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Advisor Marketing Made Simple
Advice Line: How To Segment Your Practice For Different Client Types (Jack Hudson)
00:45:18
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor, and we're here to make advisor marketing simple. Today's guest is Jack from applied capital. In 13 years, he and his team of six have grown to $1.2 million in revenue and 190 million in AUM. Jack, what's that big question that you want to jump into today with Taylor and I?
- [00:26]
B
Yeah. So thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. What prompted the inquiry essentially was I'm trying to build out a LinkedIn funnel, but as I've gotten into it, I've realized that, hey, I might have a bigger underlying question of really trying to clarify my. My client avatar. And that's what I really need help with. And there's some. Some problems around there that we can jump. That we can jump into. But that's kind of the big question.
- [00:53]
A
Hey, give me a quick preview of the problems that you're bumping up against.
- [00:56]
B
Yeah. So we're a generalist firm and have been. We have. We're on the path to really build out our tax planning side. And so we really think that we have a great offering for that two to $10 million client. And who really needs tax planning help? We have junior advisors on staff, and then we have at Applied Capital, two offices. One is in Little Rock and one is in Nashville. And the two offices run differently. So it's all under the same umbrella, but we are much more focused on the planning side of things. Not to say that the Little Rock isn't, but we have a heavy focus on it.
- [01:42]
A
Okay, awesome. That context is really helpful. You're right now at a decent level of growth, you know, 190 and Aum, how are your current prospects finding you?
- [01:52]
B
We have been with Dave Ramsey's SmartVestor Pro system since he changed it from the one recommendation to the SmartVestors. And so we've been utilizing that for a long period of time. And that is basically the engine for our growth. That and client referrals from existing clients and kind of CPOs.
- [02:18]
A
Okay, and with those three, those aren't enough to hit your growth goals.
- [02:22]
B
We want to grow more efficiently, get to that kind of next level of client avatar. That's what we're looking to do now.
- [02:32]
A
Okay, cool. Right now your office is in Nashville. You have a sister office in Little Rock, and you do run your practices independently, but share some of the overhead in your application. You said that Little Rock has control of the website. What happens if you want to make a change to say something like the homepage headline, a new page, like, tell me what that looks like?
- [02:56]
B
Yeah. So that needs to be in collaboration with Little Rock and have to make sure that they are on board with it. One, and then two, that they're speaking to the clients that they're trying to target as well.
- [03:09]
A
And how closely do you guys operate with them? Is it. You know, you guys have regular business planning.
- [03:15]
B
We're very close, so anytime we pick up the phone, you know, we can call one another.
- [03:19]
A
Okay, cool. I know there's a lot already kind of popping up here. Taylor, what's coming up for you straight out of the gate here.
- [03:25]
C
Are our clients shared between these offices? You mentioned, like, you guys are focused on planning. Does that mean that they're more focused on investment management?
- [03:33]
B
They are more focused on investment management, broadly speaking.
- [03:36]
C
Okay. So if you have a client you're doing a bunch of planning work for that needs investment management, are you sending them to that office? Is that office.
- [03:45]
B
No, we are. We knew everything in house, so in the national office. So we do the planning, we do the investment management, we do the whole nine yards.
- [03:54]
C
Are your clients portfolios being invested the same way as the Little Rock office?
- [04:00]
B
From a conceptual level, yes. We agree on the philosophies. We have independence as to how those two get invested.
- [04:08]
C
Okay. So it's not as if there's a. A trader, a trading department that, like, no matter if the client's part of the Little Rock office or Nashville office, they're all being managed by this single trader for the entire firm. That. That's not what's happening. You guys are separately running your portfolios?
- [04:25]
B
That's correct. So each. Each advisor will run, will invest for. On their client's behalf.
- [04:32]
C
Okay. How much of your practice. Your. Your Nashville practice, how much of it is Nashville focused versus national?
- [04:43]
B
We have clients all over the world. Most of them have been. We. We started in Nashville and then they moved. So we don't have any geographic boundaries, but I would say the vast majority of our client base is in Nashville or the middle Tennessee area.
- [05:00]
C
Okay. And is the Little Rock office. They're also doing planning work as well or is strictly an investment manager?
- [05:08]
B
I think they're. They're also doing some planning work, but not to the level that we are, I don't think.
- [05:13]
C
Got it. Okay. In the notes, just because we can see it and listeners can't. You had said something like, you know, you want to work with people in the two to $10 million space, but you have reservations because you have some younger advisors who would be happy to work with a young, know a Healthy six figure investment account. And so you're struggling, like how do I, how do I market this, how do I message this? And then of course like the other office that you share this website with throws another wrench into it. So maybe share more about your ideal client being in the two to $10 million space, but you not wanting to push away, you know, maybe some smaller clients that these young advisors would be happy to work with.
