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Writer's pictureJay Coulter, CFP®, CIMA®

Mastering Email Marketing with Angel Gonzalez on Marketing Office Hours

Updated: Nov 4, 2023


Snappy Kraken has grown into one of the industries top marketing platforms for Financial Advisors. Co-founder and CMO Angel Gonzalez joins Matt Halloran and Jay Coulter for this episode of Marketing Office Hours.


This show was recorded LIVE on all FinancialAdvisor.TV social media platforms!


Checkout the home of FinancialAdvisor.TV: http://www.financialadvisor.tv


 

Transcript


00:02

This is Marketing Office Hours Live with Matt Halloran. My name is Jay Coulter. Thanks for tuning into this live recording of this episode. We're going to have Angel Gonzalez from Snappy Cracking joining us in a little while. We're going to do our Twitter roundup, which Matt was very popular last time that we did that. So I think that's going to be a regular for us. People better be careful what they're posted on Twitter. We're going to talk about it.


00:27

I think I told you today as we were texting back and forth preparing for this that man, I scrolled through Twitter for like 20 minutes at the airport today and I found nothing of value was driving me crazy. You're like, I got you. I got you. So anyway. All right. Well, I think there wasn't a whole lot of proactive value add going on out there because of the big future proof in Carson Excel conference. Yeah, you went to Carson Excel this week, right? I did. How was it? Dude, you know what?


00:57

I didn't think so. You know, I well, we both go to a lot of conferences, right? And so the number one conference that's always on my list is Joel, just because I get to see all of my marketing friends and it crack and puts on an amazing show. My second conference that I think is probably the best is Fearless Investing, which is actually in two weeks. But dude, Carson brought it this year. Oh yeah. So there was just so much, there was value.


01:27

You know what I mean? I mean, you and I have gone to conferences and we leave and we're like, no, that wasn't worth the $10,000 or whatever it cost me. And I know advisors feel the same way. And now that the world opened back up, Jay, everybody wants to do conferences, right? And oh my gosh, the layout was perfect. The agenda was fantastic. They don't take themselves so seriously, which is so fantastic.


01:54

Anyway, yeah, so I did a lot of, so I do a lot of influence marketing at those conferences and so I put out a lot of content on day one. Day two was a really truncated day, so, but I got to talk to Burt White, who's, that guy is, he was wearing a pink tuxedo. Pink, pink three-piece tuxedo with frills. It was magnificent. So anyway, yeah.


02:20

Yeah, and when I was there on Twitter, everything was either Carson or future proof. And so, yeah, I didn't really get a lot of other good tweet-ness. Well, we've got some tweets for you. All right. Both of those conferences looked fantastic. And I do think they fall into the top 10 conferences that advisors really have to make sure they get in their cycle every 24 months, don't you think? Yeah, well, actually, yes. And what I heard the last day from Samantha Allen, who's one of the big marketing people at Carson, is in what?


02:49

Carson made an agreement with Future Proof that there's gonna be a week in between the conferences now so that people can actually attend both because especially from a sponsorship perspective, so many of us wanted to be at Future Proof, but I would have had to have left a day and a half early to go to Carson to do my Carson stuff. And so they made that agreement. So that's really good news for all of our listeners. You're gonna be able to attend. So then you'd have, I think it's Future Proof first.


03:18

Excel and then and then fearless right after that. I mean those are and then jolt happens earlier in the year So if you're looking to really, you know, fill up your fall calendar Those are the four conferences you got to go to so yeah. Yep Let's jump to our Twitter roundup. So last time we went out We found some tweets from really marketing thought leaders and we kind of broke down what they were thinking talked about some of how ways That advisors could implement it in their practice. We're gonna do this every time because it was really popular


03:47

So I'm going to pull up the first one from Emma Smith. She's a PR rep at Street Cred, the fantastic PR industry, PR firm. And this really wasn't so much of her thought leadership as something she posted about from Future Proof. And she was at a session where apparently, you know, Kitces was talking and he talked about the idea that good old fashioned direct mail marketing still works. Now Emma's young to be posting things like that. You and I aren't young. We remember when direct mail


04:17

definitely worked. Here's the question, Matt, does it still work today? Everything old is new again, brother. We've been around this, you know, son enough times. What I always love and why this is such a wonderful tweet is it fell out of favor. And just like Warren Buffett says, you know, Hey, when everybody else is running away, that's when you need to get in. Right. So, so I was at a


04:44

I've done a couple of conferences. I did the host university at White Glove a couple of weeks ago too in Detroit. They were talking about direct mail too and how the receptiveness of direct mail again has gotten, but you gotta get in there and you gotta do it now because in six, nine months, all of the advisors are gonna be doing it again and then you're just gonna be contributing to the noise. But that's fascinating that probably a millennial PR expert is talking about this.


05:14

And Jay, you and I talk about this all the time, brother. It's not an or anymore, it's an and. You have to have multi-pronged marketing approaches for it to truly be successful. So what did you think about this, dude? So this was first brought to my attention that this was working again about 10, 12 months ago. And I didn't really believe it, except I was getting this information from really good marketers and they were getting results. So I kept digging and poking around it. Most of my network isn't going to do direct mail marketing, it's just where they are in their career.


