Advice Line: How To Focus Your Marketing When Your Niche Is Too Broad (Phil Weiss)

Summary

Advisor Marketing Made Simple: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Advice Line: How To Focus Your Marketing When Your Niche Is Too Broad (Phil Weiss)
Release Date: February 5, 2025
Hosts: Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright
Guest: Phil Weiss, Apprise Wealth Management

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Introduction

In this episode of Advisor Marketing Made Simple, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright welcome Phil Weiss from Apprise Wealth Management. Phil seeks guidance on refining his marketing strategies to effectively target a more specific niche within his broad client base. The discussion delves into identifying ideal clients, optimizing content, and leveraging podcast appearances to attract and engage clients who resonate with his services.

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Guest Introduction: Phil Weiss

[01:41] Phil Weiss introduces himself as the owner of Apprise Wealth Management, located in Phoenix, Maryland. His firm manages $50 million in assets under management (AUM) and aims to double this figure within the next four to five years.

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Current Marketing Efforts

Phil outlines his existing marketing strategies, which include:

• Weekly Blogging: He maintains three rotating blog formats to provide consistent content.
• Lead Magnets: Phil is rolling out a new lead magnet focused on life planning.
• Podcast Guesting: He has engaged a firm to secure podcast appearances, aiming for two per month.
• Video Content: Developing video materials for various social media platforms.

Despite these efforts, Phil feels his content isn't reaching enough potential clients. He notes, “I block every week I have three different blog formats that I rotate... I just think that my content in general has more value than it's bringing to me at this time.” [03:14]

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Defining the Ideal Client

Phil's ideal clients are women facing new beginnings, which encompasses individuals going through:

• Divorce
• Widowhood
• Empty Nest Syndrome
• Approaching Retirement

However, Phil acknowledges that his current client base is skewed, with approximately 60% being empty nesters, 20% already retired, 20% divorced, and 10% widowed.

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Challenges in Messaging and Niche Definition

Kendra and Taylor engage Phil in refining his niche, pointing out inconsistencies between his website messaging and his actual client demographics. Kendra highlights, “Wealth management for women facing new beginnings doesn't really tell me much... What are those big changes? What are you helping me flourish through?” [13:38]

Phil shares his personal story, linking his motivation to assist women facing financial uncertainties following major life events, inspired by his mother's struggles. This narrative underscores the emotional and financial challenges his clients face.

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Strategies for Refining the Niche

Narrowing the Focus

The hosts suggest that Phil should narrow his focus to either divorced or widowed women to create more targeted marketing strategies. Kendra advises, “If we really want to get clear with our niche, if we want to cast a wide net and we're okay with that, then we can continue down that path.” [14:27] However, they lean towards specialization to enhance message clarity and marketing effectiveness.

Adjusting Messaging

Kendra emphasizes the importance of clear messaging that directly addresses the pain points of the target audience. She recommends removing vague terms like "life planning" and instead focusing on specific challenges such as:

• Handling credit card debt.
• Navigating major reductions in household income.
• Managing tax implications of divorcing or becoming single.

Phil agrees, stating, “I could tell you a funny story about that... And then if you look at the next line, it's we help you flourish through life's changes.” [13:54]

Content Alignment

Phil acknowledges the need to align his content more closely with the specific needs of his narrowed niche. This involves creating resources that directly address the unique challenges faced by recently divorced or widowed women.

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Leveraging Podcast Appearances

Phil has started appearing on podcasts relevant to his target audience, which has resulted in several client inquiries. Taylor advises enhancing this strategy by offering tailored lead magnets during these appearances. For example, providing a “one-page checklist” or “free ebook” that addresses specific issues faced by the listeners can help convert podcast listeners into leads.

Phil responds positively, “That sounds like a really good idea. I like that.” [26:36]

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Optimizing the Marketing Funnel

Tailored Lead Magnets

Hosts suggest creating distinct lead magnets for different segments within Phil's target audience (e.g., divorced vs. widowed women). This ensures that each segment receives relevant and valuable resources, enhancing lead conversion rates.

Building Relationships with Referrals

Kendra proposes leveraging relationships with professionals who interact with Phil’s ideal clients, such as divorce attorneys or estate planners. By positioning himself as a trusted resource among these professionals, Phil can gain more targeted referrals.

Phil notes, “I definitely have gotten some referrals from estate attorneys because of that.” [30:37]

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Addressing Overarching Challenges

Kendra and Taylor discuss the emotional state of Phil’s potential clients, recognizing that recently divorced or widowed women may feel overwhelmed. They suggest offering more personalized support options, such as a “free 60-minute one-to-one coaching call,” to better cater to their immediate needs rather than just providing informational resources.

