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I recently uncovered a tactic to use to drive crazy amounts of leads on YouTube. Can I tell you about it?
I know, I know… advisors all say that the affluent and the Boomers don’t watch YouTube. I’ll agree that there are younger generations outnumber Boomers, but what do you care? There’s enough to go around.
Plus, the fact that most advisors think this way creates opportunity. The real estate is up for grabs!
A lesson from the drug zone
Video evokes emotion.
That is the main reason that YouTube is a compelling opportunity. Emotion changes people’s minds from a position of logic. People inherently distrust financial advisors. Through video you can appeal to their hearts by showing them who you are on the inside.
Here’s an example.
As you know, I live in New York City in a part of town that is best described this way: When I am walking around I feel like I’m Eminem in the movie 8 Mile. We tried private school but it didn’t work out. I can hardly blame them – me strolling up with my circus of three kids ages four and under every day was a little bit like Barnum and Bailey crashes into New York Philharmonic.
So here I am left with the best option being a public school in an area a few blocks away that we refer to as “the drug zone” because of the unsavory characters and their pit bulls who like to hang out there. I had always said that over my dead body would my kids ever go near that place. But I had few other options, so I did a quick Google search and a few YouTube videos came up.
What I saw!
The school was absolutely amazing. They clips of the after-school program and students were doing art, music and dance. It was a picture of total enrichment. There were glowing testimonials from wholesome looking, down-to-earth school alumni who had such pride in their eyes. Their energy and the heart came through and it moved me.
Could it be that I found a diamond in the rough?
I went for a tour and the place was just like in the videos. Long story short: My kid is thriving and it’s a much more comfortable environment for us as a family. The sobering lesson that you can learn from the drug zone experience is the compelling power of videos and there’s no better marketing pitch than showing someone the true, authentic experience they will have.
Non drug zone related benefits of YouTube
Advertising on YouTube is cheaper than other forms of media. I advertise on YouTube. There aren’t tons and tons of companies using YouTube ads like there are for Facebook and LinkedIn.
Google knows everything about us because divulge that information whenever we do a search. Targeting on YouTube (which is a Google product) is pretty advanced, meaning if I want to put an ad in front of someone with a certain interest, it’s pretty accurate.
YouTube defines a view as 30 seconds of watch time, whereas Facebook, for example, defines it as three seconds. How much can you really convey about your brand in three seconds?
There are other more technical reasons but this article is getting long so let me get to some practical techniques you can use if you want to drive leads on YouTube.
Ways to find prospects on YouTube
There’s a lot of detail that goes into executing these tactics, but here is a high-level view of ways you can slay on YouTube.
Target your competitors
If you check out this video, you will see an “in stream ad” – a skippable ad that airs during the video. Remember, you only pay if the person watches for 30 seconds. In this example, you could plant your video on another financial advisor’s channel or videos and gain the advantage of appearing in front of an audience that clearly has an interest in learning about Social Security. You’ll notice that over 170,000 people have watched this video, and it’s likely that given this topic they are retired or thinking about it.
You could also use banner ads which appear in the bottom of this video.
Target affinity groups
You could also put ads on videos that are geared towards interests that retirement-aged people are likely to have. For example, check out this popular channel Knitting Tips by Judy (hobby), Sixty and Me (lifestyle) or Gramma and Ginga , senior citizen aged comedians who by the way have appeared on Jimmy Kimmel.
Now tell me the Boomers aren’t watching YouTube. Right.
Sara’s upshot
I’m having a webinar on how to slay on YouTube on April 29th. If you’d like to learn more about these specific techniques please join me by registering here.
Or, if LinkedIn is more your thing, click here to learn the ways you can learn how to slay on LinkedIn!
Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in quantitative finance.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.