Building a sense of trust and honesty is key to turning prospects into clients, particularly in financial services where a great deal can be at stake. This ebook describes one very effective way to build up a long-term client base.

1. GROW YOUR FINANCIAL
SERVICES PRACTICE –
FAST
Proven Techniques To Attract Clients
Justin J. Pugsley
Director
JJPAssociates Ltd.
© JJPAssociates 2014. All rights reserved
1

2. Before I get started on how relationship marketing can grow your financial services
practice, I want to tell you an extraordinarily story.
It's so weird that you may feel compelled to do a Google search to check its veracity.
The setting is the battle of Waterloo.
The Duke of Wellington, a military genius who by now had a string of victories to his
name, did something I find in some respects quite brave.
He based his battle plans partly on the basis of the support of a man who could only be
described as mad.
And remember this was a battle, which helped shape the politics of Europe for nearly a
century.
Wellington knew that if the Prussian Field Marshall, Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher,
didn't turn up as he had promised, the battle of Waterloo would be lost to the French. And
it very nearly was.
The thing is Blucher was a seriously strange character.
This was a guy who fought with imaginary people. On one occasion he asked one of his
servants to hit him over the head with a hammer because he thought it had turned to
stone. And it gets a lot weirder. He also believed he was pregnant with an elephant from a
French soldier (and yes Blucher was a man).
So what's this story all about?
It's basically about trust. Wellington, one of the greatest generals of his era, trusted
Blucher would be as good as his word and he was. His arrival on the battlefield at the head
of the Prussian army did turn the tide of the battle in the allies' favour.
Later I'll tell you why Wellington trusted Blucher.
But that same quality of trust is also the crucial lubricant for selling financial services.
It's when people believe financial advisers will give their clients the best advice, obtain
the cheapest loans for them, direct them towards the most appropriate investments and
generally act in their best interests.
The UK along with other countries has introduced a plethora of new rules to protect
investors. This helps create trust to a certain extent, but it goes deeper than just rules.
Building that trust comes down to a number of factors:
These are a perception of your competence, honesty and credibility.
And this is where relationship marketing comes in. Used well it can be incredibly
2

3. powerful. And that's what I want to share with you today.
The very premise of this approach is that it is far easier to sell to someone who knows
and trusts you than it is to a person who has no knowledge of you. Good relationships and
trust make closing the sale a lot easier. But they do take some time to build.
It also makes pricing less of a factor.
Admittedly not in all cases, but certainly many people will pay a premium to buy from
someone they like and trust. Building a strong bond with clients and prospects is probably
one of the best ways of keeping the competition at bay and building a sustainable
business.
But it goes beyond that.
Your clients are the tip of the iceberg
Because for every person who becomes your client today there are probably three, four
or more who would become your clients at some point, but they're simply not ready to
commit now for whatever the reason.
This is where so many businesses quite literally leave pots of cash on the table. That
needn't be you.
They're not nurturing those prospects for the long term who could eventually become
clients.
Very often by the time they are ready to buy, they've forgotten all about you and will
purchase from someone else – your competition. And that's a real missed opportunity.
And yet with relationship marketing some of those prospects who are not ready to buy
today could go on to become some of your best clients and most ardent supporters.
You'll find out why later in this e-book.
The strategies outlined here are designed to help you forge closer relationships with your
prospects and clients. To make sure that when those prospects are ready to buy you are
their first port of call.
And if they're already clients you want to be cultivating long term relationships with them
to the point that they also give you referrals – the most powerful marketing tool of all.
Another factor is that this strategy can to a large extent be automated. That's not to say
there isn't much work involved. There is. But it probably requires less physical effort than
many other strategies used by financial advisers to attract clients, such as attending and
organising networking events and so on.
To be clear this is not a replacement for those activities. If they're working for you by all
means carry on doing them, but what is being outlined here will greatly complement and
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4. enhance your other marketing efforts.
Given that the readership of this report is likely to be international it is imperative that you
adapt these marketing techniques to comply with the regulations in your jurisdiction. And of
course to your particular area in finance.
If you already have an e-mail database, then the techniques described here could
dramatically increase your income within months if not weeks.
Building that database – and ensuring it has the right type of prospects is probably the
hardest part.
But I'm going to start from scratch. I'm going to assume that you don't have a database of
motivated prospects. Therefore much of this report is dedicated to helping you find those
prospects and besides even if you do have a substantial list of names you should always
be adding to it.
So here it goes...
4

