← Advisor Marketing Made Simple
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make advisor marketing simple. Welcome to the show. Today we're diving into marketing funnels, a topic that is often confusing for advisors and for good reasons. There's a lot to know. Our goal today is just to break down funnels in a way that is clear and hopefully reduces your overwhelm. By the end of this episode, we hope to give you a better understanding of funnels and how to build a successful marketing funnel for your firm. Taylor, you're great at explaining marketing funnels without all the jargon. So I'm really excited to dig into this topic with you today.
- [00:35]
B
Yeah, I'm excited as well. It's. It's one of my favorite topics and I'm sure advisors who know me really well, especially advisors in the AGC who attend my marketing office hours, they're probably tired of me talking about the marketing funnel because I constantly refer back to it. And by the way, before we go any further, I want to quickly share with everyone that I created a fillable marketing funnel worksheet as a resource to help advisors and our listeners take action. Uh, we're going to be going through a lot today. There's a lot to share about marketing funnels. And while we're going to do our best to keep it really, really simple, because it can, it can be a lot, especially if you're learning about this for the first time, we're going to try to keep it simple. But in the show notes for today's episode, the template is in there for you to quickly download and follow along with today's episode. It'll help you learn more and most importantly, that the reason I created is to help you take action. Also, I've included a 20 minute video that I recorded that compliments that worksheet and walks you through step by step, how to get started. So just go to the show notes and grab the template, watch the video and use it to follow along today and take action after you listen to today's episode. But Kendra, I think maybe a good place for us to start is just by defining what the heck a marketing funnel is. And then we'll get into the weeds and discuss the different layers of the funnel and how to think about approaching each of those different layers and also the differences between a marketing funnel and a marketing plan and how these two things kind of work together. But just to set the stage for our conversation today, let's just start with what is a marketing funnel? And in my mind, a marketing funnel is really just A model or a concept that maps out your customers journey, their journey from becoming aware of who you are and what you do and how you can help, all the way to reaching out to you and inquiring about your services and ultimately becoming a client. So that's really all a marketing funnel is. It's this, this concept that illustrate and maps out your customer's journey. And when you think about a funnel, literally like think about a funnel, a funnel that's wide at the top and gets narrower towards the bottom. In other words, each layer of the funnel kind of narrows down your audience and gets the ones that really want and need your help closer and closer to taking action and hiring you. Now if you're imagining that this funnel right now, you can imagine how many different layers of that funnel could exist at to narrow people down. And if you go to Google and you type in marketing funnel and you go to Google Images, you're going to see a lot of different marketing funnels. And some of these have dozens and dozens of different layers and some just have a handful of layers. They're all attempting to accomplish the same thing. But we want to do our best to keep it simple for you today because, well, this is called Advisor Marketing made Simple after all. So Kendra, I'm curious, how do you define marketing funnels? How would you explain it to somebody who's never heard about a marketing funnel?
- [03:17]
A
Yeah, I mean, what's really interesting about these complex funnel models that you talked about is that even as a marketer, I think they can be overkill. A complex funnel does not equal more success. In fact, with advisors, the opposite is often true, which can feel really counterintuitive. So don't be overwhelmed if you see those really complex funnel models that are just floating around online. You don't have to go to that level of nerd to see success. And we're going to really try to steer you in this simple approach today. So when I think about a marketing funnel, I really just think it's the intentional process that you design to help great people find you, trust you and hire you. And a lot of time when we're talking about funnels, we are talking about a lot of digital funnels on this show, but you can also have an offline funnel like direct mail or an in person presentation. So know that while we're often discussing in the digital realm, and especially here today, we'll talk about a lot of digital funnels. These concepts will apply to both offline and online.
- [04:20]
B
Yeah, we've got some good examples of that. That we're going to go through as well. And I really like what you said there. I think it really simplifies things. Find you, trust you and hire you. That's what a marketing funnel is. Again, you can slice and dice and create all sorts of different layers, but. But that really is what a marketing funnel is. How do people find you? How do you build trust with those people and then ultimately, how do they take action and hire you? Now, when it comes to a marketing plan versus a marketing funnel, I don't want to cause any confusion here. So I want to maybe draw a parallel to the financial planning world. I think it's easy for us to get caught up talking about marketing tactics. Those tactics being all the marketing related activities that you can be doing. Everything from maybe optimizing the title of a blog Post or a YouTube video, or tweaking the COVID art for your podcast episode, or messing with the Thumbnail on your YouTube channels. All these little things that you can do to optimize in many cases, or in some cases, throwing spaghetti at the wall and just like aimlessly hoping that something catches lightning in a bottle. And so we often talk about marketing tactics. You know, should I do this or should I do that? Should I start a blog or should I start a podcast? You know, I have a podcast. Should I now start a YouTube channel? You know, I'm very guilty of these things. And I have a podcast called Experiments in Advisor Marketing where I talk a lot about tactics and I have to catch myself once in a while and realize that these tactics, they do need to be supported by a bigger plan or a roadmap in order to be successful. Talking about and obsessing over marketing tactics to me is akin to a friend or a family member coming to one of us and asking, you know, hey, what mutual funds or stock should I be buying? Or how much insurance should I have? You know, without going through any sort of comprehensive planning process. It could also be akin to, you know, me meeting a random doctor at a party and asking that doctor what prescriptions I should be taking before going through any sort of diagnosis. And as fun and interesting as it might be to talk about and discuss these tactics, we can't just jump straight to the tactics and expect long term success and maybe more importantly, long term predictable excess. The random prescription that that doctor gives me, I don't know, might work temporarily, but it might cause long term problems or maybe only be helpful for a short period of time. And in marketing, just like the medical world or the financial planning world, in marketing we have to have a proper diagnosis and plan that's supporting our tactics and providing a roadmap or a process for us to follow. And while I think Kendra and I both believe that everyone should have a comprehensive plan in place, we want to acknowledge that, you know, maybe the resources are just not there or you're just not ready to go through that sort of process. You may not have the time or the money to go out and put this comprehensive marketing plan together. You may not have the expertise to do it on your own, but you might just want to nail down some of the marketing basics on your own. Much like a retirement saver who's in the early stages of their career. You know, they, they know that they probably need an advisor, that they need a comprehensive plan, but they may not have the resources to pay for one right now, or they might not have the time to sit down with one, but they really just want to nail down the basics and find some success first on their own before they seek out and formally hire a professional. And that's kind of the way we can look at a marketing funnel. If a retirement saver in the early stages of their career, really any stage of their career, asked me how to nail down some planning basics on their own, to find some success on their own without hiring a professional to help, well, you might provide them with a simple process for just improving their current situation. This process is going to contain certain things that, sure, an advisor, a professional, could certainly help them with, but there are also things that they might be able to have success with on their own if they want to take a stab at it. Really simple things like, you know, hey, here, here's six things that you can do right now. Things like how much they should contribute to a retirement account each year, what the maximum amount is that they can contribute, tips and resources for tracking their spending, you know, the importance or some education around using low cost index funds, how to build a simple three fund portfolio, or you know, using an online DIY service like trust and will or wealth.com to just knock out a simple estate plan. These are great things that somebody, again, yes, could have a professional do for them, but they might want to just tackle some of the basics on their own first. So I would think of a marketing funnel the same way. Yes, you could certainly benefit from hiring a professional to build out this amazing comprehensive marketing plan and then build out all the marketing funnels and eventually, depending on your growth and your career goals, you may need and want someone to help you do that. But for now, creating One single marketing funnel, one very simple marketing funnel can be a great way to nail down the basics and begin to find success on your own. Much like that retirement saver example. And that's exactly what I've done over the last 10 years to build my firm. Sure, I've hired some contractors and some experts along the way. I've read books, I've attended marketing conferences, and I've learned from some great people like Kendra. But really, one basic funnel has led to a lot of success. Just like a simple process of saving some money each month, investing it in some low cost index funds, and just ignoring the day to day markets can lead to a lot of success as well. So Kendra, I'm curious. You're a professional marketer and you do help other advisors create robust marketing plans and help them take action. So before we go deep into marketing funnels, I do think it'd be helpful for advisors to hear from you how you think about marketing plans. And specifically, how do you think about creating a marketing plan and how does that kind of pair with or complement a marketing funnel?