- [05:52]
B
Yeah, so that was the, the whole thought process of starting a new funnel on LinkedIn to try to target those people who are in the 2 to $10 million space. So I didn't have to mess with the website and that's where I could really focus in on, on their needs and their niche. But I, I don't want to turn away somebody who is, you know, a million dollar client by listing, hey, we only work, we work best with people in the two to $10 million space. So my thought process was, do I need to focus instead of focusing on the demographics of the client, what about focusing on the psychographics of the client, looking at the values that these clients that we like to work with hold and trying to niche down that way instead of putting myself in a box. From a demographic standpoint, how many team.
- [06:42]
C
Members do you have in your office and share with us the breakdown, what are their roles?
- [06:48]
B
Yeah, so we're all financial advisors. There's no CSAs, no paraplaners, et cetera. We've got four CFPs, two MBAs on staff, and then one is working to get a CFP. So just trying to leverage technology on the back end.
- [07:04]
C
Yeah, yeah. The five of you, are you all serving the same bucket of clients or do you each have your own separate clients?
- [07:11]
B
Yeah, so it's a team based approach. So in every meeting there are two advisors in the meeting with the clients and a lead advisor and associate advisor. And so we break down the lead and associate, they have their group of clients that they're working with and it can shift for, depending on the needs of the client and really the complexity. So generally speaking, the more senior experienced advisors will go with the more complex and generally higher asset clients. And then we have, once they hit a seven figure balance, then that two team gets expanded to a three team.
- [07:55]
C
Okay. What would happen if you had a hundred younger? I don't know, let's call it like high earning young professionals with $400,000. What if a hundred of those people hired you and sucked up all the resources of your junior advisors?
- [08:14]
B
We'd hire just to backfill the need just expand the number of advisors.
- [08:23]
C
Okay. I mean, is that truly how you want to grow? Because I think it's a challenge to think through here because like if I open the door, our minimum is $2 million. And if I open the floodgates and said, well, our new minimum is $500,000 and we dumped a bunch of new clients on the team, it would really stretch our resources and sure, we could go start to hire, but I'm not sure it would make a lot of sense operationally. I mean, we have to change the whole structure of the firm to make something like that happen. So I guess I'm just like, I would be very nervous myself with my junior advisors, their resources being sucked up by these clients that we don't really do our best work for. And they're not like the clients that we truly want to, to work with. I would rather those people go to a firm and we can help them find that firm dedicated to serving people just like them. And truly to stay focused on the people we do our best work for, it might cause some unwanted complexities down the road. I don't know. How do you really feel about opening the door like that and allowing smaller clients that not truly who you want to target, start to suck up resources?
- [09:34]
B
Yeah, no, it's a, it's a great question and a problem we've wrestled with since day one. But you know, what we've decided is that we want to be able to be a place where advisors can come and work and grow and have a long term future. And so if someone is starting young as an advisor, we want to have them be plugged in with somebody who is at their experience level client wise and to be able to grow as they progress. Obviously it would be easier if we just said hey, let's just do 2 million and up. We'll work with everybody and pare everything down. But I'm not sure that the growth would be there long term. I'm open to suggestions, but that's kind of where we are from a business development standpoint in our thought process behind everything.
- [10:27]
C
If I was going to go this route, I would literally build a separate department and a completely separate service model and fee schedule for that clientele. You know, if it's, we'll just round up and say $500,000 accounts, high earning young professionals, mid, you know, career, mid late career. Like it's an entirely different service model in my opinion, an entirely different fee schedule than my 2 to 10 million dollar baby boomer retirees over age 50 that are nearing retirement or in it. So to me, I'd be thinking about this from like, okay, I'm going to commit to this. I'm going to develop an entirely different service model and department within the firm and separate the two. And so when we get a $500,000 account, it goes to this team over here. They service it differently than the $2 million client that we service over here. Does that make sense?
- [11:17]
B
It does. And we're thinking along the same lines because we just developed that and have, have rolled that out in the past couple of months.
- [11:25]
C
Okay, you want to share a little bit more about what that looks like here in the beginning?
- [11:28]
B
Sure. So the clients have an option in terms of how they pay us. There's a typical AUM model. So that's door number one. Door number two is what we call fee for service. And what this is, is they're not. And we're not managing the assets. We're just doing the planning work. So we're going through and depending on the complexity, it can range from 3,850 to $15,000 a year. And so that's if you don't want us to manage the assets. And then there's a blend, which is door number three, where you have a minimum fee, which is what we're doing with the fee for service, and you have an AUM offset. So if we're managing the assets, let's say it's, you know, $300,000 of assets, that AUM fee gets credited to that minimum fee and you only have to come out of pocket for the difference.