5. PART 1
CREATE COMPELING
CONTENT
5

6. Many years ago I was editor of an internet business magazine and I wanted to land an
interview with a high profile businessman to make the mag stand out so to speak.
I was hoping to find someone who could talk about combining 'old fashioned' business
with the rapidly emerging Internet.
I homed in on Stelios Haji-Ioannu or just Stelios as he is known who is the founder of
EasyJet and a number of other businesses.
The idea was that the interview would grab attention by being heavily promoted on the
front cover.
After a lot of persistence I was finally granted an interview with him. He was actually very
pleasant to talk to, but the one thing I detected is that he was very sensitive about coming
from a wealthy Greek shipping family.
That's probably because our society tends to venerate self-made entrepreneurs rather
than those who started out with a fortune, but I digress...
An interview with Stelios equalled great content. He is a person of interest to the business
community. That in turn would attract readers and advertisers.
But before delving into the area of content let's start with some basics.
To start building relationships you need to obtain the contact details of potential prospects
so that you can communicate with them.
You could rent a mailing list of potential prospects and this can work. The problem with a
rented mailing list is that a lot of other companies, probably competitors, will be targeting it
and potentially sending out their own marketing messages.
Or the owner of the list may impose all kinds of conditions and quite reasonably so from
their point of view as they want to preserve its value. Depending on what country they're in
they may be constrained by all kinds of rules over e-mailing.
That may mean restrictions in terms of what you can send, how often and when.
That is inconvenient. Because success in marketing isn't just about getting in front of
prospects, but it is about repeating your message to them so when they do decide to buy
you are front and centre in their minds.
But it is a fast way to gain a list of prospects.
A far better and more powerful way of reaching prospects is to instead get them to give
you their contact details voluntarily.
That means those prospects are potentially far more motivated. As it's your list, it also
gives you a lot more control.
6

7. And for prospects to part with their details you need to offer them something in return --
namely compelling content.
Typically this content will be in the form of reports, white papers, case studies, articles,
short courses, podcasts or videos.
So here's a quick description of the main types of educational content – as opposed to
more sales driven copy such as brochures and websites.
Articles: The likes of content farms have been around for almost as long as the Internet
itself. Most are a waste of time.
However, specialist trade publications are increasingly open to accepting articles from
outside sources as long as it is free. Many are struggling to fill the space in their
magazines and to keep their websites constantly updated with a steady stream of articles.
This is where you come in. You approach the editor and offer to write an article for their
publication. It must be relevant to that publication's readership and also to your target
market. You should therefore be targeting publications and even blogs that your prospects
and clients read.
Editors generally love stories about trends, explanations of difficult topics and of course
anything controversial (as long as it's not libellous).
On the first run offer the article on spec. That means the editor has the freedom not to
publish it. To avoid that happening I've found it is far better to phone the editor rather
simply send an e-mail. Because that gives you an opportunity to probe for how interested
they are in taking outside contributions and the kind of thing their readership wants.
It's then down to you to deliver what you said you would in terms subject matter,
deadline, focus and word count. By the way your article is not the place to make a sales
pitch. If you do I can almost guarantee you that it won't get published. It needs to be
something of substance and of value to the readership and that usually means
educational.
Once published don't necessarily expect that article to create a rush of enquiries – very
often it won't. But if your article is published in a recognised and well regarded publication
then it boosts your credibility, an awareness of you and in a way endorses you – and
therein lies a lot of value. For instance, I've written about marketing for The Guardian and
that has helped me.
Therefore the real benefit is to include that article in your marketing collateral – but do get
permission to reproduce it.
However, if you can't or don't want to place the article somewhere then you can just run it
on your website or save it for your contacts on your e-mail database.
E-books: These will usually fall into the 'how to' category. So if you're a wealth manager
you might want to describe the investment strategies of the most successful investing
7

8. legends. If you're a marine insurance broker it might be about 3 highly effective tactics for
reducing insurance premiums or enhancing cover at no extra cost.
E-books are typically divided up into chapters and should look and feel just like an
ordinary business or 'how to' book. If you want to add a perception of value to your book
you can offer to mail it to prospects in a hard copy format instead – that enables you to get
some more data on your prospects, such as their home addresses.
Also, the print on demand (POD) publishing makes doing this easier and cheaper than
ever before. POD basically caters for very small print runs and is heavily used by
publishers on platforms such as Amazon, which has its own POD printing subsidiary.
If you have a large database you could even invite someone well known in your industry,
who isn't a competitor, to write an article or chapter or even several such people to do so.
If that's too much suggest an interview, which you'll then get written up and allow them to
check before publication.
I've actually done this for clients and it can be very effective. It allows them to reach new
audiences whilst boosting their credibility by association.
White Papers: These documents tend to be narrower in focus than say an e-book and
usually deal with a very specific and often technical issue.
The history of these documents goes back some hundred years or so when they were
published by the British government to discuss policy issues and they are still used for that
to this day.
However, IT companies adopted this format around the 90s with some gusto. But other
types of businesses such as those involved in financial services are also publishing them
more and more.
In essence a white paper discusses a problem and then presents a range of solutions
and then follows up with a conclusion. The document aims to be authoritative and
objective / neutral in tone, a little like an academic paper – but should be written in a much
easier to read format. So it will typically present data and other arguments to support its
conclusions.
A well targeted and presented white paper can be a very powerful tool for attracting
prospects, building credibility and enhancing thought leadership.
It's mainly used for B2B audiences and to support the marketing of complex and or
expensive products. In financial services this might include a product for outsourcing the
management of employee pensions, some sort of back office system for insurance
companies and so on.
I wouldn't advise white papers if you're targeting a retail audience.
Case Studies: These are also incredibly powerful. As the name suggests it is a
document, which reviews some work you did for a client and how you successfully tackled
8