- [09:47]
A
Yeah, you know, the way that I see marketing plans and how they complement the marketing funnel is that a marketing plan to me is kind of like a big picture roadmap for how you're going to build some awareness and attract new clients to the firm. And although it does include a few elements, I think the most important ones that I really try to narrow down to first is just what are your growth goals? How big are we trying to grow the firm, how fast and by when? Because that can actually have a big impact on your plan and how you build things out, and also which channel you might choose based on the urgency or the speed of which you want to grow the firm. The second thing I think about is, and again, you're going to hear this all the time, right? Who is your ideal client, who do you love to serve, and what are their primary pain points? Because that also downstream influences a lot of things, like your content strategy. If you go back and listen to one of our earlier episodes with Eric Baskin, we talked about his avatar and how that really impacted things downstream in the episode about how to convert podcast listeners to paying clients. So who do you love to serve? Also, I like to look at your budget and not just from a money perspective, but a time perspective. And that can also impact your strategy. And let me explain what that means. So for example, if you have a decent budget but you're really time starved, you might choose a channel like SEO because you can lean on Someone a little bit more for the help. But if you're going to choose a channel like YouTube or podcasting, you're going to have to show up and record those videos, record those episodes. So the time you have can also influence a channel. So really, you know, what are your growth goals, who's your ideal client, and how much time and money do you have to spend? Those are a couple core pieces. So, for example, I have an advisor that I work with. He has a lot of different responsibilities on his plate in his firm. They have more money to spend than time. He doesn't have a lot of time. So again, this change in the time availability really impacts our approach versus another firm that I may work with that has more time or energy to put into the marketing. I have more access to their team. So the bare bones of the plan, growth goals, ideal client, and the resources you have to invest from a time and money perspective. And then after we know that, that's where we start to look at the marketing channels. So, for example, are you going to know, leverage YouTube, maybe SEO or LinkedIn. And then once we choose a channel, that's where we build a marketing funnel around that. But we need to know the core elements of your strategy first, and you don't have to overthink them. Keep them simple, keep them basic, and we're going to use those to inform your funnel. And the funnel, to me, is like a part of the plan that really just sits inside of the strategy. Almost like those little stacking dolls, like those little Russian stacking dolls. You got the plan and then you got the funnel inside the planet. Yeah. So it has a couple different pieces like that, and that's the way that I see those two kind of clicking in together.
- [12:46]
B
Yeah, I really like how you laid that out. And I'm sure it does sound kind of overwhelming to advisors on the other end, listening to this. You know, typically, you know, the marketing conversations I'm having with advisors is like just jumping straight to those channels. You know, should I jump on YouTube, should I start a podcast without going through that sort of comprehensive process? And again, that's where a professional comes in. If a retirement saver is feeling overwhelmed because they're getting married, having kids, selling a business, or they have a big windfall and they're trying to sort through it all on their own and create a plan, and it seems really hard and impossible for them to do, then they'll likely seek out a professional. I like drawing these parallels to our profession because I think it helps remind us how to think about and how to approach our marketing. So, like Kendra said, a marketing plan is a big picture roadmap. Where are you today? Where do you want to be? And how do we design a plan to get you there? And while every one of us, including myself, can likely benefit from hiring a professional to help us build out a comprehensive marketing plan and hold us accountable to doing the things that we need to do to find success again, Kendra and I recognize that it's unrealistic to assume every advisor has the resources to go through that process or has enough complexity to justify spending the time and money on something like that at the moment. And that's where a marketing funnel can help. A marketing funnel supports the marketing plan much like a simple monthly savings and investment strategy supports an overall financial plan. While going through a comprehensive planning process, of course, would be most ideal, it's just unrealistic to expect that every single retirement saver out there is ready and willing and able to commit to that sort of process. So for everyone listening today, if you're not quite ready to hire a professional to help you build out a comprehensive marketing plan and help with all the heavy lifting and implementation, I'd suggest thinking about your marketing funnel as a simple way to begin taking action and finding marketing success. Now, one of the reasons I love the marketing funnel is because one of the most common things that I hear from advisors is some version of, you know, hey, Taylor, I've been doing this thing, this marketing thing for a period of time. I'm not having success with it, and therefore I've determined it just doesn't work, so I'm going to ditch it. And now I'm going to go try this thing over here. I often hear about this in regards to search engine optimization or even paid advertisements like Facebook ads. Advisors will say something like, hey, Taylor, I've been doing Facebook ads for a whole year. I've given it time. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars. I even hired someone to help me do it. But we haven't seen a single client as a result of these Facebook ads. So we decided Facebook ads don't work. We're going to ditch those. We're going to throw them out the window, and now we're going to try this other strategy. You know, what do you think? Am I making the right decision? In reality, and you've already heard us say this a number of times here on the show, in reality, everything works, including Facebook ads. So it's not that Facebook ads don't work. They absolutely work. The problem might Be that you just might have the wrong expectations about what those Facebook ads should be doing. You might be assuming that running Facebook ads and spending tens of thousands of dollars on them should lead to new clients. But in my opinion, knowing where Facebook ads fit inside of a marketing funnel, to me, that's an unreasonable expectation. And actually, I'd go as far as saying that's just the wrong expectation. It'd be like a client of mine thinking that buying an insurance policy that I recommend to them will all of a sudden allow them to meet all their retirement goals. Like, no, the insurance policy is important, and it complements and supports the plan, but the insurance policy isn't responsible for just getting the retiree to the finish line. So understanding even a basic marketing funnel and being able to identify where a specific activity fits in that funnel will allow you to set proper expectations about that activity and then be able to properly measure the success. Once you know where Facebook ads fit in my funnel and the role that they serve, and how Facebook ads complement the other activities in the funnel, you can then measure the success of them in isolation. Are Facebook ads doing their job? Do you need to find a way to improve your ads? Or maybe you do determine, once you're evaluating it the right way, Maybe you do determine that after a period of time, Facebook ads just truly are not the right activity for that area of your funnel. But it wouldn't be because Facebook ads just don't work, that they don't generate new clients. It would be because Facebook ads were not supporting the other areas of your marketing funnel effectively. And there could be a dozen of valid reasons for that. So that's why I just love the marketing funnel. It just really helps you set proper expectations with your marketing activities, allowing you to make these intelligent decisions about what's not working and what is working.