- [12:25]
C
Is this strictly for this smaller account? I hate to say that, but like the, the $500,000 clients, it's.
- [12:34]
B
We have, we present that option to, to anybody depending on their need. But most of the time the big clients want all the things, they want us to manage it. So it's just a U M. So we just go with that.
- [12:47]
C
Okay. It's a, It's a separate conversation than I think the one we want to focus on today. But the way I would think, because to me, what you just rattled off is still very confusing. And I always struggle giving people options like, here's the menu and you can decide. The way I was thinking about it was like, hey, hey, if you're a, you know, a Henry, a young hiring professional, or, you know, $500,000 of assets, however you want to, like, kind of categorize that type of client, this is the team that you'll be working with. And here's the exact service Model of how we can help you, because we helped a lot of people just like you. We know exactly how to, how to work with you and how to solve your pain points. And here's, here's the exact fee schedule. Like, this is, this is what it is. Like, if that's you and you want our help, it's $5,000 for an initial plan. Once we're done with the initial plan, you know, it's $500 a month adjusted for inflation every single year. That's just what it is. Not like, here's a bunch of options, kind of choose your own adventure. Same thing for the $2 million and up clients. Like, this is the process that we go through. This is the system we implement. This is the service model. This is the fee schedule. Like, if you want our help, because we specialize in working with people just like you, or at least this team does, this is how we, we can help you. And, and so it's more about, like, if this is your profile, you're going here, and that's how you're being serviced. If this is your profile, you're going here, and this is how you're being serviced, and you dictating that and not the prospect or the client. Now, if you want things to be more flexible and you want to continue growing this generalist firm and have these options for people to choose from, I'm sure there's a path to making that work. It just. It feels a little challenging for me, I guess.
- [14:27]
B
Yeah, no, that's fair.
- [14:28]
C
Because the one solution I was thinking about for you, Given some of the complexity here with the little rock office and the Nashville office and $500,000 clients and two to $10 million clients, is. This is the only example I can think of, is signature fd. Are you familiar with this firm? I really like how it's this large firm, $9 billion. I don't know how many employees they have, how many advisors they have. And I really like how they've approached different niches within this umbrella, within this brand. So if you go to their website and scroll down, you services section. And so the firm is signature fd, but they have these different departments. They have signature law, where they specialize in working with attorneys. They have signature women, that's women's wealth management services, entrepreneurs, athletes, veterinarians. So they have these different, like, niches within this large firm. And then when you click on it, you go to that page, there's a dedicated service team that services those exact people. And there's a service model for those people, your situation is a little bit different. You'd have to think about how to start to categorize and segment that. But again, with this kind of like national firm and multiple offices and multiple potential clients, that's how I start to think about compartmentalizing this. And like somebody lands on your website and to your question in the, the form when you applied, hey, like, I don't want to just say, like, we work with $2 million clients and up, because I don't want to push away these smaller accounts that our junior advisors want. Like, this is your way to do that, where you show up to the website and it is at the start, kind of a choose your own adventure. Like, who are you? Right? Are you a young professional with $500,000 or are you 2 million to $10 million retiree? And you click on that and then it takes you to an internal landing page that tells you more about the service model, how you can help, the fee schedule, the people you'll be working with. So they're just one example of a way you can start to do that. I'm sure there are others that are out there, but that's kind of where my mind was going when I read your intake form. And just hearing you, you talk.
- [16:30]
B
Okay, no, that's helpful.
- [16:32]
C
How does that start to feel where you're not alienating, you know, a large percentage of people that you may still, or your junior advisor still may want to work with. And navigating this with the Little Rock office, like, could you imagine a scenario where something like that does work, where you have this kind of main hub and this kind of who are you? And once someone selects who they are, then you can explain more and what that funnel looks like and what the next steps are.
- [16:56]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And it feels like a great framework to work off of. And then we just obviously have to make it our own. But that thinking it in terms of, in that way makes a lot of sense.
- [17:10]
A
Why this is really important is because let's say you do have these, you know, pre retirees and these Henrys. We're going to have to build different funnels for different these audiences. One, they're just different people, but two, they have different problems. So you can see how this becomes a fork in the road where now we have two client segments and now we're going to have to build two funnels and things like that. So not saying one way is the right way or the wrong way or whatever, but as you said, we want to grow a more efficient practice. So I Do think that's really important to consider is we don't just want to build an efficient practice from a marketing standpoint, but a service standpoint.