9. their problem or in some way improved their condition.
People love stories and finding out how other 'real' people dealt with the same problem
they're currently facing and how they triumphed. Ideally your prospects should read your
case studies and be able to relate to at least one of them and think, “yes that's me.”
They basically make what you offer seem more real and provide something your
prospects can personally relate to. You could say they're a bit like an extended testimonial.
Usually the client giving the testimonial can't be named, often because they don't want to.
Even so as long as it is from a real source it still has power.
Reports: This is a very generic term. In financial services that can be anything from a
market report or forecasts as produced by many banks and brokerages. It can also be an
analysis on the state of an industry or a particular market.
Like with other content they're more powerful when they address an issue that is new,
topical and is currently bothering your prospects in some way. They're very heavily used in
the financial services sector for promoting securities and investment ideas.
Newsletters / E-zines etc... : These are popular marketing tools and a great way to keep
employees, suppliers and customers informed and thinking about you.
In reality I suspect most are hardly ever read and are a complete waste of money and
time.
The worst offenders tend to be the newsletters and magazines produced for employees.
Having worked for many big companies I can say with some confidence that almost no
one really reads these publications. They're often dull, riddled with turgid writing and mind
numbing corporate messaging.
Even worse publications aimed at clients and prospects are often produced in the same
manner.
And that's a real shame, because given they're published regularly it is an excellent
opportunity for relationship building.
So always position the content so that it is of interest to your target audience. Think
supermarkets. They publish free magazines full of recipes and other cooking tips – often
featuring celebrity chefs – about making great dishes from the ingredients the supermarket
sells.
In our world of financial services the same principle applies.
For example, if you arrange loans for small businesses then write about how they can
achieve lower cost financing. Or give them tips on growing their businesses, retaining
customers etc... stuff that would really help them. And yes even bring in outside experts
9

10. from time to time to pen some of those articles for you.
Blogs: Have been popular for a long time now and are much loved by the SEO crowd.
The advantage of blogs over e-zines and newsletters is that they can be more
personalised and published more easily and are less restricted by format and frequency of
publication.
However, they're not ideal for dealing with large volumes of content in a way that
magazines and newsletters or e-zenes are.
But again they tend to be dull and often self-serving and are not updated frequently
enough. It comes down to blogging about topics, which interest your prospects. Done well
they can attract very loyal followers, reinforce the brand and are a great way of harvesting
names and e-mail addresses.
Podcasts: In recent years these have become very popular partly due to Apple's iTunes
platform. Many small entrepreneurs have built significant niche businesses on the back of
weekly podcasts featuring interesting advice and interviews with experts.
Even for larger companies they can be an excellent medium for attracting potential
prospects. But once again keeping listeners hooked requires a strong opening and a
promise of great things to come during the programme. And then of course you must
deliver on your promise – then I can assure you people will keep coming back for more.
Where podcasts gain over videos is convenience. They can be enjoyed whilst driving,
commuting to work or while working out in the gym – providing they're downloadable on a
device such as an i-Pod or MP4 player.
Videos: These are also growing in popularity. The visual element provides the added
benefit of being able to introduce graphs, pie charts, info-graphics and other images. It
also means your prospects can actually see you, which can be very powerful for building
trust. People often make quick judgements based on what a person looks like, their
mannerisms and how they talk.
The brokerage firm Hargreaves Lansdown interviews fund managers to talk about their
investment philosophy and market outlook in a style similar to a TV programme. Though
there is no promoting of funds in these programmes they do nonetheless create a lot of
investor interest in the funds managed by the fund managers interviewed.
Short videos are often used to promote other content such as free white papers or e-
books and encourage prospects to sign-up for it.
But as with podcasts – and actually any content – keep it relevant, interesting and
engaging. Offer value and not a blatant sales pitch. Again, it's about taking an educational
approach.
How to choose a topic for your content.
How do you create content that your prospects will be willing to trade their contact details
10

11. for and possibly even reveal other personal details?
Think about what their concerns are – what keeps them awake at night? What are their
ongoing and potential pain points? Their ambitions? What questions and concerns keep
coming up over and over again from your clients and prospects?
The titles of your free content must directly hook into their needs.
Think about some of the biggest issues effecting your particular corner of the financial
services industry. There is great change happening across nearly all areas of finance from
banking, wealth management, fund management, stock broking, mortgages, insurance
and so on.
How do all these changes in regulations, technology, the industry's landscape, taxation,
the actions of central banks, the economy, working practices (more people becoming self-
employed and more employees working part time or at home) etc... effect your market?
What kind of financial products do they need?
In most cases there are vast amounts of information out there on these topics already, so
much so that it is over-whelming and confusing. Therefore there is a value in distilling the
main points and explaining their relevance clearly and simply to your audience.
And there are always little known regulations or structures, which your market has almost
no knowledge of, but could make a big difference to their personal finances. This is
particularly the case with the general public.
So there are endless potential topics for white papers, reports and other content – the
trick is to position them to make them relevant and compelling to your market.
The benefit of this type of content is that it should have a long shelf life. It can therefore
be working for you 24/7 harvesting prospects. And this leads us to Part 2: Building the
mailing list...
11

