Wanna hear a big fat lie? “Creating video content is expensive, requires professional quality equipment, and not everyone is qualified to be on camera.”
Let me be the first to apologize if you’ve been sold this bill of damaged goods.
Creating video is easier, cheaper, and more effective than ever.
Over the next few months, we’ll be creating a series of blogs that cover 6 different topics on how to create more compelling video content.
Content creation is hard. And time-consuming. And expensive.
In fact, 77% of brands take more than a week to create a single email. And our production team invests at least 80 hours and thousands of dollars into creating a single campaign. The good news is you don’t need to sink 80 hours a week into your marketing. You have access to thousands of pieces of top-notch data-backed marketing content specifically designed to generate leads and get clients for financial advisers.
You have the content; why waste it?
If you take a one-and-done approach to content, you’re not making the most out of your Snappy Kraken investment. You can take any campaign in our library and turn it into an Instagram post, an email signature, a blog post, or even a vehicle wrap—and get maximum ROI.
1. Turn Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Posts into Instagram Posts
As of 2018, 57% of financial advisers agreed that their target audience is on Instagram, and another 50% said that Instagram was getting results.
Just because we don’t specifically create content for Instagram doesn’t mean you can’t use our other posts there. Our library has copy and images for thousands of organic and paid tweets, LinkedIn posts, and Facebook posts that you can repurpose for your Instagram account.
“We have seen that our base of Instagram followers continues to grow.”
Repurpose Snappy Kraken content on Instagram in four easy steps:
Go through the Snappy Kraken content library and choose a campaign that you want to repurpose for Instagram.
Each campaign has a social post—download the image and resize it if necessary.
🔥 Hot tip: Crop or resize your photos in seconds with Instagram’s built-in editor or Biteable’s free resizer.
All of our campaigns have written content. Swipe the content and personalize it if needed.
One of our members (who inspired this content repurposing idea) told us that they’ve loved repurposing Snappy Kraken content for Instagram, and they’re seeing results. “We have seen that our base of Instagram followers continues to grow,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to still leverage the existing Snappy Kraken campaigns and adapt them for [Instagram].”
2. Use PDF Guides to Inspire Your Email Signature
Email signatures have an average click-through rate of 0.5% to 3%. So why not use your email signature to link out to something that adds value and captures contact information?
As a Snappy Kraken member, you have access to lead generation campaigns that come with downloadable PDF guides.
You can use those downloadable guides to inspire an email signature that your target audience will want to click on, just like one of our members did.
One of our members added our tax savings guide to their email signature.
There are two ways you can add a clickable photo to your email signature. You can use WiseStamp, a tool specifically created for email signatures, or add it in manually through Gmail:
Choose the campaign and guide you want to format your email signature after from the Snappy Kraken library.
Create an email signature photo with a graphic design app, like Canva. You can download the campaign image and make it a part of your email signature.
Upload your photo to Imgur, then right-click on the image and click “copy image address.”
Go to your Gmail inbox, then click the gear and go to Settings > General > Signature.
3. Expand Campaign Topics into Blog Posts
Blog posts are a great way to share what you know with your prospects and clients. You can answer your clients’ questions and address their concerns through long-form blog posts complete with sources, images, and quotes—something you can’t do on social media.
But writing blog posts takes a lot of time, research, and brainpower. The average blog post takes over four hours to write, but a good blog post that converts will take twice that time. With our content library, though, you can cut down blog writing time to a couple of minutes.
One of our members cracked the code and tested repurposing our campaign topics and landing page content into blog posts:
This is what our member’s blog looks like.
Choose the campaign you want to create a blog post about.
Swipe the campaign image and parts of the landing page copy and publish your content to your website.
Link out to the lead-generation landing page at some point within your blog post.
Always aim to create helpful content on your blog—whether you write about finance or a finance-adjacent topic.
4. Turn Lead-Gen Pages into QR Codes
While most of our marketing tactics are online, nothing is stopping you from using our content in offline marketing strategies. In fact, one member turned one of our lead-generation landing pages into a QR code that they wrapped around the tailgate of their truck.
