Advice Line: How To Drive Predictable Leads Online For Your Firm (LIVE Devin Watts)

Summary

Advisor Marketing Made Simple: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Advice Line: How To Drive Predictable Leads Online For Your Firm (LIVE Devin Watts)
Host(s): Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright
Guest: Devin Watts, CFP, Fallbrook FI
Release Date: July 9, 2025

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Introduction

In this live episode of Advisor Marketing Made Simple, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright delve into the intricacies of generating predictable online leads for financial advisory firms. Recorded live at Jolt, a conference hosted by Snappy Kraken, the episode features Devin Watts from Fallbrook FI—a newly launched firm facing common marketing challenges that resonate with advisors of all experience levels.

Guest Overview and Firm Background

[00:02] Taylor: "Here to make advisor marketing simple."

Devin Watts, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) based in Fresno, California, founded Fallbrook FI in January 2025. His firm's ideal clients are busy professionals aged 30 to 50, earning $200,000 or more annually. These clients typically grapple with optimizing their income, funding substantial goals, and prioritizing savings beyond traditional 401(k) plans.

Devin's Firm Details:

• Service Area: Central California, primarily Fresno
• Ideal Clients: High-earning professionals (physicians highlighted as a key segment)
• Client Pain Points: Income optimization, goal funding, time constraints preventing personal financial management

Identifying the Core Marketing Challenge

[02:33] Devin Watts:
"I have two, but the first is I'm on Instagram. Social media is my effort of marketing to my ideal client. And I'm getting views. I would say decent number of views, but views don't mean much if they're not converting."

Devin outlines his primary challenge: while his Instagram efforts garner substantial views, these impressions aren't translating into actionable leads or conversions, such as downloads of his financial vitality checkup or completion of his financial vitals quiz. Additionally, he seeks to maximize the impact of his speaking engagements with physicians in residency programs.

Understanding the Marketing Funnel

[05:38] Kendra Wright:
"24 months."

Kendra emphasizes the importance of Devin's "marketing runway"—the timeframe within which the firm's marketing strategies need to yield growth. Devin indicates he has a 24-month runway before financial strain necessitates significant changes.

Key Components of the Marketing Funnel:

1. Top of Funnel (ToF): Awareness and reach (e.g., short-form videos on Instagram)
2. Middle of Funnel (MoF): Building trust and engagement (e.g., email marketing, lead magnets)
3. Bottom of Funnel (BoF): Conversion processes (e.g., sales calls)

Kendra points out that many advisors, regardless of firm maturity, struggle with funnel clarity, often having "muddy" avatars that hinder effective targeting.

Refining the Ideal Client Avatar

[06:20] Kendra Wright:
"So when we're looking at physicians versus, you know, busy professionals. Taylor, what are your thoughts there on the avatar? Clarity, I guess."

The discussion underscores the necessity of a well-defined client avatar. Devin acknowledges that broad definitions like "busy professionals earning over $200,000" are too vague, complicating targeted marketing efforts. Both hosts suggest narrowing the focus to specific professions, such as physicians, to streamline marketing messages and improve funnel performance.

Revised Avatar Example:

• Demographics: Professionals in their 30s and 40s
• Income: $250,000+
• Pain Points: Major financial decisions (e.g., buying a home, saving for children's education), time constraints

Enhancing Top of Funnel Strategies

[09:17] Devin Watts:
"Short form video is a newer marketing activity these days."

Devin utilizes short-form videos on Instagram to increase brand visibility. While he receives a reasonable number of views, the lack of conversions signals potential issues in strategy execution. Kendra and Taylor advise focusing on:

• Content Quality: Enhance scripting to make videos more engaging and relevant. Devin rates his current scripting quality as a 7 out of 10 and considers tools like Sand Castles AI to refine his scripts.

  [18:52] Devin Watts:
  "Storytelling becomes really important because you have to capture their attention."

• Call to Action (CTA): Experiment with the placement of CTAs within videos (beginning vs. end) to determine optimal engagement points.

• Platform-Specific Strategies: Utilize Instagram's features—such as commenting strategies and cross-promotion—to increase visibility among the ideal client demographic.

Developing the Middle of Funnel

[12:12] Devin Watts:
"And so his bottom funnel is just going to be his sales process."

The middle of the funnel focuses on nurturing leads through email marketing and valuable content. Devin's current approach includes an email sequence that follows up with individuals who download his financial vitals checklist. However, Kendra highlights that many advisors neglect this phase, allowing leads to stagnate.

Recommendations:

• Automated Email Sequences: Implement automated "jab, jab, jab, right hook" strategies—providing consistent value before making a sales pitch.