12. PART 2
FINDING YOUR HERD
12

13. The brilliant academic Robert Cialdini after many years of research identified the six main
keys to influence. As a marketer or entrepreneur these should be of huge interest to you,
because used properly they'll make your business a lot more successful.
I also strongly recommend that you read Cialdini's book: Influence – The Psychology of
Persuasion. It's packed full of fascinating insights and experiments demonstrating how our
minds work and our propensity to be influenced by others.
The advice in this e-book is heavily based upon Cialdini's findings, so I think this a good
time to share them with you.
1. Reciprocity
Most normal people aim to return favours and kindnesses they've received and to repay
their debts. People who don't do that are considered bad or selfish. It's the person whom
you regularly help out and then when it comes to you asking them for a favour it's willingly
returned. It's a social norm.
The idea of reciprocity is very well entrenched in our culture and is in many respects
central to a smoothly running society where people in effect recognise 'their debts' to each
other whether it be money or favours.
In terms of marketing this comes down to sharing your expertise and experience with the
people on your mailing list. If what you share has real value some of those people will feel
grateful towards you and will want to return the favour in some way.
But let me make two important observations about this: Firstly, don't abuse that by trying
to strong arm people into commitments that are wrong for them and don't be unethical.
Secondly, don't expect or demand reciprocity from people. Some people will get it, others
won't and that's just the way it is.
2. Consistency
Cialdini found that we all have a strong desire to be consistent. What that means is that
once we commit to something we're more inclined to see it through. I guess that's all the
more so if that commitment is made in public or to someone we respect and want to
please.
We also tend to judge people by their consistency. Such as the politician who made
promises, but didn't deliver or the employee who promised to improve their game, but
didn't. Both are judged to be flaky, unreliable and inconsistent.
It's being consistent in delivering on your promises to prospects and clients, whether it's
on the product or your content.
3. Social Proof
13

14. People tend to gravitate towards 'safety in numbers.' That is when a lot of people rate
something highly, particularly if they're people 'like us' then it must be OK. It's the
restaurant that's always busy, which must mean the food is very good. It's the latest smart
phone everyone is using, because it's probably the best one on the market and so on.
People typically seek social proof when they're feeling anxious or uncertain.
That might be the individual planning for their retirement who feels over-whelmed about
all the different options and confusing information out there. Given the life impacting
consequences their decisions will have they'll be seeking reviews, advice and reassurance
from others before committing. They won't just seek the advice of experts, but will also
want to see how others are doing who took that route. And the more the better very often.
Social proof certainly plays a role in people's decision making especially if they’ve noticed
a lot of people they consider their peers and equals taking a certain course of action.
That's very observable when investors pile into a heavily touted penny stock.
In marketing that's the role of testimonials. It's reassuring to see people like us who have
bought a particular product or solution before us and are satisfied and are willing to put
their name to that.
4. Liking
We are definitely more likely to be influenced by people we like whether it be our friends
or someone well known whom we feel we relate to in a positive way. We certainly prefer to
do business with people we like, even if they're more expensive, because we find the
process more enjoyable and less stressful.
This is one of the reasons why Avon has been so successful. Its salespeople are local
women in a community who are liked and trusted by other women. Basically, they're
familiar to the neighbourhood.
In your marketing you can build a bond with like-minded people through the tone of your
communications and by being yourself.
5. Authority
Generally speaking we have a strong deference to authority and this is often
communicated through job titles and uniforms. We tend to respect the authority of the
police, a doctor, the boss or some other important person we look up to.
You've probably noticed that toothpaste is often advertised by dentists or that some food
products are promoted by celebrity chefs on TV. These professionals / experts are
basically saying: “We think this is good and use it therefore you should as well.”
You can become an authority in your field simply by regularly sharing your knowledge
and expertise about your area of finance. Prospects who follow what you do and benefit
from your advice will definitely see as you as an authority, which is a key building block to
trust. Getting articles published is another way to gain authority.
14

15. 6. Scarcity
It's why gold is so expensive compared with nearly all other metals and why tickets to a
certain concert or sports event are so exorbitant. It's because supply is scarce relative to
demand. And naturally when something desirable is rationed it becomes much more
attractive and expensive.
In marketing scarcity is often created artificially as part of the offer. Only 50 seats
available for this 'must attend' event or this offer only lasts until such and such a date.
Even after you've built a strong fan base you'll still need to use the principle of scarcity to
motivate people to take action, usually through deadlines and by limiting availability.
Getting ready to attract prospects
So with the content in place to attract prospects you now need to go out there and find
them or rather let them find you.
Naturally you'll need an e-mail auto responder service in place to capture leads and to
enable you to send them content and e-mails.
Selecting auto-responders is beyond the scope of this e-book, but I strongly recommend
you use a reputable one. Many of the free ones are associated with spamming and using
them could be very damaging to your business. That means e-mail service providers such
as Gmail and Hotmail will simply block your e-mails to recipients because they assume
you're engaged in spamming.
The search engines could even penalise your page rankings as they associate your
domain name with spamming.
Among the more reputable names are companies such as Aweber, Office Autopilot or
Mail chimp. They implement best practices for e-mail marketing, such as managing opt-ins
and allowing recipients to easily unsubscribe to your e-mails if they so wish.
In fact never make it hard for people to unsubscribe to your list. It beggars belief that
some companies still make the opt out link very tiny or worse do not include one.
Such practices backfire badly. Faced with this situation I – and I'm sure many others –
just hit the spam button provided by the e-mail hosting service to get rid of it. If you get too
many people classifying your e-mails as spam then you'll face growing problems getting
them through the increasingly sensitive spam filters most e-mail hosting services now have
in place.
You may also fall foul of anti-spam regulations. In the US for instance very high fines can
be imposed on people suspected of spamming.
Besides, you will want some people to unsubscribe. A big part of this is about self-
selection and finding potentially motivated buyers who are a good match to you.
15

