Case Study: Financial Advisor Client Onboarding + Alexa Skill (Podcast / Voice Marketing)

Welcome new clients or customers with an Echo Dot welcome kit so they can access your content on Alexa. The right client gift will boost positive regard and lower churn. Voice adds value and builds trust. Here’s why this technique is so effective:

Before we discuss the psychology of giving a gift, let’s talk about CAC.

The average Client Acquisition Cost (CAC) of a financial advisor is $3,119 per client. The cost of the marketing method below averages under $75 per client (using the Echo Dot, or under $200 with the Echo Show) and it will pay dividends because these WealthVoice welcome kits:

1. Build your brand

2. Let you communicate authentically

3. Encourage word of mouth referrals

4. Reduce churn through positive sentiment and trust over time (with your voice updates)

These most-scalable ‘standout’ marketing strategies included client referrals (which amongst top advisors generated an average of almost 19X the new revenue as the cost to acquire the referral), books (an average 10X multiplier of revenue/cost for top marketing firms), direct mail (a 9.1X multiplier), paid web listings (8.3X multiplier), COIs (7.8X multiplier), marketing lists (7.2X multiplier), and SEO (6.8X multiplier).

-Michael Kitces

If you delight a client, they will talk about you to their friends, and say nice things. This will get you referrals and grow your business. This will reduce churn. A great way to delight them is to demonstrate your tech savvy, your accessibility, and your commitment to offering helpful guidance: send a badass gift like a smart speaker with your custom Alexa skill so they can get your updates hands-free.

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the customer gets out of it.

-Jay Baer, customer experience marketing expert

When you make a purchase decision, you typically experience some degree of uncertainty afterward. Important decisions are all the more taxing and incite more powerful feelings after pulling the trigger. It’s called buyer’s remorse when a decision leads to an undesirable outcome.

Your Clients / Customers Want to Feel Good About Their Decisions

The good news for your business is that social science research reveals that we are psychologically motivated to be satisfied with our decisions. People want to think they’ve chosen well. It’s usually pretty easy to help them feel that way.

Decision making is stressful. Clients want to be reassured they’ve chosen wisely.

Smart marketers know that the period after purchase is a sensitive time where there’s an opportunity to reassure your customer they made the right choice. This is why after a product purchase, you’ll often get follow-up emails that educate you on the great features you can access. Marketers want to reduce any potential for buyer’s remorse, a return of the purchase, or churn.

When someone hires you in a professional role, like as their financial advisor or any type of consultant, it’s important to reassure them they chose wisely. Doing this helps avoid churn and starts the relationship off on the right foot. Here’s how we helped our client do this with their end clients using a gift and voice marketing.

The Psychology of Gifts

From an evolutionary perspective, gift giving includes tactical motivations, such as creating a good impression, displaying financial resources, or as a means for seduction. This applies to your personal and business life.

Gifts are part of our universal social fabric. For thousands of years, gifts have been exchanged to build political and social relationships. They evoke feelings. They are loaded. They are powerful. Gifts usually become a sentimental value to the receiver because it helps recognize the special connection with the gift giver. In this sense, gifts are a way to show caring or commitment and a way to communicate.

First we built Protect Your Assets, an Alexa Skill and Google Action, for Liberty Group LLC (a financial advisor in the Bay Area). (Read more about our social media strategy and podcast marketing for this client.)

Enable Protect Your Assets on Alexa - here’s the Quick Link to launch it on your Echo

The challenge:

1. Level up their client onboarding

2. Educate clients about the Protect Your Assets smart speaker voice apps and all the interactive features like hands-free access to Protect Your Assets podcast and interactive quizzes on long term care and gray divorce

The solution:

We created a voice marketing hub page for Protect Your Assets on Alexa and Google Assistant, and accordion insert card to be shipped with Echo Dots (with Clocks) to each new client.

Our process:

1. We designed the insert cards to fit in the square blue boxes, just like Amazon’s (why reinvent the wheel?) - the cards have simple language to welcome clients and educate them on using the Alexa skill

2. We included QR codes and one-shot invocation phrases to enable the Alexa skill: “Alexa, enable Protect Your Assets.”

3. We included sample phrases to access more content

4. We tested the process with three existing clients we hand picked. Then we asked for their feedback via survey.

5. Based on the trial and error around printing, packaging, and shipping we streamlined the process to send an Echo Dot Welcome Kit to every new client.

Here’s the new client greeting from David Hollander. It plays when you say:

“Alexa, tell Protect Your Assets that I am a new client.”

