and Resource Allocation

Currently, Ryan allocates approximately $500 per month to marketing, a figure he considers modest compared to more substantial investments required for effective local advertising. Additionally, with limited time—around one hour per week dedicated to marketing—Ryan struggles to implement and sustain comprehensive strategies.

Ryan [16:25]: "We're not really going to get to know my goal of 350 and two and a half million of revenue in the next few years by not doing something that has a much wider net that gets more qualified prospects to the table."

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Analysis and Recommendations

1. Website Optimization

Taylor emphasizes the importance of a website that clearly reflects Ryan's specialization in retirement planning. By integrating specific keywords like "retirement" and addressing common client pain points directly, the website can better attract and resonate with the ideal demographic.

Taylor [11:02]: "If we are truly focused on retirement planning... that word retirement should be everywhere... they're going to see Clearpath Ryan, retirement and they're going to associate with you with that."

2. Middle-of-Funnel Strategies

Kendra and Taylor highlight the critical need for middle-of-funnel activities to nurture leads generated from top-of-funnel efforts like Ryan’s radio show. Without proper nurturing, potential clients may forget about Clearpath Financial Partners before making a decision.

Taylor [15:46]: "I'm saying that you can continue to do it... but you're missing that middle of the funnel to nurture over time."

3. Content Marketing: Email Newsletters

Given Ryan’s time constraints and preference for manageable tasks, an email marketing strategy is recommended. By developing a weekly retirement-focused newsletter, Ryan can consistently engage with prospects without the intense time investment required for activities like podcasting or video production.

Taylor [36:02]: "An email marketing strategy. So we're going to build a weekly retirement email newsletter. And we're going to really optimize our website for capturing email addresses."

4. Paid Advertising and SEO

While Ryan has had mixed results with Google Ads, Taylor suggests a more strategic approach that aligns paid efforts with nurturing mechanisms. Effective SEO can improve organic reach, while targeted paid advertising can drive qualified traffic to tailored landing pages with clear calls to action.

Taylor [43:49]: "Hey, Taylor, I do this monthly local podcast thing where I advertise these amazing free resources that we have... we're also engaged in local SEO... And you also do paid local ads... that help us add roughly 100 people to our email newsletter every month."

5. Recording and Analyzing Client Calls

Kendra recommends implementing call recording software to gain deeper insights into client needs and refine the ideal client profile. Analyzing these calls can provide valuable data to tailor marketing messages more effectively.

Kendra [47:17]: "I have a lot of our clients sign up for something like Fathom or Jump AI to record their prospect and client calls... you can search those calls to start... asking like, hey, what were the top three concerns or the trigger moments that caused this prospect to call?"

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Implementation Plan

Based on the discussion, Ryan can adopt the following actionable steps:

1. Revamp the Website:

   • Integrate "retirement" prominently in the site's copy.
   • Address specific client pain points and questions.
   • Optimize for email capture with clear calls to action.

2. Develop an Email Marketing Strategy:

   • Create a weekly newsletter focused on retirement planning.
   • Delegate content creation to a writer or agency to save time.
   • Use lead magnets (e.g., PDF guides, checklists) to grow the email list.

3. Enhance SEO Efforts:

   • Invest in local SEO to improve online visibility.
   • Target keywords relevant to retirement planning and wealth management.

4. Implement Call Recording:

   • Use software to record and transcribe client calls.
   • Analyze transcripts to refine the ideal client profile and tailor marketing messages.

5. Strategic Paid Advertising:

   • Allocate budget towards targeted ads that drive qualified traffic.
   • Ensure landing pages are optimized for conversions with nurturing steps in place.

6. Maintain and Evaluate Current Efforts:

   • Continue the local radio show but enhance it with clear calls to action that lead into the middle of the funnel.
   • Regularly review and adjust marketing strategies based on performance metrics.

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Conclusion

Through a comprehensive analysis of Ryan Kittredge's current marketing landscape, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright provide strategic insights to build an effective marketing funnel targeting pre-retirees. By optimizing his website, implementing a structured email marketing strategy, enhancing SEO efforts, and leveraging paid advertising thoughtfully, Ryan can create a sustainable and scalable marketing system. Additionally, understanding client needs through call recordings will further refine his approach, ensuring that Clearpath Financial Partners continues to grow and thrive in the competitive financial advisory market.

Ryan [42:22]: "I agree, it's... And it's not gonna continue to work, especially with, without my involvement. Now it's different if I'm making up for the lack of marketing by brute force with sales and excellent hands on customer service. But like, I don't want to have to do that forever."

By addressing these key areas, Ryan is poised to transition from ad-hoc marketing efforts to a predictable and efficient system that supports long-term growth objectives.

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Notable Quotes:

• Ryan [00:31]: "The big question is really about the single most impactful top of funnel marketing initiatives that we could consider to increase awareness with our target client in local demographics."
• Taylor [11:02]: "If we are truly focused on retirement planning... that word retirement should be everywhere... they're going to see Clearpath Ryan, retirement and they're going to associate with you with that."
• Taylor [36:02]: "An email marketing strategy. So we're going to build a weekly retirement email newsletter. And we're going to really optimize our website for capturing email addresses."
• Kendra [47:17]: "I have a lot of our clients sign up for something like Fathom or Jump AI to record their prospect and client calls... you can search those calls to start... asking like, hey, what were the top three concerns or the trigger moments that caused this prospect to call?"
• Ryan [42:22]: "I agree, it's... And it's not gonna continue to work, especially with, without my involvement."

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Resources Mentioned:

• Advisor Marketing Made Simple - Episode on Niche Clarity and Website Optimization
• Kendra and Taylor's agency services for website and email marketing optimization
• Ryan’s current radio show: Talk of Commonwealth

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For more insights and actionable strategies on financial advisor marketing, subscribe to Advisor Marketing Made Simple and join Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright every Wednesday for expert discussions and real-world examples.

Transcript

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make Advisor Marketing simple. Today's guest is Ryan from Clearpath Financial Partners. He's been in the industry 18 years and he started his own firm four years ago. His current AUM is 195 million and he wants to grow to 500 million in AUM in the next five years. Welcome to Advisor Marketing Made Simple. Ryan, what's that big question you want us to help you answer today?

[Ryan]

The big question is really about the sort of the single most impactful top of funnel marketing initiatives that we could consider to increase awareness with our target client in local demographics.

