Claire Akin's Blog, page 25
July 18, 2020
How to Get Amazing Original Photography for Your Website and Brand
Most of the advisors I work with are true specialists, so they want their website and brand, presentations, and social media profiles to be truly unique. The best way to make an impact through your marketing imagery is with original photography of you, your office, and your team.
Beyond a great headshot, original photography can be used to enhance your website, presentations, and social media profiles. One advisor here in San Diego, Tim Dyer of Dyer Wealth Management, does an incredible job of featuring original photography throughout his website.
Tim took some time and money to hire an excellent local photographer to shoot a variety of photos to feature throughout his marketing. For example, when Tim writes a blog post about his unique process for working with clients, instead of using a stock photo, he uses a photo of himself actually meeting with clients.
Similarly, instead of using a generic photo on the team page of his website, he is able to feature a high-quality image of his team meeting in the conference room as the banner image. Most of the images on his website are original photos of his office and team. This adds a personal touch to his site and lets prospects “meet” him and his team.
Where to Use Your Photography
Investing in high-quality original photography can take some time, effort, and money. But when you consider using your images throughout your marketing strategy, the investment has a higher return. You can plan to use your photography consistently across all branded collateral including:
Your website
Social media profiles
Blog posts
Google Business listing
Brochures
PowerPoint presentations
Reports
Print and digital advertisements
Tips for Getting Amazing Photography
If you’re going to invest in new photography, you will want to make sure your session is a success. Here are tips for achieving a great collection of photographs you can use in your marketing for years to come.
1. Think Beyond the Headshot
Of course you need a great headshot for your website and social media profiles, but by featuring artful imagery of your office and team throughout your website, you can add depth and interest. Think beyond the headshot to capture various images to be used throughout your website and marketing collateral.
Be sure you have images in both landscape and portrait orientation and with lots of extra space around the subjects and a variety of angles. Here are a few types of photos to capture:
Conservative headshot
Casual headshot
Candid profile
Meeting with clients
Office images
Team photos
Website background images
2. Get Creative
Don’t be afraid to get creative and try out different ideas. If you don’t like how the image looks, you don’t have to use it! Try a mixture of candid and posed shots in several locations around the office, such as in the conference room, the lobby, and your personal office. You can also have the photographer take a few images of your office without any people present.
3. Invest in a Talented Photographer
The first step to getting great photos is to hire a talented and experienced photographer. Ask around or use Yelp.com to find some great business photographers. Then get quotes and request samples of their work. Choose the highest quality photographer you can find, since the bigger investment will be your time and energy. (See our recommendations for high-quality photographers near you at the end of this article.)
A novice photographer wouldn’t have been able to capture this beautiful reflection of Tim’s logo in his conference room.
4. Go Outside
Once you have photos of your team and your office, make a point to get outdoor photos. Everyone looks better outdoors and greenery adds interest to photography. Try your office courtyard or outside at a public park or garden.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Travel
Many of our offices aren’t the most photogenic areas, so don’t fret if you don’t have a gorgeous building to take your photos near. Take a field trip to a hotel or museum to get interesting and striking images that make you look great. Hotel lobbies often have beautiful but understated artwork and decor that can provide the perfect backdrop for your shoot.
Using Your Photos
Once the photographer sends you the final images, choose 12 to 20 photos that you love to feature in your marketing. Add them to your website pages and social media and start integrating them into your other marketing materials for cohesive branding. There’s no need to update the photos for at least 10 years, with the exception of your headshot, which should be updated every five years.
Need help locating a top-notch photographer in your area?
If you’re in San Diego, we recommend Photographer Tim King. For a $50 credit toward any of the options found here, use discount code indigo.
Tim King’s recommendations:
The 20-minute shoot is best if you just need a new and modern bio or LinkedIn photo.
The 1-hour shoot is best if you want consistency but variety across platforms and usage for negative space (for quotes, ads, etc). This is ideal for people such as coaches and speakers to have options for when they are guests on panels, or included in marketing materials that range in aesthetics.
The half-day & full-day shoots are for those same type of people who also want content for their social media for 6 months to a year in advance, all during the course of a single day.