  [22:29] Devin Watts:
  "An email sequence is fully automated so that when somebody joins your email newsletter list, they immediately get value and an invitation to book a consultation."

• Lead Magnets: Ensure that CTAs within videos clearly present solutions to client problems, enhancing the perceived value of downloadable resources.

Optimizing the Bottom of Funnel

[20:59] Devin Watts:
"We have to actually draw this in cran and move them deliberately to the middle of our funnel."

The bottom of the funnel involves converting nurtured leads into clients. Devin acknowledges the necessity of a streamlined sales process, which currently involves reviewing quiz results and conducting follow-up communications.

Action Steps:

• Consistent Messaging: Align website content and CTAs with the refined client avatar to maintain consistency across all touchpoints.

  [29:45] Kendra Wright:
  "Good marketing is just as much about attracting the right people as it is repelling the wrong people."

• Website Optimization: Integrate short-form video introductions and tailored content that resonates with the ideal client profile.

Testing, Monitoring, and Refinement

[26:24] Devin Watts:
"How long do I test things for?"

Kendra advises setting a structured testing period to evaluate the effectiveness of new strategies, recommending patience and persistence. The hosts suggest a "magical three-year rule" for funnel optimization, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the process and making iterative improvements based on measurable metrics.

Key Takeaways and Action Items

1. Define a Precise Client Avatar:

   • Narrow down demographics and psychographics to enhance targeting accuracy.

2. Enhance Top of Funnel Activities:

   • Focus on high-quality, engaging short-form video content.
   • Utilize storytelling and clear CTAs to guide viewers into the funnel.
   • Leverage platform-specific tools and strategies for increased reach.

3. Strengthen Middle of Funnel Engagement:

   • Implement automated email sequences to nurture leads.
   • Offer valuable lead magnets that address specific client pain points.

4. Streamline Bottom of Funnel Conversion:

   • Align all marketing materials with the refined client avatar.
   • Optimize the website and sales processes to facilitate smooth transitions from lead to client.

5. Continuous Testing and Refinement:

   • Set realistic timelines for testing new strategies.
   • Monitor key metrics such as views, engagements, and conversion rates.
   • Adjust tactics based on data-driven insights and client feedback.

Closing Thoughts

Taylor and Kendra conclude by emphasizing the importance of a cohesive and well-structured marketing funnel. By refining each layer—from defining the ideal client to optimizing content and nurturing leads—financial advisors can achieve more predictable and sustainable lead generation.

[35:50] Kendra Wright:
"This should narrow your marketing activities but improve your results."

Devin expresses gratitude for the insights shared, recognizing the applicability of the discussed strategies to both new and mature advisory firms.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Sand Castles AI: A tool for scripting short-form videos [19:14]
• Marketing Platforms: Snappy Kraken, Mailchimp, Constant Contact

Final Note:
For more resources shared in this episode or to become a guest on future Advice Line segments, visit the show’s links in the description.

Transcript

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're.

[Taylor]

Here to make advisor marketing simple. This episode was recorded live at Jolt, a conference hosted by Snappy Kraken. They're a popular marketing automation tool for financial advisors. Our guest today is Devin from Fallbrook Fi. We chose this advisor from our applications because even though his firm is new, he has a question that firms of all sizes struggle to answer. How do I drive predictable leads online for my firm? Now, pay close attention because we lay out the core issues we see many advisors make when they start marketing and we share simple steps to fix what's broken. Also, if you want to see all the details of Devin's firm, like his fee schedule, his revenue goals, and his ideal client, go ahead and click that link real quick in the description. We do share most of these in our conversation, but you can see the details that live attendees had. For more context, here's a conversation with Devin.

[Devin]

Thank you guys for joining us. Today we're going to do something a little bit different. Here's how it's going to work. We have Devin here, who's a fellow financial advisor and attendee who has bravely joined us on stage. I'm going to quickly introduce Devin who he is, his ideal client. Devin's going to share his big marketing challenge that he wants to workshop with us today. We're going to ask him some clarifying questions, learn a little bit more, and then we're going to try to solve his marketing challenge. All here in what, 30, 30 minutes.

[Kendra]

Let's go.

[Devin]

So in short, Devin Watts, CFP, Fallbrook FI. He's up in Northern California or Central California, I'm sorry, Fresno, launched his firm this year, January 2025. You'll see some information here about his fees, his five year revenue goal, but more importantly, his ideal client, his perfect client are busy professionals age 30 to 50, earning $200,000 or more in annual income. A few of their big pain points, optimizing that income that they're making, funding big goals, prioritizing additional savings beyond their 401k. And they're busy, so they want to maximize their time. They don't want to do this stuff themselves. He has laid out his current marketing funnel that he's got some challenges with right now. You'll see some acronyms in there that say tof, mof, and bof. We'll be talking about marketing funnels a little bit today. That stands for top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel. So with that, Devin, thank you for joining us. Yeah, why don't you share your big marketing question challenge that you have for us today?