It was effective because most people now know what a QR code is—45% of all consumers in the U.S. have scanned marketing-related QR codes. People passing our member’s truck saw a QR code about financial planning, and those who needed financial services whipped out their phones and scanned.
Apart from a vehicle wrap, you can also turn your QR code into a laptop sticker or use it to design some personalized gifts for your existing clients—like tumblers, bookmarks, etc.
Create your own QR code design for your offline marketing efforts:
As always, choose the campaign and landing page you’d like to link your QR code to.
Turn the landing page link into a QR code with QRCode Monkey.
Contact a professional like 4imprint or VistaPrint to turn your QR code into a tailgate sticker, a laptop sticker, or a personalized gift design.
Don’t limit yourself to those three ideas. QR codes are versatile, so experiment with using them in even more offline marketing swag.
Don’t Have Ready-Made, Data-Backed Content? We Do
Almost no other automated growth program has as much research and marketing experience as we do. Every year, we publish our State of Digital Marketing report that contains over a million data points from real financial adviser campaigns that we published all across the United States.
We use those same data points to create financial adviser content that generates leads, converts prospects, and builds customer loyalty.
Book a demo today to get a glimpse into the content library of your dreams.
Imagine looking through a restaurant window and seeing a poorly lit dining area with dingy chairs and tables. Even if their food is amazing, you’ll never know because, from the outside looking in, the place looks sloppy.
Bad content makes you look like a poorly maintained restaurant.
No matter how amazing your portfolio management skills are if prospects look you up and find poorly written articles and a single social media post from 2015, they won’t give you a second thought.
Great content, on the other hand, makes you look smart, technologically advanced, and interesting. It differentiates you from your competitors who are probably posting watered-down, generic content—as most financial advisers do.
Don’t blend in. Stand out, establish your expertise, and get more clients with content that educates and empathizes.
Educational and Empathetic Content Builds Trust
Before someone hands you theirlife savings, they need to trust you 100%. This means that they’ll shop around, do the research, and then choose the adviser that suits them best.
John Anderson, managing director at SEI Investments, said it best when he said, “A friend or family member isn’t just going to call based on the referral. They’re going to check out an advisor’s website, social media, and any content they’ve created.”
Use content to show your prospects that they can trust you and that you’re the best (and only) option if they want an adviser who’s a perfect fit for their financial needs.
Educational Content Showcases What You Know
Even though giving away knowledge for free might seem counterintuitive, 77% of marketers say it’s one of the best strategies you can use to build trust. And the more your target audience trusts you, the more willing they will be to pay a premium for your services.
Anthony Thornton, global content director at Content × Ten, even said, “For high and ultra-high net worth individuals, storytelling that speaks directly to them is key. Storytelling starts the conversation. Conversation earns trust. And from that trust, you build conversion and, of course, retention.”
To create educational content, you have to first find out what your target audiences want to learn about by talking to your existing prospects and clients or going through online forums like Quora and Reddit to look for relevant discussions.
This is a question on Reddit that asks about how an 18-year-old or first-year college student can become financially independent.
Once you have enough relevant topics, start creating content—videos, emails, articles, downloadable guides, and more. An example of educational content is our The Cost of Raising Children campaign. It uses a Pacman-esque art style to illustrate common expenses that new parents need to prepare for.
This campaign gives new parents estimates on how much they will probably spend on childcare, health care, food, housing, and college.
At the end of the article, our members can show their readers that they can help by saying, “If you’re thinking about how to balance the costs of kids with your personal needs and future, call my office.”
Empathetic Content Emphasizes That You Care
Apart from seeing how much you know, your target audience also wants to know that you will care about them beyond a strictly transactional client-adviser relationship. As Elise Pulver, director of wealth planning with TD Wealth Family Office, said, “Clients need advisers who are genuine and care about their best interests.”
And our data proves it, too. At the height of the pandemic, we gave our members campaigns that made them more human and relatable to their existing email list. At the end of the year, we found that our top-performing engagement campaigns were “Creating Gratitude & Happiness,” followed by “2020 Lessons Learned.”