If you’re outside of San Diego, here are our recommendations for high-quality photographers in the following areas:
San Francisco: anthony@anthonybaca.com
Los Angeles: marlies@mhartphoto.com
Portland: info@starkphotography.com
Denver: john@johnbosleyphotography.com
New York: hello@davidnoles.com
Looking for more ways to improve your marketing as a financial advisor? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post How to Get Amazing Original Photography for Your Website and Brand appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
July 12, 2020
How Does Your Marketing Compare To Top Advisors?
Our marketing checklist for financial advisors will help take you to the top.
Most advisors struggle with marketing simply because it’s not their expertise. They either don’t know where to start or they’re already doing it themselves but they’re not sure if they’re doing it right. Sound familiar? We thought it would be helpful to put together a checklist of the most important things top advisors are doing that you should be doing too.
If you really want to grow your business and attract high-quality leads, there are four main marketing goals you should aim to meet:
Have a clearly defined niche: Which one problem do you solve for a specific group?
Spend 5% to 7% of your total revenue on your marketing budget to share your solution with your niche.
Aim for at least 1,000 people on your email list who can refer you when they come across people who need your help.
Send out new content at least monthly that is highly relevant and valuable to your specific niche.
But what else should you be doing to grow your business? We’ve created a simplified checklist of the most important marketing strategies that top advisors are using to grow their business.
We recommend downloading your free checklist to see how your marketing stacks up against the competition. Then schedule a free strategy session with Teresa (our Digital Marketing Consultant), who will go over this checklist with you and provide recommendations on how to improve your marketing.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE MARKETING STRATEGY CHECKLIST HERE
indigo checklist (3)
Not ready to schedule a call just yet? Download your checklist and join our exclusive webinar on the truth about marketing for financial advisors. You’ll learn about what works for financial advisors, what’s a waste of money, and the only two ways to get new clients in today’s digital landscape.
Looking for more ways to improve your marketing as a financial advisor? Find more information on our blog. Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package.
The post How Does Your Marketing Compare To Top Advisors? appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
July 11, 2020
Three Ways to Supercharge Your Marketing Results (Video)
Whether you’re a current client of ours or are doing your own marketing, here are three tips you can use to supercharge your marketing—so you stay top-of-mind as the go-to person who can solve your target audience’s biggest problem.
1. Get Your Message Out To More People
My #1 tip to supercharge your marketing is to get your message out to as many people as possible. How? Through your email list.
Every single person you know should be on your email list—think friends, family, former coworkers, acquaintances, centers of influence (COI), and so on. We recommend having at least 1,000 people on your email list, so they can send you referrals when they come across someone who needs your help.
If you’re worried about managing all those email addresses, we recommend using an email marketing system (such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact) to segment your list and track your success.
2. Narrow Your Focus
A lot of advisors I speak with say that they’re doing all the right things from a marketing perspective, but still not seeing results. When we dig a little deeper, we notice they’re being too broad with their marketing. They don’t have a focus.
Ask yourself: What are your prospects thinking about? What are they worried about? What solutions are they looking for?
Then create a marketing message that speaks directly to them. Embracing a niche through your marketing is the key to getting high-quality leads—whether it’s employees at a specific company, people with a specific problem, or a group of people in the same industry.
Once you narrow your niche, then you can create messages that speak directly to your clients’ pain points. In the end, you have highly relevant content that converts.
Struggling to figure out who you serve best? Sign up for my free workshop webinar and learn how to figure out the best niche for you and embrace it through your marketing.
3. Increase Your Conversion Rates With A Webinar
Remember, your #1 marketing goal is to get your message out to more people. Then you want to focus your message so it converts better. The best way to do this is through a webinar.
The biggest advantage of webinars is that they’re laser-focused and highly converting. If I’m hosting a webinar on The Top 7 Financial Actions Physicians At UC San Diego Health Should Take In 2020, this information is really valuable and really relevant to that group of people.
When people register for the webinar, you will get their email address. And then they will spend half an hour learning about your experience, your passion, and how you help them. Then they get follow-up emails encouraging them to schedule a call with you. They also go on your marketing calendar where they receive your content on a regular basis.
In the end, you have an effective way to convert more of your website traffic into actual leads who are going to start a conversation with you, schedule a phone call, join your email list, and become a potential client. That’s the power of webinars.
I hope these three tips help you supercharge your marketing and take it to the next level. If you’re a current client of ours, we offer discounts for some of these services. For example, if you’d like to add a webinar, you get a 50% discount. However, if you’re marketing on your own, we have a lot of resources for you as well.