Phil reflects, “I understand that there is definitely a difference between those two. And you're right, what they're looking for can vary.” [29:40]

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Takeaways and Action Items

By the end of the episode, Phil identifies several key actions to refine his marketing approach:

1. Narrow Down the Niche: Focus specifically on recently divorced or widowed women rather than the broader category of women facing new beginnings.
2. Enhance Content Focus: Align blog posts, lead magnets, and other content with the specific challenges of the narrowed niche.
3. Improve Podcast Strategy: Develop targeted lead magnets for podcast audiences and ensure alignment between podcast content and client needs.
4. Build Strategic Referrals: Strengthen relationships with divorce attorneys and estate planners to increase targeted referrals.
5. Personalize Client Support: Consider offering personalized coaching sessions to address the immediate emotional and financial needs of clients.

Phil concludes, “I think the first thing is that I want to think about how I want to narrow down my niche... And what I'm offering when I make those podcast guest appearances needs to be better aligned with the needs of the niche.” [32:18]

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Conclusion

This episode highlights the importance of defining a clear and specific niche in financial advisor marketing. By narrowing his focus, refining his messaging, and leveraging strategic partnerships and content, Phil Weiss can enhance his marketing effectiveness and better serve his ideal clients. Hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright provide actionable insights and support, emphasizing the value of clarity and targeted strategies in achieving sustainable business growth.

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Notable Quotes:

• Phil Weiss [03:14]: "I just think that my content in general has more value than it's bringing to me at this time."
• Kendra [13:38]: "Wealth management for women facing new beginnings doesn't really tell me much."
• Phil Weiss [26:36]: "That sounds like a really good idea. I like that."
• Phil Weiss [30:37]: "I definitely have gotten some referrals from estate attorneys because of that."
• Phil Weiss [32:18]: "I think the first thing is that I want to think about how I want to narrow down my niche... And what I'm offering when I make those podcast guest appearances needs to be better aligned with the needs of the niche."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the core discussions and actionable strategies from the episode, providing valuable insights for financial advisors seeking to refine their marketing efforts.

Transcript

[Taylor Schulte]

Hey, everyone, really quick. Before we start today's show, if you're listening to this right now, you've likely listened to one of our advice line episodes where Kendra and I help real life advisors solve their biggest marketing challenges right here live on the show. It's like a free marketing consultation, but recorded so fellow advisors with similar challenges can learn alongside you. It doesn't matter if you have decades of experience or you're just getting started as an advisor. If you have a marketing challenge that's slowing you down, we would love to invite you to join us on a future advice line episode. To be considered, just head over to taylorschulte.com apply and fill out the short form. That's taylorshulte.com apply. We've also included a direct link to the form right there in the episode description in your podcast app. Do not miss this opportunity to get two experienced industry marketers in one place with one goal. To provide honest feedback and actionable solutions so you can reach and help more of your ideal clients.

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor, and we're here to make advisor marketing simple. Today's guest is Phil from Apprise Wealth Management. His team of two has been helping clients for six years. Their current AUM is 50 million, and they want to grow to 100 million in the next four, five years. Here's how we think they can take those next steps towards that goal. Welcome back to the show. Today we're having a conversation with Phil. Phil, can you just kick us off and share your name, your firm, and your location before we get started?

[Phil Weiss]

Sure. I'm Phil Weiss. My firm is Apprise Wealth Management, and I'm based in Phoenix, Maryland, which is a little over 20 miles north of Baltimore.

[Kendra]

And what's the big question that you want to jump into today with Taylor and I?

[Phil Weiss]

I think everything that I'm trying to do revolves around expanding my list for my different sources of content. I have a weekly blog, I have a new lead magnet that I'm rolling out, and I also have engaged a firm that's helping me be a guest on podcasts.

[Kendra]

Okay, great. And for the kind of ideal person you work with, can you give us in a sentence or two who that ideal client for you is?

[Phil Weiss]

Sure. I work with women facing new beginnings. And so I'd say that's primarily women that are either going through divorce, widowhood, empty nest, and then retirement is also going to be factored into there.

[Kendra]

Okay, great. And for your current clients that you work with, how are they finding you?

[Phil Weiss]

Historically, I found I got a lot of my clients when I used to work with Zoe Financial, and I've moved away from that because they really weren't helping me find clients for my niche. So right now, the ones that I'm finding, either they're coming to me from referrals, whether that be from clients or COIs. And there are people that are starting to find me. Like, I'm not starting to notice. Some appointments just show up on my calendar from people that must be seeing my content or hearing me on some of the podcasts. I know at least a couple have come from the podcast.