05:43

but there are people getting results with direct mail. So I think you and I should bring somebody on who's an expert at derail mail marketing and go deep on it like we're going to with angel in a little bit in email marketing. All right, next tweet comes from this guy with a beard.


06:02

So recently at the White Glove Conference, I'm gonna see if I can play this clip with one of our favorites, Diana Cabrises, where she talks about the importance of storytelling. Matt, stop me if the audio doesn't flow through. Okay. Hey everybody, Matt Halloran here at Host University, but Diana Cabrises, the chief evangelist at Wealth Tender. Now she just got off stage a little while ago and she talked about storytelling amongst many other things. So I want her to tell you a little bit about the importance of storytelling and why you need to do it across all of your platforms.


06:31

So let's talk about it. So in the financial advisor space, it's very common for advisors to be talking about data and numbers. And this is important in the craft. However, 5% of people remember data, 63% of people remember stories. So I always like to say for advisors, if you want your clients to remember what you're saying, if you want them really to connect to it, to relate to it and for your prospects, thinking about weaving in the stories into that data. So don't just tell them that your clients had a specific


07:00

ROI on a specific product, but explain to them how that made them feel. What the. So Diana, one of the best in the business, she's so much fun. She's the host of our advisor, speed demos, storytelling, Matt. That's I mean, that's the core of podcasting. You're the king of teaching people. It is. So we have something called the perfect podcast formula here at Proudmouth, which is storytelling, education, entertainment, call to action. And the 63% statistic that Diana just drops there.


07:27

Right, I mean, since the dawn of time, Jay, we've been sitting around the fire telling stories, eating food together, right? Things haven't changed. In fact, one of the speakers at the Excel conference, they were cognitive neuroscientists, all PhDs, MDs, right? And they were talking about how our brain is old and how we...


07:48

absorb information is through very specific sorts of stimulus and storytelling's one of them. So that's what we call the perfect podcast formula is the perfect presentation formula. You have to tell stories, you have to be entertaining, it has to have an educational component, and then you have to tell people what you want them to do when you get done. Storytelling is the key, brother. That's how you and I even connected. We sat around and we were telling stories about working with advisors.


08:18

and our relationship change and advisors need to pay attention to that too. Yeah, I've told this story on your podcast, the top advisor marketing podcast, but your partner Kirk sat me down after I spoke at a conference. He said, Colter, everything's all messed up with what you do. And so I took him to dinner. It was an awesome two hour dinner and he broke down everything I was doing wrong. And it got down to exactly what you guys still teach advisors today. You have to have a story. Yeah.


08:45

All right, our next tweet comes from Emily Bender. She was on last time as well. One of the best marketers in the business. I really liked this vertical clip that she produced, which by the way, if you're marketing and not doing vertical clips, you're missing out. If you yourself don't really know a lot about marketing and you're thinking, well, I can kind of do this. Like I could throw up my own Google ads. I could hire a consultant for these things. If you don't have somebody internally really managing and quarterbacking that, it's going to be problematic and oftentimes good money after bad.


09:15

What I've seen is people stacking tools and resources and thinking they're saving money, but ultimately it's more expensive. Because if you don't have that quarterback throwing the spiral, the team's like running around the field, but we don't even have a playbook. Not even a playbook. Somebody to quarterback it. Matt, how many times has somebody said, yeah, you know what? I would like to grow my business, but they don't have a plan and they don't have somebody to execute on it. What's your take?


09:41

Yeah, so first off, I've said this to her, to her face. I want to be her when I grow up. She is one of the most dynamic, one of the most intelligent people who I've met in many, many years. And how her brain works is fantastic. And this is a perfect example of it, Jay. First off, the cost of client acquisition is the actual part of the tweet, right? Which is fantastic. But Dan Sullivan has talked about this really for like about the past five years. He has this whole philosophy, which is who, not how.


10:11

Right? Here's the deal. Everybody who's watching this, all of your clients, all of our clients, they could do all of it themselves. They're smart, right? They're smart people. But just because you're smart in one category doesn't mean you're gonna be smart in other categories. Or you can be smart in the other categories, but that doesn't mean that you're good. I know how to throw a football, Jay. I do, can't throw it as well. By the way, it was the University of Michigan. She played there, which made me very happy. But the other thing too, about this whole idea is,


10:39

You have to have a plan. When I was a practice management coach, one of the first things that we created was, planners don't have plans. But you can't just have a plan for your financial planning practice. You have to have a plan for growth. You have to have a plan for communication. You have to plan for marketing. You have to have a plan for prospecting. You have to have a plan for your brand. You have to have a plan for your trading. And you're at, you know, all of that stuff. You have to have all of these plans. And the more definitive and specific you are about those plans, the more successful you're gonna be.


11:08

Yeah, and just to follow on comments. Number one, the advisor or firm has to have somebody to execute it. You can't give it to the intern, you can't give it to the the 23 year old you just hired because they're on tik tok. It doesn't work that way. You have to have somebody to execute. And the second did you notice the quality of video that Emily put out here? It had, you know, it had b roll in there with the quarterback going down the field. It's got her logo in the upper left hand corner. It's not just a hack cut. This put out on social media.


