Podcast Opening + Topic Framing
Unknown: Hey everyone, thank you so much for hopping on the podcast today. Really appreciate it. As always, when helping financial adviserss explore different options out there in the marketplace when they’re considering breaking away, there’s a ton of time spent on finding the right firm, making sure clients are happy prior to resigning, making sure that the transition process is as organized as possible, and making sure they have a clear and concise message to tell their clients either in person or on the phone. But a place that’s very commonly overlooked is a financial advisor’s website. After spending so much time finding a great firm, a lot of financial advisors out there simply launch a a templated website that in my opinion just lacks a unique look or custom ability to really help a financial adviser tell the story and talk about the uniqueness of their firm and really let it shine through. And in my opinion, helping over a thousand financial adviserss transition from one firm to another, the difference between an okay marketing strategy when you’re launching versus a top-of-the-line one could really be the difference between average client retention and truly amazing client retention. So today, we just plan on digging a little bit into what a top-of-the-line marketing strategy even looks like. So today we have on David Robersonson. the founder of Azella Advisor, a company that offers custom website creation and ongoing marketing support for financial advisors. David, I I really appreciate the time.
Guest Greeting
Unknown: Yeah. No, thanks for having me on. This is great.
Unknown: Yeah, I appreciate it.
Background + How the Company Started
Unknown: If you don’t mind, before we get started, I I think you have a pretty unique story. I I I think most firms out there in the industry, they either are really good at launching websites and don’t really have a lot of experience talking with financial adviserss and helping them extract the value, you know, out of their firm and putting that on a website or they’re marketing specialists that work with financial adviserss all the time but don’t really specialize, you know, in building websites. So, can you just talk about, you know, your company and kind of how it came to be?
Unknown: Yeah. No, totally. Um I’ll start out by you know going into a little of my background. So my background I did not start off in financial services um at all. Actually I never wanted to be in financial services. Um you know I always thought of it as like this boring industry. Um and I started my background working for uh some of the large marketing agencies here in Kansas City. Um you know so that’s where I got my initial understanding of marketing the foundation of marketing. And one of the biggest things I learned in the marketing landscape was the power of branding right. um when you get that brand right, you kind of mentioned it, right? Like telling that story, that’s very foundational, right, to to the business. Um and so I spent, you know, 10 years marketing um and other industries outside of financial services, which I love because outside of financial services, a lot of less uh regulations and compliance, right? And so you get to really push the envelope to understand the tools, the technology. Um I actually got started in financial services working for uh DSC systems here in Kansas City. um you know heading up their user experience for their advisor products. Um and then I started working for the mutual fund store under Adam B which was then acquired by financial engines and then acquired by Elderman. Um and there I led up um the digital team um working under Adam Hosteder um the head of marketing. Um, you know, we work with, you know, you you name it, the Smart Assets of the world, the Dave Ramseies of the world. Um, so we had a really big understanding of what it took to market for a financial advisory firm, right? Um, and then that shift kind of happened when, you know, Elderman came into play. Um, was what does it look like to market the individual advisor? And so for me, that’s when I trans transitioned out um and founded of um because one of the things I realized is that the relationship is with the adviser, right? um you know it’s it’s hard to say right it’s not with the big firm but the the client spends so much time with that adviser they built that relationship with the adviser so when that adviser walks away right a lot of time that business is walking away with the adviser um and so that was when that light bulb went off for me was I’ve always wanted to clean up the internet and I want the internet look to look better right and financial services was just one of those industries that just wasn’t doing it um whatsoever so yeah that’s kind of how I got started
Credibility + Lead Generation Experience
Unknown: I love it and that’s great experience because the some of the firms that you mentioned that you work for have some of the the biggest lead generation. Yes. Um out of out of any firms in the industry. So that’s some some really great experience to bring to advisers when they’re building their marketing capabilities out. But you know, David, I know you help with website launch and also ongoing support. You know, we’ll we’ll definitely talk about that. But I mean, in your in your opinion, you know, working with as many adviserss as you have. We’re working on a few advisors together right now. I’ve heard, you know, really great feedback. Like, what’s the difference between, you know, uh, just an okay website and launch strategy versus a really, really good one?