16. This is not about building the largest e-mail database on the planet, which is likely to be
populated by people with little interest in what you do. It's about building a list of motivated
prospects who are likely to buy your products. Everyone else is just clutter.
But I digress...
Search Engine Optimisation
The most obvious way people think of being discovered on the Internet is through Search
Engine Optimisation (SEO) – basically a way of generating top rankings on search
engines, such as Google under certain key words.
People also think this strategy is free. It isn't. It requires a lot of effort and expertise to be
consistently good at it.
This might be less of an issue for very large companies, but it certainly matters for
smaller businesses with less resources and with a far more results driven focus.
And though collecting prospects' details from search based traffic is fine in theory there
are a number of issues with an SEO-based strategy, which you should consider carefully.
The search engines are very secretive as to how they rank websites and they change
their algorithms regularly. So a website that ranks top under certain search terms today,
may suddenly find itself relegated to obscurity the next day, because Google has changed
its ranking algorithm.
Playing Russian roulette
And this happens – frequently. Sometimes with devastating results for companies, which
rely on SEO generated traffic for most of their business.
You don't ever want to be in that position.
What has transpired is a kind of arms race with the SEO experts trying to figure out how
the search engines, mostly Google given its dominance, are ranking websites. But the
search engines are always one step ahead, because they make the rules and can change
them at will.
One high profile company, which has had problems with this is the UK-based price
comparison website Moneysupermarket.com. It experienced revenue falls when it
suddenly lost top rankings under key search terms on Google.
At the time of writing it generated around 50% of its profits from Google traffic. It looks
like they're trying to reduce that dependence quickly.
Moneysupermarket.com has apparently resolved the issue with Google. But to mitigate
the vagaries of SEO rankings it is increasingly focusing on repeat business, which sounds
awfully like relationship marketing. And along with many of its peers it has also turned to
16

17. good old fashioned TV advertising.
So contrary to rumour traditional media is not dead.
Relying heavily on SEO effectively means your bottom line is unpredictable and is to a
large extent dictated by factors that are beyond your control.
Basically the search engines are trying to furnish the highest quality responses to search
queries. So factors such as original content, traffic, in-bound links from reputable and
relevant websites all count as part of the ranking.
Broaden your marketing channels
It therefore makes sense to develop other channels for attracting prospects.
And this is where your content comes in. Its two main purposes is to capture leads and
help convert them into clients. That means recipients can only download or access your
content in exchange for their names and e-mail addresses.
At this stage don't ask for anything more as too much effort will put a lot of people off.
The only exception to this rule is if you have something of amazing value, which your
prospects are incredibly keen to know about (you often see this situation in very niche
markets, where there's little freely available information and where prospects are
desperate for knowledge).
As time goes by you want to gradually learn more about your prospects, such as where
they live.
Publish a printed newsletter
A great way of getting prospects to divulge their home address is to publish a free paper-
based newsletter, every month or quarter. That may sound expensive with the printing and
distribution costs – but direct mail remains very powerful, even more so as less companies
use it because they've switched to using the Internet instead.
If you only target a certain jurisdiction then you can make that clear to potential
recipients.
The benefit of a paper-based product is that it can convey more value than a digital one
and many prospects, particularly older ones, relate more to this format.
But rather than thinking in terms of cost regarding your marketing, you should be thinking
about return on investment. A positive return on a large outlay is far more valuable than a
negative return on a low outlay.
Advertise, advertise, advertise
The other way of attracting prospects, as opposed to just relying on SEO, is
17