- [17:27]
A
Definitely. I love that example that you brought in there, because there are multiple layers to the funnel, just like those Facebook ads. Right. We've got the top of funnel, we've got the middle of funnel, and we've got the bottom. And we can start to look at some really simple metrics on where each of those layers are and what layer may be underperforming.
- [17:45]
B
Yeah. So I promise we're going to get into, you know, the different layers and how to build your funnel. But before we go there, I do think it's worth talking briefly about what to know before you start building your funnel. Just some key things that you need to know before you start to build. I know you've probably heard some of These things in some different areas. And, you know, Kendra did just touch on a few of them a minute ago. But we're just going to pull them together here and identify these really important things that you need to know before we start to get into the weeds. So, for me, number one, and Kendra mentioned this is to document your niche, right? Before we go build a marketing funnel, let's, you know, identify who we're we're trying to reach. Your ideal client is going to influence your funnel and the activities that you choose to pursue in that funnel. If you don't have a clear niche, know that creating a successful funnel is just going to be challenging. Then number two is to focus on creating one single funnel. It's really easy to get distracted. It's really easy to want to do a lot of things and feel like you're missing out. But finding success with that one single funnel before doing anything else is critical. Once you build one successful funnel, then you have the luxury of deciding, you know, do I want to parlay that success into building a second funnel? Which, by the way, becomes really easy once you have one single successful funnel, becomes really easy to take that successful funnel and parlay that into building another one. But you have this luxury of saying, you know what? I've got a successful funnel. I can just pour gas on this one single funnel and take it to the next level, or I can build a second funnel. So with one working successful funnel, it just makes everything much easier from there. Number three, your chosen marketing tactics that you're going to apply to your funnel, they must be authentic. So what do you enjoy? What do you have some sort of natural talent for? Right? You know, podcasting, YouTube, you know, if you hate yourself on video, if you hate recording videos, if you're not good at it, then maybe doing video isn't for you, so it must be authentic to you. And then lastly, for me, one marketing activity in your funnel in isolation is not going to lead to success. Again, my example about insurance, buying an insurance policy on its own or getting your estate plan done or just making one good investment is not on its own going to help you reach your retirement goals. All of these marketing activities in your funnel that we're going to talk about, they're going to complement each other and they're going to work together to be successful. We're not going to rely on one single activity to find success. Kendra, what do you think? Is there anything else to know before somebody goes to start building their funnel? Before we dive into the different layers.
- [20:13]
A
Here, you nailed A lot of the core pieces. I just want to add one more. Before you start to build a funnel, I want to warn you, it's really going to feel like nothing is working, and you're going to have this urge to pivot. It's so tempting to think like, oh, this is hard. I'm not seeing results over here on this particular marketing channel like LinkedIn or paid ads, and you're going to start to think, maybe if I jump over to a different marketing channel, it's just going to be instantly easier. Like, somehow I chose the hardest platform of all, and it just really doesn't happen that way. You are going to run into difficulties on all platforms. You know, marketing funnels, they really just take some time, and you have to learn the nuances of every, you know, marketing channel. So I think patience pays off when we come to think about building funnels. And if you're constantly changing directions, it gets really hard to build momentum with these funnels and test them and improve them. So that doesn't mean that a specific channel, like, for example, you said Facebook ads, is just the thing that you should do until the end of time. Right. You may switch at some point, but I think a more effective approach is to really look at a few different data points along the way in your funnel and to start to set your expectations appropriately, understand where those ads, those Facebook ads, they fit in the funnel, and then you can measure that layer of the funnel. Is it performing? So if you jump to, like, a new channel, like, say you have a podcast and you're tired of it and you just want to jump over to YouTube, you're going to have to rebuild from the ground up. So I don't want you to trick yourself into thinking that every other channel is just easier than the one you chose, and you chose poorly. You know, marketing funnels are challenging, and they take some time to build an audience on. Even for those of us who just really enjoy marketing.
- [21:52]
B
Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that up. You know, like, it should be hard. I think a lot of times we see the success that someone is having a colleague appear, we see the success that they're having, and we assume it was easy for them, and it just happened overnight. You know that famous quote of, you know, it took 20 years to achieve overnight success. And sure, sometimes people do catch lightning in a bottle. A YouTube video goes viral and their. Their phones light up. But that's the exception, not the rule. Marketing success should be hard. It should be a grind. The growth in the beginning should Be slow again. Think about financial planning. Think about what we all do for our clients. You don't start your career at 22 and all of a sudden, like a few weeks later or a couple years later, you have a million dollars. Like, it takes time. The growth should be slow in the beginning. So if it feels hard, if what you're doing in the marketing realm, if it feels hard, if it feels challenging, if it feels a little slow in the beginning, it doesn't mean that you're doing things the wrong way. In fact, it might mean exactly the opposite, that you're doing them the right way, that you're being intentional. And growth is slow and predictable. And eventually that snowball will start to roll and you'll find that success. And importantly here, not just short term success, right? We're not looking for quick wins, but long term, predictable success. Now, there are ways to start to measure whether or not an activity is working. And if you do need to make some improvements to it or iterate or even bring in a professional to help. But when I feel like something is challenging or hard, it usually tells me, okay, I'm doing the right thing here. I need to lean into this. I need to continue to push myself outside my comfort zone and just keep going.
- [23:28]
A
I definitely agree. I see this quite a bit with advisors. So let's start to get into it. Let's start to talk about those layers of the funnel. And I really love the way, Taylor, that you describe funnels. So could you start to take our listeners through those different layers, what they look like and how they work together so that they can really start to understand what a true working funnel looks like?