Need Help To Supercharge Your Marketing?
If you need help clarifying your niche and marketing strategy, schedule a free marketing strategy consultation today!
The post Three Ways to Supercharge Your Marketing Results (Video) appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
July 1, 2020
Which Trends Are Advisors Seeing In Their Business For 2020?
What are the trends in business for 2020? Well, the financial services industry has experienced a lot of change these past six months. There’s no denying it. The real question is, what trends have emerged from these economic and social changes? And how can advisors use them to their advantage?
At Indigo Marketing Agency, we send out a client survey each year asking advisors to share their feedback on how we can improve our services. This year, we included the question, “What trends are you seeing in your business?”
We evaluated the responses and, in the process, uncovered three main trends. We’d like to talk to you about each of these trends today—along with steps you can take to make sure you don’t get left behind.
Trend #1: Financial Planning Is Going Digital
The first trend is an obvious one: financial planning is going digital. While there was already a slow push for firms to adopt technology before the coronavirus, it’s been exacerbated by stay-at-home orders and social distancing.
As one client put it, “I’ve been using Zoom for about a year, but I’ve really put it to good use this year. This may be the future of how we work with our clients and prospects.”
The beauty of running a digital business is that you can target clients from anywhere in the country. Instead of limiting yourself to your local area, you open the door for a broad range of opportunities.
How To Stay Ahead Of This Trend
Now that financial planning meetings are digital, it really opens up the geographical area you can serve. How can you make the most of this opportunity?
The answer lies in embracing a specialty. When you embrace a specialty, you position yourself as a go-to expert who can solve the problems your clients are facing, no matter where they are.
The key to choosing a niche without alienating anyone is to opt for a specific niche and a broader niche. For example, your specific niche could be “financial planning for Ford Motor Company executives” and your general niche could be “financial planning for families pursuing financial freedom.”
Then you can use your digital marketing to focus on those keywords and target those specific people no matter where they live.
Need help choosing your niche and creating a radically relevant marketing message? Watch our exclusive webinar here.
Trend #2: There’s A Sharp Urgency For People To Get Their Finances In Order
People generally have a lack of urgency when it comes to their financial plan. That’s one reason why advisors struggle to get new clients. But thanks to COVID-19 and the recent market decline, there’s now more urgency than ever.
Our survey results found that individuals are looking for holistic financial planning over investment management. They’re turning to CFPs and fiduciary advisors to help them get their finances in order, protect their assets, and make sure they’re on track for retirement.
How To Stay Ahead Of This Trend
One way you can benefit from this urgency is by making your website super easy to use. We recommend setting up a Get Started Now page that has a built-in calendar scheduler—that way clients can book a call with you before their sense of urgency wanes.
If you’re a current client of ours, you don’t need to do anything for this step. We add a calendar scheduler to your website when you go through onboarding. If you’re not a current client, you can add a calendar scheduler to your website using these instructions.
Want to make it even easier for prospects to contact you? Go the extra mile and add a floating button to your website, which lets prospects schedule a call from any page on your site.
Trend #3: Advisors Need To Proactively Communicate With Clients
Staying in front of current clients during a market decline is critical. The financial services industry is a noisy space, so you can bet your clients are being bombarded with info from the news, family, and friends about what they should be doing right now. But instead, they should be hearing this information from you.
One way advisors are doing this is through digital marketing. Our survey results found that advisors are using social media now more than ever to keep clients up to date on last-minute market information. Others are sending out frequent blog posts and emails as information changes almost daily.
For a more personal touch, many advisors are reaching out to clients one-on-one. One of our survey respondents said: “I’ve spoken to some clients at least 2-3 times since early March. I feel I can improve their financial lives when there’s turmoil in the markets. I love talking to them, reassuring them, and helping them.”
How To Stay Ahead Of This Trend
We recommend sending out recurring blog posts that give your clients and prospects actionable steps they can take to protect their future. At Indigo, we have a list of “marketing in a crisis” articles that we send out for all our advisors. Those topics include:
How To Manage Your Finances In A Crisis
What Should You Do Now About Your 401(k)?
4 Key Financial Lessons From The Last Recession
How To Protect Your Wealth During A Recession Or Depression
Strategies To Grow Your Wealth During The 2020 Financial Crisis
Worried About Your Financial Plan? Schedule A Q&A Call Today
Do Your Friends Or Family Need Financial Guidance? We’re Here To Help!