[Kendra]

Tell me a little bit more about your ideal client and who we are going to try and attract more of to your firm.

[Ryan]

So our ideal client is not very dissimilar to Taylor's where they are people on that Runway to retirement generally call it three to five years out who want to have a game plan in place for giving up the paycheck or stepping back from some, you know, from a certain aspect of their career and replace the paychecks they tend to have saved well enough to suspect that they may have enough but not know the most strategic way to source it from a tax standpoint, from a how do we allocate and you know, which accounts do we go to first and when do we claim benefits and so forth. So that kind of thing.

[Kendra]

Okay, and right now how are your current clients finding you?

[Ryan]

They are mostly. So at this point I'm 18 years in roughly. I started the first few at a big life insurance company but then basically 15 years as like I guess a real financial advisor. And I guess at this point now it's more client referrals number one then professional COI type referrals. Although some of them are not traditional COIs. They're just people who recommend us who may or may not be another related professional. And then it's people finding us on the web. So early on it was cold calling. It was showing up to things and meeting people and telling people what I do and saying I can help if you need it. It was a lot of that. Now it's not so much that it's more people reaching out, but it's only been four years now since we've had our own firm. So we were, I was an advisor under another independent company for about 15 years or 14 years and now I've been on my own for four. So I never had to do anything in terms of branding at all. I was just Ryan at this other company. Right. So I'm kind of only been thinking about this stuff for a few years now.

[Kendra]

Okay. So we have a little bit of an idea of how current clients are finding you. What kind of marketing activities are you doing now to bring awareness to the firm?

[Ryan]

At one point in time, at my last company, we had a weekly radio show that we did, I did for almost 10 years. And we kind of split, you know, lead, so to speak, from that. It took years to get some traction. Since we went on our own, we didn't have anything like that. And so I wanted something to replace it but not commit. Every Saturday morning live in a studio. So what I did was a local talk radio show. I am on a monthly podcast. I pay for a spot and it's a basically like a 23 minute long interview, you know, in a half hour block with some commercials and they do some promos for the spot and then they essentially turn it into a podcast and give it to me. And so then we've put it on our website.

[Kendra]

So where is that broadcasted? Is that on like radio?

[Ryan]

It is. It's on a local. So Massachusetts. So like central Massachusetts, basically Worcester county into metro west, kind of. Okay, between western Boston with that piece.

[Kendra]

Of media, do you have any calls to action within that media?

[Ryan]

Very little. Hank does. Hank, who's the host of the, the talk show, the Talk of Commonwealth, he kind of tees it up and says, how do people get in touch with you? How do they reach out? And so he gives my, you know, the web address and I say, we're here if, if, you know, you want to chat and we can answer any questions. I'm not really like soliciting business. I'm more just trying to educate.

[Kendra]

And how is that working for you right now?

[Ryan]

It's hard to say. We've been doing it for maybe eight or nine months. It was, you know, crickets for the first few or several. And then just in the past couple months, we've had one potential, you know, qualified prospect who we. We have an upcoming meeting with, who reached out and said they heard us, you know, heard me on the radio show and reached out. As a result, we had one other person who found us online and said that they listened to the podcast and liked xyz. So I guess kind of only a couple tangible things and no revenue as a result of it, which I guess I'm not that surprised. I knew it would take a little bit of time.

[Kendra]

Okay, so right now, as far as marketing activities are currently doing for the firm, you have this Local talk show radio. Are there any other marketing activities you're doing to bring awareness to the firm?

[Ryan]

Just keeping track of the professionals that I like and making sure, you know, six months or more don't go by where I haven't like said hello and grabbed lunch with them, that kind of thing. So keeping some of those connections live, even though I'm not going to like a BNI group or a chamber of commerce group and just showing up to stuff blanketly, I have good relationships that I don't want to let fizzle out. Okay.

[Kendra]

I also saw on your website you're doing Google reviews. Are you doing any kind of local efforts?

[Ryan]

I've asked for Google reviews. I guess a little bit. I don't want to say passively, but very situationally. Like if a great long term client is like, I love you guys, you're the very best thing that ever happened to us or something. Maybe not quite that strong, but like along those lines where I'm like, all the fields are there. I'll say like, that's awesome. Could you do a Google review so that like other people can see what we do for people and it helps people find us online is what I've said. So I've done that passively. And then I do have a guy that I contract with who did an SEO initial project. It was like a few thousand bucks and he went through and like cleaned up meta tags and made pages for specific towns locally that could funnel through. So we've done one kind of go at that and then we're in a I don't know what's next phase.

[Kendra]

So before we start thinking about the funnel, I'd also like to understand how do you prefer to educate people you would be excited to serve? Do you like to speak? Do you like to write? Are you really good at local? You know, you mentioned cois. Are you really interested in building local relationships? Like what feels exciting and kind of more natural to you?

[Ryan]

I don't really enjoy getting up in front of groups of people, although I've. I've done it because I felt like I should and I did Toastmasters and things just to sort of address that fear and insecurity and get more comfortable with it. But that's not my preference. I don't really want to have to show up and do seminars and I like to do interviews. I like the idea of recording videos. Videos and disseminating them and things like that. Doesn't sound like it really jibes with me. But that said, I've had a lot of Experience on the radio, so I can just spitball. And if I have a topic with a few bullet points, like, I can go off and just chat about it and be conversational. And so I want to. I think I need to lean into that. Whether it's more. I don't want to say necessarily my own podcast, but I like the idea. One thing we have entertained is we have a. An intro video on our website in the company that did that. It's like a videographer, you know, marketing company for generally professional services and other companies, small businesses. And we may contract with her and her team to come in and do like a series of, say, eight videos that are educational kind of in nature, where I'm talking about one specific topic. So I want to. Before we pull the trigger and spend several grand, I want to know, do you think that makes sense? And then questions like, do I prep them and do a bunch of takes in advance so I am better, you know, and more comfortable when she comes and, you know, sets up studio equipment and does the take? Do I push them on the website? Do I push them out in other ways? So, like, I want to maybe do it, but, like, only if it. If I'm going to utilize it, I.

[Kendra]

Think we can definitely talk more about that. What I want to nail down first is like, what kind of medium you like to educate in. So do you like to be interviewed? As in, like you're the guest on, say, a podcast or a radio show, or do you like doing the interviews? That wasn't quite clear to me.