- [23:48]
B
Yeah. Thanks for sticking with us, everybody. We'll get into the good stuff now. So just to reiterate, if you go to Google and you type in marketing funnel because you want to learn a little bit more, you're going to find all different variations. You're going to find really complex funnels. And you might wonder, like, well, you know, Kendra and Taylor said there's only three layers to a funnel, and this one I'm looking at has 15. So, yes, you can get really complex, but our goal is to keep it really simple here. We want you to take action. We want you to find success. And what I'm sharing with you is exactly what I've done over the last few years to add seven figures of new recurring revenue to my firm. It does not need to be complex. After we walk through the three different layers here and give you some actual examples, we're going to share some real life examples. And I'll share exactly one of the really simple funnels that I've leaned on to grow my firm. So we're going to say today that there are three layers to a marketing funnel. These three layers represent three marketing activities. That's it. Again, you can make a case for having five or seven, but right now in the beginning, it's just not needed. I've had a lot of success with just a very simple funnel with three activities working together to support each other. Again, just like a retirement saver could have success making money, saving money and investing it in a simple low cost index fund portfolio. Sure, a case could be made for more complexity or more optimization, but it's not critical for everyone to have some sort of overly complex plan immediately on their journey to retirement success. So three layers to the funnel represent three different marketing activities. The three layers are the top of funnel, the middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel. In short, like we've already alluded to, people find you, that's the top of your funnel. They engage with you for a period of time, that's the middle of your funnel. And then ultimately they take action and they make a buying decision. Which is the bottom of your funnel. So those three layers, top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel. And I really like Kendra, how you laid it out earlier. People find you, they trust you, they hire you. Those are the three layers. So let's start with the top of the funnel. We know that the top of the funnel is how people find you. This is what we call the awareness stage. This is how people find out that you exist, that you're a financial planner, what sort of services you offer, maybe who you help. A top of funnel marketing activity is not responsible for new clients. I'm going to say that again. A top of funnel marketing activity is not responsible for new clients. So some examples of top of funnel marketing activities would be something like paid Facebook ads or Google Ads or any sort of paid advertising. You're putting a paid ad in front of a total stranger that never knew you existed. It could be a billboard or a magazine ad or a digital ad. Any sort of paid ad is a way to help total strangers learn that just you exist. Think about it like you're not going to go from billboard to client right away. It's just a way to bring awareness. You're not going to go from Facebook ad to client. It's just a way to bring awareness or build awareness to you, your brand, your firm, your services, a Few other examples of top of funnel marketing activities. And these are all in the template as well that you can grab in the show notes search engine optimization. And this is a big one where there's misconception that, you know, I'm going to put a bunch of money and time into SEO and it's going to lead to new clients. But that's not accurate. SEO is a top of funnel activity. Again, just bringing awareness to your website, to who you are, what you do, that you exist. SEO is not responsible for new clients, direct mail, viral campaigns, trade shows, or even conferences or other examples. To Kendra's point from earlier, this doesn't have to be digital. It can be in person as well. Maybe you focus on physicians and you go to a physician's conference and you set up a booth at a trade show, at the physicians trade show. That's a top of funnel activity. It's pretty crazy to think that a totally random physician that never knew you before at this conference sees your booth and then hands over their life savings to you. Like, that's pretty ridiculous. But it does help to bring awareness. It helps kind of start that process of that person learning who you are, what you do, and then starting to move through the different layers of your funnel. So hopefully that's clear. Top of funnel bringing awareness to you and what you do. And those are some of the examples of those different activities that fit there. And again, we're just going to choose one of those. We're not going to do paid ads and SEO and direct mail and set up a trade booth at a conference. We're just going to pick one single activity for our top of funnel that best gets us in front of our ideal client. Kendra, anything to add to the top of funnel there before we move to the middle of the funnel?
- [28:27]
A
No, not much. I think you nailed it. And I say over and over again to advisors, the top of the funnel is just how people find out you exist. That's it. That's what you need to know. There are a few different ways you could do it, right? You pointed a few of those out. But the point of this is we just want to get on the radar of people. And there's really not much more to that. We don't have to overthink it.
- [28:47]
B
So now you hopefully know what the top of funnel is. You've identified one single activity that you're just going to pour everything into for that top of funnel activity. It's important to know now that once you have that top of funnel activity identified and you Start to implement it, and you start to have success with it. People can get stuck in the top of your funnel. So, for example, let's go back to the trade show or conference example. You're at this trade show, you have a booth, and a physician walks by your booth, sees that you're a financial planner that helps physicians, and then just keeps walking. Right? So your top of funnel activity worked. They now know that you exist, but they're stuck at the top of your funnel. They're not doing anything. They're not taking action. They just. They know you exist. Wow. There's a financial planner that helps physicians. Cool. So you have to have an action to move people through each layer of the funnel. So for this top of funnel activity, if I have a booth at a trade show, I might also give away a free ebook or maybe a free physical book, but I might give away a free ebook in exchange for the physician's email address. Now they've learned who I am, that I exist, and now I'm attempting to move them to the middle of my funnel so that I can engage with them further and build trust with them. Remember Kendra's version of the funnel? Find you, trust you, hire you, trusting you is the middle of the funnel, often referred to as the engagement stage or the consideration stage. They found you. Now you've moved them to the middle of the funnel. And the sole purpose of this middle of the funnel activity is to build trust and show your expertise to that person. And you can do this in a number of different ways. I mentioned the E book. So it could be through an e book, it could be through a physical book, could be through a regular podcast that you host. It could be through a blog that you write, could be writing for other outlets, other media outlets. It could be teaching classes in person, or it could be an email newsletter. It could be public speaking. There. There are a number of different middle of the funnel activities that you can pursue to build trust and show your expertise with that potential client. So they found you, they learned about you. You then captured them and move them to the middle of your funnel so you can engage and start to build trust with them. It's worth pointing out here that most of us listening are not in the business of just selling a quick product. We're in the business of asking, oftentimes asking a total stranger to trust us with their entire life savings. So this middle of the funnel is really important. We have to build trust, and we often have to build trust for a long period of time. Right? They're not just buying a quick insurance product or getting a mortgage from us, or buying even a house for that matter. We're asking them to trust us with their entire life savings. It might take years of somebody listening to my podcast before they finally think, okay, I trust this guy. I really think he can help me. Now I'm going to reach out to him. Middle of the Funnel. As powerful as it is, it does take time. And the middle of the funnel activity. My retirement podcast is not, on its own, responsible for generating new clients. Its sole purpose is to build trust and show my expertise and educate my ideal clients about how I can help them solve their pain points. I could do that for a long time, sometimes forever. And there's going to be a lot of those listeners that will never hire me. Remember, we only need a small percentage of people to reach out. But for the middle of the funnel, the goal is to build trust, show expertise, engage with those people, and that's it.