If you want to learn how to multiply your best clients and grow your business during COVID-19, we invite you to watch our exclusive webinar on How To Market During A Crisis. This 30-minute webinar shows advisors how to:
Use the current crisis to multiply your best clients
Become the “Go-To Expert” in your niche
Make it easy for clients to work with you virtually
Create urgency for prospects to act today
The Bottom Line
2020 has been a year of constant change. We’ve all had to adapt and build resiliency during these times of uncertainty. Through all this change, it’s become abundantly clear that:
Financial planning is going digital.
There’s a sharp urgency for people to get their financial lives in order.
Advisors must stay on top of constant market changes.
The best way to stay on top of these trends is with a solid digital marketing strategy that clearly communicates your specialty, establishes your authority, and constantly reminds clients who you are and what you do best.
If you don’t have the time or expertise to devote to your digital marketing strategy, we encourage you to schedule a call with our team today. We love chatting with new advisors and welcome the opportunity to go over your current marketing strategy and talk about the steps you can take to grow your business during this financial crisis.
Looking for more ways to improve your marketing as a financial advisor? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post Which Trends Are Advisors Seeing In Their Business For 2020? appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
The Results Are In: What Are Our Clients Saying About Indigo Marketing?
At Indigo Marketing Agency, we’re always looking for ways to better serve financial advisors. One way we do this is through an annual client survey.
On May 31, we sent out an email to our current clients asking them to fill out a 5-minute survey online. All the questions were open-ended to encourage advisors to give us feedback in their own words. Some of these questions were:
How satisfied are you with our services?
What do you value most about our services?
What’s exciting about your business?
What do you hear about our competition?
In your own words, what does Indigo do for you?
It’s always scary asking clients how we’re doing, but I’m pleased to say that the results of our 2020 Client Survey were overwhelmingly positive! Here’s a rundown of the responses we received. If you would like to do a survey for your clients, please let us know and we’ll add it to your marketing calendar.
#1: How satisfied are you with our services?
Clients were asked to rate their satisfaction with Indigo on a scale of 1 to 10. After evaluating the responses, we’re excited to announce that the average score was 8 out of 10.
#2: What do you value most about our services?
Based on the feedback, it’s clear that there are three things advisors value most about our services:
1. We take the marketing work off your plate, so you can focus on what truly matters—helping your clients secure their financial futures.
Survey responses:
“You are taking a lot of the work off our plate.”
“You save me time.”
“Indigo takes marketing work off my plate so I can focus on working with clients.”
“You free up more of my time.”
“You handle the technology and writing that I’m not good at.”
2. We produce high-quality, relevant content that’s customized to your practice.
Survey responses:
“I value your knowledge of our industry and ability to deliver a timely article that grabs the reader’s attention.”
“You have creative ideas and responsiveness.”
“You guys are great at content creation and very willing to adapt and make new content when requested. Content is well written, well sourced, and customized to my practice.”
3. Our team offers excellent customer service.
Survey responses:
“The quality of the work you produce for me, it’s excellent. As well as the service from your team.”
“Prompt response. Caring employees.”
“High touch, easy access to your team.”
#3: What is exciting about your business?
Our clients are most excited that their businesses are still growing—even in the midst of a global pandemic and a financial crisis. These uncertain times have proven just how critical it is to have a strong digital marketing message.
Here’s a look at some individual responses to the question, “What is exciting about your business?”:
Survey responses:
“Working with you guys! The creation of my new webinar and my renewed focus on using life insurance for tax-efficient wealth transfer planning.”
“Getting new business!”
“Getting a lead from Google.”
“Seeing new clients coming in.”
“We’ve had lots of new interested prospects so far this year. Business is thankfully good during this downturn.”
“The opportunity for growth given the uncertainty.”
“The opportunity to grow with a specific targeted message.”
#4: What do you hear about our competition?
Most financial advisors say that our competition is too expensive and too generic for their needs. They like that Indigo produces content that’s 100% customized to their firm.
Survey responses:
“Other firms are expensive for what you get from them.”
“You have competition? Seriously, haven’t really come across anyone that does the wide range of marketing that you do for independent advisors.”
