Dear Frank Maselli, Re: “A Letter from an Advisor to a Wholesaler” I loved it. (To other financial advisors… Please read Frank’s post here before you go any further. This won’t make sense otherwise.) To your comment: “What I need…and I’m being totally honest here…are...

First: Some Background People refer for two reasons; 1) to be helpful, and 2) to look good. A good brand makes your clients and COIs look great. A compelling advisor brand positions you as different, better and relevant. With simple marketing your brand will inspire...

This article is for financial advisors who want to be better at marketing. If you can relate to any of these WEBSITE DON’Ts, I’m hoping they inspire you to reflect on why you have a website and what you hope it will accomplish for your practice. 1 – Use Others Peoples...

It’s easy to get lost in the service, administrative, and compliance side your business while pushing aside the work needed to attract more ideal prospects. There are simple strategies and tactics that often get started and stopped over and over. It’s a cycle of...

Content rules marketing. I’ve written on ways to create content, how important is to generate leads and how content transcends marketing. Essentially, content is marketing. And if you find it difficult to produce content, you’re behind the eight ball.   You risk...

If you don’t already know, financial podcasting is on an upwards trend. As an experienced financial marketer, I think this one makes perfect sense for financial advisors.  Financial Podcast Etiquette Here are TEN tips to help you nail your financial podcast.  Stand,...

Let’s say you want to write a timely article and you’re wondering how to distribute it to your readers. You might also be wondering how to write it. And you might also wonder how to make sure it gets read as much as possible. You and thousands of advisors are in the...

Your Corporate Advisor Video I’m working with an advisor in Australia. He has a brilliant mind and he’s on the cusp of changing the way investors see investment risk.  His views are non-mainstream so that complicates the communication challenge. Last year, he produced...

10 Reasons You Should Start Your Own Advisor Podcast: For many years now media publicity was the pie-in-the-sky for advisors aspiring to “influencer” status. The goal was to attract attention and ultimately fill their prospect pipeline. Often times, being a media...

How to Fill Your Advisor Blog with Great Financial Content 5 steps to simplify the content creation process for advisors.  Are you a Financial Advisor seeking to conquer online marketing? Do you have a burning desire to crack the online marketing code? Are you...

Is content creation keeping you from achieving more success? 3 Reasons Financial Advisors Should Podcast… Count how many times over the past 90 days you could have leveraged having more, and better content at your disposal? It could be to email or share with clients,...

Effective Advisor Website Design No doubt, you’re well aware that your financial advisor website is an opportunity to make a first and lasting impression with your audience. What eludes most advisors regarding their website design is the winning formula to make it...

Building Your Financial Marketing Team Just like running a successful business, your marketing requires a variety of different talents with deep skill sets. In business you hire: A bookkeeper or accountant to manage your financial reporting. A lawn maintenance company...

Everyone in financial services understands that advisors generate 75-90% of all their new business from referrals. That doesn’t mean they’re generating enough revenue however, as most advisors will tell you they want more referrals, more leads, more clients. Advisors...

Advisors are marketers – if not by choice, by necessity. To be successful in this business, professional advisors need to create opportunities to: Advance their careers Earn a great income Enjoy the privileges of being self-employed Over the years there have been many...

Most advisors I’ve met struggle with marketing. We’re at a particularly tumultuous time on the financial services industry. There are incredible demands being placed on advisors including compliance, fee transparency, more solutions than ever, constantly changing tax...

What it is, Why it’s needed and How to do it. WHAT IS A FINANCIAL BRAND STYLE GUIDE? Your brand style guide is set of prescribed rules to follow whenever anything about you or your firm is created to ensure your audience sees and hears about you and your firm in a...

Marketing Stages As we loop back in history, we can see that the way we “market” our products and services has changed drastically. We’ve gone from very limited supply of goods to a point where just about everything is a commodity. Progress is impossible with our...

Advisor Brand ROI Most financial advisory firms understand the potential value of a powerful brand.  One challenge I often see though is the problem they face in understanding and positioning Brand ROI within their firms. Unfortunately, most advisory firms are...