- [17:46]
B
Yeah, no, that makes total sense.
- [17:48]
A
So let's move past that a little bit because that sounds like a big decision you may have to make on your own and have with your team. As we start to look at that 2 to $10 million prospect, you know, what kind of trends have you seen in any of those clientele that you're currently serving? So what I mean by that is, and you kind of touched on this a little bit earlier was different buckets. So for example, career similarities like tech execs, lawyers, pilots, companies. So like Microsoft, Amazon, any large companies in your area, demographics. So LGBTQ couples, maybe military families, things like that. Or also psychographics like faith based. They could be, you know, Christian pre retirees or we've, we've heard other advisors work with Korean pre retirees also life events, divorcees, widows, things like that. So I know I just threw a whole bunch of, just kind of buckets of ways that we could swerve into a clear icp. Have you seen any of that kind of show up in your own current clients?
- [18:50]
B
Yeah, I would say that with the current clients that we do that fit into that two to $10 million space, I would say the majority of them are getting close to retirement or right after retirement age. So kind of in that 55 to 65 range. And helping them through all that retirement planning piece is a big part of that, that offering that we, we serve. But also we've seen more and more have a handful of clients that have sold businesses, have made the exit and now have a big liquidity event and a lump sum of cash. Hey, I've never really invested in the market before. I've always reinvested into my business. Now what do I do? So that's becoming a bigger and bigger piece of our per business for those.
- [19:36]
A
Who'Ve sold businesses and now they have this, you know, large influx of cash. Like how many of those clients, like is that 5% of your kind of people ready to retire? Like what's that look like?
- [19:47]
B
Yeah, it's a small percentage, but it's been growing. I would say it's probably about, yeah, 5% of that ideal demographic.
- [19:56]
A
Okay. And the thing that I'm kind of counterbalancing here, and we haven't talked about this is you mentioned an interest in LinkedIn. That can be a great channel. But we're definitely, definitely going to have to get way More targeted. I am a little concerned with like the business sale and exit. If we were to pair it with that platform. That platform can be really good if you have a career or a company or something like that. Taylor, I know you share similarities with this demographic. What's coming up for you as we try to kind of get a little bit clearer on this ICP and what you see are the challenges in some of these broader based ICPs in that way?
- [20:29]
C
Yeah, just to I know ICP, not everyone knows what that means. So ideal, ideal client profile. Again, personally I find two very different people here. Someone who just had a liquidity event from selling a business and like traditional retiree who saved up $2 million and is ready to retire. Like to me those are, those are two different things. So I would just keep challenging you on focusing on, on one type of person. It doesn't have to be a single company, um, necessarily. But like is this people who have amassed in some way shape or form a few million dollars and they're getting close to retirement or they're already in retirement, they have tax problems and that's who I'm solving for. Or is it going to be these business owner folks who sell their business and are navigating this transition from selling that practice into retirement? Like just two different things. I think LinkedIn can be a viable strategy. With LinkedIn, the most successful strategies I've seen is choosing an industry or choosing a company because you don't have a bunch of retirees typically hanging out on LinkedIn all day. But if you can catch people in that pre retiree phase and you're focused on a single company and you're known for being that person. There's one advisor I met recently focused on aerospace engineers and uses LinkedIn. He holds a weekly educational webinar for defense and aerospace engineers and he funnels people into that webinar strictly from LinkedIn. So yeah, you're gonna have to to some extent get a little bit more narrow. I think if you're gonna use something like LinkedIn just for the way it's used by people. Does that make sense?
- [22:07]
B
Yeah, it does. And that's been one of my questions with business owners in particular is where do they actually live? You know, do they. They're probably not hanging out on LinkedIn, you know, they're probably doing something else. But I don't know. That may be an off base assumption.