[Ryan]

I think either one is fine. I think that kind of setting this sort of conversational. I'm either asking questions like, I've had guests on the podcast a couple times. And it's kind of nice because instead of me answering Hank's questions that I sort of maybe prompt him with a few of. Instead I'm asking the questions, letting them talk, and then I'm more like the color and context guy. And I think I can do either of those because on the. In the past, I've been kind of that second seat or I've been the lead. That's cool. Just things that take a lot of planning. Like, I love the idea of writing, but I'm going to spend way too much time on it, be wildly inefficient. And I just don't think that's my form of media necessarily.

[Kendra]

Give me an idea of how many hours per week do you have to spend on marketing right now.

[Ryan]

So I was probably spending like 1ish. And I think Now I could, could probably spend at least five hours a week.

[Kendra]

So let me just confirm what I've heard here. So right now what's working is client referrals, some local cois and a little bit of web search. You really enjoy the speaking format, whether that's being on a podcast or interviewing somebody else. And right now you have up to five hours per week to spend on marketing.

[Ryan]

That's right, exactly. And, and because again, you know, marketing in the sense that you guys talk about, I think I need it for that. Next lever up, I never did marketing, I did sales and it was probably like 10 hours a week of just like gently bugging people until some, you know, wanted to talk to me. And, and, and now, you know, I think to grow if we're going to still continue to grow, you know, at a 20 to 25% year over year, it was easy doing it from, you know, 10 to 20 million or you know, we just crossed 200 million this week. I don't think we're going to get to know my goal of 350 and two and a half million of revenue in the next few years by not doing something that has a much wider net that gets more qualified prospects to the table. Because it's fine now if only 30 people reach out and eight become clients, but I think we need to probably double that.

[Kendra]

Taylor, what's coming up for you?

[Taylor]

I want to clarify a little bit exactly who you're targeting because it's still not clear. You said it's similar to my target market, but I'm not seeing any of that in your marketing. It's like, do you have a minimum average age or is there a minimum age requirement? Like tell me just a little bit more.

[Ryan]

So I had a mishmash of clients and I've come up with my niche, you know, by looking at who are my best clients and try to replicate those. Right. So our minimums are really 55, but 50 years old. 600k is our minimum. $7500 a year in billables. That's, that's the target. The clients that I've been getting the last few years are much higher average asset base than the ones that I still have that I like from 10 years ago. Right. So our average new client is probably in the one to two and a half million dollar range, whereas ten years ago it was a few hundred grand.

[Taylor]

Okay, right. So your website front and center says we guide late career professionals to achieve a work optional lifestyle. Are people coming to you and saying, hey Ryan, I Want to make work optional or I really love what I do. I don't think I ever want to retire, but I want your help. Are those the people that are reaching out to you? Because that, that is different than the people that are reaching out to me.

[Ryan]

They tend to be either, hey, we've done all these things pretty well, but we don't know how they're all going to fit together on the other end and kind of on the distribution side. So they want a game plan or they have retired and they've just sort of been. They had minimal needs, but they haven't claimed their Social Security yet and they haven't been withdrawing. And they know that they should be thinking of like Roth conversions and strategic planning and legacy planning and things like that. And they haven't done that yet.

[Taylor]

Okay.

[Ryan]

They've read enough. And you know, most of them are not coming from another advisor. Most of them are, were like do it yourselfers through their career and now they, they want to hire somebody.

[Taylor]

Okay, so two quick things that I'll just mention here. We're not going to go super deep into like website and copy and all that stuff, but one is if we are truly focused on retirement planning, helping people transition to retirement, or make work optional in retirement, that word retirement should be everywhere. And like, when I quickly glance at your website, like my initial take was you're working with more of like someone in their 40s and 50s. I just see professionals, late career, professional. I'm not seeing like retirement. To me it doesn't seem like you're the retirement guy. So I know it's like we want to get clever with our words and everyone uses like it truly is just like that word, retirement, retiree, retiree, like, like it just has to be front and center. They're going to see clear path Ryan, retirement and they're going to associate with you with that. And then the second part is I do like the work optional phrase. It does land well with people. You have to use it the right way in your marketing. So separate conversation. But thinking about this in terms of what are people really coming to you with questions about? So for example, on my website you'll see how do I turn all this money into a paycheck, right? Like, hey Ryan, I've saved a bunch of money, but like, I don't know how to turn this into income and retirement or, or hey, Ryan, I'm realizing now, like, I've been such a good saver, like I'm gonna have some taxes to pay in retirement. I don't know how that all that works, or I've been pretty good at investing in my accumulation years, but how do I invest in retirement? Like, those are the real questions that my clients are asking. And I'm not seeing a lot of this on the site. And so again, we don't need to go into it now because we don't know exactly where you'll end up in your marketing and how critical your website's going to be. But just in terms of getting more clear and who you're going to work with, there's some things there that could likely be improved on the site.

[Ryan]

Absolutely. I'll say. Just really quick, all those questions you mentioned are the questions that people are coming to ask us about. I know our website doesn't reflect that. I think we did try to get a little funky with language and frankly, the year we started, it was just chaos. And we sat down and put some ideas together, put them up, and have not touched it. So our, our what's on our website is not consistent with our narrative.

[Taylor]

Sure. And we have to keep that top of mind because just for example, you're doing this, these TV slots with the local station. I'll ask you in a minute how much you're spending because I know those can't be cheap if we're spending a bunch of money and time doing those, those radio spots or video spots. And our website is totally disconnected from what I'm saying on this show. And you're telling me, yeah, we've been doing it for eight months and we haven't seen any new clients. As a result, I might be like, well, maybe a bunch of people are showing up to your website and they feel like completely disconnected with your website from what you were talking about on that show. I don't know that to be true, but we want to be sure before we start to pour gas on these marketing activities and go spend a bunch of money that when people do start to show up, that the language we're using, the things we're talking about on our site really resonate with that person. I heard Ryan say this over here. I came over here. He reinforced it. And it looks like he's got a great process for me to, you know, evaluate his firm and learn a little bit more. So I don't like you have to determine kind of what part of the funnel you're going to spend some time on. We just have to be careful of like too much top of funnel sort of stuff. And then they find their way to us. We get that awareness. But there's just that disconnect that exists.