11:35

And these get, we're experiencing this with the media business, significantly more reach when you take time to put quality content into the market. I mean, everything just like even look how she did her subtitles. Right? I mean, even the subtitles you were able to follow along. And by the way, if you have subtitles, people will read them and focus on the words as much as they focus on your face and what you have going on. So yeah, one tool we've been playing around with that our firm is descript, which does a really good job of helping do it.


12:03

All right, our last tweet comes from Stephanie Bogan. So I've never met Stephanie. I've seen her speak at a conference before. We've exchanged messages on Twitter. When advisors call me and they're looking for a coach and they wanna see if my program would be a good fit, I tell them in the very beginning, chances are I'm not gonna be a good fit, but we'll find the right home for you because you're not gonna get results unless it's the right home. And Stephanie is somebody that I've been referring people to for years. She didn't even know it. And the reason is she's an advisor first coach.


12:32

And she truly cares about the financial advisor and not just building her program. This tweet I thought was interesting, Matt, I'm going to read it. Really great marketing is about communicating this in as clear, concise and compelling way as possible. I see you, I hear you, I understand you. Because if you do that right, the brain naturally tends to fill in, and I can help you. The idea of no selling, just serving. What's your take? Well, I responded to this tweet because I've said I have I've been, I'm so happy. I've spent


13:02

a good amount of time with Stephanie for like last fall, her and I were back literally back to back at three different conferences. I spoke once and then she spoke and then she spoke and then I was right after her. And the fun part about it was I got to hang out with Stephanie after she was coming down from being on stage. So she was still really amped up. She has unbelievable energy and honestly.


13:26

I don't know if I, for what she does as being such an advisor focused, growth minded coach, I don't know of anybody who's better. There are other coaches like you, and I know lots and lots of coaches. You know, if you need a real business plan, you know, Joe Lucas is the guy to go to. You know, there's other people out there who are really, really great, but Stephanie's amazing. So let's talk about this. And my response to this tweet was very, very simple. Nobody wants to be sold to anymore. If you do it correctly, they come in pre-sold.


13:56

people want to buy from you. And if you make it easy for them to buy from you, which we do not do in financial services, then what happens is you're not gonna be talking to skeptics anymore. You're gonna be talking to fans. Fans are pre-sold and they're gonna do exactly what you do with Stephanie J. Stephanie doesn't know that you're referring business to her. I refer business to Stephanie because we're fans of Stephanie. That is truly what advisors want to get to. They wanna get to that point where they're talking to people.


14:25

pre-sold people who come in. The other issue with this though, and I don't have an issue with what she said, but I have this issue with this kind of false fiduciary crap that people keep talking about because they're, well, I'm always gonna do what's best for my clients. And they put that crap on their website. Listen, if you put that on your website, we have always have our clients best interests in mind, right? Oh my God, I immediately think you're a shyster because you shouldn't say that. You should show that.


14:55

Right, and I think that's the other cool thing about what Stephanie's talking about there. The other thing that Stephanie talks a lot about, which is one of the reasons why her advisors grow so quickly, I'm gonna be a minute on this, so I want you to be patient with me, Jay. One of the reasons why she is so successful and her advisors are so successful is because she teaches them how to be themselves and allow who they are to really come out in everything from trade communications to client communications, client events, right?


15:23

how you go out and market into the world.


15:27

People are so tired of the flash, the glimmer, the show. They don't want the show. Who are you? And in fact, your top A plus clients, they love you. Now, are you a great advisor? Yeah, I'm just gonna say probably, right? But what it is, is it's the relationship. And so many advisors have kept that so tight for so long that they haven't actually given themselves the gift because it's a gift.


15:55

Jay, you and I talked about this when we started Proud Mouth. And I remember after we rebranded, you're like, dude, wow, this is really different. And I said, look, I'm 50. I'm tired of being somebody else. And I brought this up before. We had a picture over here, and one of these days I'm gonna bring this over here, of when I was on practice makeover with Investment News. I look like a schmuck. I look like everybody else. I had a cropped beard. I'm wearing these little beady glasses. I got rings on and a ridiculous watch, a three-piece or two-piece suit with cufflinks.


16:24

No, I'm not that guy. In once Kirk and I not only gave our team but empower our clients unapologetically be themselves and what Stephanie does, you just explode and it's liberating. And it's just wonderful. So I found some of those old pictures looking to build some ads for the show. Yeah, you nailed it. So funny, though, I would like to have the Brooks Brothers shirt on or suit on in a shirt and a tie.


16:53

I was more comfortable in that environment. My wife and I recently started watching Suits, which I guess came out like 20 years ago and everybody in there, they're in a suit. And I'm like, Ben, that's my environment. That's where I'm the happiest. Well, but Jay, here's the thing that we need to understand is it used to be financial services, serious judgment zone. And I'm gonna tell you something that happened at a conference two years ago, right? Whether there's a break in or is right after COVID, right after COVID. So I don't know how long ago that was. I have no concept of time anymore.


17:22

Um, and I'm sitting there and I'm wearing my flannel that I'm normally wearing, right? Uh, and I have a jacket on over it. It's like a, like a zip up jacket. I'm wearing my red Nike shoes, jeans, and my ball cap. And this guy comes up to me, hair slicked back, you know, his shirt was buttoned down farther than it should have been. His shirt, his suit probably fit him 20 pounds ago, but he spent too much money on the suit.