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

Well, first, thank you so much for allowing me to be up here with you guys and talking about this. I would say the first thing that comes on my mind, I have two, but the first is I'm on Instagram. Social media is my effort of marketing to my ideal client. And I'm getting views. I would say decent number of views, but views don't mean much if they're not converting. So I'm getting views. But the clicks or downloads or getting to those next stages of my funnel of downloading a financial vital checkup or completing the financial vitals quiz just isn't taking place. Maybe it's time, but maybe it's my copy. I don't know. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is I have the opportunity to speak to an ideal audience. They're physicians in training residency programs, so educating them on financial planning, financial advice topics, it's a warm audience. But I want to make sure I'm maximizing those speaking engagements to, I guess, continue with that marketing to those individuals. My ideal clients.

Awesome. Where do I start?

[Kendra]

So for a lot of advisors, you may see something like the start date of this firm and think that we're going to talk about a few marketing strategies and tactics that don't apply to you. But what we discovered after coaching 30 plus advisors through improving their marketing funnel is that a lot of times what Devin is struggling with is actually applicable to not just new firms, but also mature firms. So this is why we chose Devin, because we see a lot of opportunities here that most advisors are actually struggling with and they don't realize. So where I would love to start Devin first is tell me a little bit about your marketing Runway. So if you don't grow this firm in 12 months, what happens?

[Devin]

Yeah, my wife continues to work part time. We thankfully have some Runway with some subsidy income of I have a contracting job that I get to do that pays some of the bills. If it doesn't work out, I guess I either go look for. Well, actually I wouldn't close the doors.

[Kendra]

So do you got 12 months or do you got 24 months?

[Devin]

I would say 24 months. Yeah.

[Kendra]

24 months.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Okay. So for advisors listening, when we're talking about building a marketing funnel, your marketing Runway matters not just when you're a new firm. If you have to grow this firm very fast, it's going to influence how we build your funnel. But for mature firms, it also influences your approach. Because if you do not have the right expectations set. And the time it takes to build these online, you know, digital lead sources or offline, you're also going to be disappointed. So we ask this question so we know how quick do we have to build a marketing funnel that converts paying clients?

[Devin]

Okay, so maybe let me rephrase that. I think I would prefer it to be quicker growth. 12 months.

[Kendra]

But at 24 months, we're in trouble is what you're saying. So let's talk a little bit about your ideal client. So when we're looking at busy professionals, give me a few more details. Are there types of professions or any additional details there that you could give us?

[Devin]

Yeah, well, the first thing that comes to my mind is physicians. So busy individuals with their career, but also families. So they have kids, they're spending their time working, but also with family. So finances is on the back burner for a lot of them, I would say time is something they don't have a lot of. And so outsourcing their financial planning, financial advice and guidance is a key component.

[Kendra]

So when we're looking at physicians versus, you know, busy professionals. Taylor, what are your thoughts there on the avatar? Clarity, I guess.

[Devin]

I want to hear you share a little bit more about, like, think about your absolute perfect client and tell us who that person is. Like, they're waking up in the middle of the night and asking themselves these three big questions that they can't solve. And maybe one of them is something you already said, which is just like, I'm busy. I don't have time for this. I know my finances need attention. So we'll say that that's one of them. But like drew a little bit deeper here. And then to Kendra's point, are these pain points. We'll call them the same for physicians as they are for just a dual income, busy professional household.

Yeah, they are the decisions that they have to make. Let's say it's a life transition, like changing jobs or their kids are thinking about college. They're just trying to think through these things, and they don't have the time to pay attention to those things. So high income. I mean, there's more planning opportunities. Maybe they have a 401k plan through work. But there's, I would say workplace benefits, but also saving for retirement and saving for near term goals as well.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah. Okay.

[Devin]

We should have practiced maybe to say we want to really understand who Devin's ideal client is. Just saying busy professionals making over $200,000 is a, is a pretty wide net still.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

And Your marketing becomes so much easier when you get really clear and really narrow. Now I know it's probably terrifying to starting your firm to go all in on a hyper specific niche.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

So we're not going to quite guide you there today. But it is important to get more clarification who we're targeting because it's going to influence not just our marketing funnel and strategy, but also the type of content that we're putting out there. And then to your point, hey, I'm getting views on some of my content, my videos, but I'm not getting conversions. It's going to influence that as well. So it gets, it's really important to, to nail this down in the beginning here, exactly who we're targeting, what those pain points are.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah. Okay.

