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Client management, operations, legal and compliance, sales, portfolio management, customer service – the list goes on and on. On any given day running your practice, you and any partners or team members have to wear 10-15 different hats. This creates an incredible number of tasks to tackle.

In working with different advisory practices over the years, and this ranges from $1B+ shops all the way to a brand-new RIA, we’ve seen that on the marketing side of things, the biggest pain points for advisors come down to two things: Content Creation & Marketing Execution.

The ideas are there, you may have even had pockets of inspiration to create marketing content regularly, but your time is limited, and even if you have the resources – understanding what topics will resonate and getting pen to paper on those topics is easier said than done.

In this piece, we discuss scaling these two areas and how you can avoid marketing burnout.

Let’s Start With Content Creation

You’ve been told you have to blog 1,000 words a day. Produce one video a week. Release a podcast episode every two weeks. It all sounds great, but how do you find the time for it all?

Time Block for Marketing

Time blocking has been one of the best micro-hacks we’ve helped our members focus around. It essentially means that every day, you’re going to spend 1-2 hours a day on marketing – this could be content creation, engaging with prospects via email or on social, or reviewing your analytics. The primary element of successful time blocking is shutting off all notifications. Allowing yourself to create, or tweak content before you get it out the door. We recommend doing this in the morning when you’re fresh: a 9-10am time block to write a new blog post or film a new video. Time blocking allows you to focus on momentum-driving activities and also enables you to build the marketing muscle over time.

Create Templates for Everything

If you’ve listened to our podcast before, you’ve heard us talk about templatizing everything ad nauseam. Why? Because it cuts your creation time in half. But what exactly do we mean by templatizing your content?

• Create series-based content: Something you release every single week or two weeks at the same time and place. Series-based (or as some call it, episodic content) allows you to create a content delivery structure around the production of anything you’re creating. For example, if you’re doing a video series that’s called Markets in Under 60 Seconds, you know that in each episode you have 60 seconds to cover your points.
• Scale your creative templates: Using our Markets in Under 60 Seconds example, create an intro animation and an outro animation that stays static, and just pop the fresh content into them. Similarly on social templates, create repeatable graphics – a quote card, stat card, insight card, etc. – and just refresh with new content. We recommend creating 3-4 social graphic templates in Canva where all you have to do is swap copy, statistics, and images before sending them out.

Find Leverage Points Across Content

One of the biggest mistakes we see advisors make is that you create a single pillar piece of content – a blog, video, podcast – distribute it once, then move onto the next thing. While it’s important to keep creating, limiting distribution  results in a much lower ROI per piece. Instead, think about the leverage points. A single blog can turn into: 

• A slide show
• 2-3 social graphics
• A quick video
• An email to prospects or clients

Keep this systematized. For each piece – how many mini-pieces do you need to create to get the most runway out of a single piece? Set a number and what types of media they will be.

Ok, So How Do We Execute Marketing This Content?

Set up the Right Tools

From your social sharing tools like Hootsuite to your content sourcing tools like Seven Group, to your MailChimp’s, ensuring you have the right tools set up for your practice is critical. It’s not about the number of tools, rather having the right set that seamlessly work together. Our favorites are below:

• Web Hosting
  • WordPress
  • Twenty Over Ten
  • Webflow
• CRM
  • Hubspot
  • Wealthbox
  • Zoho
• Content Creation
  • Seven Group
  • Canva
• Video editing
  • Veed
  • Camtasia
• Email
  • Hubspot
  • MailChimp
  • Convert Kit
• Social Publishing
  • Hootsuite
  • Hubspot
  • Buffer

The right set of tools allows you to scale content creation and publish faster and with more intent.

Systematize it All

Similar to templatizing your creative templates, systematizing your marketing allows you to move with speed and flexibility. This means you have systems in place for every bucket of your marketing and automate where possible. Where to systemize? Start with form completions on your website: If someone fills out a contact form, whether it be a contact form or to download a guide, what do they receive, when, and how often?

Onboarding a tool like MailChimp or HubSpot allows you to set up these integrations seamlessly. The content and number of touchpoints will be contextual – someone who fills out a contact form you can be more aggressive with vs. someone who downloads a guide – but generally you want to follow-up with someone three times (assuming they don’t respond) before they move to a “cold” list. This follow up should be educational and value-add in nature vs. pushing to book a meeting.

Where else you can systematize and questions to ask yourself and your team:

• Your social posting – do you schedule posts out in advance on a Sunday?
• Your sales process – what does the sales process look like? Is it repeatable from client to client?
• Your advertising – what does your review process look like for your ads?
• Your measurement – have you created a measurement scorecard for your marketing?

Create Consistent Feedback Loops

Getting feedback anecdotally and in aggregate can make or break your marketing. If you’re not talking to your clients or reviewing your data, your echo chamber will get louder.

This is why we generally have all of our members set up a “ask for feedback” campaign with clients. This is a survey-based campaign that allows you to collect high-level feedback from clients on the value you’re sharing with them, and how you can serve them better.

What questions do you ask? Some examples below.

• What are the 3 things that you value the most about our services?
• What can we do to better serve you and your family?
• How could we continue to improve the experience you have with our firm?
• How often would you like to hear from us outside of our regular meeting?
• What type of information would you like to see more of from us?
• What are the top digital channels you like to read or listen to content on?

Pairing this with reviewing your digital data (Google Analytics, Email data, Ad data) can help you create an effective feedback loop with clients and your marketing regularly.

The Bottom Line

Marketing is incredibly intimidating before you start executing, but if you have the right content frameworks and systems in place, it’s just like working out – the more you do it, the stronger you get overtime.

Want to chat marketing? Schedule a call with our team.