18. advertise for them.
That is advertise your free content under various key words that are relevant to your
market.
What I'm going to cover here is quite basic, so if you're already doing Pay Per Click
advertising and are good at it then feel free to skip this section.
The most common approach is to use PPC advertising. Those are the small ads that run
at the top and down the left hand side of the web page when you're searching for
something on Google, Bing or Yahoo.
The ads are matched to the specific key words that you type in.
You only pay if someone clicks on your ad. This is unlike with an ad in a traditional
publication where you pay for it just being there and regardless of response.
The positioning of your ad depends on a number of factors.
I'm only going to talk about the very basics here simply because this is a specialist topic
in its own right and also the way it works changes frequently.
But at the time of writing this e-book these were the main influences on the positioning of
an ad on the main search engine advertising platforms:
How much you're willing to bid for that position is part of the equation, but by no means
the whole story.
The ranking of your ad also depends on a number of factors known as the quality score.
That is arrived at by judging factors such as the quality of your landing page and click
through rates from your ad to your website, your landing page relevance and the
performance of your previous campaigns.
So it pays to be relevant – not just for your response rate, but also in terms of the cost
per click and this in turn positively influences your ROI. What you're aiming for is the
lowest possible cost per click rate coupled with the maximum amount of relevant traffic of
prospects who will opt-in to your e-mail list in return for that great content you've created.
So that means that the key words in your ad must be matched by those on your landing
page
Typically advertisers have lots of different campaigns focussed around key words or more
likely a combination of key words, which could be built around typical search terms.
These might include phrases such as:
'Self-employed loans' or ‘Architect liability insurance'
18

19. The trick is then to make sure that your landing page is completely tailored to those
phrases for reasons explained a few moments ago. Also, if you can discover key words
and phrases that are less used, but still effective, that to can drive higher ROI.
But basically targeting very specific niches – which will need to be supported with
targeted landing pages and possibly even content – can often lower PPC rates while
driving up responses.
Banner ads
Google also runs something called the 'Display Network,' where it has partnered with
other website owners across the world where it shares revenue from the ads it sells with
those owners.
Many include some of the largest and most popular websites on the Internet, such as
those run by large media companies.
The beauty of this approach is that it is potentially a lot cheaper than running expensive
ads with those media companies as it is done on the same PPC basis as Google ads.
But is less constrained than Google ads in that it is not search word related and there are
less text constraints as well. But you can select which websites your ad will appear on.
Some users are reporting higher ROI using the Display Network ads than Google ads as
PPC rates are often cheaper and the number of viewers is much higher though CTRs are
usually lower.
However, this was the case at the time of writing. Should it become extremely popular the
economics of using Display Network ads can change dramatically as PPC rates go up.
But the bottom line is that Google can offer a very targeted approach for your advertising,
which can help your ROI.
That's as a consequence of privacy being dead – the search engines know all about us,
our tastes, our surfing habits etc... A dream for marketing professionals a nightmare for the
human rights movement.
Then there's Facebook, LinkedIn etc...
Facebook knows a massive amount about its users as they willingly share so many of
their personal details on the site.
Indeed, this platform is starting to come into its own now for an increasing range of
advertisers. With something like one in seven people on earth using it – you're almost
certain to find a large percentage of your prospects hanging out there.
LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform for B2B marketing and also holds a lot of
detailed data about the people on its network. Advertising on it tends to be expensive, but
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20. it can be very targeted and generate excellent results. And at the end of the day it's not
about the cost, but the ROI.
As long as your advertising is profitable then the cost of it shouldn't matter for as long as
each £ € $ spent makes a positive return.
However, realms and realms can be written about this stuff and indeed have. But the only
way to make it work is to go and do it.
It comes down to testing, measuring, tweaking, refining and testing.
Lather, rinse, repeat the above until you're generating positive ROI.
And yes it will be expensive at first.
But the real beauty of these online ad campaigns is that they happen in real time. This
means you learn in real time and can quickly find a formula that works for you.
More quickly than say advertising in a daily or weekly publication where you wait longer
for the results.
It comes down to being very targeted with your campaigns and your market.
Fortunately there are all kinds of tools out there to help measure your advertising and
make it more targeted and some of them, such as from Google, are actually free.
Social media
Any discussion about marketing is incomplete these days without mentioning social
media.
Consider that among the main players which are shaping this medium, such as LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter were only founded in 2002, 2004 and 2006 respectively. This means
social media is still very new.
Given that it takes around 20 years or so for a new technology to really come into its own
and go completely mainstream one can surmise that social media still has much
developing to do.
It will probably look quite different in 2024 than it did in 2014 and will probably have
evolved to be a lot more effective.
But like with all new 'hot' topics there's plenty of hot air spewed out over social media and
how to use it.
In order to be part of the latest hottest trend many companies are diversifying marketing
spend away from their traditional and Internet advertising. Unless, they're getting better
results from this new medium, and many aren't, then doing this is madness.
20

21. For instance you constantly see calls to 'like' our Facebook page or to 'follow' us on
Twitter on websites and in communications.
But this is doing it the wrong way around.
From a marketing perspective the only reason for social media is to guide prospects to
your website and to join your e-mail list. And that's really it.
It's certainly not to drive traffic to social media sites.
This is not to be confused with advertising on social media sites, which is a slightly
different topic.
They can be very effective platforms for advertising.
Then you have advertising in traditional publications – this can still be profitable as well
as many people still like paper-based publications.
Often free reports are advertised with great success as a means of lead generation. The
pay back on that advertising may take a while, but when selling expensive or complex
products it often takes patience as trust and familiarity are built.
And talking of relationships this is where we come to the meat of this ebook, where we
make all this effort pay off....
21