[Ryan]

Absolutely. I want to clean that up. And so we're spending 500 bucks a month. So I think that's maybe short money compared to what I know the radio show, a Saturday morning weekly spot cost. And then if you're looking at like Boston, like big market, you know, this is like a smaller market, you know, it could be multiples of that. So I think for us, like, we're not. There's really no true marketing spend. And I think it's kind of crazy to not really have a marketing budget. It's been more on professional development is where I've put my money into like literally some. A few coaching programs and things. And, you know, but now I'm. I want to put it into marketing, but I need to know, like the right order of operations to your point.

[Taylor]

Totally. Okay. The other question I had was local versus national. You've talked a lot about local. So are you like 120% committed to just local marketing?

[Ryan]

I don't want to say 120% over committed to it, but that is where we're getting most of our clients. I think we have a good geography where we're like away enough from Boston where nobody wants to drive 40 minutes into downtown Boston to work with an advisor. But there's a lot of affluent people in these burbs and I like that community. I live in the community. My house is a mile away and we're leaning into that now. I do have clients that I. From different states, but like, they're referrals generally or they moved. Right. They found us locally. Most people like coming into the office. My younger clients, who aren't necessarily in my target demographic, who are 45, 50, they don't want to come in if they live next door. But the ones who are about to retire or retired, they love to come in. We have a cool, pretty cozy office with a nice, you know, setup and people, I think, almost like hanging out too much. And we're like, hey, this is great. We gotta, we have like work to do.

[Taylor]

I think that's awesome. And I think if you really enjoy those in person relationships, you verified that there are enough people in your local area to build a successful business with, right? There's some people like my buddy Ben Brandt in, in North Dakota. He realized pretty quickly, like, there's just not enough people here for me to grow my practice. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna branch out and go national. So if you verified that. No, there's plenty of people Here. And by the way, like your minimums are much more palatable than some of us others in the retirement planning space with multi million dollar minimums where we do kind of have to go national. But if you are committed to local and you really, and I, I'm not opposed to this at all, you could lean into that even more. Right? Like if I was, if I was focusing on local marketing, I would be like the San Diego retirement guy, like kind of like that real estate agent that you just see everywhere. I would want to just go all in with my messaging, my marketing, everything. Like when you think, when you're, if you're in San Diego and you think about retirement, you're thinking about me. And I'd brand everything around that knowing that like I might get some referrals, you know, that lead me to work with people in other states. But you could probably lean into that a lot more. I don't again want to go there right now. I just want to share that with you that we could come to your website and it's like everything about retirement and those pain points and about, I don't know exactly where you're at in.

[Ryan]

Massachusetts, metro West, that's the area kind of between western Boston.

[Taylor]

Okay, so a comment I wanted to make on this, I don't know what you want to call it. The local radio video podcast, Local interview slash podcast. Yeah, I thought I've, I've explored some of those historically and I found they're like the ones I've looked at are really expensive. So yours sounds like it's fairly inexpensive. You get what you pay for. So I guess one question is, are you sure that they have viewership with the right types of people? Have you verified that part of it?

[Ryan]

Right? I have looked at the demographics and it is, it's based out of Worcester. So I grew up in Worcester and it's kind of like a working class, middle class city. The average income and, and net worth and all that is much lower than it is in metro west, which is a little bit east of there. There's just no radio stations. They're either Worcester or Boston. But you know, things are different. Maybe only, you know, 15, 20 miles away. So the answer is, I'd say, you know, most of the people are probably not the right prospect. But you know, it's a good reach. I, it's got to be a small percentage though. I mean, in terms of the people, is it enough? I forget all the numbers, but it's a pretty broad reach. A lot of people do. Listen, I'VE had, like, people like, you know, friends I grew up with, parents say, hey, I heard you on the radio. I've gotten random texts. So I know some people are hearing it. Who I. Who I'd want to be hearing it.

[Taylor]

Okay, just say that's, you know, a low friction, low cost marketing activity that you want to continue pursuing because it's not really that big of a heavy lift. I don't know if you want to do that or not, but let's just say that you continue to do it. You mentioned that you've been doing it for eight or nine months. You have one potential prospect. And the one thing I want to highlight here is that this goes back to our marketing funnel episode that Kendra and I did some months back. We have to understand where that activity, this local podcast thing that you're doing, where that activity fits in the marketing funnel. Because to me, it's more of a top of funnel marketing activity where you're getting in front of total strangers who have no idea who you are. It's hard to expect you going on this show, your friends, parents hearing you or seeing you on this show and then handing over their life savings. So instead of Hank asking you like, hey, Ryan, how can people reach out and contact you? How can people find you? I would think of a call to action. More like, hey, Ryan, I know you have something special to share with our audience today. Do you want to share more about it? Yes. One of the biggest pain points my clients have is X. I've actually built this workbook, this actionable workbook, or I've got this tax guide that's really easy to understand. All you have to do is go to freetaxguide.com and grab it. There's a dozen different ideas like that that you can implement. It doesn't have to be a guide. It could be, I've got a video series you can go download or I heard one today, actually, the podcast I was listening to, well, two of them today. One was, hey, I'm going to be talking about a bunch of tools today on this podcast. A bunch of AI tools I'm using. I've packaged it up and I'm going to give you all these tools. So you have a whole list of exactly what I'm talking about today. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Like, I want to go download that.

[Ryan]

And then you put your information in and you're on their drip campaign.

[Taylor]

Yeah, but it's like valuable. Like, I don't want to take note of all things he's talking about. So he was helping me as the. The listener. The other thing was, hey, today's conversation is a lot. We actually partnered with this company to build a. A PDF, like, summary document of this entire conversation today for you to have, like, just go here and you can download that. So there's a lot of different. But I always pay attention to, like, what gets me excited and what do.

[Ryan]

You get out of it? Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

And so I would think about something like that where you have this opportunity to get in front of people instead of, like, go to my website and fill out a contact form. Like, no, here's something really valuable that complements what we talked about today. And then that next layer is, well, how are we going to nurture them? Right. So they gave us their email address, and now we're going to write a killer retirement newsletter one time per week. That's just one example. You don't have to do that necessarily, but I think it's unreasonable to expect you going on this show equals new clients. There's something in the middle there that. That's missing. So you can determine whether you want to continue down that path or not and stitch together that funnel and fix the middle of it. We can also start to talk about some other ideas for you as well. But I did want to kind of share that out loud since it's. It's applicable to anyone, not just you and this very specific local show. But we can't. Like, anytime someone says, I'm doing this thing, I've been doing it for a while, I've been investing money in it, and I'm not seeing any results. I'm like, there's something missing here. It's like, anything can work. So there's just one piece here that's just missing in this puzzle. Let's figure out what that is.