[Kendra]

So for the sake of a efficient and helpful conversation, we're looking at, you know, high earning, probably Henry's and let's say their 30 and 40s who are looking at making big financial decisions. They don't have a lot of time. They do prioritize their finances, but also how do they use the money that they have for everything they need at this stage of life? Does that feel accurate?

[Devin Watts]

Yeah, perfect.

[Kendra]

So now we're going to take who that ideal client is and we're going to start to build the funnel. The avatar is a foundation of your funnel. So if your funnel is not working, there's a good chance you haven't clarified this piece well enough. We see this of firms of all sizes, it's astounding how muddy their avatar could be. So let's talk a little bit about the, the medium that you prefer to educate. Do you enjoy, you know, video speaking? I know you're doing some top of funnel video. Like tell me some really quickly, how do you prefer to educate people that.

[Devin Watts]

You want to help?

[Devin]

I would say speaking. So seminars or video. I don't enjoy writing all that much. I'd prefer to outsource that or take the text from captions and whatnot.

[Kendra]

And how did you choose Instagram short form video specifically?

[Devin]

I think, well, to throw out a brand out there. And two marketing. I came across them from one source and they talked in depth about short form marketing and reels. And so it's like, well, okay, that seems like it wouldn't take up too much of my time. It's a minute or less of a video capturing an audience and getting them to see something. So I enjoyed speaking. I felt comfortable behind the camera. And after I did a couple of videos, I had really good feedback from people close to me.

[Kendra]

And so do you enjoy video? And are you willing to fall in love, master and become a total badass at video?

[Devin]

I think there's a lot of components to it that I don't love. I don't love spending time in capcut editing the videos, but I enjoy getting the, the script down and getting it.

[Kendra]

I guess that's easy because that's the hard part. You can hire an editor. And the reason why we're asking this is because most people ask us what channel works best. And before we start with channel, we need to think medium. Because if you hate video, video could be working well for an advisor. But if you don't like it, you're not going to stick with it. We're looking at something that feels challenging but achievable to master. Then we take that medium, such as writing or video. So when I said why YouTube? I wanted to make sure that we're going towards a platform that you enjoy, that you're interested in. You probably spend time there because you could take short form video to, you know, YouTube shorts, you could take it to LinkedIn, you could take it to TikTok, and I know there's some compliance pieces there, but you can see how we can essentially whittle away a bunch of distractions in a bunch of channels based off of who you're targeting and how you enjoy to educate. So now we want to start thinking about is the actual funnel. You can see how there's multiple different pieces we have to really dial in before we build the funnel. So we just talked about the foundation. Now we're going to move into the funnel. So for your actual funnel for marketing activities, right now you can see that for top of funnel, we're looking at short form video. This is Devin's Instagram account. You'll see the current marketing activities. We've got short form video for top of funnel. And top of funnel essentially just means how do people find out you exist? That's it. There's a lot of ways to be found by people you want to serve, but we're going to choose these channels very intentionally. For middle of funnel, you have an offer for a financial vitals checklist. I'm assuming that's in the link in the bio, correct?

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Um, you've got email marketing to support that when they download it. So those are two middle of funnel pieces, which. The middle of funnel just means this is where we earn trust. At the top we earn awareness and attention. In the middle, we earn trust. This is where we build and show Your expertise over time. And the bottom is just for you. It's your sales process. So the free intro call, this is where I like to say you earn assets. And Devin, you actually alluded to one of the biggest issues I see advisors have. They think a video view is going to spit out a client. The problem is a video view is just the top piece of the funnel. This is how we hit people's radars. This is one of the biggest misconceptions we see from advisors. So we have work to do. Not just at the top of your funnel, but the middle of your funnel and eventually the bottom of your funnel. So Taylor, what's kind of coming up for you here?

[Devin]

So on that note, number one, short form video is a newer marketing activity these days. And I lot of questions like what, what is short form video versus long form video? These short form videos are intentionally scripted and recorded and edited for that TikTok style of a video. This is not Devin recording a 10 minute video and then chopping it up into small pieces. Entirely different repurposing strategy there. So that is scripting a short form video specifically for these platforms. Devin said something early that Kendra just said which is I'm publishing these videos. They're great videos helping my ideal clients solve their pain points. I'm getting views but I'm not getting conversions. And what that signals to me is Devin has the wrong expectation about where those short form videos fit in his marketing funnel. We can't expect a 60 minute TikTok style video to convince somebody to trust us with their entire life savings. We're not in the business of selling ebooks here or you know, quick insurance policies.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