17:51

And he saunters up to me and he goes, you just don't care, do you? And I looked at him, I said, well, it looks like you care way too much. And he, oh my, and he was like, I was like, dude, what is this? I said, you look like everybody else here and you're not even pulling it off well. So I'm sorry, I was, he got me, he just pissed me off. I'm not normally like that. But Jay, look, if he was owning the suit, here's a great example. So I got to see,


18:21

Well, it was that Carson. Ron Carson's walking down the hall. We waved to each other. He looked amazing. He's Ron Carson. He looks amazing all the time. He's a really handsome guy, eight feet tall, right? But he owned that outfit. He owned the outfit. He was like, he was floating, right? This dude wasn't floating. He was tripping over his own feet because the shoes were too big. So I don't care what you feel comfortable in, just...


18:47

Be yourself, Jay, man, we're the Brooks brother, man. By the way, you look really good in it, right? If that's what your deal is, just be you. Stop trying to be somebody else because people see it. I love that, Ray. That is easily gonna be a clip.


19:06

All right, before we bring in Angel Gonzalez, let's pay a bill. Our first ad our first sponsor Opto invest. Private market investing can help differentiate your practice from the competition. Opto provides a unique platform where they leverage best in class technology with operational excellence to help advisors deliver customized private market solutions for their clients. Learn more about Opto by checking out their speed demo.


19:36

at advisorspeedemos.com. Damn dude, that was good. Wasn't that good? That was really good. Yeah, what made the editing team, they do awesome job with it. Good editors and good lights always make you look good. All right, before I bring Angel on, I met him several years ago at a conference. We actually connected on the phone first and he's one of the people in the industry, Matt, not unlike yourself, that I connect with on a regular basis. And when I have calls with him, I keep a notepad handy.


20:04

I take notes and I learn every single time. And I think viewers are really gonna appreciate what Angel has to say about email marketing. So Angel Gonzalez from Snappy Kraken, welcome to- Yay! You're our first guest on Marketing Office Hours with Matt Halloran, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks for joining us. Well, it's an honor. It's an honor to be with you guys. You know, it's a little hard being in the-


20:31

being backstage there for a second because I want to pipe up and be like, yeah, that's right. That's right, Matt. That's right. J, you guys are cracking me up. This is so entertaining. Now, if you're catching this recording live on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, and you want to ask Angela question, just submit a comment. It'll come through to our studio. Angel, I didn't even really think I needed to prepare a formal question set when it came when it comes to talking about email marketing with someone like you.


20:58

I think what this piece, this deliverable really could be helpful for is for that advisor that whether they're starting out or they haven't established business, they haven't leaned into email marketing yet. What do they need to think through? What's first? Right. So, you know, whenever I talk about anything, and I think Matt, Jay, you'll both click with this. Always think about the first principles. Think about the meaning and the strategy beneath the message. Because if you don't, if you don't grasp that.


21:26

If you don't internalize that and what something is for and whose life it's going to improve, you're just gonna be thinking at the most surface level, the most superficial, the most tactical level. Like I was really inspired when you guys were talking about direct direct mail marketing, because it's not a question of whether or not it works. It's a question of whether or not you're using a channel, right? It's the question of whether or not you're using a channel to create an experience for someone. You could use any channel, any channel could work.


21:56

theoretically, if you think about the experience you're trying to create for somebody, and I'll just give you a quick anecdote on direct male marketing. I walked out my door today, this morning, and I had a package. I had a package from Proud Mouth, and it was a nice little care package with a hat and some awesome, awesome socks that I'll likely either wear today or tomorrow when I go out. I'll represent Proud Mouth, but.


22:24

Obviously that's a little bit further down the funnel. It's not like I was a lead that you were trying to get or a guest you were already trying to get on your podcast because I'd already been on it. But man, you created some warm and fuzzies in my heart. You continue to cement the relationship. You continue to deepen the relationship that we have and you made me feel good for the day. So how is that not a great example of how that channel, Direct Mail, was used?


22:53

to brighten someone's day, too deep in a relationship. So think about the same thing when it comes to email marketing. Don't just discount it and say, hey, here's this channel that has been around since, what would you guys say? 1970, I think the first email might've been sent out, like 1970, maybe a little bit earlier, and it was just scientists sending messages and notes to each other. Don't just write that off and say, this is old, this is well beyond the sell by date.


23:23

Think about the fact that 79% of marketers still qualify email marketing as one of the top three channels they use for marketing. Think about the fact that, I think Popspot said that 99% of consumers still check email. They use email to check. Think about this. Even the social media platforms, when they send out an update or you're gonna update your password or there's some new thing they have to announce, sure they do some things on platform, but guess what?


23:51

It all ties into your email. So email is interoperable. You can take it with you anywhere. It's not really beholding to any ad data or algorithms that are burying it because it's not monetizing on the platform. Think about how important that channel is to connect with people, either on a one-on-one basis or in a scalable automated way with your audience. Jay, I


24:18

I have to ask Angel a quick question here because I need you to expand on two different pieces there. Sure. Because I don't think advisors understand the power of their email list, so I'm going to put that, I want you to talk about the power of their already existing email list, and I also want you to talk about owned audience, please.