- [22:22]
C
Yeah, it's a tricky one. You got to understand, you know, your target market there. You know, when I think about like a successful business Owner. Yeah, they probably aren't spending their time hanging out on LinkedIn. They're, they're really busy taking care of their business. And the free time that they do have, they're probably spending it with their family. And so it depends on the industry, the type of business, stage of career, things like that. That's where you have to do some kind of market research and due diligence and maybe interview 10, 15 of these people to try to figure out what's the best way to reach. Cause it might be traditional, you know, networking, coi, referral type strategy to get in front of these types of people. So very different than my type of client in that 2 to 10 million range is just traditional. Retiree did very good in the accumulation stage of life. Wants help in this decumulation stage of life. Very well educated, they read a lot, they listen to a lot of things, I. E. Podcasts and they watch a lot of content because they have that free time because they're again, gearing up for retirement and want to learn or they're already in retirement. So it's about kind of understanding who that person is and where you find them. Which again is like, that's why we have to get narrow. Because you're busy, successful business owner might not be listening to a podcast or reading in depth blog posts or hanging out on LinkedIn. So once we understand who we're trying to target, then it becomes much easier. I also just want to call out too. You know, again, going back to your initial question of, you know, I want to use LinkedIn, but again, I don't want to alienate some of these clients and accounts that my junior advisors might want to focus on. And also if they come to our website, it doesn't really explain exactly who we do our best work for on our website. Going back to our earlier conversation, if there are a handful of different avatars or departments listed on that website, you know, retirees, $2 million. Now, when you're on LinkedIn, marketing yourself as this advisor who helps retirees in the two to $10 million space, if they go to your website, they'll immediately see this department that you have that serves people just like them, where right now they come to your website. And to me it feels like a very like hyper local approach where it's like, if you live in Nashville, call these people. If you live in Little Rock, call these people. Where I'm thinking about it more from like stage of life type of person, pain points and segmenting the website that way.
- [24:33]
B
Yeah, yeah, totally get that for sure.
- [24:36]
A
And I think even, you know, on the LinkedIn front, I have a full funnel breakdown I did. I'll link to the show notes for advisors. This isn't really a, a LinkedIn or social media post, but I did a full funnel breakdown of an advisor who's driving about 35. They've drove 35 leads so far this year and they've closed 50% of those. And their niche is self employed essentially, you know, people 30 to 45 earning 300k or more per year. So it's kind of like there's some elements of specificity there. So you've got the age range, you've got earning potential and they're self employed. Right. So we don't have to go, you know, just super, super aggressive on the niche piece, but we do need something and so I think that's where this is something you're going to face regardless of which platform you go towards. So for example, let's say you like to write blog content. We're going to have to really answer who are we targeting towards? Say you wanted to start a podcast or a YouTube channel. The same thing. So this is why we get narrow really at the foundation, which is who are we talking to and what are their challenges and problems? Because it's going to pull all the way down to how do you build your profile on LinkedIn and what kind of content do you publish, those kinds of pieces. So I think that piece around kind of getting clearer on the ICP is going to be really, really important for you and determining how you're going to serve those two segments, if that's what you want to do before you get to the funnel. So we're technically not having a LinkedIn conversation or podcast conversation or any of those I think before we kind of sort through those pieces a little bit. Does that make sense?
- [26:06]
B
Yeah, it does. So just so we can have walk through some more examples, let's say that I'm targeting the 2 to 10 of the pre retirees and we'll just use that as example for right now. My thought process on the way that I was trying to build this out that I'd like to get your feedback on was I was using, I was posting weekly on tax planning topics and I've been doing that for a year on LinkedIn. And so I've been going through and looking at the, the analysis, the data of it every week and recording which ones are my top performing posts. And so I've compiled a list and what I thought of was, hey, I'LL go and write a monthly newsletter on LinkedIn about those top performing posts and expand upon that. And so I would have the top of the funnel be the LinkedIn posting, the middle of the funnel be the newsletter and then the bottom of the funnel be the sales process. But run into a problem because I thought that I would be able to pull the information with email addresses for my subscribers on the newsletter. And LinkedIn can't do that. That was a novice mistake. And so now I'm running the issue of all right, if I want to get these onto a actual newsletter that I have control over, then how do I go from LinkedIn to get them off platform if they're already on the newsletter? So that was, that's another thing that I'm rolling running into as well.
- [27:37]
C
Yep, that is precisely why that advisor I referenced hosts weekly webinars because they register for the webinar and now he has their email address and now they're opted in automatically when they registered the webinar. They're also opting into his email list. So he's, he's using LinkedIn as his top of funnel to find these people, but he's funneling them to the middle of his funnel through the webinar and his email newsletter. So there's only really a couple of ways to do that. You know, one is that webinar strategy. The other would be like your traditional lead magnet. Right. If you, if you like this, you want to learn more like grab my 5 point tax cheat sheet, you know, here and they opt in and, and get on your email list that way. I mean, I'm glad you brought that up because we have to be careful leveraging these other platforms that we don't own because we run into situations just like that where like you build this big following but now like you can't really reach them and communicate to them like you would want to.
- [28:30]
B
Luckily, I've just started the newsletter. I've only released, you know, one or two things on, on LinkedIn for the newsletter perspective. So I can, it's early and I can pivot if I need to.