[Kendra]

You mentioned the desire to expand your list. Can you tell me a little bit more about why you want to expand the list and the impact you think that's going to have on the firm, like why you chose that piece?

[Phil Weiss]

Sure. So I block every week I have three different blog formats that I rotate, so they're regular rotation of different blogs. I know I produce good content, but it's just not getting out there enough. And I have had people that have come to me because they've read my content, whether it be because I'm dripping on them all the time, because they get something in their inbox every week, or they find my content, but I just think that my content in general has more value than it's bringing to me at this time.

[Kendra]

And for the blogging that you're doing weekly, are you working with an SEO expert to help you determine what keywords to target? Like, how are you choosing those topics that you're doing weekly?

[Phil Weiss]

The topics I'm trying to pick things that I think would be relevant to my audience. And Sometimes I'm using ChatGPT to suggest ideas I worked with on niche when I narrowed my niche down from what it was before. And so I had some ideas that came from the work that I did with them. In terms of an SEO expert, I've talked to some people at times, but I haven't engaged anybody yet. So I know my keywords aren't always the best. I have started to try to at least use Google AdWords to give me an idea, and I got some guidance from somebody that I'm using to try to help with that.

[Kendra]

Okay. And as far as ongoing kind of current marketing activities, we've got a weekly blog, we've got email. What other marketing activities are you doing right now to draw awareness to the firm?

[Phil Weiss]

So, as I said, podcast casting. So I've engaged a firm to help me with that. And I'm trying to get two appearances a month right Now I also have that same firm that's helping me. I have a new lead magnet that's tied into the life planning part of the work that I do. And I'm working with them to produce some video content that'll go on different social media.

[Kendra]

And for the podcast guesting, say you jump on a podcast, it has your ideal audience. What's the kind of next action you're driving towards? There's.

[Phil Weiss]

Once the podcast is released, I share it with my list and on my social media channels.

[Kendra]

Okay, Taylor, what's coming up for you?

[Unknown]

I'd like to better understand this, this niche, women facing new beginnings, primarily divorced widowhood, empty nesters. What are the things that is maybe keeping them up at night or some of the things that you primarily help this niche with.

[Phil Weiss]

So a lot of times, if we think about the typical household situation, if they were married, the husband was the one that took care of the finances and the wife had primary caregiving responsibility. And now they're in this situation, we're on their own, and they don't really know what they're supposed to do or how to do it because they haven't really dealt with it before. So that can be part of it. There are some cases where she is responsible for leadership role in the household finances, but she just wants a trusted partner, somebody that can help her.

[Unknown]

Okay, what stage of life are these people typically in?

[Phil Weiss]

On average, my client's age is about 57, 58, something in that range. So that's why emptiness factors in two. And you know, the average age of a widow is 59. So that could be it though. I don't have a lot of young widows like that, but it can be. And you know, we've seen more about gray divorce, like all those things kind of into that average age right around there.

[Unknown]

Okay. With the older widows in 50s and 60s, are you helping them get to retirement, prepare for retirement, transition into retirement? Are you helping them just navigate and maintain retirement because they're already retired? Talk to us. Just drill a little bit deeper there in terms of stage of life.

[Phil Weiss]

So in general, more my clients are approaching retirement than are on the other side.

[Unknown]

Okay, so a widow who is preparing for retirement and maybe isn't sure if they've saved enough or if she or he has saved enough for retirement and how to make this transition on their own now that they're alone, I mean.

[Phil Weiss]

That would be what I would expect. But if I look at the, the number of widows in my client base, the ones that I have are on the other Side, they are for the widows in particular, they're going to be those that are already in retirement. And so now they're just looking to help maintain and make sure they're okay.

[Unknown]

Okay, so who would you prefer to serve? It sounds like most of your business is those who are already retired. So do we want to stick with targeting the widows that are already in retirement?

[Phil Weiss]

No, I think the more my business is those that are approaching retirement. If the average age of 57, 58, it would fit better there. And I'm a CPA, so I can do a lot of tax planning and things like that. So while I do have people that are in retirement that we're still doing a lot of tax planning and we'll do Roth conversions, I think that the pre retirement is more common.

[Unknown]

Okay, so we'd like to be brutally honest here and crystal clear they should make sure I'm hearing this accurate. So most of your clients are in their late 50s. They need help preparing for retirement. Okay, great. Most of them are empty nesters. Is that. Is the empty nester crowd more of what you want to target, or you're now trying to attract more widows to your practice?

[Phil Weiss]

I don't know that I've thought of it in terms of narrowing it down among those groups yet. The niche as it's presently defined, it's about a year old.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Phil Weiss]

I expect that over time I will narrow it, but I haven't gotten there yet.