24:35

Oh, yeah. I got so caught off. I was listening to you and then I was watching the video. I'm like, okay, he's still forming words. I'm waiting. Okay. So two things, right? The power of the list that you already have. Think about this. It's really easy to ignore the list that you already have in favor of the new, in favor of the novel.


25:04

Think about the prospects that you already have on your list that have not heard from you. Think about those prospects or clients who've attended events and you've collected their email address. Think about the clients that are looking at the headlines, they're watching TV, they're doom scrolling social media, and everybody has their own agenda trying to scare them, trying to show them that there is no tomorrow and the end is nigh. Boy, wouldn't it be nice if you could contact them with your take, with your rational take?


25:34

with a good compelling story that puts things into perspective because it has their best interests at heart. Wouldn't it be great? That brand new client that you got on board, that brand new prospect that just got on your list. If you could send them a nurturing series of emails that talks a little bit about you and the value that you bring to your clients and asks them and poses key questions to get them thinking over the next


26:03

few days that gets them thinking about certain life events and trigger events so that when it's time for them to actually make a decision, you're the first person they think of because let's be real, not everybody's ready to convert tonight. This afternoon, I've heard so many stories from advisors and I know you too have as well where


26:25

They engage in email marketing. They stick with their marketing workflows. They do it consistently. They get a contact out of the blue one day. And it's from someone that they thought had gone cold. They thought had completely gone underground and dropped off of the face of the planet. And they go, oh no, I've just been really busy, but I've been getting your, I hear this all the time. I've been getting your emails. I've been reading them. I've been checking out what you're doing.


26:52

I've been going to your website, I've been reading the content and yeah, something happened in my life. I was ready to make a change and you were the first person I thought of. And this was maybe someone that they thought was a dead lead for three years, three or four years. And this is why it's so important to plant those seeds now and to continue to do it consistently so that then you get those benefits, you reap those benefits later. And it's not just self-serving. It's you get to change somebody's life, man. Like how important is that? That's what this is all about, isn't it?


27:24

Yeah. All right, second thing. Okay, was there something to say about that? You want to talk about owned audiences? Jay and I both could probably bore the audience with how many examples we both have in our own businesses that we will be consistently emailing people and then out of the blue. Like, this is the same thing. I thought you ghosted me or I thought you didn't want what we had to offer. And then they call you or email you back or message you on social, hey, Jay, I'm ready to go.


27:54

You know, I've been watching all the resilient advisor stuff and you know, it just wasn't the right time. Life happened. You know, hey, I just landed a really big client. I've got a little bit of extra capital and I wanna deploy it with your services. It's just that consistent. But we do need to talk about owned audience. Now you already sprinkled Angel into what the owned audience mean. Can you define that for our audience real quick and then talk about some of the other aspects of owning the audience instead of having your audience on socials?


28:23

Right. So before I go into that, I mean, it's so important. I tell everybody, if I meet somebody at a conference or, or there's a potential candidate that I want to hire, if things don't work out right now, I tell them every time this, this like Robert and Brad could probably quote me, they've heard me say this a lot, where I just say, Hey, I play long-term games with long-term people, this isn't about the, the here and now I'm going to continue doing what I do.


28:53

I want to be of service. And let me know if you have any questions. Let me know if anything comes up. Now I know in the back of everybody's mind, yeah, you're thinking, oh, well, I have bills to pay. Of course, of course we all have bills to pay, but it's really important to play the long-term game with long-term people as early as possible and as consistently as possible and to not get derailed or distracted. And then your life will be permanently affected downstream. So get started now, baby. So.


29:23

Or so owned audiences, you think about all these other platforms, you don't really own that audience, right? Let's say I heard a really funny quote recently, I can't remember what podcast it was on. They were talking about influencers. They were out in public, they saw somebody surrounded by all these people with their phones out talking to this person and someone's like, do you know who that is? And I was like, oh, that's a no, like, oh, that's an influencer. And the person's response was like, oh, so they're the employee of an algorithm.


29:52

And that's an interesting way to reduce that. The employee of an algorithm. Because overnight, if that algorithm changes, if that platform loses favor, if it gets shut down, if it just disappears in a puff of smoke, where is the audience? Where is the way for that person to connect? Now, they can go start up a new account somewhere else and try to slowly and organically grow that back up and see if they can find and connect to those people again. But man, that's


30:22

your audience's contact information that is platform agnostic, that is algorithm agnostic, that is one that they are likely to use over and over and over again, that is tied to the rest of their contact information. And that gives you a direct line to communicate with them and they can reply back and you can continue this conversation and this relationship. So that's what we're talking about when we're talking about owned audiences.


30:51

One, I guess the easiest rule of thumb is, is it something that could disappear overnight because of an algorithm change or a change in business model? If it can change overnight, if it can change in a flash, then maybe you don't really own that audience and you need to work on getting that audience and connecting it back to an area where you have a little bit more of that locus of control. There's also a reason why a lot of the biggest content creators and influencers, why do you think they try to get people to go ahead and opt in?