- [28:40]
A
So I got a couple thoughts on the LinkedIn piece. One is around strategy and one is around funnel. So first you said I'm Posting weekly on LinkedIn first, this is the first problem I see. One, every platform is super different. But what, what I know and understand about LinkedIn is you need to be posting a minimum right now of three times a week because Linked give you expanded reach with consistency and frequency. So first that's the first issue I hear, second issue that I hear is you're posting content. So that's, that's middle offunnel on LinkedIn. The problem is, and we're going to come right back to what we were just having a conversation about is you technically don't have a top of funnel strategy on LinkedIn without adding your ideal client connecting with them. So there's two ways to really kind of get reach on LinkedIn. One is using something like sales Navigator to find and target your ideal client, which is why we've talked so heavily about that. Are we going after tech execs? Are we going after lawyers? We need some clarity there to be able to use that piece of the strategy. Second is LinkedIn is really great in this way where they will give you a little bit of reach if you put really good content out. The problem is they have to know who to give it to. So if you're writing content to lawyers and it's really good and it's getting some good traction, they'll take a few, few lawyers, they might put it in front of 20 lawyers or 100 lawyers and see do these lawyers like this content. So that's kind of another way that you can get a little bit of visibility there and then ideally, hopefully a few of them comment or maybe follow or connect. Right? So with your LinkedIn funnel specifically, you need that ICP clarity to leverage this platform and also communicate to LinkedIn. And then third, optimize your profile. So that piece is also really important. I just actually looked at a advisor. I can almost look at any Advisor's profile on LinkedIn and tell you if they're generating leads based off how they've built it. So there was an advisor I saw who specializes in big law and everything on their profile spoke to big law people. So your profile right now says proactive tax and financial planning for people who've outgrown generic advice. The irony in that is that the headline's a little bit generic. So we need to get a little bit more specific there. And I know this sounds crazy, but so many advisors are struggling with this. It's not just you, but when you say also I'm using the blog content, I'm not a big fan of repurposing. At minimum, you have to rebuild content for it to be effective. And I can tell you that the kind of content that performs on LinkedIn is nothing like blog content. So there's a lot of learning that has to go into like writing really good content on LinkedIn because with a post Specifically, first you got to nail the hook. If you don't nail the hook, you don't get the view. So there's a lot of pieces to LinkedIn that I see you missing here and I can see why that strategy isn't working for you to wrap it up. No clear icp, you're not consistent enough and the content and the profile aren't optimized for that. Acp. Oh, and one more thing about driving leads. The second thing is that there are ways to drive leads from something like LinkedIn or any profile. But you have to understand, I heard this really good analogy. Imagine that you're speaking at a conference and you go on stage and you're like, hey, by the way, after this conference, I'm going to go at the bar across the street and we're going to talk more. If you did that, the conference organizer would be so frustrated and you'd never get invited back. But if you said, hey, we're going to, after I'm done talking, I'm going to go to the side of the stage and I'm going to answer all your questions. They're like, hey, I'm cool with that. So what we have to do on these platforms is we have to understand what ability do they give us to drive traffic off platform that is like the side stage and not the bar so that we don't piss them off. And so for LinkedIn, a really good way to do that is, is you can essentially get email subscribers from your profile. So if you go back and you look at a couple of my recent posts, I do this. I say, hey, by the way, if you love this post I send, I have a newsletter. It's called Attention to Assets. It's how I teach advisors how to turn content into clients. Just jump over my profile and sign up. And it's, it's optimized on my profile. You'll see it. That's driving like 25 to 50 signups a month right now. And it's not even done well. It's just like barely done. So there are ways to drive off platform, but it's not, it's not fast. You know, it takes, it takes time. So just a lot to understand. And this kind of goes back to why we talk about choosing a channel is there's so much to learn just about LinkedIn. So hopefully some of those tips, you know, help. I know I probably just threw a lot at you, but I was just really excited because I was like, oh, there's so many things we can fix here.
- [33:10]
B
Yeah, yeah. And appreciate that. Want to clarify? I'm not just posting once a week. It's, it could be one or two times a week, but I'm hitting that three or four. A couple of comments, a couple of posts a week. And so that's, it's not just one post a week. That's, that's it. So it's, it's a little bit more than that. But I, I understand the, the algorithm really likes consistency, and so that needs to change if I want to utilize this as a funnel. Totally understand that. Another thing that I ran into was I had a lot of advisors as connections, and per your recommendation, Taylor, I went through and removed all of those on my LinkedIn page. And so that really has changed the reach that I have, which is, I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing yet, but at least I'm, I'm talking to or trying to target the people who I want to target instead of other financial advisors.