“They’re expensive, too generic.”
“There is no competition to Indigo Marketing.”
#5: In your own words, what does Indigo do for you?
Once again, two themes emerged when we asked advisors what Indigo does for them:
1. We remove digital marketing from their plate, so they can focus on serving clients:
Survey responses:
“Takes the digital marketing off our plate.”
“Takes marketing my practice off of my plate.”
“Indigo affords me more time to serve my clients by taking some of the marketing tasks off of my plate.”
2. We help advisors stand out from the competition by clearly communicating who they are and what they do best.
Survey responses:
“Indigo provides me with a professional image and excellent content that’s unique.”
“You help with my blog posts and digital footprint.”
“You provide exposure for our brand and the chance to grow strategically.”
“Indigo saves me time with my newsletter and social media.”
“Indigo manages my company’s website and marketing.”
Interested in learning more?
That’s a wrap on the results of our 2020 Client Survey. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to respond. We can’t wait to implement your feedback as we strive to make Indigo the best it can be.
If you feel like you don’t have the time or expertise to devote to your digital marketing strategy, we invite you to schedule a free marketing strategy session with our team. During this call, we’ll discuss your marketing challenges and goals. Then we’ll dive into what’s been working and ways you can improve. We look forward to chatting with you.
Looking for more ways to improve your marketing as a financial advisor? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post The Results Are In: What Are Our Clients Saying About Indigo Marketing? appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
June 22, 2020
How Financial Advisors Can Use YouTube To Grow Their Business in 2020
When I think about the future of marketing for financial advisors, I’m excited about two things: webinars and YouTube. Webinars are an incredible solution to get in front of your ideal prospects 24/7 online with an up-front investment of 4 to 8 hours of your time. YouTube for financial advisors is an up-and-coming way to get exposure to millions of people searching for the exact answers you’re offering.
Marketing on YouTube is still pretty much in its infancy for financial advisors. There are a handful of advisors running away with all the success. Here’s one strong YouTube Channel with over 14,000 subscribers and almost 4 million video views. Jeff Rose, the marketing genius behind Good Financial Cents, has over 335,000 subscribers and publishes content almost daily on his channel Wealth Hacker.
Key Benefits Of Investing In YouTube Marketing For Financial Advisors
First and foremost, YouTube is a great way to get more traffic and exposure without paying for ads. Did you know that Google owns YouTube? This means that when people type in a search query, Google puts YouTube videos right at the top of the search results. If your video is the best (or only) video on that topic, you are automatically at the very top of search results.
Next, there is relatively low competition from other advisors. Because of compliance, lack of confidence on camera, or whatever other reason, there are only a handful of advisors using YouTube well. Any advisor willing to do a decent job on the platform will rise to the top quickly.
YouTube is a rising platform. While today YouTube is the second social media channel behind Facebook, it is growing every day. Over 58% of those over 55 years old use YouTube regularly, and that is projected to increase in the future. To invest in a marketing foundation for tomorrow, it may be wise to start a YouTube channel today.
Watching videos helps people know, like, and trust you. While no single video is likely to land you dozens of new clients, people who have watched your videos are more likely to work with you, more educated about the topic and your firm, and more willing to take the next step.
People would rather watch videos than read. Research shows that people are four times more likely to watch a video than read an article on a topic. An easy way to quadruple your exposure? Create both videos and written articles on each piece of content you put out.
Video is an easy way to create content on a regular basis. Every advisor should be creating regular marketing content to stay top of mind. Shooting videos is one of the easiest ways to do so in a hurry. You’re already comfortable speaking in front of people on financial topics, so use that strength to get your marketing content created in an authentic and easy-to-consume format.
YouTube can help you narrow your niche! Using videos for your marketing strategy can help uncover marketing niches that you should focus on going forward. Bridgeriver Advisors’ Dan Casey has a YouTube channel with several dozen videos that have about 100 to 200 views on average. But his top 3 videos have tens of thousands of views:
8 Fatal Retirement Mistakes That Can’t Be Undone (65,000 views)
Social Security Changes After The New Budget (35,000 views)
The Good, Bad, And Ugly of Long-Term Care Insurance (16,700 views) (In fact, if you search for “long-term care insurance” on YouTube, Dan’s video is the top result!)