[Unknown]

Okay. Because on your homepage it says wealth management for women facing new beginnings. But then you said most of your clients are empty nesters, and empty nesters could be couples, it could be men, could be women. So talk to us more about the exact person that you want to target. Is it. Is it women specifically facing new beginnings? Is it empty nesters?

[Phil Weiss]

Whether they're widows or not, it's women facing new beginnings.

[Unknown]

Okay, so the people that you're currently serving right now, you're okay continuing to serve them, but you'd like to branch out into attracting more of just. Just women facing these new beginnings.

[Phil Weiss]

Correct. And it all ties into my wife's story, like how that happened.

[Unknown]

Okay. Do you want to share more about that?

[Phil Weiss]

Sure. So growing up in my house, it was the typical model that I talked about where my father was responsible for the finances and my mother took care of my sister and I. The only problem is my father wasn't very good at it. We had unpaid bills, we had services turned off. I remember when I got my driver's license having to go down to utility company and Pay bills so we could get things turned back on. When it was time to go back to college, I was told to go. I could go anywhere I wanted. I chose to go to Duke. I was a psych major and a pre med. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have picked somewhere else because my father didn't pay. So I left school after my junior year for financial reasons. I moved across the country when I was ready to go back to school. I couldn't go back to Duke because I wanted to major in accounting and do doesn't offer accounting degrees. So I applied to University of Arizona, where I was, and to Rutgers because I'm originally from New Jersey. And I decided to come back home and my mother went back to school. After I came back home, she went and became an occupational therapist. And I know that the real reason for that was to put herself in position so that she could be on her own, you know, financially solid and be on her own. After I finished school, I came home one day. I found that there was mail with my name on it, these bills, but they weren't mine. My father had forged my name to open up credit card account because he couldn't get credit. Little while after that, my mother was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. That's when we found out how bad the financial situation really was. She asked me to help. Those credit cards, I had gotten them out of my name, but my father stopped paying. So they were all in collection. My parents had to sell their house and move while my mother was going through treatment. I did what I could to help, but unfortunately, my mom didn't make it. She passed away about 18 months after her diagnosis. And so now I view the work that I do as trying to help other women avoid the kind of things that my mom went through.

[Unknown]

Very cool.

[Kendra]

I love that.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. So I'm gonna go back to so women Facing new Beginnings. And you had a great story there that supports that. To me, I didn't hear anything about, you know, my mom was wondering if she could retire, how to prepare for retirement on her own. Now it's more of like, I've got this like, giant mess. It doesn't have to be necessarily bad, you know, in your case, there was, you know, a pretty, you know, difficult mess to fix there. But it could just be, you know, know, I just got a giant windfall of life insurance money, and there's investments all over the place, and I don't even know what to do with all this stuff. But it doesn't Sound like to me, there's this. Yeah, my spouse just passed away, and I'm just not sure how to prepare for retirement. I don't know if we have enough to retire. It's more of just like, I am overwhelmed by all this stuff, like, how do I fix maybe some of the problems that are going on or how do I make sense of all this? And I'm only bringing this up because I'm just feeling this disconnect on the brand between women facing new beginnings and the specific challenges that they're faced with. And then I start to look at some of the content and it's like, join my retirement newsletter. Here's how you can use Roth conversions, you know, to, to maximize your taxes. And so I want to make sure that if we're going all in on these women facing new beginnings and helping them, you know, sort through these, these new challenges that they're faced with, that the content is also supporting those pain points of those women. Does that, does that make sense?

[Phil Weiss]

Yeah, it does. And I mean, and that is what I endeavor to do, is create content that is relevant for my niche. And just to add a little bit more, I mean, my parents had no savings for retirement. They had, they had no preparation. There was nothing.

[Kendra]

One quick question, because we have these kind of different buckets here. On ideal clients. We have, you know, those who are divorced or going through divorce, widowhood, or empty nesters. Do you have any kind of breakdown on what your current client load looks like? Is like 10% divorce, 25% widow could just kind of give us like a ballpark of who you're serving in these buckets and what that looks like.

[Phil Weiss]

Sure. So widow, it's going to be the smallest at present, I would say that's 10% at tops. Divorce is probably double that. Then if we took like the empty nesters, that's going to be probably 50 to 60%. And then if we took the ones that are in retirement already, that's probably the other 20. Like, if I'm just looking at the ones that are in my niche. And that's just off the top of my head, a rough guess.

[Kendra]

Okay, that's super helpful because as a woman, I wasn't sure what new beginnings meant. So once I saw kind of through the information you gave us actually around divorce, widowhood, and empty nesters, that made sense to me, that language, but I wasn't actually quite sure what that meant on the website.