- [34:06]
C
So I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to bring that up. So I'm glad you've taken some action there. I've got a, a couple of quick thoughts on it, but you had mentioned, like, consistency for the algorithm. Like, sure, we need to be aware of these algorithms and how to kind of play the game, but I would say consistency for your ideal clients first. Right? We want to add value to them first. And if it's like, gosh, sometimes Jack posts something on LinkedIn, sometimes he doesn't, sometimes it's on Monday, sometimes on Friday. So I would say consistency for you and your ideal clients first. And by the way, that also benefits the algorithm. But if we're just doing things for the algorithm, I think we can get ourselves into trouble. So I just want to just clarify, share my thought there. But I'm glad you brought up the who you're connected to because I do think that's really important. It is challenging because a lot of us like to connect with each other, advisors, sharing ideas, things like that. But if we're truly going to use LinkedIn as our marketing funnel, I think you have to wipe the slate clean. Not only that, but we have to have a consistent process for adding new connections who fit our ideal client profile. So do you have that in place right now?
- [35:16]
B
It is not a consistent effort? No, I've done it a few weeks in a row, but not consistently.
- [35:24]
C
Okay. So just like I would encourage you to develop a content schedule every single day of the week at 10am and 2pm I put out a post and every Friday or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, whatever it is, I use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify. Cause I think you're limited to a hundred connections. Is that right, Kendra?
- [35:42]
A
It depends on if you're using like free versus paid. They change around a little bit, but there is a limit. So typically what, what we do is say it's a hundred. I can't remember if it's a hundred or two hundred off top of my head. But we send connection requests like daily to a set number of people and spread it out so it isn't like, spammy or like, overwhelming.
- [36:00]
C
So yeah, so every day at this time, I use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to reach my quota for the day and connect with my ideal clients. So it's not just like, sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. It's like I have this time blocked every single day to add the right connections to my LinkedIn. So you might be up against some limitations there. You'll have to figure that out. There are agencies you can hire to help you do this, but that'd be the kind of consistency I'd be looking for. Adding the right connections and then also consistent post. And you know, LinkedIn's a little bit better than Twitter about keeping posts alive for a longer period of time. But I do think that, like, you have to be like, so consistent that people can't ignore you. Right? You're posting this valuable stuff, like all the time. Like, I can't escape it. You think of like these powerhouses like Alex Hormozi or Gary Vee or maybe in our industry like Fisher Investments or Ritholtz Wealth. It's like, I can't get away from these people, right? It's like, it's like everywhere. They're so consistent, consistent, and they're hitting multiple platforms and hitting you from different angles. And again, those are larger firms, and so we can't perfectly compare ourselves to them. But that's kind of the, the vein I, I think about this is like, like, how can I be so consistent and so valuable that all these connections I'm connecting with, like, they, they can't ignore me? Like, it's, it's impossible to miss something that I post because I'm posting every single day at, you know, at 9am for the early risers and at 3pm for the late risers, and it's all really valuable. So again, it goes back to the right connections, consistent, frequent content, and then developing that kind of, you know, call to action strategy to get them off of that platform, we don't want to be asking for email addresses with every single post. So that Gary Vee kind of jab, jab, jab, right hook. I add a bunch of value, you know, for 15 of my posts. And then for, you know, the next couple, I have these like really strong call to actions. Or use Kendra's approach. It's a little bit more passive. That could certainly work too. But those are kind of the three stages I think of the LinkedIn strategy. If I had to really boil it down, just the right connections, consistency, frequency, and then a call to action to move them off the platform. And that brings up like once they're off the platform, that doesn't mean they're all of a sudden like an amazing prospect. Right. Like they're off the platform. Now they're on your email list. Well, guess what? Now you have to build out an email sequence. Now you have to build out a weekly email newsletter to further nurture them and then a call to action to move them from that newsletter to your sales process. So it's a lot of work and that's why it's like, let's focus on one type of person and let's focus on one single platform to start building out this one single funnel. Otherwise it just becomes too chaotic and things just start to break down.
- [38:32]
B
Okay, so if I'm hearing you right, the post would be the top of the funnel getting them to an email weekly newsletter off platform would be the middle and then the bottom of the funnel would be the sales process.
- [38:47]
C
Yeah, I would say your posts would flirt with top and middle of the funnel because it is getting you attention from people who have no idea who you are. But you're also showing your value and nurturing them through those posts. Right. And so it kind of flirts with top and middle. Your true top of funnel are those, those connections. Right. You're connecting with people that have no idea that you exist. But with LinkedIn, it requires a little bit more nurturing there with those posts before they really trust you enough to give you their email address. And now they're truly in the middle of your funnel.