Show your prospects that you will care about them and get them financial wins with different kinds of empathetic content:
Current events content that addresses economic and political shifts that your target audience might be worried about
Regular check-in emails that ask your prospects how they’re doing and if they need any kind of support from you
Email greetings for birthdays and special events to show your prospects that you remember their important days
Finance-adjacent content about your prospects’ hobbies and interests outside of finance (e.g., content about celebrity financial blunders)
Having both educational and empathetic content will show your prospects what kind of adviser you are and really encourage them to become clients.
4 Types of Content to Create Today (+ Tips to Save Time)
Get better results by creating content built to generate leads, nurture prospects, and convert both into clients.
1. Downloadable Guides
Downloadable guides are your “offer” for lead generation campaigns. They are usually housed on a landing page where users need to fill out a form before they can start the download.
Your guides don’t have to be fancy—just relevant. Create simple guides that your potential prospects are interested in, like a retirement guide for your pre-retiree target audience.
This is the Retirement Income Teeter-Totter campaign that includes a downloadable retirement guide with three actionable ways to prepare for retirement.
When you create downloadable guides, make sure they have:
Actionable suggestions and tips (how-tos, checklists, etc.)
Questions that point your prospects back to booking a call with you
This is a snippet from our Retirement Income Teeter-Totter campaign that uses the last bullet to point back to you, the financial adviser.
The key to downloadable guides is making sure that your content is relevant and interesting enough to get your target audience to give you their contact information.
2. Social Media Posts
Social media is powerful—and easy. It’s a storytelling tool that gives you the opportunity to reach a fraction of the 4.62 billion users worldwide.
On Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, a good post has three components: a thought-provoking photo, a relatable and informative caption, and one to two hashtags. While that sounds like a lot of work, we’ve got a 🔥 hot tip for you—repurpose your downloadable guides into social posts:
Convert the cover photo of your downloadable guide into a social media post.
Take some of the copy and summarize it into a few sentences.
Link your social media posts to the landing page with your offer.
Here is an example of a Facebook post we created for our Retirement Income Teeter-Totter campaign:
The social post features the front cover of our retirement campaign downloadable guide and a short caption.
In addition to repurposing your downloadable guides, you can also share simple posts about things that happen in your life or that you believe in. For example, Hannah Morando shared what impostor syndrome feels like and told her target audience that she feels it, too.
Hannah Morando made a simple video to tell her prospects that everyone feels impostor syndrome—but they’re not an impostor; they’re pretty amazing.
Showing your prospects that you’re human will make you more accessible.
3. Marketing Emails
Marketing emails keep the communication alive between you and your prospects and clients. An old study found that it takes six to eight marketing touches to qualify a lead. It takes even more marketing touches to turn those leads into clients.
Don’t let your prospects forget about you. Instead, create campaigns that you can send them on a regular basis. There are three kinds of marketing emails you always need to have:
Prospect nurturing emails – a series of related emails designed to build your relationship with your prospects. The more you nurture your prospects, the more likely you are to stay top of mind.
Finance-adjacent emails –a single email that covers a topic that your prospects are interested in. For example, we created an End of Year campaign to encourage prospects and clients to welcome 2022 with new goals and a better outlook on life.
Current event emails – (note: we’ve covered this previously)a single email that addresses a current political or economic shift that your prospects or clients might be worrying about. For example, we created a campaign entitled “Ukraine, What’s Next?” to help our members reassure their clients about the effects of the Russo-Ukrainian war of 2022 on the economy and their financial state.
The goal of your marketing emails should always be to build relationships with your prospects, learn more about them, and establish that you are a reliable resource for financial concerns.
4. Videos
Over 80% of marketers said that video helped them improve lead generation, sales, ROI, and website traffic. Our own research shows that adviser emails with videos got a 20% higher open rate and 176% higher click rate compared to emails without videos.
When you can, create videos that grab attention and build relationships. The good news is you can do it in three steps.