New Client Greeting (voice recorded on Alexa by CEO/Founder David Hollander):

You may have a mix of assets ranging from a business you own, to real estate, to investments, a 401k, IRAs, art, or cryptocurrency. And sometimes you also want tax and legal advice. We're here to help with all of it to get you on track and keep you strategically invested for the retirement you've always dreamed of. I'm David Hollander, Founder of Liberty Group. Welcome to our family and thank you for trusting us to protect your assets. You can say "learn more", "play the latest podcast," or "goodbye"

WealthVoice is a voice marketing platform to easily build your Alexa skill and send clients voice updates on their smart speaker with notifications. You reap the benefits of podcasting without the time commitment or competition. Get a spot on the waitlist:

Case Study: From Radio to Podcast Audiograms - Voice Marketing (Financial Advisor)

David Hollander is an attorney and financial advisor, and the Founder of Liberty Group LLC headquartered in Oakland, CA. Liberty Group is an RIA (registered investment advisor). Unlike most financial advisors, they provide estate law, wealth management, and tax planning all under one roof.

Award-winning financial advisor and attorney David Hollander, Founder of Liberty Group, shows you how to protect your assets at 8:00 a.m. Saturday mornings on KNBR 680, and on his popular podcast, Protect Your Assets.

For about ten years, David has hosted Protect Your Assets on the Bay Area’s number one sports radio station, KNBR. PYA airs Saturdays at 8am. David’s show is also a podcast by the same name. He successfully acquires leads from the radio show who convert into clients for Liberty Group. Many of these leads call into a phone number given during the live radio show.

The problem:

David recognized that while his main marketing channel of his popular radio show was effective and his business was booming, he needed to ensure his marketing methods would be future proof.

We rebranded Protect Your Assets and upgraded its brand strategy and social media presence, also launching an interactive voice app on Alexa and Google Assistant so listeners could simply ask to hear the latest episode or learn more about Liberty Group.

Liberty Group’s target demographic of pre-retirees and retirees are aging. People listen to terrestrial radio less and less each year. (Edison Research has shown for years in their Smart Audio Report that radio is declining in favor of spoken word streaming audio such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more podcast apps, sometimes called podcatchers).

The number of radios in the average household is declining in the U.S., going from a 3.0 mean in 2008 to a 1.5 mean in 2020 via Edison Research, Infinite Dial 2020

David also had a minimal social media presence and wanted to share more engaging bite size audio content to engage new people online and drive more subscribers to his podcast which is adapted from the radio show and airs three segments weekly.

He wanted to take all his audio content to the next level and grow his podcast audience.

We showed the team how to generate audiograms from their podcast episodes then share to social - like this tweet from @pyaradio. Engagement increased 36% in the first week of this effort.

We rebranded the podcast logo to be more visible than the previous one which was dominated by more empty white space and the Statue of Liberty; in this logo we feature David’s alter ego/nickname, The Sandman as a heroic cartoon character who helps you sleep at night (because your assets are protected).

The solution:

• We created a content calendar to promote his podcast content and implemented dozens of tactics as part of a level-up strategy

• We rebranded the PYA podcast graphics and boosted the quality and frequency of his social media sharing featuring Instagram audiograms like this.

• We created brand consistency across all social channels for Liberty Group and Protect Your Assets including homepage updates and the podcast page getting a Plink universal sharing link

• Podcast SEO and discoverability: We renamed all past podcast episodes with keyword rich titles and set a format for new titles going forward to take advantage of podcast search engine indexing around terms like “investing” and “retirement”. Examples:

  • Before:
    https://libertygroupllc.com/radio-show/week-37-market-segment (no keywords)

  • After:
    https://libertygroupllc.com/radio-show/last-minute-tax-tips/ (more search friendly now)

• We created audiograms and a process for generating at least two audiograms each week like this

• We leveled up his YouTube presence, giving specific video filming training to his advisors on creating videos relevant to investing and retirement

• We gave the team a process and format to optimize each episode’s show notes/blog post embedding their podbean audio player widget and creating at least a paragraph of unique intro text with keywords and a strong URL

• We created a YouTube SEO strategy utilizing titles, descriptions, and all-important thumbnails to help people find his videos

• We taught the team how to repurpose YouTube videos into blog posts like this

• We created a blog on libertygroupllc.com, which previously didn’t have one. This would allow us to create content around important investing and retirement topics and be found organically, a goal for the team (to decrease ad spend and boost inbound content marketing for lead gen)

• We created a New Client Welcome Message available on his custom Alexa Skill and Google Action called Protect Your Assets (more info on the voice apps coming soon in a separate case study):

• New client greeting on Alexa:

  “You may have a mix of assets ranging from a business you own, to real estate, to investments, a 401k, IRAs, art, or cryptocurrency. And sometimes you also want tax and legal advice. We're here to help with all of it to get you on track and keep you strategically invested for the retirement you've always dreamed of. I'm David Hollander, Founder of Liberty Group. Welcome to our family and thank you for trusting us to protect your assets. You can say "learn more", "play the latest podcast," or "goodbye".