I would suggest that Dan dig deeper and create more content on one of these topics by creating a playlist on that topic and gaining even more traffic to his videos. By experimenting with different topics, you can understand which ones will get you the most exposure and focus on what works.
YouTube Best Practices For Financial Advisors
Narrow Your Channel’s Focus
You’re not going to win searches for “401k investing” (that award goes to this video) but guess what? If you created a video for “Maximizing Your Ford Motor Company Benefits Package and 401(k),” you would be the only YouTube search result on that topic.
Publish Regularly
The name of the game on YouTube is creating a lot of videos consistently. This manages the expectations of your subscribers and helps YouTube promote your videos. Beyond that, creating lots of videos on the same topic can help you dominate search results for those search terms. If you’re going to dive into YouTube, I recommend that it be your top marketing focus for at least a year and that you commit to publishing new videos weekly or biweekly until you reach at least 50 videos.
Optimize Your Videos For Search
People can’t find your videos unless they contain the correct keywords. Work with a YouTube professional to optimize each video so that people who are typing their questions into Google will find your video as a relevant result.
Convert Your Viewers
Include a call to action to convert that traffic. Video views mean nothing if you can’t convert that traffic into leads. At the top of your description, offer an easy next step for viewers to take, such as scheduling a call or asking a question. Include a clear link and remind viewers at the end of your videos to take action.
What Should Your Videos Be About?
The best advice here comes from Blair Kelly at Twenty Over Ten: “Simply keep a list on your computer of all the questions your clients and prospective clients ask. Each time they ask you a question, write it down! If they have the question, that means others do too—and it could be a great piece of content for you to record a video answering.”
In addition to answering common questions for your target audience, create videos that showcase your story, your passion, and garner emotion from viewers. Check out my video on Why I Love Working With Financial Advisors. Think about creating videos on your team members, updates at your office, and current events.
Want to learn more about creating a YouTube channel? Review how to set up and optimize your YouTube channel and examples of excellent advisor YouTube channels; then don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have questions about your marketing strategy!
The post How Financial Advisors Can Use YouTube To Grow Their Business in 2020 appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
Recommended New Webinar: Your Riches Are In Niches (Instant Replay)
Bill Cates, The Referral Coach, is one of my mentors and a true expert in our industry. His recent book Radical Relevance is a fantastic read I recommend to all advisors. He and I are huge proponents of embracing niches for financial advisors to help their marketing cut through the noise. You can watch our webinar together on the subject here.
Be sure to check out Bill’s brand-new webinar video below, Your Riches Are In Niches. The video runs about one hour in length and has a rich question-and-answer session at the end. It covers the key strategy I often teach of narrowing your focus to expand your results! Here are some of my favorite of Bill’s key points about getting rich in niches for financial advisors.
What are you trying to accomplish when you talk about what you do?
When you speak, it should not be to impress people with your credentials or credibility. Your prospects want to be the hero in their story, not you. How can you make the client the hero? Start by talking about them, and you can be the guide! Show that you have an understanding and appreciation of what they’re going through. Use their language, not the financial advisor jargon you may speak natively. Speak in terms they understand and recognize.
Attract the right people and repel the wrong people.
If someone isn’t right for your business, you’re not right for them. Don’t take on the wrong clients! When you target a market, you can:
Understand their world better
Bring better solutions
Become more referrable
Expand your geographic reach
Create a reputation as the go-to expert
What is the best call to action for your marketing?
What are you asking prospects to do through your marketing messages? Is it:
Register for a webinar?
Ask a question?
Get a quote?
Schedule a call?
Create action through clarity. Give people one crystal-clear way to move forward with you. What is the single next step they should take with you now?
Why do people make decisions?
Neuroscience research has shown that if people cannot feel emotions, they cannot make decisions. So your job is to create an emotional response to help support them in making decisions.
What would veteran advisors do differently if they were starting their career over?
The most common answer is “Choose a target market instead of trying to do everything for everyone.” For advisors who do go “all in” with a niche, the most common regret is that they didn’t do it five years earlier.
To learn more about the importance of embracing niches for financial advisors, watch the video below!
The post Recommended New Webinar: Your Riches Are In Niches (Instant Replay) appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
June 21, 2020
How To Add A Calendly Floating Button To Your Website (So Prospects Can Schedule A Call From Any Page On Your Site!)