[Phil Weiss]

I could tell you a funny story about that. When we chose that wording, it was originally going to be women in transition. But there's so many other things that transition can be that we decided that this was just a better way to say it. And then if you look at the next line, it's we help you flourish through life's changes.

[Kendra]

Flourish through life's changes gets even muddier for me. So I'm not.

[Unknown]

I.

[Kendra]

The new beginnings to me is. Is okay. But as a woman, I don't know what new beginnings mean, because to me, it could mean just as many things from a transition standpoint. And then also when I think about these different buckets. And Taylor, let me know if you agree on this or not. But how I attract someone who's divorced versus widowed versus empty nest could really vary from a marketing perspective. So that's kind of what I'm trying to get clear on is like, is there a primary driver of the clients we want to attract? There's quite a bit there, yeah.

[Phil Weiss]

Like I said, I think that over time I would expect that I will narrow that down even more. But I started there, like to focus on one or two of those groups instead of all three.

[Kendra]

If you were gonna narrow it down just for fun right now and you could pick one, which one would you be most excited to drive growth with?

[Phil Weiss]

Probably I would lean towards the empty nest.

[Kendra]

Okay. Cause I think there we start to look at what are the pain points of empty nesters? Because when I look at even the messaging on the website, I don't see how your approach differs from another advisor. So, like, for example, with a widow, some of those pain points could sound like, you know, how to handle like a major reduction in their household income, potentially like the tax implications of going from married to single. And also like how long term care planning would change if you're solo. And I don't see a lot of like, problem language, the problems you help solve. So I think if we're looking at empty nesters and we can narrow down a little bit there, I think it helps from a pain point perspective when we think about how it impacts marketing downstream. Does that make sense to you, Taylor, or am I going in a completely different direction?

[Unknown]

Well, yeah, Again, I just want to make sure I'm understanding this. So, Phil, empty nesters could be a married couple still. And I thought we were strictly focused now on. On women.

[Phil Weiss]

It could be a married couple. But. But she's the. She's the driver, not him.

[Unknown]

I do think, I mean, it's up to you here how wide of a net you really want to cast. But if you want to, you know, make some of these improvements to your marketing and achieve some of the success you're potentially looking for. I think it's going to make your life easier to get more clear about exactly who we're talking about. Because if it's wealth management for women facing new beginnings, I've got some ideas to help clean that up and make that better. But if it's empty nesters, I mean, the, the messaging for empty nesters is entirely different because we're not just talking about women anymore. We're talking about empty nesters. And it's kind of what Kendra's getting at is the, the challenges of empty nesters and pain points of empty nesters is very different than a woman who's recently divorced or a woman, you know, who's recently widowed. So I think we're going to have to choose one here. If we really want to get clear with our niche, if we want to cast a wide net and we're okay with that, then we can continue down that path. How are you feeling through this?

[Phil Weiss]

It's making me think a lot, that's for sure.

[Unknown]

Because on one side, like your homepage, there's a lot of really good things happening here, and you've got, you know, a woman pictured here, and everything's about women. And then. But I'm hearing you talk about empty nesters, and then on in your content, there's a lot of, like, just generic retirement information. So there's just some disconnects here. And again, it's not that you. You can't have success. It just might not be as predictable and as sustainable and as scalable. And so if, if we want that predictability, if we want to make our marketing a lot easier, we're. We're gonna have to tighten up some of this messaging and really get clear on this is who I work with and this is who I don't work with.

[Phil Weiss]

So a couple of things that. And maybe it's because it's not there, it's like, on a different page. But I mean, part of what I do is too, is life planning. And like, part of the reason for life planning, besides the fact that I think it's really valuable work, is that it's also something that's very relevant to the women that I work with because they're going through something, they're not sure what's next. It really helps them in terms of identifying those things that are really important to them. And I like to think about it as we're trying to align our use of resources and when I say use of resources. I mean time, energy, attention and money. So a team of resources with our values. And there's lots of times when I'm working with my clients or talking to them, even if they're existing clients that haven't done it, that we know when the right time to do it is, because it really can help them figure that out. And if I'm thinking through what you're saying, empty nesters. But that still where she is the driver of the relationship. And to me, there's some similarities, at least from the people that I've talked to, between the divorce side and the emptiness. Because a lot of times divorce and emptiness kind of go together. The widow, of the three areas, the widow seems to be the one that's a little bit separate. Right? That's the one that's a little bit. Has more differences than similarities.

