For decades, I have coached financial advisors to send a letter to their clients and prospects every month on a topic of interest to them. This is called “dripping,” and it’s key to:
There are many reasons why dripping is effective at all these things, but chief among them is that it creates TOMA, or Top-of-Mind-Awareness.
When seeing your name and your expertise (or patriotism, or caring nature, or any other virtue) every single month, clients want to stay with you. Prospects seek advice from you. And both, eventually, will entrust more of their precious assets to you.
Recently, however, I’ve noticed many advisors making a common mistake when it comes to dripping.
The mistake is simple: too many advisors, in an attempt to cut expenses wherever they can, decide to drip on their clients using email instead of letters.
Don’t do this.
I said above that dripping is effective because it creates top-of-mind-awareness. However, in order to create TOMA, you must use letters. Sorry, but emails just don’t work as well. That was true in the nineties, it was true in the aughts, and it’s true now. People get dozens of emails every day, but they almost never get letters.
For that reason, letters get noticed more than emails. They get read more than emails. And because they are something tangible that you can hold and frame or stick on your refrigerator, they get saved more than emails. (And by the way, I’ve heard numerous stories about clients doing all these things.)
Just as importantly, I guarantee that most of your competitors aren’t sending letters. That’s why sending them is such a simple way to stand out.
Here are just a few recent stories we’ve received from other advisors like you. None of them would have been possible without letters.
“I was on the Bill Good System when I went from $300,000 to over $2,000,000 in nine years. That’s one helluva growth rate. Recently, three different families have shown me 3-ring binders with all the letters I sent them. Most of these letters are from Bill Good Marketing. They love them, especially the holiday letters.” – D.S., New York, US
“Over the last few months, we have mailed 4 letters to a 401(k) participant with a small account balance. This morning, a guy stopped in the office and said, ‘I’ve been getting your letters and liked what I read; I wanted to come in to see you.’ His wife (the participant) just left her employer and now wants to roll her 401(k). She also has a traditional IRA and a ROTH as well (all somewhere else). So does he. They are selling a rental property and will have that cash available to invest as well. So he asked if we could help them with all of it… He does not have email, but has six figures for us to invest. Dear Bill: please stop marketing your System to my competitors. They could save a lot of money on postage.” – C.N., Florida, US
“One of my clients has a wealthy spouse who I’ve been trying to work with for years. Recently, I sent them your ‘Red Bandana’ letter. My client called in to say, “your letter moved my wife to tears. We need to come in and meet with you.” They came in, and his spouse moved $800k to my management, meaning I now have $1.2M between them.” – B.U., Michigan, US
If you want stronger client retention, more assets, and more clients, make sure you are practicing the art of DRIPPING…and don’t try to save a few bucks by skimping on letters!
Bill Good is the founder and chairman of Bill Good Marketing. His latest book, “Hot Prospects,” is No. 88 on the 96 Best Prospecting Books of All Time list and is available on Amazon. He created the Bill Good Marketing System and has been named one of the industry’s top five coaches.
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