At the beginning of the year, many advisors put together an updated list of tax tables for their clients. Since many of these advisors don’t capitalize on its value, I want to show you how you can turn your tax guide or any other PDF into a sales funnel to generate new clients.
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is the steps your prospect goes through before they buy your products or services.
Even if you don’t think you have a funnel, you probably do–you just haven’t defined it. A funnel can be as simple as:
- We meet and talk about working together.
- You decide to move forward and move your assets under our management.
Our goal here is to take your 2022 tax guide PDF and place it in the funnel. It would look something like this:
- You enter your name and email address and then download my free 2022 tax guide.
- I send a follow-up email asking for a meeting with you.
- We meet to talk about working together.
- You decide to move forward and move your assets under our management.
Below, I go into more detail so you have a better idea on how to utilize the concept with other lead generators.
Step 1: Determine Your Campaign Goal
You need a goal in mind. Is your goal to just give out free information? No; you most likely want to generate new customers. If you are a financial advisor, your goal may look like this:
Campaign Goal: Generate 20 new clients.
Main Tip: Determine your campaign goal so you can measure if your campaign is successful.
Step 2: Determine Your Target Persona
Who do you want as new clients? This is important when it comes to developing your lead generator and messaging. For example, if you’re looking for planning clients, then your messaging needs to be written for that type of client. If you’re looking for referral partners, such as CPAs or Attorneys, then your messaging will be different.
Main Tip: Identifying your target persona will help with creating the correct lead generator and messaging.
Step 3: Create Your Lead Generator
A lead generator is what companies give out for free in return for a person’s contact information. Companies then use this information to establish relationships and promote their business through email campaigns.
In the past, you have probably submitted your name and email to obtain something free, such as an eBook or web applicationPDF. In this case, your lead generator will be the tax guide. If you haven’t already created one for 2022, you can order a customized version from our team here.
Main Tip: Create a valuable lead generator that is attractive enough that users will submit their contact information in order to receive a copy.
Step 4: Determine Your Key Performance Indicators
Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are going to tell you how your campaign is performing. Here are the KPIs we look at regarding email marketing:
- Sends (How many emails you sent out)
- Opens (How many people opened your email)
- Clicks (How many clicks you received)
- Submissions (How many clicks turned into submissions)
If you know for every ten submissions, one will become a client, then you need 200 submissions to get twenty new clients.
Main Tip: Knowing your KPIs will help you set expectations and set realistic goals.
Step 5: Create a Landing Page
A landing page is a web page that serves one purpose: to prompt users to take action. It should always have a direct call-to-action (CTA), such as “Buy Now” or “Download.” This forces users to choose between moving forward or not. In our example, downloading your 2022 tax guide is the CTA for your landing page.
Main Tip: Set up a landing page that has a direct call-to-action so your users know exactly how to move forward with you.
Step 6: Send a Follow-Up Email (Automate If Possible)
The purpose of the free tax guide is to generate new leads and clients. After a user downloads your guide, you’ll want to follow up with an email that asks them to schedule a call with you.
If they say yes, your last step is to convert them from a lead to a client.
What if they don’t schedule a call?
That’s okay. Most people don’t say yes the first time; they need time to get to know you. Most of them aren’t going to hand over their IRAs and 401(k)s after one email. (Would you?) But you do have their attention.
So what do you do next?
Send them an email every week to remind them of the value you bring. When the time is right, you’ll be the one they think of when they need to execute a change.
So how do you do this consistently for 52 weeks in a row? Automation. There are very few people who would be able to follow up consistently, week after week. But by utilizing a service like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Keap, you can automatically follow up with your lead and advertise to them, little by little, each week.
Does this marketing work?
On average it takes 7-13 touches to convert a lead. If you consistently market to leads over the course of 52 weeks, you’ll have a higher opportunity to generate more clients.
How Can Essential Marketing Help You?
We can help you by:
- Creating your 2022 tax guide PDF
- Creating your 2022 tax guide landing page
- Developing & reporting on your KPIs in your CRM
- Developing & executing your 2022 marketing plan