[Ryan]

Absolutely. Yeah. No, I think I need that packaged up, you know, giveaway that is valuable for people to then submit their information who could be ready at some point. But by the time they're ready for what I do, they probably forgot about it. Right. Whereas if I stay in touch with them, to some degree, maybe they don't. So I absolutely. For me, it was more or less even about the radio interview as much as it was to give us something to put on our website to help, like, validation of if somebody does go there and then they can click a video and see us and then hear us and then read a thing, and then. Then maybe they feel more comfortable to reach out. But. But I'm missing everybody who's not like at that point?

[Taylor]

Right, sure. And anytime we just repurpose some stuff and throw it on our website, it's just not going to be as effective as saying, like, we're gonna put this very intentional video on our website to truly connect with these people and share X, Y and Z. So just be careful about just repurposing things. Just because it's easy to take this video that I produced and just. I'll toss it over here just, just because hopefully it does something.

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. No, I've done it because it's easy, it's cheap, I'm lazy, all of those things and I don't want to give up the momentum of it. And it is a small spend and you know, in terms of dollars and time, but there needs to be a lot more to it. I just need to know, like, we're, we're willing to invest money and, and time, you know, into the right things.

[Taylor]

So there's that funnel there that you could focus on because one of your questions was, what's the single most impactful top of funnel marketing initiative that we could implement? I'm not going to say that that's the single most impactful, but that radio show, that podcast thing you're doing is a top of funnel activity. And again, you're missing that middle of the funnel to nurture over time. So you can decide whether you want to stitch that funnel together and spend your time doing that. The second option, you've mentioned COIs a couple times. So the second potential funnel is a COI marketing funnel and it works well because you are focused locally. I don't know if you caught my interview on the show with Tiffany Charles, but she's a local advisor in Colorado. A very, very intentional, well thought out COI marketing strategy. So you can learn a lot from her. What I heard you say is the opposite of what I have heard Tiffany say, which is, you know, you said, I just, you know, kind of keep in touch with these cois and I go to lunch with them. That is not what Tiffany does. Like if you, if Tiffany goes to lunch or coffee with somebody, it there's an agenda like that she's having with that person. She's very clear about what her expectations are in that relationship.

[Ryan]

So indeed, she's like the chief growth officer. Right. Isn't that her? She's not an advisor. She's a sort of a growth person for that agency.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah, she is. She is not an advisor. But still, like whether she's an advisor or not, you need somebody to do this marketing. And that's essentially the path that I've taken, is I'm no longer servicing clients day to day like I am now. And eventually there will be a dedicated person like Tiffany. But just to say, like, COI marketing could be a very, very effective funnel for you, but you're gonna have to spend a lot of time refining that. Not just, like, I'm gonna go to lunch occasionally, no doubt.

[Ryan]

And I just want to, you know, give a little context to that. I'm certainly not going in with an agenda that I'm handing to them and running through it. Most of the friends that I have that are in that are, like, repulsed by the amount of financial advisors hitting them up to have an agenda lunch where they need something from them or want something from them. So I don't do that. But I'm not just, like, hanging out, talking about, you know, sandwiches. Usually I'm asking them, like, what challenges in their business. Here's issues. Resolve them for clients. Like, where financial advisors delivering big value for your clients. Where are they dropping the ball? So I'm getting them a little bit. I'm telling some stories about problems we solve, and I'm making some stark contrast between what we do and what other people do. So it's not, like, purposeless, I wouldn't say. But. But it's certainly not a tight agenda like I go into a client meeting with.

[Taylor]

Sure. So I. Two things come to mind here. One is just, like, the comfort level of having these conversations, and I've told that to Tiffany a bunch of times. Like, I just wouldn't be comfortable doing what she does. Like, I wouldn't be comfortable saying the things that she says. It is her comfort, comfort zone, and she is extremely confident. It feels authentic. So one part of this is, do you feel comfortable having these, you know, very rigid conversations, business development conversations? The second part is like, is there a confidence or lack of clarity issue? Because, sure, every COI is going to say, I'm so annoyed by every financial advisor that reaches out, every, you know, insurance salesperson that reaches out and wants my clients wants my business. Like, that happens every. In every city across the country. It's very different. If you're going to this person, you say, and in some cases, you know, you could say, hey, I want to pay for an hour of your time, because I really want to share some.

[Ryan]

Yeah, the Jarvis method.

[Taylor]

Right. But regardless, it's very different to say, hey, Mr. Mrs. CPA, I specialize in helping this exact person solve these exact pain points. I'm an expert. I'm a specialist. I don't work with anybody else. This is the only type of person I work with. This is how I help them and be very intentional and say, like, I like, I would like to formally partner. I'm looking to grow my business with more people like these and, like, develop that relationship with them and intentionality behind it. I think it just ends up sounding so much different than just Ryan's another financial advisor asking for my business and looking for more clients. It's like, no. Ryan is an actual specialist in his field and only works with one type of person. And it just, like, to me, it just changes the whole feel of it. Again, I'm still not, like, I don't want to go grow my practice that way, but if you did, I think it's going to sound and feel and land much differently with these COIs than all the other people that are reaching out to them.

[Ryan]

Indeed. And I guess what I'll say is that's probably not going to be the way I leverage into. Even though we do get some passive referrals, they're generally people who have, like, known me for a long time. They've seen the iterations of my business. They know I haven't always been this specialist that I'm now saying I am. And it's more of just like, an authentic relationship to go in and position myself against other people and be like, I'm probably not going to do that. I don't want to work that hard, frankly, as I did in my 20s hustling. I mean, that's. That's what I had to do. I don't want to do that anymore. And so I like, you know, I disregarded, you know, at New York Life, the whole referral scripts. And I'm like, this is bs. It's awkward. Like, I wouldn't hang out with me anymore if I said these words, you know, So I had to, like, you know, kind of discard all of these things that felt gross. Now, as confidence has grown, like, I can say things that I maybe couldn't have been, but I. I don't know, so that I hear what you're saying. And I like her approach and strategy. It is effective, but probably not for me.