What Makes a Great Website + Launch Strategy
Unknown: Yeah. So, I think the best way to kind of dive into that is to go into when I first founded Aella. So, when I first founded the company, I had a handful of adviserss who came to me. They knew my experience at the mutual fund store and financial engines. And you know they were like hey you know we broken away and we need your marketing expertise and your support right and the deal that we had in that beginning phases was I want the feedback from your clients right if I’m helping you like I want to understand what your clients are saying about your website what your clients are saying about you know finding you online like what is that experience look like right and from all that feedback is really what helped us hone in on what mattered the most and it’s exactly what you said when you started the podcast it was like getting that story and that brand, right? And tying it into to everything. And so we spent the past four years really building out our own proprietary quiz that our advisors take. And when they take that quiz, we what we’ve done, we’ve defined these four different archetypes um for all of our adviserss. It used to be about 18 different archetypes. And over the years and working with, you know, hundreds of adviserss, we really were able to hone in and narrow that down to like there are certain types of advisors that exist, right? And when you get that really narrowed in, it makes it easier to say, okay, now that we know you fit this bucket of this, this is the type of audience that you’re going after. What should that brand look like for that audience? Right? Think of, you know, the McDonald’s of the world. They use certain colors. Um, you know, the reds and the yellows, right? Um, people don’t really think about those small subtle psychology things are to attract people to food, right? Burger King uses it, uh, Wendy’s uses, right? Because they know that there’s a color psychology that goes into that. So, we spent a lot ton of time focusing on brand and getting their story right. Why? Because that was a lot of the feedback we were getting um from our beginning clients that came on board and just hearing what their clients have to say. And not being able to find them online was the second most important thing, right? So, when that advisor breaks away, you know what they do? They go on Google, right? And they want to understand your move. What are you doing? Like, you know, who are you moving to? Oh, you started your own firm. Let me check out your website, right? Let me understand your values, your mission, and all of those things. not just something that was cookie cutter, but that sounded a lot like them as an individual when they worked together.
Client Perspective + Website Confidence During Transition
Unknown: Yeah. I I I I I love everything that that that you said. And I mean, I’ve been through this before. I mean, I had a financial adviser. He moved from one firm to another. He called me up, told me what he was doing. I probably would have moved with him anyway, honestly, because I already had that trust and relationship because we worked together for so long. But I mean the immediately what I did he I was on the he was on the phone with me and I Googled to like take a look and see what his his website looked like and it was you know customizable. He had awesome launch videos on there like talking about the story, talking about why he made the move, like why it’s beneficial, talking about like the meaning of his brand name. And it was just extremely clear to me through his process, and I always tell financial advisors this um as well, you know, make sure throughout this process that your website shows this was really, really thought out. It wasn’t a, you know, spur-of-the- moment decision. And just give them the feeling that they’re joining something, you know, really, really special. And you’re not going to get that with just a canned website.
Less Is More: Avoid Overbuilt Websites
Unknown: Yeah. Well, and the the challenge and something that I found a lot of times the advisors make the mistake of thinking the bigger the website the better. Right. Right. And so they’ll go, you know, buy an overtheshelf type of website that has like hundreds of pages of content, but the reality is those your initial clients, especially during a breakaway, they’re not navigating all of that, right? Like that’s not what they’re going after. that’s not what they’re trying to figure out like during that breakaway during that transition. And so it’s so crucial to make sure that you’re really hitting on those pain points of your clients, right? During that transitional phase, I get thinking long term, right? You’re going to need the content. You’re going to need all these things, but this is just one of those key components of less is more, right? Um and you don’t want to overdistract your clients either. Uh we’ve learned that through user experience studies where the clients, you know, navigate to the website and they get distracted by this thing and now they’re not actually taking the action that you intended for them to take, right?