[Unknown]

I mean, I, I think we could just get rid of empty nesters because like, I mean, if you're in your 50s, I mean, you have to be an empty nest. I mean, you must be an empty nester if you have an adult child living with you in your 50s. I don't know. You have a really unique set of circumstances there. I just, I don't think it's that important to the niche that like, are you an empty nester or not? And you just keep going back to women and women and the challenges of women and the story that you shared. So I think we can scrap the empty nester thing and we can just strictly focus on women going through these really challenging major life events. That would be that. That's kind of my gut here.

[Phil Weiss]

Okay, I, I like how that sounds.

[Unknown]

Okay. You mentioned life planning. Life planning is great. Nobody knows what life planning is and nobody knows that they need life planning. So I think you can take that out of your kind of marketing toolkit. You don't necessarily need to, to tell these people that you do life planning. And here's how life planning is going to help them. It's not really going to resonate with them, but what's going to resonate is you help widows or recently divorced women solve their big financial challenges. And you might do that through your unique life planning skills. But they don't necessarily know that. They just know that after working with you, they feel a heck of a lot better. And it might be because you implemented life planning really, really well and you had really, really great conversations and got them through this really difficult time. But they may not even realize that you're using these life planning techniques that you learned as a planner. So I don't know that we necessarily need to try and market our life planning skills or life planning services. We just need to uncover what are these three major things that women going through these stages of life are really challenged with. And I think you're hitting on some of them here on your website. And you shared a little bit in your story there. You know, a big part of it is just like, you know, I'm overwhelmed. There's all these things everywhere, like, what do I do with all this? Or maybe there is some real challenge like credit card debt and how do I attack this credit card debt. But if we just think about those, those three major challenges, how we solve those is a entirely separate conversation. Doesn't need to really work its way into our marketing. And so if we're feeling good about this general angle here of we are going to specifically focus on women going through, you know, you call it new beginnings, but I'll call it just like major life transitions. I think we can start to think about tweaking your messaging here at the very top of your website because like Kendra said, wealth management for women facing new beginnings doesn't really tell me much. And then I think she's right. It gets even muddier when it says, we help you flourish through life's big changes. What are those big changes? You know, what are you helping me flourish through? It just, it leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions. So it could be something really simple like are you, you know, are you divorced, recently widowed? We help you tackle these three things, right? So now we're not like pigeonholing ourselves into just working with widows or just working with divorcees. But you can kind of do it through the messaging like recently divorced, recently widowed. We know that you have these three problems, and these are the three problems that we can help you address. And that starts to become a lot more clear.

[Kendra]

Phil, I know we threw a lot at you here. Do you have any kind of follow up questions? As we kind of start to try and clear up a little bit of this messaging which will relate down further to the other parts of your marketing?

[Phil Weiss]

I guess the only question I have or the main question, because there's going to always be lots of questions, the main question that I have would be those that don't fit in to those two categories. Right. If we say divorce and widowhood. Right. And I have many people that I'm currently working with where she could be single, she could be married, but like I said, she's leading she's the main point of contact. She's the main source of the relationship. How do I fit them in? Or is it just okay because I don't have to stop working with the people I'm already working with? And this is what I'm focusing on going forward. I just want to make sure that I'm clear.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I think that's a business decision for you to make. For me, at one point, I was trying to serve young professionals and retirees at the same time, and I sent this email out through my email newsletter about why you need disability insurance. And a retiree, a client of mine responded and said, why did I get this email? I'm retired. I don't need disability insurance. And so, you know, it just kind of hit me that it's going to be hard to communicate with both these demographics and really add value consistently throughout the year. So that forced me to pivot and go all in on retirees and. And literally get rid of all the young professionals. I don't know that that's necessary. It might be that you feel like having a onetoone conversation with existing clients, say, like, hey, I hired a business coach. You know, I'm making some important changes to my business from here on going forward, I'm going to specifically focus on working with these people with these problems. I enjoy working with you and want to continue working with you. But, you know, you might see some changes in some of my messaging and some of my content. And here's why here might choose to have some of those onetoone conversations. Not saying you have to, but that could be something that you consider. Yeah. As we think about your marketing, I want to highlight something like, you're doing something really, really well. If my favorite marketing activity, which is you're leveraging other people's platforms. So once we know exactly who we're targeting here, if it's, you know, recently divorced, recently widowed women with, you know, three identified challenges or pain points, and again, you have them. You just need to tighten these up. You're leveraging other people's platforms. You are paying a service to help get you onto podcasts, and you rattled off a couple of names before we started hitting record. You know, you're very thoughtful about the podcast that you're trying to be a guest on. You know that your ideal client listens to these podcasts. You're leveraging their audience and their platform to show your expertise and find your ideal clients instead of trying to build up your own platform. Tell us more about how that strategy is currently working with this company that you've hired to help get you onto these different podcasts.