We're asking somebody to trust you with their entire life savings. So we can't expect this short fast hitting video to make that happen. Now maybe they, they follow your videos for a period of time, 6 months, 12 months and eventually you earn that trust through those short form videos. But we want to see traction sooner so we want to set the right expectations with short form videos understanding where they fit in the marketing funnel. From there we can determine are these short form videos as a top of funnel activity. Like Kendra said, their only job is to get in front of people that have no idea that Devony even exists. So once we understand that that's its only job is to get in front of the right people. His ideal client so that they know that he exists. We can measure that activity in isolation to say are these short form videos doing their job? Not are these short form videos getting me clients or introductory phone calls, but like in isolation as a top of funnel marketing activity, are they doing their job? Now we can set proper expectations and measure that activity and not say, gosh, I've been doing these videos for six months, I've been paying this agency or spending all this time in capcut editing myself and I haven't seen a single client. As a result, Taylor, short form videos don't work. I'm not doing it anymore. Now I'm going to go try a podcast. So we have to understand where these things fit in the marketing funnel so we can set these proper expectations.

That's good.

[Kendra]

So when you start looking at these different layers of the funnel, let's talk a little bit about how we set the expectation. So for example, with short form video on Instagram, you could start tracking things like views and engagements and saves and things like that and start to find what is your baseline for those simple metrics. My personal philosophy is I don't track things, I won't make decisions with. I think we can get off the rails. A lot of data, but just a couple simple metrics. And the goal is understanding how am I doing. Are the metrics going up and to the right and sometimes they're going to come down. Not every video is going to be a banger. That's okay. But we want to start to say now at the top of Funnel, I can see that I'm getting a little bit more reach, I'm getting a little bit more engagement. Oh, that topic specifically really did well. You know what, Other things might be similar or kind of go a little bit deeper or a little bit wider. Um, and then once we start to see that that top of funnel is working and there's also some different pieces to that you might have to look at how do I get more of my ideal client viewing my profile? So with each platform, and this is where it starts to really come together, is you have to really be willing to obsess over Instagram because there's going to be specific strategies that allow you to get in front of people. You might have to go, you know, do a follow strategy, do a comment strategy, do some cross promotion or just with Instagram specifically, they will put your video in the feeds of people who match your ideal client. If you're hyper specific and you're clear who the best person is to put this in front of, because at the end of the day, algorithms want to put in good content in front of the right people. If your content is on an algorithm driven platform like Instagram or YouTube or LinkedIn and it's not getting views. It's usually one of two things you have not gotten very clear about who you're trying to reach. And number two is not good enough. That's it. That's how algorithms work. And they're going to give you a little bit of a baseline.

[Devin]

On that note, because we're not going to go into the back end analytics of your videos and dissect it. On that note of are they good enough? I'm curious to hear from you. Let's say on a scale of 1 to 10, how good do you think your short form videos are in terms of quality? Like being perfectly honest with yourself?

I would say seven. Okay, so not expert, but.

And what could you do to take it from a seven to a nine? Like, is this in scripting, Is this in writing your descriptions? Is this in gosh, if I just have an amazing editor, I can take it from a seven to a nine.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

One of the things I commonly think to myself of I'm not educating enough, I'm not giving them enough of the, the financial stuff that I like. Talk about what's a solo 401k, how to do a backdoor Roth IRA, like the INS and outs of financial planning stuff. I feel like I'm lacking in that. So maybe it's improving on the technical stuff. But then again, I'm fearful if I do that, the views go down because it's maybe boring them. They're not looking for an expert, they're looking for entertainment.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

These people are doomed scrolling on their phones after long hard days of work. These are busy professionals.

[Devin Watts]

Right?

[Devin]

Right. And that it brings to the surface again, we're creating very, a very specific type of content for a very specific type of person. And what matters more than the camera equipment that Devin's using, the microphone? What matters most is the actual script itself.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

And storytelling becomes really important because you have to capture their attention. I mean you have what, one second maybe for them to continue watching, watching your video. So I would say scripting is probably the number one place for you to spend time to go from a seven to a nine. The great thing now we've been talking a lot about AI at this conference. The great thing is you don't have to figure out how to script on your own.

Right.

There is a tool out there that I've been tinkering with that does a pretty darn good job with short form video called Sand Castles. I want to say it's sandcastles, AI, but if you just Google sand cast sandcastle short form video scripting, you can put in your rough, messy, short form script or maybe a script you think is good and say, give me a better one and it'll rewrite your content with more of a storytelling framework that keeps the, the viewer engaged and hooked into listening.

[Devin Watts]

Cool. Okay, that's great.