22. Part 3
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
22

23. Right at the beginning of this book I introduced you to a very strange character: Field
Marshall Blucher.
I'm now going to bring in another one – far less famous and less mad, but nonetheless
quite unconventional and someone I knew personally.
I used to work with a tech start-up run by someone who was eccentric to say the least.
Most of the customers of this software firm were ordinary folk looking to enhance the
stability and performance of their computers, but some were also from big name
companies – I think even some branch of the US military used it.
His e-mails announcing new upgrades and products were priceless. Like nothing you'd
ever receive from a 'normal' software company.
They'd usually start off with a rant of some sort about Microsoft's crash prone software,
the oppressive embrace of the European Union, the state of the NHS (UK's National
Health Service) or some other topic, which was bugging him on the day.
These 'rants' would usually end up drawing some sort of analogy about the benefits of
the latest product release or upgrade. Or sometimes that was only mentioned as an
afterthought right at the end.
Now I suspect you're thinking “how unprofessional” and I bet his “business bombed.”
Well we will revisit this eccentric entrepreneur a little later and you might be quite
surprised at the results of his approach.
Anyway, you've got your compelling content, a means to reach your prospects and you’re
steadily collecting names and e-mail address of prospects for your database.
And now comes the most important part – priming them to buy from you.
Yet this is an area where so many businesses get it wrong. That applies even to very
large companies, which have the means and resources to know better.
It's where so much money simply gets left on the table.
And this is crucial because if you don't do this part properly then there's a real risk that all
that content and advertising you invested in simply won't make the pay back or will yield a
lot less than it otherwise should.
At the end of the day the most important asset of your business is the relationships you
hold with your customers.
It's far more important than your content, your sales messaging, your brand name and
even your product or service.
Let me illustrate that to make the point.
23

24. What happens when you get an e-mail from your very best friend?
You read it. From beginning to end. Because that person is such a close friend they do
not need to put a powerful headline in the subject line of the e-mail or write a first
paragraph tailored to draw you into the next paragraph and keep you hooked until they
come to the offer.
You'll click open the e-mail as you know that the sender is your best friend. Period.
That's the power of relationships.
The aim with your e-mail marketing is to find people interested in your products and
services and you. For you to share knowledge they'll find useful, which builds a feeling of
reciprocity and trust – remember Professor Cialdini.
Over time that leads to a relationship. And it all starts with someone giving you their
contact details in exchange for some free content, which you advertised somewhere.
On the other hand an e-mail that comes in from somebody you've never heard of has a
hard time connecting with you and grabbing your interest.
A powerful headline, which grabs your attention and curiosity is needed as are all the
tools of copywriting (writing sales copy). You'll also need a really compelling offer.
In other words the entire sales process is more difficult. And if you’re selling products and
services that are complex and or expensive – then the soft sell approach advocated in this
e-book is by far the most effective method for building a client base.
Basically when you have a relationship with your contacts the selling process becomes a
lot easier. There's actually less need for 'hard sell' messages and there's also less
emphasis on your prices, because hopefully you'll have convinced them of the value of
doing business with you.
So how to build relationships?
This bit of advice spooks a lot of people and here it goes – e-mail your list regularly at
least 3 times a week if not more – even daily.
Now you're probably recoiling in horror at this suggestion. So before proceeding let's deal
with some of the objections:
1. People will get annoyed and unsubscribe, because they think I'm spamming them.
2. People will stop reading my e-mails and they'll remain unopened so they won't see any
of my offers
I've come across people who have huge databases of contacts and you know what, they
hardly ever e-mail them for fear of offending someone. This begs the question as to why
they bothered collecting all those e-mail addresses in the first place.
24

25. And by the way if you rarely e-mail your list – people will forget you and really quickly.
You'll lose the momentum that started from when they took action to download your
content or give you their details for whatever reason.
In other words the value of your database gradually atrophies the less you engage with
the people on it. That means they'll also gradually become less responsive to your
messaging.
I've also come across people who regularly send out 4 to 5 e-mails a week and nearly
every single one of them is selling something. That's not good either though probably still
better than not communicating at all. But it doesn't build relationships and yes to some
people that resembles spam.
So very much like your downloadable content your e-mails should be educational,
informative and dare I say it even entertaining.
Give something of yourself
In fact the very best way to build relationships is to give of yourself. That starts with
writing to people personally.
Way too many e-mails are from 'us' or 'we' when they should be from 'me' or 'I'. Some
don't even have the name of the sender – how's that for relationship building! Big
companies, and unfortunately even some small ones believing the impersonal / corporate
approach is best, are guilty of this.
Even if your e-mails are being read by someone in a very large company, you're not
actually engaging with a faceless organisation, but a human working there. That's
someone with hopes, dreams, feelings and a personality.
That might seem unprofessional, but it works and it will make you stand out from the
steady drizzle of bland e-mails your prospects receive all day long, probably leave
unopened and quickly delete.
….and polarise
Remember the eccentric entrepreneur I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter? The
one who sent e-mails complaining about the EU and Microsoft?
Well they worked. His advertising wasn't very good, but once people came on board a
significant majority of them went on to become fans.
And yes his e-mails alienated some people. Others thought they were unprofessional or
disagreed strongly with his views. And at times even I cringed.
But here's the thing.
25