- [32:06]
A
I love this trade show example because I think there's a few ways we could share some ideas on how you could tweak your trade show funnel if it's not working. You know, let's think about this booth at the trade show, right? So you know, your ideal client is there, you serve positions, it's a conference for doctors, physicians, and you're trying to get them to sign up for your ebook and they're just like, no thanks, that thing sucks. Not interested. So to get these people from the top of the funnel, just seeing the booth at the trade show, to the middle of your funnel, you know, something like, let's just say your email list where you're going to earn the opportunity to then build trust with them over time. You could try a couple of different things. So here's a couple things that kind of come to mind for me. First, you might have to build a better eye catching booth that just gets people to stop. We can't move them to the middle of the funnel without getting them to stop. They're just cruising on by, right? So first, think about that, how can we improve the booth? The second thing is, maybe we need a different offer or like a different lead magnet. You know, the ebook might not be interesting enough for them to share their email address with you. People are getting a bit more sophisticated. They want something a little more valuable to fork over their email address. So you might need something with a bit of, you know, higher perceived value. And I actually have a friend who is a painter who does trade shows and she came up with a really brilliant way to move people to the middle of the funnel. And I love it. So she goes to these trade shows, and when people come up to the booth, if they don't purchase any art, she just says, hey, I noticed you didn't snag any art today, and that's not a problem. But, hey, do you want a free postcard with a sample of my art? And everybody goes, of course, sure. That sounds great. And then she's like, awesome, just sign up for my email list. And she literally hands them a clipboard. It's like, so guerrilla style, but it works really well. I literally watched her do it. I'm at a trade show recently. And then after she gets that email, right, she's moving them from the top, which is walking by her booth, taking a peek at her art. She wants to move into the middle of funnel, which for her is her email list, where she's going to earn that opportunity over time to build trust. So she's now moved them to the middle of the funnel. So it's really easy to say that trade shows don't work, but if you are in front of your ideal client, the kind of person you love to serve, instead of pivoting, I would try improving your funnel and what parts are working right, you know, like, how could we adjust those? And, like, start there. So, yeah, I love that you share that example and hopefully that art piece. I know that's not exactly what advice, but it gives you an idea of what a trade show funnel could look like.
- [34:35]
B
No, I mean, that's what works for her, and that's what feels comfortable to her and authentic to her. And you might be saying, like, I could never do that. It doesn't feel feel comfortable. It feels like too salesy or whatnot. And it's important to pay attention to what you respond to and what you feel comfortable with the next time you go to a conference. Maybe you typically avoid the, you know, the vendors that are there, but next time you go, go, like, walk through the booths and, you know, see what attracts you, see what you pay attention to, what catches your eye and what you respond to. A lot of us just got back from future proof, and people got really creative with their boost of future proof. So, you know, take those opportunities to learn and apply those to your practice. And again, we're just getting stuck on trade booths here for a minute just to highlight all these things. Don't have to live in the digital world. But I do think about this in terms of what I would respond to if I made a trade show And I'm this person's ideal client. What would I give my email address for? What would get me excited and interested? You know, would it just be a form on a clipboard? Put your email down if you want to learn more. Probably not. So what would I respond to? What would I be excited to give my email address to somebody for? And it may not be an email address. To your point, you know what, what are other people doing? It might be something else. It could be text, this number and we'll give you X, Y and Z. It could be some sort of text messaging campaign. It might be easier, less friction for them to join a text message campaign versus email. So I think it's a great point. You can easily conclude that this booth doesn't work and it's a waste of money, but you may just need to improve and optimize that thing. And that goes back to understanding the role that that activity plays in the funnel and setting proper expectations. If it's me in this situation, my expectation is not that this $20,000 booth at a conference will lead to new clients. It's that this $20,000 booth allows me to gain awareness to me and my services and my awesome firm. And then I'm going to move those interested parties to the middle of my funnel so I can show them how I work, what I do, my value, my expertise, build trust with them over a period of time. So now we hopefully have a good understanding of these two really important layers, the top and the middle of the funnel. Now, the third layer of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel, is where all the fun begins. Taking action and making a buying decision. This is where people are truly evaluating you, determining if you can really help them and if your value outweighs your fees. So I think of the bottom of my funnel as my sales process. And I hate the word sales process, but that, that is what it is. That somebody who's in the middle of my funnel, who's been consuming my podcast, thinks that there's a good potential fit that I can help them. They're going to reach out to my firm in some capacity and inquire about my services. And the bottom of my funnel is my sales process. Now, your sales process could be really simple. It could be, hey, if you're interested in working with me and you want to explore taking the next step, go to my website and schedule a phone call. It might be one 30 minute phone call and maybe one additional meeting, and then you both make a decision whether or not you want to work together. I have a pretty detailed sales process for many reasons, which I'm sure we'll get into in another episode here. But your sales process doesn't need to be complex, but in some shape or form. I'm sure every advisor listening here has some version of a sales process. And again, it could just be a very basic introductory phone call followed by asking them to make a decision. It might be more elaborate, but the bottom of your funnel is your conversion stage. This is where you're converting prospects into clients. Now, going back to my comment from earlier, we have to present them with an action to take. We call this a call to action, or cta. We have to have a clear call to action to move people from the middle of our funnel to the bottom of our funnel. Just like that example of somebody getting stuck at the top of your funnel. Well, people can get stuck in the middle of your funnel. Let's go back to the trade show example and go back to the very top. So you're an advisor who specializes in helping physicians, and you paid for this booth at a trade show. Physician walks by it, is interested in what you're sharing, and gives you their email address in return for a free copy of your ebook on how to retire for physicians. Now, they're in the middle of your funnel and they're receiving your awesome email newsletter every week. That's just for physicians, for people just like them. They get it every week. They read it, they love it. They've been reading it for years and years, and they've never reached out to you to inquire about your services. And it might be because you've never invited them to. You haven't put any action in front of them. You haven't told them what to do. You might not have even told them that you have capacity for new clients. So we have to draw this stuff out in cran and say, hey, I know you've been reading my newsletter for a period of time. Here's who I help, here's how I help them. If you're interested, if you think that's you, here's how to go and take action. And it could be schedule a phone call with my firm, or it could be something more elaborate than that. But we have to have some sort of action to move them from the middle of our funnel, where we've been building trust with them and engaging with them and showing our expertise. We have to have some sort of action to then move them from that stage to the bottom of the funnel. Same thing on the podcast. I have to Explicitly go to my audience from time to time and say, hey, as a reminder, I'm a financial planner. I have capacity for new clients. Here's who I specialize in working with. If that's you, if you're interested, go here to take action. If I don't do that, my phone's not going to ring very often. But when I'm very clear and very explicit, I'm very direct. The phone starts ringing. You have to take action to move people into the bottom of your funnel. And again, every advisor can have their own version of the bottom of the funnel to convert those potential clients into actual clients.