[Taylor]

All right, so let's. Let's set that aside so we have a somewhat ineffective, fairly easy lift of that video podcast thing that might just continue to. To, you know, you might continue to do again. I wouldn't expect crazy results from that. Like, 500 bucks a month. Like, it's a it's a low lift again, you can stitch together that funnel and it could just be living in the background. The COI thing we want to push aside so we're kind of like back to square one here. Like a blank slate. Like what. What is the most effective marketing funnel for Ryan going forward? I think that's maybe where we spend the rest of our time here.

[Ryan]

Yeah. And is it a who, not how? Because there are certain things like if I'm, if I have to sit down and record the videos on my own or write the things, I won't do it. But if I have somebody at least holding me accountable, which is why I've. Every system in my life is the way it is is because without the prompts I'd probably not do a whole lot. And so I think I need that facilitator of those things.

[Taylor]

I think we have to. Kendra's questions from earlier determine what is going to be our thing. And let's just focus on the middle of the funnel. How are we going to nurture and educate people for, you know, an extended period of time? It could be video, so we could talk more about that if you want. It could be. I'm going to really commit to a regular weekly podcast. We can talk more about that. It could be a retirement email newsletter. It could be writing articles on other people's websites. Like we're going to choose one of those things. So which one? Just if we had to focus on one today, we're going to commit to for the next three years. What middle of the funnel education based marketing activity would it be?

[Ryan]

I've done a few different things in scattered approach. Right. I have wrote some articles for local business journals. I've spoke at things associations and I just. Nothing I stuck with. So I think the thing that I, I could commit to is some type of weekly recording of a topic like I do on the podcast interview, but sort of on a theme. Both the things that. A little bit of the tactical piece but more of like here's the life application and here's like where estate planning comes off the rails is when the communication with the trustee doesn't happen and you know, those kind of things talking about that and then. But having. Whether it's an AI system and or a team of, you know, people help to package it into articles or newsletters that get pushed. Because I'm not going to write the newsletter. I mean I'm, I'm still running most of the meetings for our, you know, the clients that we serve. So that Does. Obviously it takes more time than it did when I had fewer clients years ago.

[Taylor]

So then the question is, well, that sounds like a pretty broad podcast that it's not. In other words, it's not a hyperlocal podcast.

[Ryan]

So the, the radio show covers from, like, Worcester county to Metro, so it's limited.

[Taylor]

And then that you're talking about a weekly thing.

[Ryan]

I would, I guess, I don't know, would it be in terms of the audience? I mean, my hope, and you tell me where this is flawed, but, like, my hope was that by, if I do enough content and have that sort of giveaway that has a lead capture, that that plus some SEO plus, you know, Google reviews and people doing some searching could lead people to it. And that would be the magnet versus, like, you know, other, you know, live broadcasts that people are hearing on a different channel.

[Taylor]

When you said weekly podcast, I was assuming you're talking about launching your own podcast to do weekly episodes. Did I hear that wrong?

[Ryan]

Well, so I, I. Not that I wouldn't do that, but I'm not going to do it on my own. Okay. I could if somebody else, you know, kind of help to, like, they do. You know what, which I like about is they turn the radio into the podcast. I'm not editing it. They're cutting out. If there's a noise interruption and things like that, I won't do that stuff. And I'm not going to do it for video either. I'm definitely cool to put my butt into a seat for a certain, you know, period of time each week in talk. Right? That's like, what I can do.

[Taylor]

I'm hearing you here, so. And again, like, you and I are similar places in our businesses, at least in terms of revenue. I have a little bit more freedom on the marketing side, given that I'm not servicing clients. But I'm hearing you, like, hey, I don't want to work that hard. Like, I don't have time for these things, so I'm going to leverage my time. So here's, here's my just quick idea for you, since I want to, I mean, I want to answer your question, which is what's, what are the most effective strategies and being mindful of how much time you want to spend on them, you continue this local podcast thing that you're doing, your middle of the funnel, I think the most effective for you, given that you don't want to spend too much time and you're going to want help, I would say, is an email marketing strategy. So we're going to build a weekly retirement email newsletter. And we're going to really optimize our website for capturing email addresses. It's pretty easy to delegate the writing of an email newsletter. Whether you do it internally or hire somebody externally, it's going to take some time to kind of put together the process. Process. But that's much easier to delegate and outsource than video or a podcast or finding a co host. I mean, there's a lot more complexities there. So I'm saying this because now, like all roads for you can just lead to this awesome weekly retirement newsletter that you mostly have written by somebody else or you're co writing, however you go about doing that. And now when I do the local podcast thing, I'm, you know, again, not telling people to go fill out a contact form. I'm saying like, hey, go download this thing. Pursuing some SEO, some local SEO strategies. So when people show up, my website is fully optimized to capture people's email email addresses when they show up by giving them different free guides, free video series, whatever it might be. So just like all roads are gonna start to lead to how to get more people onto this email list. That feels a lot more effective to me and more efficient with your time than trying to go pursue video, Trying to go pursue your own podcast, like that stuff is gonna be a really, really heavy lift. So working with an agency who specializes in optimizing websites for email opt ins like those people live out there and that also, you know, for the coi relationships that you have, if they mention your name and someone shows up to your website as a result, again, let's suck them onto our email list and let's nurture and educate them through our, our weekly newsletter.

[Ryan]

Got it. That makes sense. Yeah. And I think circling back to Kendra's question about how many hours a week do I have for this? I say five now. But what we've been trying to build, and I think we're at this precipice where Molly, who's my partner, she's a cfp, great advisor, just was more the planner and you know, the servicing, not the hunter. She has been taking over more and more relationships because plenty of clients just like working with her and don't miss Ryan, really other than, you know, as needed. So as we shift more people, I really think that I'll, you know, be up to hopefully 20 hours a week that I can do, whether it's PR, marketing, sales in the next, you know, call it year. That's the goal. You know, we'll See if we can get there. But in the next year to two so I will have more capacity. So it's like what can I do now to, to you know, like zap like the painfully obvious deficiencies or ugly parts. We do have new copy for the website. I just like haven't finalized it and sent it yet. So we're going to change it a little bit. There's too much like about us language and not about like you and how we can help you. So we're going to flip that. We've been working on it. But I like your, you know, in terms of the email marketing campaign, you.