Create your video script, highlighting the topic of your video and the main points you want to hit.
Record your video using a clear mic and a webcam. Your existing equipment will probably be more than enough—the video doesn’t need to look like it was professionally filmed and edited.
Add your video to a landing page that you can link to on social media and in emails.
If you need some help getting started, we have three types of video scripts: educational scripts, current event scripts, and finance-adjacent scripts. All of our video scripts are designed to help you build a connection with your prospects and clients.
Create Content in Seconds With Our Content Library
The hardest part of creating great content that generates clients is getting started.
Snappy Kraken member Nolan Baker, founder of America’s Retirement Headquarters, used to spend over 40 hours a month just creating content. Another member, Michael Baker of Vertex Capital Advisors, shared an even bigger roadblock: “What’s harder to measure is the mental energy I used to spend on [content creation].”
They both found a solution that cut their content creation time by around 90%: the Snappy Kraken automated growth program. Our production team spends at least 80 hours and thousands of dollars researching, planning, and designing data-backed content so that you don’t have to. All you need to do is hit “publish,” sit back, and enjoy the results.
The Great Wall of China is an architectural feat that still amazes people to this day. Each brick was molded by hand and then transported in wheelbarrows, on workers’ backs, on camels and horses, and so on. It took them 300,000 soldiers, countless townspeople, and over 20 years to build the first iteration of The Wall.
But think about all the time, money, and resources the Qin Dynasty could have saved with trucks, forklifts, and an assembly line. An infrastructure engineer hypothesized it could take as little as 15 months to build The Great Wall with modern technology.
Ancient Chinese engineers didn’t have that choice, though—because they didn’t have modern technology. But you do. Doing your marketing without automation is like voluntarily building The Great Wall without factory-made bricks. Hand molded bricks work fine, but using an assembly line leaves you time to focus on the engineering (i.e., your marketing strategy) rather than the manufacturing (i.e., posting daily, sending emails every week, etc.).
When COVID-19 first impacted the U.S., “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”had to go without an audience. In lieu of laughter and cheers from an engaged crowd, Colbert told his jokes to an empty room—and, as empty rooms do, it didn’t laugh or clap back.
But just because Colbert couldn’t get feedback from a live audience, it doesn’t mean his viewers weren’t enjoying his content. In fact, people were still watching Colbert’s show as much as they did pre-COVID-19.
The reason? With or without feedback, good content is good content. Colbert’s target audience continued to enjoy his show, laugh at his jokes, and probably clap the way they used to—whether he saw them doing so or not—because the content was still good. Good content doesn’t rely on feedback because it’s focused on what the client wants, not what they bring to the transaction.
And that’s good news because tech giants like Apple and Google have started prioritizing consumer privacy. This means our marketing efforts may yield less feedback at certain stages of the sales funnel. We won’t be able to track email open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics as accurately as we once did—but that doesn’t have to mean the end of lead generation.
In a recent episode of the podcast, (Pop) Culture Club, they did a review of the book.
Halfway through, Tori Levy mentioned:
“What I appreciated most from Robert Sofia is all the examples that he set out to put in the book because I felt like I was going back and forth from Googling stuff to going on Youtube and watching the marketing campaigns that he talked about.”
That gave us an idea!
We want to help the book really come to life for our readers. And if they’re going to want to check out these commercials, campaigns, ad, and branding examples, then we’re going to make it way easier. Continue reading Commercials, Campaigns and Ads from Blend Out Book
Email marketing is a powerful way to engage prospects, enhance credibility, and jump-start conversations that eventually lead to sales.
According to insights from over 38,000 campaigns (analyzed in the 2021 State of Digital Marketing Report), email is the largest and most reliable traffic source for advisers.
One of our values at Snappy Kraken is continued education, and in the Marketing Department, part of that means each of us presenting a monthly book review.
Not all of the books we review will make it to a blog post, because not all of them will be relevant to Financial Advisers, or marketing as a whole, but all the videos will be up on our YouTube channel.
The reviews will be around 10 minutes, which by no means is enough time to cover every aspect of each book.