Messaging Clarity + Simplifying the Value Proposition
Unknown: Yeah. So I mean I I I feel like pretty much every financial advisor, you know, they have their elevator pitch down where if someone asks them, hey, what type of value, you know, do you bring to your clients? What’s your value proposition? They can say that pretty easily. I might be wrong. Uh, you could disagree with me if you want to, but you know, I remember when I launched my business, I had so many things that I wanted to say on my website, but like you said, I couldn’t I couldn’t fit it all. And we didn’t work together on our website, but the person that I worked with, they just did a really great job of kind of going through a quiz with me and talking about like all the ways that I help, you know, the value, all the different things that I do. and you know she had the marketing experience to be able to say it in like the simplest way possible and from my experience you you do that really really well.
Branding + SEO: Design That Can Be Found
Unknown: Yeah. No, totally. And I mean, you know, going back to your question about the other things that what makes a good website, right, at the heart of it. So, I started out as a designer, right? And that’s why Isela is like really so strong in branding. That’s something we’re very known for, right? And I remember I would create all these beautiful websites, but nobody could find them online, right? And that’s because they didn’t factor in SEO. Um, so there’s a lot of, you know, website builders out there or good designers. Um, but understanding and knowing SEO is something that’s crucial, right? That was one of my biggest roles at financial engines is actually building out and expanding, you know, the SEO and, you know, driving assets under management through SEO. And so, if you don’t have that SEO, when your clients are going to search, they may see your competitor or they may see somebody with a similar name coming up first, right, over you. And those type of things create brand confusion um as well.
Custom Website Options + Process Overview
Unknown: For sure. 100 100%. So, so kind of just walk through the steps in terms of, you know, how you help an adviser do this. Like first off, David, I don’t think a lot of financial adviserss even know that you can go outside and have a website. They go to a firm, they pick from a couple different comp they have a couple different templates or maybe they have like a f a few preferred website providers like an FMG suite or something like that that they can use. But at pretty much any firm out there, you have the ability to build a custom website. Um, so if they have the option to work with someone like you, can you kind of just walk through your process in terms of like how it how from like start to finish what it looks like?
Brand First: Quiz, Deep Dive, and Portal
Unknown: Yeah. No, 100%. So with all of our clients, everything starts with the brand first. Um, so once you come on board, you’ll take our proprietary quiz. Um, and through that quiz, you know, we’ll take those results and we’ll prepare them for what we call our deep dive meeting. Um, our deep dive meeting is usually a call that’s, you know, 45 minutes. Sometimes it goes over uh because those calls can become very exciting and we can learn a lot about your business during that call. Um and the purpose of that call was really for us to dive in to understand who are you as a business, who is your team, who are you targeting, and how how do you um service your clients, right? And from all of that information is how we start to dictate what your brand actually looks like. And when we talk about your brand, we’re not just talking about a logo, right? We’re talking about something so much more than that. All of your colors, the type of fonts that you use. um and making all those things accessible to you. Uh we have our own uh proprietary portal as well for our advisors and we found this to be very valuable um where at any point they want to access any of their print materials um we have their email signatures are built into this portal um everything that they could ever need their print um their business cards all of that stuff they can go in our portal order that stuff right there in the portal um to make it easier to have their brand ready package for their breakaway uh we once all of that is done we start working on the actual website so once we have like a blueprint and a framework of this is the who you are. This is what you’re about, your vision, your mission. Uh we also do all the heavy lifting for you. You don’t have to worry about content. Um we don’t use templated content. Again, the content is very specific to you, your business, your brand, how you service those clients, um and how you show up as a business. Um and once we’re done with the website development and building, uh we also go out and uh claim all your social media handles, right? So again, a lot of times that’s challenging for advisors, right? Um, you know, we work with a handful of, you know, Edward Jones advisors where their accounts are being monitored, right? And so they can’t go out and just start spinning up, you know, new LinkedIn account or new Facebook accounts, right? Um, so we take care and we set all those things up on your behalf so that when that transition day is ready, all those things are there in place um, for day one.
Launch Videos: Embedding + Strategy
Unknown: That’s awesome. What about launch videos? Do you help financial adviserss, you know, kind of embed those in your website? Is is that something you kind incorporate? What? and and what are your thoughts on them?