[Devin]

So if we believe, you know, let's say you spend some time going, you know, fixing your scripting, improving your scripting. You go from a seven to a nine. You're like, I know these are amazing videos. You know, I like publishing them on Instagram. Hiring an editor is probably a no brainer here. Like you shouldn't be as a financial planner spending your time learning cap cut. Right, so we've nailed down this top of funnel strategy. Now it's called a marketing funnel because it gets narrower and narrower. So we start at the top. We're casting this wide net trying to get attention, get awareness from all these people that have no idea that Devin exists. And now we have to move them to the middle of our funnel. We can't expect for them to get into the middle of our funnel just on their own. Like we can't expect them to figure it out. We actually have to draw this in cran and move them deliberately to the middle of our funnel. This is where you have some sort of call to action in your videos. Not book a call with me, right? We can't expect this short video to convert somebody to your calendar. We have to have some sort of call to action. Hey, if you like this video, I've got a free guide on this exact topic that goes into more details. Go here and download it. Just a very simple example of that and perhaps it is your financial vital checklist. It may be really briefly tell us what this financial vital checklist is.

So Elements, the software provider, technology provider. I used a lot of what they have of taking a pulse on their financial vitals. So like savings rate, debt rate, spending rate, total term, that sort of stuff. Basically educating whoever downloads it and reads it how to take those vitals. What, what's their spending rate, what's their savings rate, what's their debt rate? And giving them those equations to calculate that on their own. And at the end of that checklist is the opportunity to really actually go into elements and create their own profile to. And that's what's the financial vitals quiz. And so it's filling out all of that data and that's the quiz.

Okay, so I take this quiz, I get this report this PDF report. Yeah, I get an invitation to, to create a registration like go on the website or what. But what happens after that? Like I get this cool thing, I learn a little bit of information, but then what?

Yeah, so if you download the checkup, it's an email sequence. That's how I follow up with those who download it. The quiz I will review the results and film myself three to five minutes at re like loom going over the results and just pointing out one or two things that I feel might need attention in their situation. And I haven't developed anything following up from that. But of course if I, that's a warm lead to me. So if I do have that I would follow up with them via email. I don't know if I'd have their phone number at that point in time.

He mentioned email sequence. When somebody joins your email newsletter list, I'd say 9 out of 10 advisors, that email just goes into the abyss. And sometimes that person receives an email from the advisor and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get around to publishing their newsletter and sometimes they don't. An email sequence is fully automated so that when somebody joins your email newsletter list, it doesn't matter what platform you're using, whether it's Snappy Kraken or mailchimp or Constant Contact or some other one out there, you have the ability to automate this. So when somebody joins the email list immediately, they get an email that has some information providing value, educating them about something and there's usually a few more emails. Gary Vee calls this the, the jab, jab, jab, right hook. So I'm going to provide value, provide value, provide value and then I'm going to ask for something. In our case it's usually book a free consultation with me. So you have that fully automated sequence there. How many emails is that sequence?

Less than 10.

[Devin Watts]

Okay. Yeah, great. Yeah.

[Devin]

Less than 10.

Okay, so I watch your video. Do you have that call to action in any of your videos? Hey, if you're interested, go here to get your financial vital.

Yeah, I do. It's at the end of the video. So that's one thing I've been wondering if I should test of putting the call to action to download the checkup in the middle of the video or at the beginning of the video because I have said download the checkup as a call to action at the end of the video or take the quiz at the end of the video and haven't seen results from that.

[Kendra]

Okay, so a couple things that are coming up for Me here. So we're in the middle of the funnel right now, which, well, technically we're the top. We're moving into the middle. We want to bring people off of something like Instagram into your email list. Couple things. First, you might have to test a few different styles of call to action.

[Devin Watts]

Okay.

[Kendra]

You might have to test potentially a different lead magnet. And also you might have to also test some platform specific tools. Like I know there are tools, I think manychat will allow you to say, hey, type this word in the comments and I'll DM you a great resource. You might have to test your messaging around it. It might be a great resource, but it's not. You're not really presenting it as a solution to a problem because really I don't really care about my vitals until I know what problem does it solve for me. And there's different frameworks, like, you know, the, it's like the pain agitation solution framework. You can see how like as we start to look at these different platforms, we gotta really learn a few of these pieces and how we can use these different tools. And this is the same for any platform. You know, Taylor and I can sit here and tell you multiple different tools across multiple different platforms. Whatever platform you are trying to build your marketing funnel around, there are going to be these tools to support you. But if you are, if you have multiple half built funnels and you're trying to Drive leads on LinkedIn and Instagram and YouTube, you're going to really struggle to have the focus to understand how do we take attention from Instagram and convert it into email subscribers. So I think there's a few things kind of going on there. That's kind of what's coming up for me. Middle of funnel.