Now that you have Calendly set up (if not, read our previous post on setting it up here), it’s time to add it to your website. We recommend adding it as a floating Schedule A Call button that remains in the bottom right corner of your website at all times. Here’s an example of what we mean:
A floating button is beneficial because it allows prospects to quickly schedule a call with you—no matter where they are on your website. It also serves as a gentle reminder that you’re available to chat with them whenever they’re ready.
Adding the floating button to your site is easy, but it’s not intuitive. To figure out how to do it, watch the following video:
https://indigomarketingagency.wistia.com/medias/jrwya8l2ft
Or, follow these steps:
Log on to your Calendly account and click the drop-down carrot next to the Account section at the top of the screen.
Click Share Your Link from the drop-down menu, and click the blue box next to Add to Your Website.
You’ll see three options for adding your link to your website: inline embed, pop-up widget, and pop-up text. Click Popup Widget, then Continue.
Click Copy Code.
Log in to the back end of your website.
Navigate to the header section, which is where you can add code to every web page all at once.
Quick tip: Every website platform has the header section located in a different area. But just look for the word “header” in the back end of your website and you’ll know you’ve found the right place.
Paste the code into the HTML header section and save it.
Publish your website.
View your live site to confirm that the floating button is at the bottom of every page.
The floating button has Calendly branding on it by default. If you want this removed, you can buy a Premium subscription to Calendly, which costs $8 per month. The paid version lets you create more than one event type, which could be worth the price depending on your situation.
If you’re stuck at home due to COVID-19, it’s the perfect time to invest in your marketing so you come out of this crisis poised for more success than ever. Take this step (and the previous steps we’ve covered) today and let us know if you get stuck, we’re happy to help.
Looking for more ways to improve your financial advisor marketing? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post How To Add A Calendly Floating Button To Your Website (So Prospects Can Schedule A Call From Any Page On Your Site!) appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
How To Set Up Calendly So Prospects Can Schedule A Call Online 24/7
An appointment scheduler allows prospects to schedule a call with you at any time. Instead of having to go back and forth with you via email to set something up, they can instantly look at your availability and choose a time slot that works for them.
There are dozens of appointment schedulers out there, but our personal favorite is Calendly. It’s free, easy to use, and looks professional. Plus, Calendly syncs to your calendar, so it automatically knows if you have a dentist appointment, a meeting, or any other scheduling conflicts.
Watch the following video to learn how to set up your Calendly account and configure it for your website.
Or, follow these steps:
Go to the Calendly website, enter your email address, and click Sign Up.
Log in with Google and follow the prompts to finish creating your account.
Create a URL that has your name or your firm’s name in it. (For example, Claire’s Calendly link is calendly.com/claireakin.)
Now it’s time to configure your Calendly account. You can customize one of the default event types or you can create your own. To create a new event type, click the Event Types tab at the top of the page.
Click + New Event Type, go to the One-on-One section, and click Create.
Give your event a name (such as Get Started Now), and click Next.
Customize your event by changing your time zone, your availability, the duration (I usually go with 15-minute introductory meetings), and how far in advance someone can schedule an appointment (I usually do 24 hours).
By default, Calendly requires each person to enter their full name and email address when they schedule an appointment. But you also need to know their phone number. To add a required line for phone number, go to the Invitee Questions section.
Click the + Add A New Question button, and enter Phone Number into the Question field.
Check the Required box, and click Apply.
Next, you’ll want to personalize your notifications. To do this, click on the Invitee Notifications section and turn on Email Reminders.
Click the View live page button to make sure everything looks good.
That’s all you need to do to set up Calendly. If you want to customize your account even further (which I recommend doing), I have some favorite tips and tricks. Go ahead and click on the Advanced tab under the When can people book this event? section. Then follow these steps:
Don’t want to have back-to-back calls? Go to the Availability Increments section and use the drop-down menu to choose how often you want your availability to show.
For example, if your prospects are scheduling 15-minute meetings, you could change your availability increment to 30 minutes. That way someone can only schedule a call with you every half hour (and you have a 15-minute buffer in case a phone call runs over).
Next up is the Event Max Per Day section. This lets you limit the number of calls that can be scheduled in a day. So, if you only want to have a maximum of four introductory calls a day, you could set that limit in this section. Then, once four calls are booked, that day becomes unavailable on your calendar.