Unknown: Yeah. No, 100%. So, one of the things all of our breakaway advisors get um when they join us is what we call our breakaway package. And as part of that breakaway package, you actually have a six to eight week series for your social media um email communication that goes out to all your clients that are journey joining um a social media post that talks about who you are, what services you’re offering, right? Because it’s it’s like literally you’re launching a new business, right? and the people in your audience need to uh understand who you are and how you’re uh you’re showing up. Uh and when it comes to videos, that works a couple different ways. Um you know, some of our advisors, a lot of times we’ll actually have somebody local, you know, that they’re already working with, right? And we will help guide and come up with some of the scripting for you for those videos. Uh we also have partners that we work with that specialize in focusing on financial advisors um to help you come up with those um videos as well.
Protocol vs Non-Protocol: Website as the Storytelling Channel
Unknown: I think that’s for a breakaway financial advisor. If they’re under protocol, you know, there’s a lot of latitude in terms of what you could say on the phone. But if it’s a non-protocol transition, sometimes you’re very limited in terms of the things that you can actually say on the phone to, you know, to bring over a client. But there’s no reason you can’t have, you know, an amazing website that once again just like really tells the story about why you’re doing what you’re doing and like what clients can gain and all of those different things. It’s just another way to be able to tell your clients so much during a transition, you know, without it actually like coming out of your own mouth or soliciting. Um, and I’ve just seen it be so impactful with the adviserss that I’ve been working with. Yeah, almost make it a non-negot negotiable to push.
FAQs: Reducing Friction and Building Trust
Unknown: No, I completely agree. And one of the things that um we also found through a study to be super valuable is just simply having some FAQs for those clients, right? I mean, because they’re going to have a lot of questions. And you know, what better way to already answer a lot of those questions right there, you know, on the website, right, when they come there, um, you know, before they jump on the call with you, right? Because they’re they’re also looking to make sure those things align, right? You say one thing on the phone, what does your website say? Um, you know, you’ll be shocked, right, of how deep people will go to try to figure things out because this is their money, right? This is their livelihood, you know, that you’re talking about.
Unknown: 100%.
Mid-Episode Break: Channel + Contact
Unknown: Hey, breaking in real quick. I really hope you’re enjoying this episode and finding my YouTube channel of value. If you’re a high-erforming financial advisor that can use somebody as a guide or a resource to explore all your transition options out there in the marketplace, I’m a nonbiased independent transition consultant that can help make this process so much easier for you. And another plus, it costs absolutely nothing to work with me. If you want to have a conversation, please feel free to text, call, email, DM me. My contact information is all over this episode and I’ll let you get back to it.
Common Website Mistakes During Breakaways
Unknown: Along the way, what are some of the mistakes that you’ve seen advisers make with a website maybe they launched without you or mistakes they were about to make that maybe you’ve guided them, you know, away from doing that that others should know about.
Unknown: Yeah. No, 100%. So, you know, one value ad um mistake that we’ve seen a lot of times, you know, an adviser will just go to um you know, something like fiverr.com to get their logo done, right? And they quickly, you know, just throw together a website that doesn’t tell that story. Um and a lot of times that that rate of bringing over your current clients drops dramatically. Um we’ve actually been studying this on clients that we bring over, you know, the difference between um because we have partnerships, right, where we can kind of compare some data points um to see that advisors that are working with us tend to see a 30% lift in the amount of clients that they were hoping to transition over because they did have that solid brand, right? So having that solid brand in place is a really big factor in that. The other really big nugget, you know, like I said, I I’ll give out is really having the SEO in place because again, what happens when they go to Google? what shows up like is your Google map pack showing up to where your business is showing up on the side is your face actually showing up in the organic rankings right um you know is your team showing up all of those things are super super valuable uh to helping not only build that confidence but also to start attracting clients that didn’t hear about you right uh before then we’ve had that happen um you know we had a couple of our clients like oh wow we just got some new leads in right why because they were able to be found you know through organic search on Google
Beyond Digital: Print Materials and Full-Service Support
Unknown: And you’re also you’re also helping with um you know brochures, you know, things like that as well or is it just the digital presence?