”Alexa, ask Protect Your Assets to play the latest podcast.” Quick Link here to launch

Results:

• 36% increase in podcast downloads

• 5 star reviews on Alexa on Google

• 23% increase in Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn engagement

• Highest number ever of leads registering for weekly webinars and booking introductory calls

Case Study: Josh Brown's Mini-Podcast "The Compound Show" - Alexa Skill

What if you could listen in on regular conversations between professionals working in money management?

We created the strategy and built a custom Alexa Skill for Ritholtz Wealth Management called The Compound Show. After launching their Market Moment Flash Briefing in 2018, in 2019 the RWM team wanted to expand on the voice marketing strategy to increase their early adopter voice marketing footprint.

As trailblazers in blogging and social media in the personal finance and investing space, the Ritholtz Mafia wanted to be early to voice, too.

Josh and Emily discuss Ritholtz's Alexa Skills. Hear why RWM is "kind of a big deal" when it comes to voice in the finance space.

Read more about Josh Brown (@reformedbroker) and Barry Ritholtz (@ritholtz), the forces behind some of the most popular investing blogs, videos, television, and social media accounts: Josh Brown and Barry Ritholtz: From breakout bloggers to RIA rock stars

Josh Brown and Barry Ritholtz. Image courtesy of Citywire USA, 2018.

THE COMPOUND SHOW (Original version) - MINI-PODCAST AND ALEXA SKILL

Ritholtz Wealth Management is an RIA with roughly $2.57 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of May 2023.

In March 2019, we launched a first-of-its-kind custom voice Alexa Skill and mini-podcast about investing based on the popular The Compound YouTube channel.

Josh Brown explained our project “The Compound Show” in its first iteration and how his goal was to disrupt the traditional lengthy podcast format:

I invented the mini-podcast. All the financial industry and investment-oriented podcasts are an hour long or more. I think that’s because the person whose podcast it is feels bad about asking a guest to come on and then cutting them short. Some podcasts should be an hour – Patrick O’Shaugnhnessy interviewing Michael Mauboussin, for example, or Barry Ritholtz interviewing Ray Dalio, or Michael Kitces interviewing Ric Edelman.

But most podcasts are too long and not every guest has an hour-plus worth of stuff you want to hear. However, the format persists.

I think it’s just something that’s become a tradition – to interview each guest for an hour and change – even though that’s not what the listener actually needs or wants from every conversation.

-Josh Brown

…read more about The Compound Show on The Reformed Broker

Original logo for The Compound Show mini-podcast and Alexa Skill

For this podcast, Josh recorded 10-12 minute phone calls with investing experts to give the audience a behind-the-scenes glimpse. We synced the RSS feed to his custom Alexa Skill available by voice command.

2021 update:

With a growing audience, Ritholtz and team rebranded and expanded the show, making it a weekly full length YouTube podcast. It’s fantastic and has topped the Apple Podcasts top 10 financial podcast rankings as of 2023.

You can hear it on your favorite podcast app or hands-free by saying: “Alexa, play The Compound and Friends” or “Hey Siri, play The Compound and Friends.”

Case Study: Fintech - Social Media Strategy for Global Payments Provider (Remittance)

The problem:

A successful fintech company with a monopoly on maritime payments had little to no brand presence on social media. As part of a brand overhaul and website update, we began a strategic effort to build the professional brand and thought leadership presence. As an award-winning fintech, this client wanted their LinkedIn and Twitter presence to reflect their commitment to democratizing global payments with innovative technology. Also important to convey: healthy culture and a great place to work with people who care.

The solution:

We focused on three audiences: local business and fintech, job seekers and candidates, and current employees. Through content marketing, hands-on daily management, and community building, after six months we had great results:

Objectives:

• Post consistently on LinkedIn and Twitter (@BrightwellApp)

• Increase overall social engagement rate

• Grow followers

• Establish a presence as subject matter experts and a source of industry updates

Organic growth - fintech brand Twitter account

July-December 2018 Organic Follower Growth:

• 4x increase - Twitter

• 57% increase - LinkedIn

Tactics - content we shared and promoted:

• Variety of topical articles from quality industry publications and users

  • Add commentary and insights for original viewpoint

• Tag engaged users and authors

• Behind the scenes photos (conferences, events, office culture)

• Relief campaigns for disaster relief in users’ home countries such as Indonesia

  • One relief campaign went viral (over 43,000 retweets, no spend)

• Job posts

• Twitter: Built original Lists to curate quality content faster

LinkedIn Followers (Organic)

Brightwell began with 1,085 followers. After our work, they had about 5,000 followers and a 201% increase in monthly page views.

Relief campaign for natural disaster: went viral organically on Twitter

LinkedIn and Twitter:

• We established consistent brand presence beginning in July 2018

• We created steady organic follower growth

• What happened?

  • LinkedIn post engagement:

    • Before our work: 2%

    • After two months: 19%

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