26. He ended up with an incredible hard core of fans the likes of which I've not seen in any
other company I've ever worked with.
People loved the product (despite the bugs), loved the company's uncorporate feel and
many of his customers became product 'evangelisers.' That means fantastic word of
mouth advertising.
One of them even started up an Internet forum so people could help each other with the
technical aspects of the software. It also drove a lot of sales. Any news of new products or
releases was quickly posted on the forum – it really doesn't get a lot better than that.
Typically those fans were usually computer literate, 50+ white males who also shared
similar beliefs such as disliking the EU. Yes it might seem unprofessional, but it came over
as very genuine and very human and people liked that and trusted the company as a
result. They were also often very forgiving of its foibles.
It's like he wasn't just another software peddler spouting computer jargon and empty
promises, but he actually came with a range of beliefs certain people really identified with.
His biggest mistake probably is that he didn't send nearly enough of those e-mails,
because they were probably his most effective sales tool.
Now you don't need to go as far as he did and I can understand many people would feel
uncomfortable about that.
But sometimes it is good to make a stand about something – maybe a controversial issue
in your market.
The normal corporate reaction is to not take sides and to stay neutral. But by taking a
position you suddenly appeal to a group of people who will be attracted to you and see you
as being genuine and therefore more trustworthy. It's Cialdini's social proof.
Admittedly that will annoy people on the other side of the argument and they'll
communicate their displeasure, but who cares? It will merely galvanise those loyal to you
who will in many cases rally to your defence, because they feel under attack as well.
And this actually feeds into why Wellington trusted Blucher to play such a crucial role in
the battle of Waterloo despite being completely mad (which was discussed at the
beginning of this book).
It's quite simple really. It's because he had form. A visible track record.
Blucher had a visceral hatred of the French and loved warfare. You could bet your last
Thaler that he would turn up for the battle of Waterloo.
And that's what customers look for in their financial advisers – form. Evidence that they
will be understood, treated well and given the best advice. That they're consistent.
Your case studies and other content should help reinforce that. But your regular e-mails
26

27. will do that even more.
And if they like you from reading your e-mails, then it is very likely that you've gone a long
way towards turning them into a client.
Contrast that with your competitors who either hardly communicate with their prospects
or just send out a steady stream of bland e-mails waffling about the importance of
investing in such and such a fund etc...
You are your USP
But there are two other very important advantages to sending highly personalised e-
mails, which reflect your personality.
It's likely to attract clients similar to yourself. That makes life easier for you as it is much
better to work with people of a similar disposition.
But there's another very good reason.
The vast majority of businesses, and this is certainly true of financial services, are
actually commoditised. That is there are no really strong defining differences between
them. They tend to all make very similar promises and tend to be un-memorable.
On the other hand each and every one of us is unique. This is where your personality can
make you stand out against those who rely solely on a corporate image.
And someone who very successfully communicates his personality is Warren Buffett.
Apart from being a brilliant money manager he is also full of wisdom about the markets,
the economy and even life.
He's also coined many very memorable quotes. Yet the number of fund managers who
communicate in this way are very rare. The few who do tend to stand out.
Also, those e-mails don't necessarily have to be always about financial topics. Sharing
yourself involves talking about your life, your observations and so on. As one marketer put
it to me recently – it's about creating a soap opera. We all love a good story and have
done since early childhood.
If you're running a small business this is really great news because you finally have a
way to stand out and differentiate yourself. For larger companies this approach is a bit
more challenging, but not impossible.
And if you're nervous about taking this approach – then how about testing it?
Set up a separate e-mail database and follow the process described in this e-book from
the content creating, acquiring e-mail addresses through to sending out highly
personalised e-mails.
Give it six months, see what happens and see how it performs versus your other main
27

28. database(s) and your normal marketing practices.
Oh and one important caveat about your e-mails. Make sure most of them are not selling
anything – just informing and entertaining. I'm afraid that might sound like another piece of
contradictory advice – but it does work. Believe me it will make you look a lot more
genuine.
Depending on what you're selling from time to time use your e-mails to invite people to a
webinar, seminar, conference, a free audit of their finances, to subscribe to your service at
a special rate or whatever is appropriate to your business.
Basically, you build campaigns running up to these events and if you have your audience
hooked they're more likely to open your e-mails in the first place and to respond to your
offers.
And that's it. I hope you've enjoyed this short e-book and found it useful or at least
thought provoking.
15 ideas to grow your business more quickly
By background I'm a former financial journalist, an ex-Reuters and Wall Street Journal
reporter, and I have worked with a number of small and large financial services providers,
such as Allianz Group, Aviva Investors and Old Mutual and consultancies such as
Accenture.
I now help businesses improve their marketing and grow their sales.
28
This short e-book deals with just a few aspects of building a
successful business or financial practice and successfully marketing
it.
I’ve put together 15 ideas you can use to increase sales, profits
and attract better clients. It’s free and you receive one idea a day
by email – making it easier to go over each concept and to use it.
Get them by going to: www.fasttrackyourbusiness.biz