Unknown: Yeah, so we’re full service agency, right? So, think about if you’re breaking away, we’re going to make sure that you have everything that you can need as a new business starting out, right? You know, you mentioned brochures, business cards, um letterheads, envelopes, all of those things that you’re going to need for your brand. Um we create those.
Launch Logistics: Timing, Compliance, and Day-One Readiness
Unknown: So, so David, you’ve been working with a financial advisor, you know, for months now. you’re you’re you’re building the marketing strategy, the website’s kind of starting to take shape, you know, the uh the join date that a financial advisor is breaking away, you know, is is is coming up. How do you work with a financial advisor to actually launch the website when they resign?
Unknown: Yeah. No, 100%. So, everything we do starts from the targeted launch date and we work backwards, right? So we do things like factor in, you know, design time, content time, compliance time, right? So we always have that compliance time factored into there as well. Getting closer towards that launch date. The biggest thing we’re looking for is to make sure that number one, all your digital ass uh assets are in place, right? All your social media channels, that your website is connected, that your uh domain name is corrected properly, so that your emails are ready to be up and going, right? Once that transition date happened. And typically what we see, you know, usually about a couple weeks out, right, we’re going we we do help support our advisors from a compliance perspective as well. Um, you know, some of some of them will work with the uh compliance team directly. A lot of times, you know, we’ll work directly with their compliance team again just to kind of save that that headache. Um, some of them make mistakes that I’ve seen made is them not waiting to that actual launch date. Um, that targeted date to where they’ve actually resigned, waiting until their license is actually moved over, right? um you can run into to some challenges depending on you know if you’re tuck in um if if you are a tuck in right you have to really check and figure out like you know what their compliance rules are um when it comes to things like that. Um so we’ve kind of seen those mistakes and so we kind of help navigate u advisors through that u making sure that they launch properly and that things are uh successful from day one.
Compliance Revisions + Efficiency
Unknown: That’s great and I didn’t even think about that. That’s a huge timesaver for financial advisors because even if you have, you know, the best website designer in the world and they build this awesome website, if something on there isn’t compliant and it needs a bunch of revisions, I mean, that could really, you know, push back your timelines where I I know you’re working with, you know, a lot of the top RAAS and independent broker dealers. And once again, um, just because you kind of understand the business a little bit better than most, there could be a lot of efficiencies there to kind of get it right, you know, the first time and not have to go back to the drawing board.
Branding Compliance: Logos, Disclosures, and Experience
Unknown: Yeah, I mean, actually, you bring up a really good point. So, you know, working with some of the broker dealers, we already understand some of their rules, and that even comes to branding, right? Um, sometimes, I mean, we’ve seen this happen where someone’s created the logo for them, but it won’t make it through compliance, right? Whether it’s because the naming convention, whether it’s because the design of it is like promisary, because of the trends in the logo, right? It’s those little subtle things that if the more you understand from a compliance perspective, um getting those disclosures correctly, um it saves so much time and so much headache. Um doing it with agencies that have no experience in financial services, which I have a couple of clients that have experienced that before. It’s like night and day for them u from a time perspective and efficiency.
Post-Launch: Ongoing Marketing Support
Unknown: So let’s let’s walk through you know after the transition now you know launch website is created um you know we fast forward 6 months they’ve had you know a really good transition and now they’re on to you know continuing to build trust and and and referrals on on their website and beyond. you know, how are you how are you helping from there if they’re if they’re still a client?