[Devin]

Yeah, and this is where we're going to get obsessed with Instagram, we're going to get obsessed with short form video. Because to your point, I don't know the answer to this. Do I put my call to action at the end or the beginning? I don't know. This is where you have to test these things out. Because before we build out this giant middle of the funnel and improve our email marketing and our sequences and all that, let's make sure that our videos are doing their job, they're high quality and I'm able to get a portion of my viewers into the middle of my funnel successfully. So I don't know the answer to that question. I'm sure somebody out there does and you can experiment with it. But I can imagine there is a Strategy for a call to action at the beginning of the video. Hey, by the end of this video, you're going to want to download this free thing, let me tell you. Get them excited and then, you know, some sort of call to action, the end to direct them so you can play around with those things.

[Devin Watts]

Okay, great.

[Devin]

I like that.

[Kendra]

All right. So, Devon, we've, we've thrown a lot your way already. Kind of. What's coming up for you?

[Devin]

The top of the funnel. Just improving that and focusing on that. And I think the scripting part is, is a big area for me to focus on because once I can improve that area, I could, you know, measure and monitor those metrics and see, okay, what worked here, what did, didn't. And once I have that sort of figured out, then I can move on to the middle of the funnel. And I feel like that's where I'm stuck. The top of the funnel, getting them onto the middle of the funnel. And I'm, I guess one question from that is, how long do I test things for? So I mentioned 12 months would be great for all of this to work out, but 24 months is like, that's when the red flags are going up. How long do I test this for?

Test the short form video?

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

Or the whole funnel.

The top of the funnel.

[Devin Watts]

Okay.

[Devin]

Because short form video will work. Anything will work. I mean, if you told us that you're knocking on doors, it will work.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

It doesn't matter what you're doing. It matters that you're focused. We're clear on who we're targeting and we have the right expectations with this marketing activity. So understanding exactly where it fits in that funnel, setting those proper expectations. So short form video will work. We need to understand if it's not working, where is it broken?

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

What do I need to improve on? So, you know, I always say the magical three year rule. It's going to take about three years for your funnel to really start working. It doesn't mean that you're not going to have success before that, or you can't measure some of these things before that. But the other part of this too is like, are you enjoying it? To her original question. If you're like, man, you know, I've been doing this for three months. It is a pain. I'm not seeing results. I really just don't like any part of this. Then you might have to go back to the drawing board. But if you are enjoying and you're energized by it, then, like, you just need to Figure out what's not working. How can I improve this?

[Devin Watts]

Okay.

[Devin]

Before you get distracted with other things.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

That's great. And I think top of the funnel scripting is a big focus area.

[Kendra]

I look at your videos and I think you're off to a great start. We give you a lot of opportunity to really dial that in, not just from your delivery, but also the topics that you choose. And Taylor, can we bring up his Instagram really fast? I want to show you the difference between what a, you know, kind of muddled funnel looks like and what a focused funnel looks like. So if his ideal client is someone, you know who's in their 30s and 40s, they're a high earner. Let's say they're making $250,000 a year. You know, they make good income and they're trying to get help with these financial decisions. This is what his bio currently says. You can see it's very broad. You know, CFP pro, financial planning, insights plus ideas, clarity and confidence with your finances. This is not going to work with the specificity that we need because good marketing is just as much about attracting the right people as it is repelling the wrong people. So this is your current bio. I'm going to show you what it sounds like, rewritten based off of more focused ICP that we talked about here. And this is why your avatar matters, because it's the foundation. And we're going to pull it all the way through your funnel from the top of your Instagram bio down to the topics you choose, the email, follow ups, the email offer, all of it swims in the same direction. So I rewrote your bio and here's how I would write it.

[Devin Watts]

All right?

[Kendra]

I help 30 and 40 year olds making 250,000 plus turn good income into great decisions without becoming a part time finance nerd. Version A, version B, I help high earners in their 30s and 40s navigate life's biggest money questions, like buying a home, starting a family, and what do you do with the rest? Can you see how that feels and sounds different? If I'm a 30 or a 40 year old with these core pain points and he's posting videos that are interesting and relevant to me, I might tap that follow. I might give him a view, I might shoot him a dm. That's what a focused foundation looks like as we pull it all the way through the funnel. So Taylor, do you have any kind of closing thoughts here?