31:21

in some way, shape or form, send them to a landing page, send them to any type of form or contact info capture mechanism because they know the importance of that owned audience. I have one more question. I'm sorry, Jay, you're gonna maybe like to shut up, but Angel, your whole, that's a huge component of what you all do at Snappy Crack. And you're not just after the fact, you're doing stuff to get people to


31:49

have the advisor own that audience, and then you show the crack in love, right? I just wanna make sure people understood that because I don't necessarily know the power of what you all do on the front end of everything to really truly get those people to own that audience. Right, so the way you could think about this is almost like full funnel marketing and the importance of that and not just focusing, you know, just quick crash course on,


32:18

funnel. It's like you have your different stages. You want to get awareness. There's consideration, evaluation, and then conversion. But think about it more of reframe it in the form of how do you create and sustain a valuable human relationship. So Snappy Kraken, we have a framework and not all frameworks are actually no framework and no map is perfect, but some of them are useful. So this is one of the ones that we've created that we find useful in how to contextualize


32:46

this full funnel marketing. We call it the cold to gold framework. And it's just a series of steps that everybody goes through, that prospects go through to turn from a stranger to a client who then refers. So we just break it down into a few discrete steps. There's get noticed, there's earn contacts, there's build credibility, there's start conversations, there's win clients by incorporating your sales process there. And then there's deepen relationships.


33:14

And then connecting all of that into a virtuous cycle, into a flywheel, you have generate referrals. So that's part of what we focus on. We don't just say, hey, let's go throw out a bunch of offers there. Let's go stand out and get attention, but it's, well, what are we gonna say? What are we gonna do once we do help you get that attention? What are we gonna do to help deepen those relationships and to start those conversations and those productive conversations that actually lead somewhere where someone could turn from a prospect to a client and then a...


33:43

a raving fan.


33:46

Andrew, can I ask you a tactical question here? And I'm gonna lift my skirt up a little bit. We've all made marketing mistakes. I've made all of them. I've made some really bad ones. And email marketing is my number one mistake. So in 2020, that was probably the last time I sent out an email to my list. And it's a good list, but my client list was full. And I had made the mistake of pretty much going to live broadcast on social media during the lockdowns. I was getting incredible attention, incredible reach.


34:15

And it just didn't make sense. I didn't even room on the client list. So I ignored it. And now here I am today. And since 2020, my LinkedIn profile has gone from 12,800 followers to 12,802 followers. And the algorithms on these platforms are watering down Twitter, I feel like I'm just yelling, yelling into the wilderness. And if I had been nurturing that list all along, I'd be in a different spot. So my tactical question to you is what do I do or what should an advisor do if they have


34:45

a stale list to reengage and start getting back in the game.


34:50

Matt, do you remember what we talked about at... In February, it was at the Orion...


34:58

conference, we talked about one of the biggest regrets that people have when it comes to their relationships. And they surveyed a bunch of people was this gigantic study they did. And the biggest regret was not contacting their relationships to that matter to them. And in the easiest, most succinct way, just like, Hey, we haven't connected in a while.


35:27

It's been two years. I hope you're well. I was thinking about you. So what I'm trying to say here from a tactical level, you don't have to overthink it. There's not a huge whiteboard session that you have to initiate tomorrow that'll run you for the next five days. It's really all about picking up where you left off, sending out a short message and reconnecting, rekindling some of those relationships. Will some of them have moved on? Absolutely. Will some of them have maybe deleted accounts?


35:56

or unsubscribed or created brand new accounts, possibly. But you still have that list that's still valuable. I'm sure a lot of them have not forgotten about you. Isn't it a great time to reintroduce yourself and let them know in what way you could be of service to them and see where things go from there and then stay consistent from that point. Didn't you have, and I remember that.


36:20

very clearly now. And there's actually some research behind that, that most people who try to re-engage their list get so much well-wishing when their brain immediately goes to, they're gonna be like, well, why haven't you reached out to me in three years? No, they're like, oh my God, Jay, I love you, man. How you doing? And so, you know, that's one of those kind of things that we just, we have to get out of our own


36:46

you know, brain skull here and just realize that it's that it's okay, man. So that was, that was, there's another clip, Jay, we had a, that you had to use. That was fantastic. And I got to do it, Matt. Maybe you should hold me accountable by the next time we do a marketing office hours. Ooh, you're in trouble, brother. I'm going to ask you live if you did that. And we, and we can, let's unpack that for a second too. There's a, there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fear in there, right? There's fear and vulnerability. Here's this list I have. I haven't contacted them in a while.


37:15

If I do, I'm going to inspire the scorn and ire and anger of all these people. They're going to say, how dare you? Where have you been? When, when frankly, they probably they've been moving on with their own lives. Life happens. They've gotten busy. The years fly by so quickly. It'll probably a welcome, a welcome message. Excellent. All right, Jay, I have another quick question for you in full disclosure here.


37:43

I got an unbelievable deal on these people coming to clean out my air ducts. So it's not going to make any noise, but they're here. So anyway, so, so, okay. So Jay, I don't know if you know about this. Did you do it? Did you guys do anything with Jay on this angel? No, we hasn't. Okay. Okay. So, so I'm going to open up a huge can of worms here, which I can't wait to hear what Jay thinks about this too. So I had the honor and I, I really,


38:09

think it was an honor for, it was an honor for a couple of reasons. But, but so Robert and I, uh, went through this new AI email building tool that Kraken has, and it was so much fun. I mean, it was fun cause I'm a total nerd, but it was so much fun to see. And I'm going to spoil some of it. So, so number one, it writes you an unbelievable subject line, which you can change the tone by clicking on buttons saying, had like this a little bit more friendly or a little bit more serious.