- [40:05]
A
Taylor, while you were talking, something interesting came up for me. As you describe these different layers, I had this revelation that many advisors may not understand actually how the middle of funnel works. So they may think, obviously, like, the trade show, should send them new clients right away. But the trade show is just the top how we bring awareness to the firm. We need time to nurture and grow trust, which is the middle of the funnel. And most advisors try to go from the top straight down to the bottom. And they're really frustrated when it doesn't work. They expect that trade show booth or that Facebook ad to just, like, churn out new clients. And you can't just smash a funnel together and skip the trust building. I mean, sure, a few people could be ready to take action. That's awesome. But most are not going to be ready. And if you're getting in front of the right people, but maybe you're not getting new clients, there's a strong chance you might have a weak middle of the funnel. The other thing that was really interesting to me that you mentioned is to actually just reminding people what you do and who you do it for. I see this often, too, you know, with a lot of advisors. I have a client that has a sizable email list, and we do some soft calls to action here and there. But twice a year, we do a call booking campaign, and we send two or three dedicated emails. The only purpose of the email is to talk about who he serves, how he helps, and to take action. That's it. And we do them at specific times of the year. And ironically, the bulk of his call bookings come from these couple of emails that we do with these, you know, in the fall and at the start of the year. So even if you're in front of these people, often they may not realize or they may not be ready to take action. So you have to remind them who you are, how you help people like them. I Know, it sounds so funny to say that, but I think the middle of funnel is where I think a lot of advisors just kind of forget that it exists.
- [41:51]
B
Yeah, it's a really, really good point. And I mean, let's not, you know, ignore the fact that sure, it is possible that somebody sees your trade booth or lands on your website as a result of SEO and is ready to hire you. Like that is possible. That can happen from time to time and maybe, you know, you're okay with that. For me, I want them to go to the middle of my funnel. I want them to consume my content, I want to educate them, I want to show my expertise, I want to show them my philosophy and how I approach planning and helping people just like them. If they just go straight from seeing who I am and seeing my website or seeing my trade booth to wanting to sign a client agreement, I don't know, we're not setting the right expectations or maybe setting ourselves up for good long term success. So I actually want people to go to the middle of my funnel. But you know, if somebody does, total stranger finds you and wants to hire you right away, you might be okay with that. But I wouldn't expect that to happen on a regular basis. It's not very predictable. Very few people are ready just to hand over their life savings, you know, on one encounter like that. And yeah, again, it's easy for people to assume that, that you're not an advisor, that, you know, let's say you're writing a blog, that maybe you're just a writer, just another Morgan Housel out there writing about finance. It was assumed by my audience because they told me this, that I was just a podcaster or a financial media person. Listeners didn't know that I was an advisor. And also second to that, I heard from people that they didn't know I was taking on new clients. So, you know, they knew I had this, this large podcast and they assumed that I just must be at capacity or too busy for them. So they're not going to reach out because they feel like I have too many clients and just don't have time. I've learned through this feedback and through experience that it's important for me to go to my audience and say, hey, you know, not only am I a financial planner, but I have capacity for 12 new clients this year. Here's who I specialize in working with. Here's what to do if you want to learn more. So don't expect everybody on the other end of your blog or, you know, your newsletter or your podcast or your YouTube channel, whatever it might be. Don't expect everybody just to know that you're an active advisor ready and willing to take on new clients.
- [43:44]
A
Yeah, it's so funny. We just, we just forget because we're so close to it that sometimes you really have to draw this stuff out and crayon. So you know now that you walk through a few of these different layers of the funnel and how you need a marketing activity or a call to action at each level to move them through. Let's talk about some real life examples and some funnels and what this looks like in practice. Taylor, do you have one that you want to go with first?
- [44:08]
B
Yeah, I'll share one really simple funnel that I've already kind of alluded to and then I'll share another one from a friend of mine funnel that he's had success with. So again, all it takes is one of these. You can have success with just one of these. In the early days of starting my firm and starting my podcast, I was obsessed with search engine optimization. I'm an SEO nerd. I've been in the SEO world for a long time and I just love it. So here's an example of a very simple funnel that has fueled a lot of growth. The top of funnel activity for this funnel was SEO search engine optimization and optimizing my website for the keyword Best retirement podcast or retirement podcast. Just some iterations of that word retirement podcast. So if somebody goes to Google, which I know a lot of people do, because I can see the analytics. If somebody goes to Google and they type in retirement podcast or best retirement podcast, my website, again, I worked really hard on this one single top of funnel activity to get success here. My website is optimized to show up on the first page of Google when they go to type that in. Now understand again to set proper expectations here. I understand that not everybody who types that in is going to subscribe to my podcast. That that's unreasonable. There are a lot of great retirement podcasts out there, but I'm putting myself in position. So if they type best retirement podcast, they see mine and maybe they see that mine looks interesting, they click on it, they subscribe to it. Now they're in the middle of my funnel. Now they're subscribed to my podcast and it's my job to add value to them week over week over week and build trust with them through my retirement podcast. Then, as I mentioned earlier, from time to time on the show, I let my listeners know that I'm Taking on new clients. Here's who I specialize in working with. Go here to take action. My sales process, I've branded it. Again, you don't have to get this elaborate with, but I've branded it. It's called the free retirement assessment process. So, you know, if you're interested in working with our firm, we've developed a process to help you evaluate us. We call it the Free Retirement Assessment process. We're going to give you a free tax analysis. We're going to answer your big retirement questions. We're going to show you exactly how we can help you before you decide to hire us. So I'll say something like that and then just say, you know, go to freeretirementassessment.com to learn more. So I'm moving them or I'm giving them the opportunity to move from the middle of my funnel now to the bottom of my funnel. So very, very simple. I could do just that and have a lot of success. But once that thing is working, once that single funnel is working, SEO to retirement podcast to the free retirement assessment, that is my sales process, once that one single funnel is working, it becomes easy for me to say, okay, well what else can I do here? How can I pour gas on this thing? What else can I be doing as a top of funnel activity to get more people to the podcast? So once you have one good working funnel, it becomes really easy to start to stack other things on top of it. But you have to get focused on finding success there first. If I was trying to do SEO and three other top of funnel activities at the same time, probably wouldn't have had success. One other quick example of another advisor kind of switching gears a little bit here. Since we've been talking about the podcast quite a bit. I know a lot of listeners here are on social media and active on social media as a marketing activity. Maybe thinking like, you know, how does this all work with social media? Well, I have a good friend who's an advisor up in the Pacific Northwest and he specializes in working with tech employees of certain firms. This is not one of the companies that he works with, but I'll use a different name here. But his strategy for reaching these people is to use LinkedIn. So specifically his top of funnel activity for this funnel, he's hired an agency to help with this layer. So again, he's not hiring a Kendra to build out a comprehensive marketing plan, but he realized I need help with the top of funnel activity. So his top of funnel activity, who he hired an agency to help with is to cold LinkedIn DM executives of some of these companies that he's targeting. So the example that I use in my funnel template is Qualcomm executives. I'm in San Diego, Qualcomm's a local company, so he's Hypothetically here cold LinkedIn DMing Qualcomm executives. Again, he's paying an agency, I think a couple thousand dollars a month to help him do this. You could do it yourself, but he wants to leverage his time. So cold DMs to these Qualcomm executives, inviting them to his monthly educational webinars for Qualcomm executives to learn how they can optimize their benefits, lower taxes, improve their financial lives, all that good stuff. So cold DM is the top of funnel activity, building awareness to who he is, what he does, and then inviting them, that is moving them to the middle of his funnel, inviting them to a webinar that he can then educate, show his expertise, build trust with those people. And then during the webinar, probably towards the end he's like, hey, if you need professional help, here's how I can help and here's how to take action. That is now he's moving them to the bottom of his funnel. Now it's very possible that Qualcomm executives attend every monthly webinar for years before they're ready to reach out. That's totally fine. Again, his expectation is that that's the middle of his funnel. He's going to nurture and build trust and show his expertise for a period of time. And if he is consistent with it and it's high quality and it's speaking to his target client, ultimately when they're ready, he'll have a call to action at the end of every webinar and when they're ready, they know where to go when the time is right.