Unknown: Yeah. No, 100%. So, different um ad advisors are at different stages of their journey, right? Um you know, some advisors we’ve worked with right after launch, you know, they’re really pretty much ready to go after acquiring new customers, right? Um a lot of times we encourage them to really spend that time to focus on their current clients, their, you know, new RAIA or broker dealer that they’re under. Um, we usually encourage them those first three to six months like make sure like you understand your business, right? Um, and then from a marketing ongoing services standpoint, most of our clients will sign up for us to out of the gate to manage their social media, right? Because they’re not going to have time for that. Um, so from that launch day after their six weeks is over, most will sign up the social media um, which may be LinkedIn or Facebook. Um, even some advisors will have us manage their personal as well, which we can do. Um, you know, again, depending on some of their compliance and how that’s set up. Um, and then what we really encourage advisors to do is brand awareness, right? You literally just launched an entirely new brand, no one knows who you are, right? Um, when you worked for Edward Jones or whoever named UBS of the world, they know those household names, right? And so your conversion rate when having conversations is so much higher because people already know who they are. Uh brand awareness is simple things like uh you know ads right have a little bit of budget to advertise whether that is on Facebook or Google or LinkedIn to make sure that your presence is showing up. SEO right when people go do searches for a financial advisor near me are you showing up right and so we’re helping them you know with that SEO piece as well. Um so that brand awareness is like that first stage. Um, and then next is lead nurturing, right? How do you get people in the funnel? Um, and and I’m not talking about like the hard sale yet, right? Like again, this is still part of that brand awareness phase, getting people to download something on your website, right? Now, you’ve captured some basic information, their first name, last name, and the email address. Um, and so you’re able to nurture them to the point to where they’re getting to know you, right? Because we’re in a know you like you, trust you industry, and you want to build that trust with this new business that you’ve created. Um, so then when you do hit the ground running with a strong leader generation strategy where you’re trying to bring on new clients, you have a much stronger foundation to go off of.
Independence Marketing Latitude + Growth Potential
Unknown: For sure. And I I I I think that’s super valuable to have the launch and the ongoing support because, you know, just for, you know, one of the clients we’re we’re working on together, you know, they’re coming from a firm where they have no ability to differentiate themselves from the other. you know, 20 advisors that are in their city. I mean, any type even on their on their bios, you know, having the ability to put like anything personal or what their niche is or what they’re focused on just isn’t being able to approve by compliance. And all of a sudden soon they’re going to be launched into this independent space where they have so much more latitude on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on their website, Google ads, all of these different things. And I think it’s just really important to have someone to like kind of hit the ground running, you know, with with with all of those different things because they’ve been growing, you know, despite all of those limitations. And now that they really have the ability once again to like let their their value and uniqueness shine through, I mean, it’s going to be just next level growth.
Strategy: Goals, Timing, and ROI
Unknown: Yeah. No, I I I completely agree with that. Um, yeah. And we build we’re strategists as well, right? So, we’re going to help the advisor actually with a strategy, right? You’re not just going and buying a website or buying a brand. We sit down to try to understand your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish and when you’re trying to accomplish those goals by. uh which helps us think more about you know what are the things that you really should be doing right now right like do you need to be focusing your energy and your efforts on paid ads when you probably should be focus more your energy on SEO right you’re you’re you’re looking to go into growth mode in 12 months and not six months. So SEO is a really good strategy for you because it’s one of those things that’s slow build over time and has the highest ROI.
Closing Thoughts
Unknown: That’s awesome. It’s it’s it’s really great that advisers have someone to be able to walk them through all of this and just and just hit the ground running. David, I I can’t tell you how many people I know that have like launched a business um like $2 million plus producers without even launching a website first. So, wow. I I think I I I think this is fantastic.
Unknown: Yeah. Awesome. No, I appreciate you having me on here. This is great.
Where to Find David
Unknown: Uh where do people get in touch with you if they want to have a conversation?
Unknown: Yes. So um you can go follow me on uh LinkedIn. It’s a really good way to get to know me to start building that uh relationship. Um or you can go to azella.io. That’s our website. Um you can find any of the information that you’re looking for on there. Um whether it’s our branding services or our ongoing marketing support um or our breakaway support.
Wrap-Up + Call to Action
Unknown: Awesome. I I I really really appreciate the time. And if anyone has any questions about the marketplace in general, the broker deal or the RAIA world, please reach out. A lot of people don’t know that you choosing which firm you’re going with, it’s really only the beginning of the decisions and the people that you need to leverage to have a successful transition, whether it’s marketing, advertising, ongoing marketing afterwards, legal representation based off of what firm you’re coming from. There’s just truly people out there that we’ve built relationships over the years that are going to do a better job with you because they’ve helped lift so many people out of the place that you’re coming from. So, please reach out, leverage our experience and our network. And David, once again, really appreciate it and I hope you have an awesome day.
Unknown: Thanks, man.