38:38

But my favorite part, Angel, I mean, the body was really cool, but it generates you a custom AI image. You type in words and say things like, and what did I say? I said, tired financial advisor who wants to podcast and he came up with this cool image. Oh my God, you guys are gonna change. This is a game changer. So do you mind talking a little bit about that, bro? Yeah, let's go for it. So.


39:06

Not that long ago, it might've been three weeks ago, we unveiled, we released an AI powered email builder. We took our already created email builder ability on snappy cracking, and we just boosted it. We accelerated it. We sprinkled in some AI. So we help across a few different facets. We help advisors create images from scratch by just describing what it is they want to see. And they get a few different options and they can change them.


39:35

and edit them and crop them however they see fit. We have a smart headings feature that allows them to create punchy subject lines and headings throughout their email. There's also a smart copy feature that lets them refine, elaborate or create content from scratch, from just a prompt. So, oh, there's one final one, which was, it's like I forget all these, they're all bundled up. There's a smart button.


40:05

feature that allows you to create a very punchy call to action, few different options. You just type in the most boring, plain call to action, and then it'll tell you, it'll spruce it up and be like, ah, here's a little bit of a better one. Choose from one of these and add it to your email. So we've been really excited about that. I've already seen quite a few different use cases come in. I had one advisor use it to write an email all about unstructured notes.


40:32

They sent that to their clients. I had another marketing director. They had an event coming up, so they just added a venue. They added a time. They added the purpose and the theme of the event. And this created the, the, the notification email about that, along with the image. And then there was another advisor who used it to help with a personal email. He was going on vacation with his family. He included a few family pictures and this just polished it for him at the end so that he wasn't just staring at a blank cursor.


41:01

or spending all this time trying to go back through and edit it the right way. It helped him do the editing for him. He was the thought leader. He was the instigator of the message and the emotion and the content itself. And then this just helped him take it over the line. It's incredible. That's really incredible. Jay, so I know that you do a lot of work with how companies talk about trading portfolio, you know,


41:30

all of the planning stuff. Can you imagine if you were able to go ahead and just say, I want this to be 20% simpler. Don't say hi, don't say hi, dude. There was a button that said that like warm it up or something like that. And I clicked, I just, I'm on a live demo with Robert. I was like, oh, I want to warm this up and see what happens. And it made it warmer, right? Now, full disclosure, I had 10 minutes to create


41:59

an email with a call to action from soup to nuts. And I did have to make some adjustments to it, right? So there was a couple of things that I, I mean, whatever. But here's the deal, it gets you 75, 80% there. Guys, I created from nothing. Robert asked me like three questions. And from that, we created this nurture sequence. So when you have to communicate the really complex stuff that you help advisors with,


42:27

How nice would it be if you could plug that thought leadership, because Angel said that beautifully, that thought leadership, but just warm it up a little bit. Maybe generate some engaging images. Get that snappy header and a call to action that's applicable to the whole thing. And I just thought it was a game changer, man. Of course, I'm a huge AI fan. I actually don't think it's going to be the end of the world. I think it's the beginning of a new one.


42:58

Yeah, well, you know, snappy cracking has always been on the cutting edge of done for you for advisors. So, Angel, I'm not surprised you guys were getting got this into your product at this stage. But I'm sure that is a game changer. I have another tactical question for you. So you're a breakaway advisor managing half million dollar, half million dollar buck, million dollar buck doesn't matter. You're going out on your own. You've heard about this snappy thing before you've heard about some of your other competitors. But you've had everything done for you in house.


43:28

for 20 years. And now you're going independent, you're having to learn how to do a whole bunch of other things for you. And I want this to be a little bit of a pitch. What is the snappy value proposition for that breakaway advisor that has had done for you marketing for 20 years when they're heading to the independent side? Well, I'll be real, I'll be realistic here, right? I'm gonna I'll be super honest and super raw. How about that? You don't you won't ask for anything more for me, right? Or anything less.


43:58

If you don't want to spend any time whatsoever, and you just want to swipe a credit card and just have all this stuff done for you without you ever having to look at it or usher it along or review it or add your own personal flair in any part, it's probably not for you. In fact, you might have to go look for a high level agency and know by the way, they're going to charge you quite a bit and there's going to be a whole onboarding process. So it's some...


44:26

some way along the line, you're gonna have to spend some time anyway. They can't, until we get the technology to do this, they can't really hook up an electrode to your brain and then pull out all that relevant information anyway, and then be able to make all the appropriate approvals and reviews. But if that advisor is willing to, go through the onboarding process and upload the right assets, and they have an idea of...


44:52

of what their branding is. But by the way, we do have some services for that. We do have a whole website offering as well. But if they do have that idea and they are willing to put in just a little bit of that effort and that 5%, we will take care of the remaining 95% with the pre-created content and setting up the marketing automations and making sure that all of this is automated and deployed on their behalf without them having to do all of this other manual, intensive labor, and guess what? It's...


45:21

it still scales with them. If they do get a marketing assistant or someone else they can delegate to, then they can put that in that person's hands and make that person 10X more effective because now that person gets to pull a lot of the levers and make the marketing work on their behalf.