[Devin]

Well, so I say that's going to translate to the rest of your marketing Right. Because they might find you on Instagram this quick hitting really valuable video and then they want to learn a little bit more.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

And so maybe you perfect your Instagram profile, your bio, you nail it down and then they come to your website and it's completely disconnected.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

The same verbiage is not being used. You're not talking about the same pain points and avatars. Maybe it's just extremely broad. Yeah, there's that disconnect that now you're going to reduce conversion rates even more. Where if they go from, you know, really specific bio to a website with even more information and there's a case study about a person or a couple just like them breaking it down, that we're, you know, further building that trust with them and moving them further and further down the funnel.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Kendra]

Can you pull up his website really quick? Growing families and professionals. Here's how you know you've gotten your marketing wrong. I don't like to say wrong, but it's just not going to convert well. Very well. I heard another marketer say, if I could take your headline and peel it off your website and stick it on another advisor's website, then it's too broad, it's too bland. So we could use some of that same copy that I just ripped here for you. We could pull that across the top of your website.

[Devin Watts]

Cool.

[Kendra]

And also you're using short form video, so I want to see, I'd like to see your face here. You can leverage that. You might even have a short form video like, hey, welcome to my website. And you don't need this whole website to be optimized, but you can see how there's a thread that pulls all the way through so they know they've landed in the right spot.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah, I like it.

[Devin]

That's great.

Now I know you asked early on, we only have a couple minutes left. Here goes. Quick about physicians knowing that you're interested in targeting physicians. If you went all in on physicians, high earning physicians, very specific pain points, you're going to have more success faster, you're going to grow faster, you're going to take a little bit more risk in the beginning, but it's going to make your marketing so much easier, make a lot of these decisions easier. But I've talked to enough advisors to know, especially those who are just starting their firms or even big firms.

Right.

Like we have a lot of advisors that work with lots of different people. Like, how can we get that specific and narrow? This is where you can reduce the risk a little bit. Get clear with your taglines like Kendra had showed you, and then use physicians as one of your example avatars, one of your case studies. So that as you're marketing to physicians and experimenting with that niche and going to physician conferences and speaking when and if a physician comes to your website.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

It's not going to say I specialize in working with physicians yet.

[Devin Watts]

Right.

[Devin]

But they see busy professionals, few key pain points they can relate to, that they scroll down. Now there's a case study about someone that's just like them.

[Devin Watts]

Yeah, right.

[Devin]

But you're not going all in on that niche today. So it's one way to kind of tiptoe into that niche, test it out and determine. You might determine six months from now because you've attracted, out of the last 10 clients, eight of them are physicians. You're like, man, I really like working with physicians. I'm really connecting with them. I'm going to go all in on this niche. And now you're really going to see the growth as a result of that.

Yeah, that's good.

So I'm not sure I would sit here and say go on and physician right now. It's a longer conversation, a business decision for you, but there's a way to target physicians effectively without redesigning your entire brand, right?

[Devin Watts]

Yeah.

[Devin]

Not to focus just on an occupation, but there are pain points that are common.

Right. Because the pain points of a physician or attorney or dentist, like they're probably similar to just like you know, married couple with kids, W2 income, like they might share, those pain points might overlap. You may not have to go all in on physicians position.

[Devin Watts]

Right?

[Devin]

Yeah, that's, that's what I thought originally as I was designing what I'm doing here. So I didn't want to go all in in that occupation because of that. I wanted to keep the, the net wide and, and leave it open.

[Kendra]

Definitely. All right, advisors, lean in because we're about to show you what a well built, thoughtful, intentional funnel looks like for Devin today. So his top of funnel is short form video, specifically on Instagram. His middle of funnel, where he's going to earn trust is going to be moving them to an email subscribe through a lead magnet or some kind of interesting offer there. And then his bottom funnel is just going to be his sales process. So this is how you take interest and attention online and we over time intentionally convert into a predictable lead source. So as far as your action items go, you're going to need to pull some of that avatar clarity through multiple layers of your funnel. Here using tools like Sandcastle, improving your scripting as well. Also hire an editor to help support you if you need that. For middle of funnel, you're going to need to test some of those calls to action. Different tools, different approaches so you get that converting and then for your bottom funnel is just your sales process and potentially updating the top of your website. So the good thing is this should narrow your marketing activities but improve your results. And at the end of the day the easiest things feel like they shouldn't work. But most advisors are doing everything and they have a lot of half built funnels. We need a full built funnel with an ideal client and then we need to have the patience and the obsession to go all in on tweaking each layer of that process. So thank you for joining us today, Devin. I know that you're a new firm, but I think there's so many pieces here that apply to new or mature firms and we just appreciate appreciate you swinging open the doors of your firm and letting us look inside.

[Devin]

Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Thanks Devin. Really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Taylor]

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.

[Kendra]

Sa.