“Worried I’ll exclude qualified clients if I niche down.” [Does my marketing STINK? Ep One]

Sara Grillo

In this first episode of “Does my Marketing STINK?”, we’ll interview Chase Dapello of Westlake Private Wealth Management and answer the question of whether or not his marketing stinks.

If you’d like to be a guest on “Does my marketing STINK” and have you or your company’s marketing analyzed for free, send me a note below.

FIND OUT IF YOUR MARKETING STINKS

For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Sara. I am a CFA® charterholder and financial advisor marketing consultant. I have a newsletter in which I talk about financial advisor lead generation topics which is best described as “fun and irreverent.”

And now – onto the show!

“They’re not going to like me if I go out there and say I’m a financial advisor for dentists.”

If they like you and you have the skills they need, they will actually hire you no matter what your niche is.

If you are going to niche, you should go gung ho. That is the only way to do it. Otherwise you are going to exclude the people who don’t fit into that niche, but you wont have the magnetism to attract the people who do fall into it. If you are going to niche, then burrow yourself so far down into that niche that you are at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Where the earthquakes come from. So far down that you don’t even care, that it doesn’t even cross your mind that you might be losing business. That is the only way I have seen niches really work. See Avier Advisors for an example. They know Microsoft benefits as well as if not better than the HR people who work at the company.

Or you can specialize. Devin Carroll is a social security specialist. Andy Panko started a taxes in retirement Facebook group.

“It’s been difficult to leverage existing clients. I’ve been doing dinners, lunches and seminars for clients and encouraging them to bring people they know along and they can learn for free. It’s been difficult to get traction on it.”

When you go through your client base and your immediate circle and hit the point of not having anyone else to go to, that is when you really have to get creative. These events where you ask clients to bring friends are awkward and everyone is worried about not being able to meet your expectations for becoming their client. This is a hard, hard, hard way to go because clients are going to guard their relationship with their friends, and their friends are going to be guarded. It’s a masked sales call.

We have to get what I call “the second wave.” How can I use my relationship with this client to open doors for me that might not directly lead to another person on the other side of the door, but will create a land of opportunity for me?

I’d suggest trying to build a community with these folks that would be more natural and focus on needs or interests they might have. If you work with film script writers, for example, find a way to help them with the inconsistencies of income they tend to face. I would get to know these writers and interview them. Instead of coming to them with a sales pitch, come to them as an advocate.

Take a longer term view. Incubate and advocate. Write up the interviews. “How did you get your first writing job? “Are you part of the writer’s guild? What are the benefits of that?” “What website has been most helpful for you getting gigs?” If you could be the conduit, be the person the writers come to for these answers, it takes away the cudgel of stiff-faced dinner seminars. Show them you will walk alongside them. It should be more like this. They may be focused on the three steps ahead of them, but you are focused on the broader view including 30 years from now when you are going to retire, and that is because I talk to script writers all day and for that reason I can see a broader picture that you can not.

“Oh well that’s too much work and I have a quota.”

If you need leads right away, you are simply going to just have to cold call and get rejected or buy leads (insert link). People are going to see that you are not into developing a relationship with them unless you sincerely can keep the long term in mind a build something – a system, a community. If you can not do that, just resort to transactional marketing means and that is going to be a hard way to go.

Not enough in the pipeline

Marketing and blogs are nice, but you need a list. And if there aren’t enough people on the list, you need to get out there and knock on doors. Yeah I know. People hate it when I say that.

If you cold call a business, don’t treat the receptionist like they work for you. They are probably pretty close with the business owner, especially if it is a small business. If you make a good enough case with the admin, they may want to actually help you. Treat everyone with respect anyway. Treat everyone associated with the prospect as a valuable source of information.

Just say, “ I was researching this company and I know that taxes have just onge up in the local area. I just wanted to come in and do a seminar about how to do tax planning in XYZ County. Have you ever had anybody come in here and talk about something like that? As someone who knows the company really well, is there anything you think would have a higher success rate?”

Treating the gatekeeper cold will cause you to lose sales. And guess what – people do it to reporters, conference organizers, lots of people.

When a reporter contacts me, I act like I work for that person. I don’t act like they act for me and I deserve for them to pick me, or that I deserve their respect. I work to earn their respect. Don’t act like you expect them to turn over their beat, or their conference, to you. Put your motives aside and be humble. Treat them like your client and you are trying to increase their business success, no matter what their title or rank is.

Mass mailings with no overall strategy

If you are not getting leads from the mailers, stop doing it. They are expensive and you don’t have any way to track who is actually reading them. I would create a community and serve them with a digitized newsletter that you can track.

Has a boring, typical financial advisor LinkedIn page

• Boring banner photo with company name, which means nothing to them
• Boring title that says your title and the company name but doesn’t
• Not building a community but instead using it as a broadcast tool. If you don’t build up a community around yourself on LinkedIn, you will get Spam messages. Postings should be made to serve your audience with answers they need.
• Don’t put your birthday in your contact field. If that gets to the wrong person, it can be a compromise of private info.
• Need Featured postings
• About section – instead of a bland description, it should state your position of advocacy

See these blogs for LinkedIn tips for financial advisors.

There is also this LinkedIn message ebook and social media training program.

Sara’s Upshot

Thanks for watching, “Does my marketing stink”. If you’d like to be a guest on the show and find out if your marketing stinks, send me a note.

• I am an outsourced CMO for companies who need regular, full service marketing – blogging, social media posts, newsletters, etc.
• I am an hourly consultant for those who just need one-time or recurring guidance
• People hire me as a ghostwriter to write content for a project fee
• I have a social media training program
• I have a book about what to say on LinkedIn messenger

Immersion2025 will be the second advice-only and flat fee financial advisor conference in our industry’s history.

When: Wednesday, March 12th – Thursday, March 13th, 2025

Where: Four Points by Sheraton Kansas City Airport, 11832 NW Plaza Circle, Kansas City, Missouri, 64153

Join the Immersion here!

I have a newsletter in which I talk about financial advisor lead generation topics which is best described as “fun and irreverent.” I hope you’ll join it!

The post “Worried I’ll exclude qualified clients if I niche down.” [Does my marketing STINK? Ep One] appeared first on Sara Grillo.