The last tip can be found in the Minimum Scheduling Notice section. As it sounds, this section lets you limit how soon someone can schedule a call with you. By default, this is set to 4 hours, which means someone could potentially schedule a call the same day. I always change this to 24 hours so I don’t have an appointment sneak up on me. But you can adjust it depending on your needs.
Once your advanced settings are how you like, don’t forget to hit Save & Close.
If you’re stuck at home due to COVID-19, it’s the perfect time to invest in your marketing so you come out of this crisis poised for more success than ever. Take this step today and let us know if you get stuck, we’re happy to help.
Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll discuss another step to supercharge your marketing from home!
(If you missed our previous tip, read “How To Create A Professional Email Signature Using HubSpot’s Free Generator” here.)
Looking for more ways to improve your financial advisor marketing? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post How To Set Up Calendly So Prospects Can Schedule A Call Online 24/7 appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
How To Create A Professional Email Signature (Using HubSpot’s Free Generator)
Want to create an eye-catching email signature for free? HubSpot’s simple online tool lets you generate a professional email signature that’s brand cohesive and includes all your important contact information (a win-win in our book).
Watch the following video to see Tammy create her free Indigo Marketing Agency email signature in less than 10 minutes:
Or, follow these steps:
Step 1: Choose Your Template
Go to HubSpot’s free email signature generator.
Uncheck the Created With HubSpot button at the top of the screen. (If left selected, this generates an ad in your email signature that invites others to create a free signature.)
Then choose your email signature template. We chose Template 6 in the video above, but feel free to use whichever style suits your preference.
Step 2: Add Your Signature Details
Go to the next tab and enter your signature details. This includes information such as your name, job title, company name, phone number, website, social media profiles, and more.
If there are any pieces of information you don’t need—such as a physical address—leave those fields blank. But we highly recommend adding your social links for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, so prospects can connect with you online.
Step 3: Add Your Brand Colors
Now it’s time to move on to the stylized tab, which is where you’ll customize your signature’s theme, text, and link colors to match your brand.
If you don’t know your brand colors, that’s okay. You can upload your logo to Pine Tool’s Image Color Picker, and the free tool will generate codes for the colors used in your logo. You can then copy and paste these codes into HubSpot.
Quick tip: If you’re leaving your text color black as default, we recommend changing it to a dark gray (try #555555) so it doesn’t look as stark against the white background.
Step 4: Add Your Custom Images
Click over to the last tab to add custom images to your signature, such as your profile picture, firm logo, and a call-to-action button.
Adding a profile picture is optional. Some advisors like to do it because it adds a level of trust to their communications and makes them more recognizable. But this part is up to you.
If you’d like to add a profile picture:
Go to your website.
Right-click on your photo, and select Copy Image Address.
Paste it into the Profile Picture section of the generator.
Next, you’ll want to add your financial advisory firm’s logo. The generator doesn’t let you upload an image of your logo, so you’ll need to grab the logo link from your website. If you don’t have it, ask your admin or website developer to get it for you. Then copy and paste the link into the Company Logo section.
Lastly, you’ll want to add a call-to-action button so prospects can schedule an appointment with you directly from your email signature.
Quick tip: If you create a Calendly account in #4 (below), you can use that as your call-to-action button link.
Step 5: Add The Signature To Your Email
You’re almost finished! Now it’s time to generate your signature and add it to your email. Here’s how you do it:
Once you’ve gone through all four tabs, click the Create Signature button. Then click Copy Signature.
Go to your email account and navigate to the settings. Look for the spot to change your signature and paste the information into the box.
Save your changes.
After you generate your free signature, you’ll get emails from HubSpot inviting you to try their CRM. If you’re not interested in this service, click Unsubscribe in the footer of the email; this way you’ll stop receiving communications from them.
If you’re stuck at home due to COVID-19, it’s the perfect time to invest in your marketing so you come out of this crisis poised for more success than ever. Take this step today and let us know if you get stuck, we’re happy to help.
Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll discuss another step to supercharge your marketing from home!
(If you missed our previous tip, read “How To Upload Your Contact Lists to LinkedIn & Grow Your Network In Seconds” here.)
Looking for more ways to improve your financial advisor marketing? Find more information on our blog . Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package .
The post How To Create A Professional Email Signature (Using HubSpot’s Free Generator) appeared first on Indigo Marketing Agency.