45:40

Excellent, excellent, excellent. I'm sorry, dude. No, hold on. I have a minute. I wanna add to that. And I need to add to that because there's, and Angel, I'm not saying that you missed anything, but I wanna talk about the people who are using Snappy Cracking as part of a huge component of their integrated marketing program, right? So you have the website that you can do through Snappy. You've got their content library that...


46:07

takes people through a funnel and makes you fall in love with the advisor's content, right? And then you have to be able to add other stuff to it. It doesn't matter if it's a blog, which I know you guys have some blogging systems out there. I don't care. But the foundation of everything that Angel's talking about is something Jay and I have actually talked about offline. But you said it, Angel, and I have to make sure the advisors hear this. You have to have a solid brand foundation for everything really to truly


46:37

sing like it's like jazz music, right? If the drummer's, you know, one millionth of a millisecond behind, they're not in the pocket anymore, everything falls apart. You have to have a really, really great brand foundation. And then you also have to add other things, whether that's a podcast, whether that's the cool ass videos that Jay does, it doesn't matter what it is, but it is not an or anymore, it is an and. And that's what marketing needs to be. And the best part about it is you have people


47:07

Snappy Kraken and the people at that team who are gonna do the 95% of the work. I'm so happy that you guys show me stuff. I feel very honored to have that opportunity. You guys are always on the cutting edge of stuff. And I just wanted to kind of accentuate your plug there because listen, everybody, you don't have time to do it. I know you don't, and it's not a good use of your time.


47:30

You know, you need to be paying attention to client service, making sure that everything is square with these people's financials lives. You need to hand off the marketing to people who know the industry that you can trust. And Kraken's one of those people, man. Yep, well said, Matt, well said. So for advisors or anybody that wants to learn more about Snappy Kraken, head over to snappykraken.com, their website, as you would expect.


47:57

one of the best in the business. And make sure you're following Angel on social media, as well as his partner, Robert Sofia. They put out, they're so generous with their thought leadership and content as it relates to what are some of the best practices in the industry. And if you're looking to revamp your website, your email marketing, head on over to snappycracking.com. Angel, so grateful for you coming on the show. Hey, it was a blast. It is always fun chatting with you guys offline, online, live, unscripted.


48:27

It's I always welcome. Welcome the invite. It's always great. Excellent. And for a final link, if you would like to hear the podcast that Snappy Kraken produced on their AI capabilities, the link is scrolling at the bottom, but it's snappy kraken dot com forward slash AI dash podcast. Angel, I look forward to connecting with you again. Absolutely. Same here. Thank you so much.


48:51

Dude, he's so smart. Oh my God, he's so smart. I'm so grateful. So he came on the show talking about this new AI tool and we got really deep into AI. And then we stopped recording, Jay, and this always happens. We should never have turned it off because him and I had another 20 minute conversation. You know, there are certain people, and you know, I count you as one of these people in my life who I'm so grateful I get time with.


49:21

because great energy, an abundance mindset, they want to be challenged, they want to get better, smarter, faster, stronger. And Angel is just one of those people. He's a gem in our industry, and man, I wish them all the success in the world. I know, agreed. It's easy to refer advisors over to that platform for sure. Yeah, a little too easy if you ask me. It's part of their whole system, man. So before we wrap up.


49:49

We're gonna add a segment here at the end of every show. We're gonna call it Matt's final word. And Matt, this is an opportunity for you to share what's on your mind with the audience. So what's on my mind right now is really this whole idea of truly integrating all of your marketing. If you can't, you cannot build great marketing unless you have a great brand foundation. And I'm not talking about just a logo and a tagline and a website. I'm talking about who are you? Who do you wanna focus on?


50:17

What are your key phrases? What is the feeling that you want people to go ahead and experience with you? And when you have these foundational things, then you can build an amazing firm on top of a great brand. You can, right? And so actually we give away, and Jay, I don't know if you were prepared for this, but we actually have a free course in our Podrocket Academy called Branding 101.


50:40

it walks you through how to start thinking about your brand. Now we do not create the brand for you in this, it's just priming that brain pump in order for you to start thinking about your brand differently. And when you have that in place, then snappy cracking goes in and then our friends at Idea Decanter can shoot a bunch of video for you or you can take Katie Braden's video course or you can use like.


51:02

you know, anybody like Olivia Looper, Derek Pollard, Nikki Clark, any of these amazing marketing people indigo marketing. I mean, oh my gosh, there are so many people out there who are so, so good that can help you, but you have to have that great brand in place. And I experienced an amazing brand in the last two conferences I went to, which is the white glove brand. And then also the, the Excel conference. And then when you look at what risk allies now nitrogen has done with their new brand launch.


51:32

That's what you want to strive towards. And when you strive to that level of greatness, even if you don't hit it, you're going to be better than you are today. And that's what all of us are put on the search for. Wake up tomorrow. Be better than you are today. Matt, that's an excellent final word. Viewers, thanks for tuning in. We plan on producing these about twice a month. If you have any ideas for the show, please just DM either Matt or I on social media. If you have any tweets you want us to unpack, you can send those over to.


52:01

Everybody have a great weekend. Matt, great to see you again. See you later, brother.



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