- [39:24]
B
Gotcha. So it's, it's really a, it's a, instead of a three step funnel, it's a four step funnel.
- [39:31]
C
Yeah, I kind of like when I think about the funnel, like I've got the top and the middle. Sometimes there's like this in between piece, you know, like with Facebook advertising. Well, my Facebook ad is my top of funnel. My free guide that I'm, I'm Advertising kind of sits between the top and the middle because I have to, it has to be valuable enough for them to trust me and want it. So they kind of opt in now that once they opt into that free guide, now they're in the middle of my funnel. So sometimes there's that, well, there is always kind of that extra layer, but it's a lot more obvious with things like advertising or social, social media platforms.
- [40:04]
A
The way I like to look at it, just to streamline it is top of funnel is those sales navigator outreach connections. Middle of funnel becomes content email. So the content can build trust and we hope to siphon, you know, a small percentage of our followers and connections to the email list long term. And then once you start to see that working, you know, driving 25, 50 email contacts a month, that's when I sort of think about launching that newsletter. And if we know that it's, you know, a funnel built for, I'm just going to say lawyers, right? If we know, hey, we've got, you know, we're, we're contacting lawyers, we're sending, you know, five, ten connections a day or a few days a week consistently, we're posting content, you know, consistently for lawyers. And then we see that a few of these lawyers are also opting into our email list. Once I get to 25 or 50, then I start to think about, okay, now I really need to fire up that email piece. So it is kind of an additional layer and then the bottom is just your sales process.
- [41:05]
B
Gotcha. No, that makes sense.
- [41:08]
A
So I know we've thrown a lot your way. We've had a really fascinating curving journey today. Jack, I really like where this conversation went because the beginning of this conversation we talked about these two different segments and we don't realize how much choosing like a pre retiree or Henry or a career choice for an ideal client, how much that impacts downstream. So I knew we threw a lot your way. What do you think you might do differently today going forward based off the conversation?
- [41:37]
B
I think it's really trying to change the framework in the national office from a level to mimic what's in the signature FD model. So having different segments as specialized, the Henry is specialized, you know, with these group of advisors work with these guys and these group advisors work with business owners and these group advisors work with this so we can really hone in on the process of the deliverable for those different client segments. And then once we have that, then it's trying to build out the funnels in a, in a More targeted way. So really honing in on who's that ideal client prospector and going down that route definitely.
- [42:24]
A
So I'm going to wrap this up for you on your rebuilt funnel and your action items going forward. So here's the adventure should you choose to accept it. If you decide to build a funnel on LinkedIn, your top of funnel is going to be your connection request to your ideal client. Your middle of funnel is going to be the consistent content that you post that speaks very clearly to that ideal client. As you get that up and going, you're going to want to come up with a supporting email strategy to hopefully take a small percentage of those people who fit your ideal client profile and migrate them to your email list. Things very important with these social platforms, because we're building something really important, we want to make sure that we're getting those connections off those platforms in case something changes over time. The bottom of your funnel is very simple. It's your sales process. You're going to have to think a little bit more deeply about how that connects to the website and how we communicate a few things there. But that's the bottom. Now, as far as some other action items, determining, you know, how you want to serve these two segments is going to be really, really important. And then as you start to look forward on building a funnel on something like LinkedIn, you're going to have to get a little bit more clear here on your ICP. Once you are clear on that, optimizing your LinkedIn profile to speak only to that ideal client. Having consistent posts and a consistent process for getting those out there will be really helpful. And then you're going to just work the process very consistently. You have your connection request, you have your content, you have your calls to action. And we're really just focusing on that one funnel and that one platform that has a clear way to take someone from content to client. I think a lot of advisors, one of the reasons they struggle with marketing is they have a lot of marketing marketing activities, but very few marketing funnels. So as you said with your LinkedIn, you know, hey, I'm posting a few things here and there. When we start to look at this from a full funnel approach, it completely falls apart, as do most advisors with this approach. So hopefully this will shorten your to do list, narrow your focus and give you a clear plan for moving forward and how you can have more efficient growth so that you will not be as reliant on paid leads or client referrals or some of the occasional cois. In your community. So thank you so much for joining us today, Jack. We really appreciate you letting us come in, give you some coaching advice on the practice management side and showing you how that impacts marketing, but then also really getting into the nitty gritty and how that ideal client really will influence your entire funnel.
- [44:42]
B
Kendra Taylor thank you very much for having me. I've really enjoyed our conversation and it's been really, really helpful. So thank you.
- [44:49]
C
Yeah, you're very welcome, Jack. Thanks for joining us.
- [44:51]
A
Thanks so much, Jack. 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.