[Taylor]

Are missing a middle of the funnel activity. You are missing a way to nurture people on an ongoing basis. And I think that's going to be the easiest path or the lowest friction for you. The easiest thing to maybe delegate or get some help with. That's where I would spend my time. And if email marketing doesn't get you excited, then set that aside and focus on something else. But I'll tell you right now that hiring somebody to come in and shoot eight videos is not going to be very effective. You might have some nice looking videos on your site but like again, how are we going to nurture and build trust with people on an ongoing basis? Those videos are not going to do it.

[Ryan]

Right? Yeah. Even if you repurpose them because you can only do so much and then they're stale. Right.

[Taylor]

Where are you going to repurpose them? YouTube. How are people going to find them on YouTube? I promise you, you can't just throw videos on YouTube and hope that people show up. I'm down that journey right now. It is wildly complex how to get people to watch your videos on YouTube. You do not just repurpose something and throw it on there. So you know, if you want some nice looking videos on your site, I mean you can do that. I just, it's not going to be very effective. I'd say take all that money instead and go hire that expert agency who knows how to either redesign, rebuild a website or optimize your current website for email opt ins.

[Ryan]

Okay, wonderful. So who's that person? I don't know. Is it, Is it? I don't know if you know, Kendra and her team are the right people.

[Taylor]

Talk to Kendra. There's. There is an individual. Dig up his name. If you wouldn't mind sending me an email after this. I spoke to this person. Not cheap, but like that's all he does is just optimize your website, your pop ups, everything Your lead captures to build email lists, and that's, that's all he's focused on.

[Ryan]

Okay, wonderful.

[Kendra]

And the good news, Ryan, is that even when your marketing availability opens up a bit, we're still going to optimize choosing your channel and like, approach based off, like, what are you actually interested in? And that doesn't change because you were not excited about coi work. So coi work is not on the options list. As your time opens up, we want to build your marketing in a way that you're excited about what you're doing here. And the other thing I want to say is that when someone visits your website, that person who's, you know, three to five years out, they're 50 plus, you know, they have at least $600,000 in investments and they're asking those core questions. When your website is designed well, it should be compelling to the people you want to serve and boring to the people you don't. The thing about marketing is marketing isn't just attracting the right people, it's also repelling the wrong people. And so while we are talking about, you know, some of these, you know, funnel pieces, we want to make sure that that traffic that could be going to the website is actually really speaking to that ideal client. And if you look at your website compared to Taylor's, for example, very different experience.

[Ryan]

Mm, indeed. Right.

[Kendra]

Taylor's website, you're gonna know right away if he's, if if you're a good fit for him or not. So I think that's some really good kind of comparison work there. So I know that we've thrown a lot your way. I'd love to hear from you. What do you think you might do differently going forward given our conversation today?

[Ryan]

So definitely some type of middle of funnel. I think I'm overthinking it. I already have written articles and things that I can just turn into the guide for your pension options to consider. Right. Or whatever that, whatever it is and have that to start and be using that on the radio show as the call to action, be having it, you know, getting it onto the website with a here's your email so you can get it. And then I think next to that, coming up with a person to, you know, or team to help me with some type of ongoing communication to nurture those leads.

[Kendra]

Taylor, before I wrap up with the funnel redesign and action, do you got anything else you want to share with Ryan about his approach going forward?

[Taylor]

I would just spend a little bit, like, you don't have to turn around tomorrow and do something here. I would spend a little bit more time maybe doing some research, thinking through what this funnel might look like, what sort of content you have produced in the past. Let's take inventory of that and what could be repurposed into some lead magnets that we could put on our site. Ultimately, I think you're gonna want someone in the picture to help guide you through this process because again, like taking this old article that I have and just, just putting it into a PDF and advertising it, like the easier it is, the less effective it's going to be so great to take inventory of these things. And again, we might repurpose some of that or restructure it. Let's take inventory of these things because we can't just like get a bunch of people on our email list and then, you know, sometimes email them and sometimes don't. So think through. Are we going to send a weekly email and if so, what's going to be in that weekly email? What sort of things are we going to talk about? Am I going to, is somebody else in my office going to write it? Am I going to hire a writer elsewhere to help me write it? Am I going to write it? Am I going to hire a third party party? Ghostwritings? I don't like so thinking through that part of the process as well. So again, you don't have to like hurry up and go do this tomorrow. But I would spend some time strategizing and then identifying like who do I want to hire to help me kind of put this together. So it will, it will take some time. But I continue to hear you think of ideas that are really quick and efficient. And I'm just afraid that if you keep doing that, it's, you're not going to find this predictable, sustainable kind of growth that we're looking for. It's like sometimes our phones ring and sometimes they don't.

[Ryan]

I agree, it's. We've been making it work without any of this and it's. And it's not gonna continue to work, especially with, without my involvement. Now it's different if I'm making up for the lack of marketing by brute force with sales and excellent hands on customer service. But like, I don't want to have to do that forever, right? And I want to frankly be able to. I want to work in this business for probably ever, at least the next 25 years. But I want the ability that if I'm not showing up, things are still spinning, business is growing and all of that. And that's not the case right now.

[Taylor]

So one last thought here is we didn't talk about paid advertising. And you're a mature business, you have a marketing budget. So paid could be part of this as well. So what I'd love to hear from you is like, hey, Taylor, I do this monthly local podcast thing where I advertise these amazing free resources that we have and that gets people on my email list. We're also engaged in local SEO, which is getting better and better every month. More, more people are showing up and joining our email newsletter as a result. And we also do paid local ads, whether that's through Google retargeting or whatever, some sort of paid advertising. And all three of those things help us add roughly 100 people to our email newsletter every month. And every few months I have a call to action for those people on our newsletter list to reach out and schedule calls with us. And that gets us to about, you know, 50 introductory phone calls per year. And you know, 60% of them close and become clients. Like that's like what I would love to hear at the end of the day.

[Ryan]

Absolutely, yeah, we should do that. And I'm open to more paid advertisements and SEO. The challenge is that I did some Google local ads where we were like Google screened and people would just click and call us. They were terrible. Like we got a lot of leads and I felt like, I'm like, this is pretty good. We're getting a lot of calls and they're like, because that's all top of.

[Taylor]

Funnel stuff, you can, you could spend ten grand a month on ads. But again, like there's, you're, you're not doing anything to nurture those people over time, correct?