[Phil Weiss]

So we just started and I've had a handful that I've done so far, but I have had, I would say it's three or four people have reached out and it's because of the fact that they heard me on a podcast. I was just gonna say to, to me, initial indications are that it's a reasonable strategy to pursue.

[Unknown]

Okay, and when you're on these podcasts, maybe the, the most recent one that you were on, what would, what was that conversation about?

[Phil Weiss]

The conversation. I mean, it's. At some point I'll usually tell the why story that I shared with you, and then I'll talk about how I work with the kind of people that would be listening to that podcast and the things that I can do for them. And then they'll ask me a couple financial related questions about situations that I can try to address.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Phil Weiss]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Again, it's one of my favorite strategies to leverage somebody else's platform. The audience is already there. The challenge, of course, is, you know, getting onto that platform, right. Getting invited or finding your way onto that, that podcast or YouTube channel, whatever it might be. Once you're there, you know, adding value to that audience is, of course, critical and really important. And then it's like, how do I take advantage of this opportunity and move a certain percentage of this audience to my platform? It's, you know, a bit of a stretch to go on this podcast and talk to people who have no idea who Phil is. They're learning about you for the very first time. To go from hearing Phil share his story and talk about his firm and how he helps people to I want to hire Phil. Like, that's, that's a, maybe a bit of an unreasonable expectation. Imagine if you went on one of these podcasts, you added incredible value, told your story, you shared that you specifically help women who are recently widowed, recently divorced. And if that's you, and you're listening to this right now, I put together this, you know, one page checklist of everything that, you know, you need to tackle in this situation or, you know, you know, three things that you can do to overcome these challenges, this free ebook or this video series that I put together, and that's all that you're sharing on this podcast with this audience is like, I put together this amazing resources, amazing guide that helps you with these specific challenges. You know, go here to, to grab that thing. And now you're starting to move them into your own funnel. That you can then control and kind of move them through from there.

[Phil Weiss]

That sounds like a really good idea. I like that. Like, I have some of those things, but not as specific as what you just talked about.

[Kendra]

And one quick question about the podcast that you are getting on. Do they typically tend to bucket either like those recently divorced or getting divorced or like widows, do they tend to be in different kind of addressing different markets?

[Phil Weiss]

Those are the two primary markets. It would be divorces and widows.

[Kendra]

This is where also kind of marketing informs. Because if you have two kind of different demographics here, let's just say widows and people going through divorce, we have to create different resources for them because they're two different kinds of women. Does that make sense?

[Phil Weiss]

Yes.

[Kendra]

You know, there might be some that can cross over, but generally the, the checklist is going to be different. So that's why when we talk about kind of zoning in on just these different kinds of women, because they, while they are very similar, we're gonna have to build separate marketing materials and separate kind of funnels. Now, you could go on podcasts, but I would be thinking at like, okay, this is for the divorce market, this is for the widowed market. And we need a different lead magnet to move them from that podcast to a medium you own, like email. So I think, you know, from the, the marketing funnel perspective, like Taylor said, borrowing somebody else's audience. Love it. Great strategy. But we want to make sure that most people that listening are probably not going to be ready to hire you. You might get a few people, but we want to really make sure that we provide a way for that larger segment to come over to a platform that you own.

[Phil Weiss]

No, that makes perfect sense.

[Unknown]

Something else is coming to mind too. And Kendra, we had this conversation with, with Elliot, who joined us on the show, that you imagine this person, that this woman in this situation, recently divorced, recently widowed, challenged by a handful of things. I'm not totally convinced that, you know, she is listening to this podcast and wanting to download this checklist or watch this video series. She might be just so overwhelmed around, you know, these challenges and these, these new beginnings that she's faced with. Like, she may not want more work, she might want. Not want more resources. She might want, you know, she truly just needs help right now. So your kind of funnel and sales process might look different for this widow who's at this stage of life than that retiree who saved up $2 million and they're excited about retirement. They want to talk to a professional about how to transition and ensure that they, you know, don't overpay the irs. Like, very different person who's interested in learning and optimizing things versus I'm in a really difficult place in life right now. I don't want to go download Phil's checklist. Like, I need actual help. So I don't know what the exact answer is because I don't know enough about this, you know, this, this person and their stage of life and the challenges that they're faced with. But I could imagine something like, you know, if that's you and you're going through this situation, like I offer, you know, a free 60 minute, one to one coaching call as a starting point, you know, that might feel more inviting than going and downloading this, this again. I'm not saying to go and do that. I would want to be more thoughtful and intentional about it before you go waste six sixty minutes of your time with people. But just something to acknowledge there, that these women are, you know, in a unique stage of life.

