This Simple Technique Closes Financial Advisory Clients in 7 Words or Less

Social media. It’s bright. Cool. Interactive. Fun. It’s the belle of the marketing ball.

“Social Media = Business. Period,” wrote marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk in his book Crush It!

Social media may be hot, but here’s my advice to you:

If you’re treating email as marketing’s ugly, old stepsister by comparison, you’re overlooking a huge opportunity to build and grow your business.

·     FACT: For customer acquisition, email is 40 times more effective than social media (McKinsey & Company).

·     FACT: Almost 60% of marketers report that email is the greatest source of ROI (Emma).

·     FACT: Email returns $38 for every $1 spent (DMA).

Even though email has been around since the mid-1970s, it’s still Cinderella when it comes to delivering ROI.

For financial services and insurance, I’ve found that using email is the easiest way to set appointments.

What’s more, you don’t need to be a great writer to make it work for you. Here’s how to make your next email campaign a perfect fit.

Build Your Marketing Foundation First…

And that’s email. Here’s why:

Your leads don’t instantaneously transform into clients. You’ve got to work them.

You need to develop relationships and nurture those relationships. That can take 5…8…sometimes 12 interactions. On average, that happens over a span of about six months.

That’s true for about 80% of your new business.

That relationship building and nurturing happens through phone calls and email.

But you don’t have time to call or even email every lead personally. You need a system that automates your email to keep you top of mind with ALL your leads… while you focus on the everyday needs of your current clients.

·     Step 1 – Get an Autoresponder: This tool enables you to write one email and send it to everyone in on your list. And you still have the flexibility to automatically personalize using simple fill in the blank spaces. Three of the more popular tools are Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Aweber. Your CRM should have either a built-in autoresponder or support an add-on tool.

·     Step 2 – Consolidate All Your Contacts: Gather all those leads—from business cards, seminar attendance lists, newsletter signup forms, etc.—and contacts sitting in Outlook or some Excel spreadsheet. Put them into your autoresponder.

·     Step 3 – Build an Email Funnel Campaign: Write a series of emails designed to engage, spark ideas, build your credibility, nurture a budding relationship and—ultimately—close business. Then schedule these to be sent out automatically over a period of several months.

If you don’t have the emails to back up your lead generation efforts—seminars, webinars, pay per click ads and, yes, even social media—then your efforts on the front end will be time and money wasted.

So start with the foundation. And here are a couple of my favorite techniques to build into your funnel campaign.

Jeremiah’s Swipe File Email #1

You’ll want to try a variety of messages and techniques to engage the leads on your list. And while I use both long and short emails at different times, I’m particularly partial to the S.A.C. formula.

When you write an email, keep it SHORT and ASK one question in a CONVERSATIONAL tone. S.A.C.

It’s designed to tap into our Lizard Brain—called the amygdala—and cause an ethical distraction.

I call this particular technique the “$14,000 Radio Silent Email.”

Hi [Prospect’s Name]

You went a little radio silent…

Would you like to discuss this, or backburner?

Best, [Your Name]

It’s short and to the point. It positions you as a person of authority, worth working with.

It’s basically saying, we’re both too busy to chat right now, but I’d like to schedule time for you in the future.

By keeping it short, you’re only interrupting someone’s day briefly, and making it easy for them to respond quickly. Because it’s brief, you don’t need to set an apologetic tone either.

Just send it out… and leave the ball in their court.

I call this the $14,000 email because one of our members sent this out to 10 people on his dark list. Within five minutes, he received five replies saying, “No thanks, I’m good.”

But four hours later one response came back and said, “Yes, when can we start?” This was the first communication back from this lead in six months. And the advisor had sent texts and left two voicemails—all unreturned.

The advisor received $14,000 in commissions plus two referrals from this prospect.

Jeremiah’s Swipe File Email #2

Before I share my second email, I want to remind you that these are just two of many email techniques and strategies I share with Advisorist members.

They work… and sometimes with spectacular results.

But as with anything, they won’t work every time. And you won’t know until you try. So build them into your campaign.

Whether you’re buying leads, running seminars, collecting referrals or using online demand generation techniques, you need to be building your list. Sometimes the people on that list need a gentle stimulus to stay engaged and, hopefully, take the next step.

Both these emails are proven to close business. More importantly, they can warm up the coldest leads and get them back into communication with you.

My second email technique is about as simple as it gets – the seven word email:

[Prospect Name],

Do you still need help with _________?

[Your Name]

You fill in the blank with life insurance, annuities, retirement planning or whatever.

That’s it.

Don’t elaborate or start pitching your products or services. In fact, this is effective because it isn’t a sales pitch. It sounds organic. Real. It feels as though you personally dashed out a quick note. It’s not threatening… and can’t be mistaken as rude.

As for results, this simple email has generated well over $1 million in fees and commissions all by itself. See what it can do for you.

Test Subject Lines

When the email appears in people’s inbox, you need a subject line that will get them to open it. I have two suggestions.

Try using the contact’s name—just the first name. It will get their attention. And a lot of people will automatically open it.

My second option is a subject line that simply says, “Quick Question.” I’ll bet you’ve even sent emails to friends and colleagues with that subject line.

Quick Question feels organic. Plus, it promises to interrupt their work only briefly.

To find out which works best for you, try splitting your list into two parts. Send one half the subject line with the first name only. Send “Quick Question” to the other half.

See which one gets more opens and responses, and you’ll find out which one works for you.

Try My Extra Email Takeaways

With some 150,000 emails being sent every minute, you need to stand out. And you need to test different techniques. Besides, not every person responds to the same approach or message.

However, here are a few things to test in your campaigns:

·     People respond to their names so personalize the subject line by including their name in your message.

·     Don’t constantly pitch your products and services. Deliver content that readers will value. You’ll earn credibility.

·     Pay attention to the days of the week and times of day when you get the greatest response, then schedule your emails accordingly. It’s generally thought that mornings (Tuesday – Thursday) are best.

·     When it comes to the length of your email, marketers are almost evenly split. Keep in mind that it will take someone about two minutes to read 300 words.

·     Keep your subject line to 60 characters or fewer.

·     Don’t overdo the emphasis. It’s tempting to capitalize. But words with all caps or making sentences look like titles with using initial capital letters for each word look salesy. This is not how we write to our friends and colleagues. For better open rates, look as personal and organic as possible.