In an effort to drive immediate sales, many advisors quickly retreat to the oh-so-common messages of “call now” or “free consultation”. While this is the ideal approach to drive traffic and generate sales, they often times forget about what needs to happen before they deliver that message that will greatly increase the success rate for those campaigns. In this episode of Money Script Monday, Dan reveals the marketing formula used that helped an advisor grow his business by 55% and operate over a half million dollar shop (in less than one year).

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Video transcription

Hello there, and welcome back to another episode of Money Script Monday. My name is Dan Tatulli, and today we're going to be talking about the formula for creating the most successful marketing campaigns.

The idea behind this episode really came about two or three months ago.

I've been with LifePro, it's going be seven years now in May. It's kind of crazy to be saying that, but I've seen a lot of marketing projects come across my desk.

There was this one agent in particular, it was a little over a year ago, he attended our IUL Sales Academy, and the LifePro Wealth Builder.

After those two days, he came out and said, "Dan, I'm all in. I'm going to do the seminar. Let's order those consumer guides. I love the report, I'm going to use that as the call to action. But first, I'm rebranding my company. Can you help me out with that?"

And of course, we did.

I didn't realize it at the time up until two or three months ago, where we took a step back and we realized he was already a top advisor, but what we had done in less than a year was grow his business by 55%.

And now, he operates over a half-a-million-dollar shop!

So that's when I took a step back and said, "Wow, the steps that we took this agent through, that's the formula for creating the most successful marketing campaign."

That's what I'm going to talk to you about today, so let's get started.

Image Marketing

There were really two things. It was image marketing, and direct marketing. First, let's talk about image marketing.

This is basically your brand. I have here Amazon. So think about those big corporations. So there's Amazon, Apple, Nike.

They all have these lavish designers, the best designs, the best commercials, the greatest slogans, Just Do It, Think Different.

The goal behind this, they pump billions of dollars into these marketing campaigns, is to repel some of the people that they don't want to do business with and attract the target segment that they do want to do business with.

They've built a commonality.

So think about Apple with their ear buds and just kind of the creativeness behind that. What they're doing is they're building a commonality, the creativeness between them and their market.

And then lastly, trust. What they're trying to do is build that trust between the corporation itself and their audience.

To give you an example, I put down Amazon. There was one commercial in particular. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but definitely search for it after this video.

An Asian couple was in the living room with their baby and they were going through, I don't know what it was, a book or a tablet, and the baby loved lions.

The dog was in the kitchen and he noticed this and walked over to the baby, and the baby started to cry. He didn't like dogs, he liked lions.

The father saw the dog walk away, and what he did was he logged on to Amazon, bought a lion mane, and within one day had it shipped to them.

They put the lion mane on the dog, the dog walks over and the baby reaches out its hand and started petting it.

It was a very emotional commercial, but at the end of it, it just popped up "Amazon Prime." They had no direct response.

They didn't say:

• "Call now."
• "Visit this website."
• "You have to do it.”
• “We're offering a two-for-one this weekend."

Nothing like that.

What they were doing was all about image. This was building an awareness of Amazon Prime.

So, next time when I'm with my family and I need something quick, I know that Amazon is going to have the largest selection and it's going to be sent to me within the next day or two.

What they've done is they've built that commonality, repelled and attracted, and built that trust.

For a lot of financial advisors out there, they look at this and they say, "All these corporations are putting billions of dollars into this. I don't have that type of money."

What they do is they resort back to direct marketing.

So, it's a lot of:

• "Call now."
• "Free consultation."
• "Do it this weekend.”
• “Get this report."

That's really the mistake that you have to take the time to build that trust first before you ask for the sale.

Because asking for the sale is kind of like asking for a hand in marriage, if you haven't built a relationship yet, that's weird. They're going to say no. No, I will not marry you.

You just can't go up to somebody and ask for the sale.

Common Types of Image Marketing

Image marketing for financial advisors is typically done through:

• Identity
• Logo
• Profile picture
• Stationery
• Personal brochure
• Brief meeting

I put down personal brochure, because this is not listing out services per se. This is actually crafting your story, your message, what makes you different and really, what are you passionate about?

And lastly, a brief meeting.

This doesn't have to be a meeting in your office.

This is more like after a school program. If you're at a soccer practice and you're talking with one of the parents, that you're now building that commonality between you and them, that your kids are on the same soccer team.

What you have to remember is this is all built around a relationship first, because before you ask for the sale, before you ask for “the marriage”, you have to build that trust in that relationship first.

We're going to move on from image marketing to direct marketing.

Direct Marketing

This is pretty easy. This is your direct response, this is the call now.

I put Mattress Firm up here. Now, I'm not busting them, but any mattress company really.

Doesn't it always seem like every weekend there's always some type of sale going on that you have to "Buy now, buy now, buy now."

Every weekend there is some type of crazy sale that you need to walk in.

But, if you don't establish an image, if you don't establish that trust, what you're doing is you're setting yourself up as really...

You're becoming a commodity.

That's what so many agents are doing.

They just talk about IUL. They talk about annuities, they talk about the special report without building that trust.

All of a sudden you just became a commodity.

So, what I'm going to do for the mattresses, I'm going to find the cheapest mattress out there and go to the cheapest vendor and get the best deal that I can because I don't trust any of them.

All I want is a good price, a good value, and I'm going to walk out.

That's what so many agents do, too.

They focus on direct marketing without ever establishing that trust, that image, and that's really the important part of it.

The goal here, produce the calls, drive traffic, and get immediate sales.

I say immediate because, with image marketing, you're going to have 10 to 12 exposures to your audience before they really start trusting you.

Here, this is more about the weekend, you know, the magazine ad, getting those calls right away.

Common Types of Direct Marketing

This is typically done through offering some type of:

• Special report
• Subscription
• Seminar tickets

Direct marketing is all focused around an offer. That's what you want to do.

Your call to action is focusing on an offer.

Get Started with LifePro Today

Now, with this, how can LifePro help?

We've established a whole entire division called MarketPro, that helps you out with your image.

We'll help you get started with your brand, we'll help you establish your identity, we'll craft your message, we'll design that personal brochure for you.

The direct marketing piece, those are the LifePro programs such as:

• LifePro Wealth Builder
• ReProject

We've established these reports and calculators, and opt-in forms, an e-mail marketing and seminar programs that you can use for direct marketing purposes.

But you can't do any of this yet, until you have the image.

That's what the top advisor did, he knew that coming in.

So many advisors jump to direct marketing, but he knew that he had to work on his image first before making that offer.

I hope that provides some clarity for you guys about the formula for creating the most successful marketing campaigns.

Reach out to us here at LifePro by phone at 1-888-LIFEPRO (543-3776), and let's get started on creating your image and working on that direct marketing. Thank you very much and have a great day.