[Phil Weiss]

I understand that there is definitely a difference between those two. And you're right, what they're looking for can vary.

[Unknown]

And yeah, it starts to reshape our marketing a little bit. And you start to think about, well, like, you know, who would these women be talking to at this, you know, at this juncture? You know, if they're recently divorced, they probably have a really good relationship with their divorce attorney. So should our marketing be focused on, you know, networking and befriending and building relationships with divorce attorneys? So the divorce attorney says, like, hey, you need to go talk to Phil and schedule a meeting with Phil. Phil helps people just like you. And maybe we don't need all this digital marketing stuff. Again, I'm just spitballing here. I don't know enough about this demographic, but you might start to think a little bit differently and put yourself in their shoes and maybe even interview some of them because they may not be watching YouTube channels and reading blog posts and listening to podcasts. They may be talking to an estate attorney because they just lost their, their spouse and they're not sure what to do with all this stuff. And the estate attorney's like, you gotta go talk to Phil. Just go schedule me to Phil.

[Phil Weiss]

I definitely have gotten some referrals from estate attorneys because of that.

[Kendra]

So, Phil, I know we've thrown a lot your way. You know, do you have any kind of follow up questions for us to kind of clarify, you know, what we've discussed today or a few different tweaks that you could make to your marketing to Attract more of your ideal clients.

[Phil Weiss]

I felt like I was focused in terms of my content, but now I'm feeling like I need to be even more focused. And I had thought about the idea that at some point my niche was too broad and it needed to narrow. So this is just making me think a lot more about that. I don't know that there's any questions that are coming to mind right now.

[Kendra]

Because I'm still processing and definitely. And I think the narrowing of the niche, it's also something you can kind of test and lean into that a little bit more. And I think when we are targeting a few different kind of buckets of people, it can have you kind of pulled in a few different directions. So I think there's a lot of things you're doing well. I think the website looks really good. You know, there are some simple kind of copy updates that you could do, particularly above the fold. Love the concept of borrowing other people's audience top of funnel, especially because you're being really thoughtful about getting on good podcasts with your ideal client. And then, as Taylor mentioned, you know, test different calls to action there. You know, we initially started this call with you saying, hey, I'd love to expand my email list so you could test a call to action to a call with you or potentially a lead magnet for that specific kind of audience. And again, we're always testing and trying new things here. You know your audience really well, and sometimes even just having some more awareness about these different buckets and who you enjoy working with, that can be really helpful, too, over time as you look at potentially narrowing down who you serve.

[Phil Weiss]

No, that makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that.

[Kendra]

Awesome. Is there anything else, you know, from this conversation today? What do you think you might do differently going forward or any actions that you might take?

[Phil Weiss]

I think the first thing is that I want to think about how I want to narrow down my niche. That's number one. Number two, I said I produce content regularly, and I want to make sure that as I narrow down the niche, that that content gets even more focused in terms of being for that niche. And then I think that what I'm offering when I make those podcast guest appearances needs to be better aligned with the needs of the niche.

[Kendra]

Awesome. I love that. I think even those. Those simple adjustments there could really help refine your marketing funnel, and I'm really excited for those takeaways. Taylor, do you have anything else on your side as we wrap up today?

[Unknown]

I don't think so. You know, I know we went In a lot of different directions there, Phil. And really tried to kind of narrow things down. I know can sometimes feel overwhelming. So as you digest today's conversation and, and listen to the recording that we send over, if you have any additional questions, if you're not brainstorm anything, please do reach out to us.

[Phil Weiss]

I appreciate that. Thank you. And I'm sure there are going to be some that come up.

[Taylor Schulte]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

And most of I just want to acknowledge like, you know, thank you for, for coming on here and asking these, these hard questions and having this hard conversation. It takes a certain level of vulnerability to do this and we really, really do appreciate it. We love having these conversations. We recognize that they can be overwhelming and maybe a little daunting at times. Hopefully you find it helpful. Hopefully you're able to take some action here. And just thank you very much for putting yourself out there. I know it's going to be relatable and helpful to other advisors listening.

[Phil Weiss]

I appreciate that. And it definitely did feel a little bit daunting at one point. Through my head. Sure.

[Kendra]

And the good news is marketing isn't built or optimized overnight. Just ask yourself, what's the next best action I can take? And start small. The good thing about, you know, building online is we're working in pixels, not bricks. So we have some flexibility and we can test things and we're all learning here together. So thank you so much for joining us today, Phil, and for everyone listening, we'll see you 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, for listening and we'll see you next week.