- [49:21]
A
I love that example around social media because if you are building a funnel like that, you already have multiple items that you could optimize. So for example, you could test improving the messages that you have going out and those different angles that you're using to get people interested in signing up for that webinar. You know, you could also look at something like the show up rate for your webinar. Right? So if they sign up but they don't show up, how could we improve, you know, that show up rate? Maybe with some automated follow ups like email or text and then also with the actual webinar, if they do join the webinar, how long do they Stay. What's the watch rate and how many people from the webinar who are live sign up for a call. You know, every funnel has endless pieces that you could optimize and improve. And again, that doesn't mean that you just go after this webinar funnel again until the end of time. There is a time to say this isn't working, but before we jump to a different channel or let's, you know, start all over, let's look at these different metrics at different layers of the funnel and see like, where is it working? You know, we're getting people from LinkedIn to the webinar. Cool. Like that piece is working. What's the next step?
- [50:25]
B
Yeah, really well said. When you know what these different activities, what their role is, when you have proper expectations, then yeah, it really gives you the ability to start to test and really optimize things. So Kendra, what about you? What's a real life marketing funnel that you have to share with our listeners today?
- [50:42]
A
So it's funny we didn't coordinate on any of these examples before we decided to talk about them, but I'm also going to talk about a podcast funnel. There are plenty of ways to grow your firm. Don't think that we're overly focused on podcast funnels, but it's just an example. So the podcast funnel that I built is for a client who has an investment focused podcast and they launched it about three years ago. We've grown to about a quarter of a million downloads. And the top of funnel is very simple. We know based on survey data what other podcasts his listeners subscribe to. We do the survey once a year to his list and they tell us who they listen to and we look at what are those podcasts are really qualified with his audience. And since we know where his best listeners already hang out, we target those podcasts and we try to get them on as a guest. So my personal goal for him is to do 12 interviews a year on other shows for top of Funnel awareness. So right now we have about 12 or 15 shows that we're targeting and this works really well when we get him on those shows. And then for the middle of funnel, it's pretty simple. We get him on the shows and the goal is that he has an amazing interview and then they subscribe and listen to his weekly podcast. Now this is where over time we're going to build trust with his audience. And what's been really interesting since he launched this show a few years ago, this client's been with me for about Six years. So there's been a lot of evolution is that I've seen a major spike in the quality of the prospects he's getting. And it's really clear by the time they actually book a call with him, the trust he's built is way stronger than before. Exactly what you said, Taylor. It's like you want people to go to that middle of funnel because by the time they come to you and they book a call, that trust is built in a way that you wouldn't have without it. And then for the bottom of the funnel, we do a couple call booking campaigns a year, one in October and one in January. We really leverage a couple different pieces around when people are thinking about their finances, to strike when the iron is hot. And there's a few other ways that we do drive, you know, kind of calls and schedule things, but honestly, the most simple, straightforward stuff has worked the best. So, you know, something I really want to point out here too, is that this client's funnel, in my opinion, is weakest at the top. They have a lot of changes that have happened over time, and we've been rethinking certain elements of their funnel and going back to the drawing board a little bit. Even though this funnel is currently converting clients. Right. So you might have a funnel that's converting clients, and there are certain layers that could be stronger or need to be improved to really get the funnel working at a full capacity.
- [53:09]
B
Yeah, I really love that example. I did a podcast episode a couple years ago. We can link to it in the show notes about what I called the best marketing strategy. Now, I know it's not like the single best, but I truly do believe it's one of the best marketing strategies, especially if you need success quickly. And that is to leverage what you just said, to leverage somebody else's platform. So this client, if you're just doing that for the top of funnel activity, he knows that guesting on somebody else's podcast is not going to lead to new clients, right? Like, that's just his top of funnel activity, but he's leveraging that person's platform, their audience that they've already built to help build his audience and build his middle of the funnel to get more subscribers to his podcast. So sometimes the quickest way to success is leveraging somebody else's audience that they've already built. Now, it takes some craft in order to do that. People are protective of their platforms and their shows or websites, so you have to be tactical and go about it the right way. But leveraging Somebody else's platform is a phenomenal top of funnel activity to bring awareness to you and what you do and your middle of the funnel activity, which is then where you can really build trust with those people.
- [54:17]
A
Exactly. And I think something really interesting about this particular scenario is that a few years ago, when this advisor first launched their podcast, they hired a podcast booking agency to help them get interviews on other podcasts when the show first started. And what was kind of interesting is the booking agency did do a good job of actually getting them on other podcasts, but those podcasts weren't really in front of the right audiences. Like, they just put on some weird shows and, you know, it felt to me they thought that was the right audience, or maybe they were just, you know, really trying to get them on shows, thinking that the quantity would make the advisor happy. But I just kind of felt like the audience wasn't the best fit. We didn't see a lot of success from just throwing him on any podcast. So when you think about this approach to borrowing other audiences, I want to give some nuance here. That size is not the most important factor. Targeting is. You want to be in front of the right kind of people, even if it's a small audience. I would rather have a smaller audience with ideal people that would be qualified and interested in hiring an advisor than a large audience of people that would never have enough assets or just really wouldn't want to delegate to an advisor. I think it's really important to just point out here, just because the audience is big doesn't mean it's better. Tiny can be very mighty. And if someone has a smaller audience, they're also a little bit easier to approach too. Once someone's audience gets bigger, the barriers get higher for entry.