Financial Advisory firms can use a formula to move prospects along the sales path: from suspect to lead to client.   This isn’t a magic bullet but it is straightforward and simple.  It takes discipline and dedication but once the formula is engrained, the rewards can...

Your Advisor Marketing Plan Template If this year is all about focus and results, then a marketing plan is a must. Having worked with financial advisors for over 16 years now, I know just how compelling a written advisor marketing plan can be. Sure, everyone has an...

ADVISOR WEBSITE MARKETING: Good News for RIAs & IARs Independent financial firms are quickly gaining momentum on large financial firms in their ability to leverage the advisor website marketing. Back in 2008, the Securities Industry Association published research...

Advisor Marketing Ideas: Separating the winners from the, well, not-winners.  I just wanted to share what several people told me was an Aha-Moment while attending the RIA Summit, sponsored by Business Development Partners. My role at the summit was to meet with...

Trust, the Best Financial Advisor Marketing Strategy “Trust”, there’s no word I’ve heard offered more when I ask advisors and RIAs what separates them from their competition. It’s such a predictable response I’ve been thinking of changing my business model to, “If I...

Over the last 16 years working with financial advisory firms, one question I find myself answering often is the difference between Branding and Marketing.  It’s an important education process towards having the right marketing mindset, the right strategy and an...

There’s nothing sexy about website security. It isn’t fun, nothing about it makes you more interesting to your clients, and you aren’t likely to be published in any trade journals for doing it right. However, if you don’t follow some basic steps, the likelihood of...

… and how this applies to your much smaller financial practice. Last week, I received a LinkedIn notification that a connection had shared a popular tweet about a financial giant launching a “Client Appreciation” video while attending a financial industry conference –...

30+ Ideas to Enhance Your Financial Advisor Website My article, “10 Reasons Your Financial Advisor Website Needs a Makeover” was well read on KirkLowe.com and on my LinkedIn profile. I followed up that article with FIVE solution driven articles tackling all...

Is your advisor website responsive? If not, you are suffering from poorer search engine ranking. The design of responsive advisor website is an increasingly common technique used to create a better browsing experience no matter what device a viewer uses. Responsive...

Financial Advisor Branding Tips Most financial advisors and firms aspire to be seen as different and/or better than their peers. While we don’t often see unique approaches to marketing in this industry, done well it can have a powerful impact on successfully marketing...

Six Thoughts on Advisor Marketing Events Running prospecting events to grow your advisory practice can be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they can be a powerful addition to any client acquisition strategy. On the other hand they have the potential of...

Before I get too far into this post, it’s important to note that, although this post is about advisor marketing tactics, it’s essential that your marketing “tactics” feed your marketing “strategies”. Your strategies are how you want to achieve your goals – your...

Your Search for the Best Financial Marketing Team Begins Here When it comes to marketing your financial advisor business, one of the most important decisions you will make is selecting the right marketing partner(s). – the best financial marketing team. It is a...

PART 5 OF 5 This is the final post on advisor (financial) websites makeover tips series. In this post we’ll outline the challenges and solutions for our advisor website makeover series: Mobile Readiness and Creativity. Fee free to click back to previous articles as...

PART 4 OF 5 Let us help you with your financial website makeover. In Part 4 of our 5 part series we’ll uncover solutions for getting your financial brand and financial website noticed and how you can leverage visual design to make a memorable impact. Feel free to...

PART 3 OF 5 Financial Advisor Websites – Makeover Tips In Part 3 of our 5 part series we’ll deal with overcoming the challenges of helping you position your brand on your website as well as helping your website visitors take action (download content) on your website....

PART 2 OF 5 Welcome to Part 2 of our 5 part series on Advisor Website Makeover Solutions. This post tackles the challenge and solution of having a believable advisor website; one with a clear purpose and depth. Last week we took a look at the challenges and...

Last week I published an article that generally criticized financial advisor (and RIA, BD and IMO) websites. I took it down and replaced with this 5-part series. I even went to far as to claim most were useless. In the true sense of the word useless, I stand by that....

Whether you are an advisor or an RIA, if your website doesn’t have a clear and compelling purpose for your business, you are likely wasting your time and your money. That may frustrate the heck out of you because you’ve relied on a professional service to either...