[Ryan]

Yeah, so that, so that was a little bit failed. And then we came close a couple times to working with an SEO company, but I think at least the folks the couple that I talked to were, it was a little bit too arbit or subjective and vague as to like what they were going to do for the 2,500 bucks a month or whatever. You know, the pricing on it was end up and it felt like it could end up with those results that I've seen other advisors where they're not on LinkedIn. But there's a crappy article that's been repurposed and looks like everybody else's article every day and it's annoying. So I, I was hesitant to do that. So I, you know, like, I guess with our business, right, there's a lot of trust that needs to be there because people don't know the what we're doing behind the scenes in the back, you know, kitchen before the meal comes out. So I think it's the same thing there. I'd need to know somebody that's like, they're actually doing it because I feel like there's a lot of people selling those services with varying degrees of.

[Taylor]

I just want to say this one more time for everybody to hear. My hesitancy with that SEO agency is not necessarily that like. Like, let's just. Let's assume the SEO agency does their job. My hesitancy is what happens when they do their job and all these people show up to your website and there's nothing for them to do. There's nowhere for them to go, for you to nurture them. That's my concern is everything that you're talking about is top of funnel SEO paid ads. I go on this local podcast radio show. Like, that's all just like awareness, but there's nothing people to do so that.

[Ryan]

That you're right. It is middle of funnel. I think it's not more top of funnel at this point. I think it's more middle of funnel. And then once we. We've got that going, then I can maybe.

[Taylor]

I think you're just avoiding the hard work that's required to build that middle of the funnel. So spend the rest of the year building it and finding a way to delegate and outsource that in 2026. And then all your efforts can be just like, how do I get more people onto this amazing thing that I built?

[Ryan]

Beautiful. Beautiful. I knew it was hard work. Avoidance at the end of the day, guys.

[Kendra]

So also, I just want to point one quick thing out here for you that I noticed at one point. I noticed that Taylor could describe your ideal client better than you. And a really simple item for you. I have a lot of our clients sign up for something like Fathom or Jump AI to record their prospect and client calls, to get transcripts. And you can search those calls to start, you know, asking like, hey, what were the top three concerns or the trigger moments that caused this prospect to call? And literally, if you record 20 prospect calls and pull that data down and start looking, what exact questions are they asking you in their exact words? Because this whole marketing, you know, we approach, we're building the foundation here. If you can't tell me better than Taylor who your ideal client is, that is a big part of where we want to start. Because that's going to impact the conversations you have on the radio show. It would impact your paid ads. Offer. It's going to impact a lot. So that's a really simple piece. And also most advisors have no idea. I will have them record their calls, they will tell me their clients, ask them about abc and I'm like, you are bonkers. They're asking you about esg. So this is a common problem and an easy thing to get more clarity on.

[Ryan]

Indeed. Indeed. Well, you guys are really eloquent and brilliant. So I mean, I'm not surprised that Taylor and you could describe my ideal client and their concerns and questions better than I can because I didn't, I guess, listen that closely to the words. I was more imbued with, you know, industry jargon and yada yada. I'm trying to like flip it, flip the script to the words they use. And it's frankly only been since I've been listening to your guys podcast and reading a few other things that I've even been thinking that way. So I've got a lot to learn for sure.

[Kendra]

The other thing that really jumped out to me is not just your limit in time for marketing, but some of your disinterest in marketing. So I like the radio piece that we talked about. Taylor touched on some local SEO pieces which are great because you could hire an expert to help you on that. You don't have to do as much of the heavy lifting. That's kind of an upside there. And also paid ads.

[Taylor]

Ads.

[Kendra]

But as Taylor said, this is just one piece of the approach. So I want to make sure that you don't think that paid ads are going to lead to the client. But those are a couple other channels at some point that could be really helpful. So let me give you a quick, you know, wrap up on how we built your funnel and what your action lives going forward could look like. So right now, the funnel that you are actively building that has a very weak middle is a funnel for the radio show. Your top of funnel right now is actually the radio show. As long as their demographics have a decent amount of people who are actually qualified, interested and willing to hire a financial advisor, that could be your top of funnel for that piece on the radio show. We're going to be a little bit more thoughtful about making a clear offer on a next step, you know, a PDF checklist, you might have to test some different things there to get them to your middle of funnel, which would then be your email list. And then you would be sending a weekly email to those contacts. And in those emails you would eventually invite them to your bottom of funnel, which is to schedule a call with you if they want help solving the problems you solve for your ideal clients. Now, this is a funnel, but there's a lot of little action items that are going to come to execute this funnel. Well, first I would encourage some kind of call recording software so you can get intimately familiar with the kind of people you are already attracting and who you're already serving and what are the big problems they're excited to pay you to solve. So record your calls with current prospects and current clients. Second, we need to adjust some of the copy on your website so that it really speaks to a pre retiree who is over 50 and they have those core issues that you're looking to solve. We want to make sure that we build a stronger call to action for the radio show using a vanity URL, which is very easy to remember. And then we want to optimize your website for email capture. And that way, if at some point you do have more time and you want to also consider some local SEO efforts and maybe some paid ads, we're going to have a middle funnel to send them to. So just to be clear, with the paid ads, we wouldn't just send them to the homepage, we'd be sending them to different offers. But those are a couple potential channels that might align with the amount of time and interest you have in marketing.

[Ryan]

Beautiful. Beautiful. I love it. I think I need some help with somebody who can help me come up with those offers that are packaged and how they look and how they appear on the website and where people click and type in things. Right? Like those logistics.

[Kendra]

Guess what? Right now I'm literally solving this for multiple clients and it is hard. It takes a lot of work. That's why we need to set aside all these other things so that we can obsess and test and find things that work. It takes time to build that good middle of funnel offer. And for, for everyone else listening, we have a really good episode we did about how do you make sure that your niche is very clear on your website? Ryan? I hit Control Find and I searched for the word retire and it was not on there enough times. So there's a really good episode we did about making sure that your niche is clear on your website. We did that with Taylon Sather, he's a website designer. We talked very specifically about what that looks like. So if you'd like to get your niche more cleaner website, make sure you check that one out and we'll talk to you guys next week. We hope you enjoyed today's episode to get the resources shared or sign up to join us as a guest on one of our Advice line episodes. Check out the links in the show notes. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.