- [55:43]
B
Yeah, which is why I would say, like, you should start small. I would go as far as saying you should start with a. With targeting people, smaller audiences. When I think back to when I first started my firm, I was doing some guest writing. And I started by just doing some guest writing for some friends of mine on their websites. Not very big websites, but just some websites. And then it felt good to then take that experience and what little success that led to, to then leverage that and then. And then pitch my writing to a local paper. So there's a small, little local free paper that you can just grab anywhere and. And they often have financial writers contribute. So I pitched my writings to that local paper and they started to publish some of them and it was cool to see my name starting to get published. You know, physically in paper, and then they started to put it online from there. Once I started to, you know, get some traction, I felt more confident to then go to larger publications and be able examples of my writings that was actually published in other places. And so I think you should start small. Whether it's a podcast or YouTube or writing, whatever it might be, start small, start leveraging people's smaller audiences first, and then begin working your way up. If you go straight to the biggest podcast out there and pitch yourself like, you're probably not going to have any success.
- [56:52]
A
Yeah, that's a valid point. And, you know, I also see those smaller opportunities as really just a chance to kind of get some reps in and, you know, perfect your writing or your interview skills. You know, I've had a few clients who want to really swing for the fences and have some really large guests on their podcast right out of the gate, but they haven't really had any practice. They haven't really practiced becoming a great interviewer. Right. We're having those conversations. And so under the right circumstances, it could really make sense to wait to leverage those opportunities, even if you have them. So, you know, use the fact that maybe you don't have as many people paying attention in the beginning and leverage that as an upside to get your reps in and get some practice in.
- [57:29]
B
Yeah, really well said. So we talked about a lot today. We told you it was going to be a lot. We told you it going to be detailed. We tried to keep it as simple as possible, and hopefully we did, especially with the template and the video that I recorded separately. But, Kendra, just as we round things out here, what are some of your key takeaways here as we conclude today's episode?
- [57:46]
A
You know, the thing that I like to remind myself and a lot of advisors is that when it comes to marketing funnels, it's an ongoing learning process. You know, even with my own clients, there's still a lot of different things that I'm learning and testing and actively trying to improve. Just like the funnel exam example that I shared here. Right. So I think what makes advisor marketing really unique is how outrageously strong we have to build that middle of funnel, how much trust we have to build. Right. You know, we're not selling sneakers or tacos, and I actually have sold tacos before as a marketer, and I can tell you it was a lot easier than financial services. So, you know, it's a different approach to marketing because the amount of trust we have to build, you know, we're really asking People to take this big step with us. And, you know, I know a lot of advisors, they're frustrated because they just don't understand that middle of funnel. It's almost like that ghost layer that they forget needs to be in place to build that trust over time. So, for example, if you go back and you listen to our episode 5 marketing improvements to 3x your revenue over the years, which we'll link to that in the show notes, you know, you really go deep and you talk about how that podcast, the retirement podcast, is a millionaire funnel, and how it takes years for someone to call you. And that middle of funnel, even when it's built well, it still takes time to produce results. And the second thing that's really kind of coming up for me as we start to wrap up here is then the need and the urgency to fight for simplicity in your marketing. And, you know, I'm just as guilty as this as so many advisors listening that, you know, it can always feel like the answer to making your marketing work is always more. More marketing activities, more channels, more spaghetti at the wall. Right? But I find the opposite is often true. Marketing success is usually from doing less things better, slowing down to get clear on who you serve, how you want to start reaching them, and where you're going to start building trust with them over an extended period of time. So, you know, if you take care of that top of funnel, which is how you help people find you, and then you build that middle of funnel where this is where you build trust over time in a high quality way. I think the bottom of funnel, you know, getting people to engage with you about hiring you gets a lot easier. But do not forget, like we said here, you know, you're still gonna have to spell it out for them in crayon. And I think that, you know, simplicity is easy to talk about, but it's hard to do. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. And we're all human, you know, we want to throw some extra noodles in there. Like, what about this one strategy? What about this thing over here? Right? And like I said, I'm just as guilty of doing it as the advisor is listening. But again, the important takeaway for me here is a reminder of just the importance of fighting for simplicity in your marketing so that you could really focus out on and build each of those layers of the funnel.
- [60:38]
B
Yeah, I really don't want that takeaway to go in one ear and out the other. Everybody listening. Most of you are financial advisors, so think about it. What do you tell most people when they come to you for the very first time? You know, they come to you with a portfolio with dozens, maybe hundreds of different securities and investments. What do you tell them? We need to simple simplify this. They have accounts all over the place at different custodians. What do you tell them? We need to simplify this. So the same thing can and should be applied to marketing. Keeping things simple, typically is the answer. If you're doing 10 different marketing activities with no plan, probably need to simplify things. Yes, there are cases for complexity. Absolutely. Just like in financial planning. But for most of us here, keeping things simple is going to be the key to success. I really just have one single takeaway, and it is, you know, kind of part of keeping things simple. And that is to just focus on building one single funnel. Just do me that favor. If you're going to take action after today's episode, focus on building one single funnel. If you're doing 10 different things, narrow it down to three. Make sure that those three are complementing each other, that they're working together and you're setting proper expectations. So the worksheet that I've got in the show notes, it has three blank pages for three funnels for you to start to brainstorm and play with and start to fill in the blanks. But we really just want to get to one. I like, I put three in there because I think it's worth brainstorming and thinking of all bunch of different ideas. But then once you've got those ideas on paper, then we're going to pick one single funnel and we're going to commit to it. We're going to pour all of our time and attention and resources into it. We're going to build one single funnel. We're going to have success with that funnel before we go and do anything else. And then lastly, just a reminder that these activities in the funnel, these three activities, remember, only three, three activities that you choose, they're going to support each other. Just like the elements of a financial plan, just like the insurance policies and the estate plan and the investment portfolio and the tax plan, they're all working together to support the client's goals. The activities in your funnel, the three activities are going to do the same thing. So we're not, we're not just looking at that one thing and saying, Facebook ads aren't working. They're not getting new clients, right? No, Facebook ads are supporting. They should be supporting another area of your funnel. If Facebook ads happen to apply to you so activities in the funnel should support each other. If you want the link for the funnel walkthrough, the resources I put together, the template, the video, go to Today's Show Notes and grab that. I hope today was helpful. Again, I know it's detailed. We tried to keep it simple. If we missed anything or if you felt like things got overly complex, you've got questions, please do reach out to us. We can do a follow up episode answering listener questions.
- [63:15]
A
All right everyone, Today you heard a walkthrough on how to build a strong advisor marketing funnel with a few real life examples of working funnels. We hope that our conversation today gave you some clarity and it helped you identify where you can start to build and improve your own marketing funnel. Thanks for listening and 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 listening and we'll see you next week.