2018 Financial Advisor Revenue Architecture Smart Book™

REVENUE
ARCHITECTURE
SMART BOOK™
2018 SMART BOOK For Independent Financial Advisors
This Revenue Architecture SMART BOOK Helps Financial Advisors Build a Strategy-Led, Systematic
Growth Program With 9 Proven Strategies.

2018 Revenue Architecture SMART BOOK for Financial Advisors
www.revenuearchitecs.com ©Revenue Architects, LLC All Rights Reserved Page 1
INTR ODUCTION
The independent financial advisory market is at an inflection point amidst market disruptions: generational and wealth shift, longevity, new technology
and new ‘buyer’ realities. Add to that the confusion among potential clients distinguishing between brokers, FAs and RIAs, Robos, changing expectations
(holistic vs. investment advice) and navigating fiduciary standards. These potential clients – the new “buyer” – also are now more empowered than ever
with information at their fingertips. So how do advisors respond?
This SMART BOOK describes a Revenue Architecture for Financial Advisors - a blueprint for a marketing and sales strategy that includes a distinctive
brand identity, relevant messaging and consistent marketing & sales execution for more predictable and sustainable revenue growth.
WHAT IS A REVENUE AR CHITECTURE?
A Revenue Architecture is the agile process of continuously aligning strategies, integrating systems and optimizing
programs for high-value client engagement and revenue impact.

REVENUE ARCHITECTUR E FOR FINANICAL ADVISORS: THE
BLUEPRINT
STRATEGY: Define your unique
market position and align your go-to-
market action plan with SMART Goals
– specific, measureable, achievable,
realistic and time-based.
SYSTEMS: Establish a foundation for
client engagement with a technology
enabled marketing & sales process, a
distinctive visual brand, and a modern
digital presence.
Strategy: Your go-to-market model that aligns with your
business model.
Systems: The platform or ‘engine’ for marketing and sales
including your branding, channels, website, technology, team/
skills and sales process.
Programs: How you engage clients and prospects day-to-day
with distinctive and personalized experiences.

PROGRAMS: Execute consistent marketing and
sales programs that engage your ideal clients with
multi-stage experiences that address client pain
points and that drive your revenue growth.

THE FINANCIA L ADVISO R REVENUE ARCHITECTU RE SMART BOOK
Based our work with Financial Advisors, we developed this 9-step SMART BOOK to help Advisors realize predictable revenue growth.
1. Align your team on a vision and
SMART goals.
2. Build persona messaging for your
ideal client profiles.
3. Define a go-to-market model that
works for your firm.
4. Craft a distinctive brand identity,
positioning and messaging.
5. Engage a strong, multi-channel digital
presence.
6. Integrate a technology-enabled process
and sales funnel.
7. Gain local & national visibility with PR
and search optimization.
8. Communicate your value proposition with
contextual, pro-active messaging.
9. Personalize your client’s experiences.

1. ALIG N YOUR TEAM ON A VISION AND SMART GO ALS.
We are surprised how many advisors we work with have not clarified a vision or established clear revenue goals and metrics to achieve them. This remit
is to clarify your vision and establish goals and metrics that are specific, measurable, attainable and time-based. Do the ‘funnel math’ to really understand
how many leads you need and the customer lifetime value.
1. Express your vision so that it clearly articulates the essence of the kind of firm you want to be. The vision is
a time unlimited guiding star which should be ambitious but not pie-in-the-sky. What are we intending to
achieve? Which position (rank, size) in which markets?
2. Identify top-down revenue goals: current revenue, long-term goal, years to reach goal, growth rate.
3. Determine CLTV (customer lifetime value) by analyzing revenue mix, number of clients, average revenue
per year, retention.
4. Determine a reasonable marketing budget (typically 5-10% of revenue) based on top-down metrics and your
growth ambition.
5. Consider what you need to improve your pipeline, e.g. Do you need more leads at the top of the funnel
(attract stage) or better performance at middle of the funnel (convert stage)?
6. Consider the ‘DNA’ of your marketing profile and what types of activities will best impact the pipeline, e.g.
referral marketing, inbound and outbound marketing, PR/media outreach, advertising, re-marketing, high
value content and thought leadership.
Tip: Break down your funnel
into stages that your team can
agree. This becomes the
language of sales. Based on
how your pipeline is
performing, consider what
areas need to be improved: Do
you need to feed the top of
the funnel? Do you need to
convert more of your leads?
Nurturing prospects more
effectively?

2. BU ILD PERSONA MESSAG ING FOR YOUR IDE AL C LIENT PR OFILES .
This is not an abstract exercise – you would be surprised how effective it is when you focus on specific personas
that represent the needs and behaviors of your ideal clients.
1. Start by defining personas - fictional characters that represent your specific client segments.
2. These personas should characterize the demographics, attitudes, values and behaviors of these segments.
Example personas for a financial advisor include: physician with a spouse and family, ultra-HNW
business owner, individual mass affluent, power couple, college family sub-HNW, etc.
3. Draw information from various resources to accurately depict the customer (e.g., data, research,
interviews with current clients).
4. Include information like job and demographic data, what a day in their life looks like, what their
challenges or pain points are, where they go for information, common objections to financial advisors
and more.
5. Add an image and a ‘quote’ to humanize your personas.
6. Example personas for a financial advisor may include: physician with a spouse and family, ultra-HNW business owner, individual mass affluent,
power couple, college family sub-HNW, etc.
Tools: Use a SMART ‘Funnel Math’ Spreadsheet. Contact us for a copy.
Tip: Use persona message
maps to organize your key
messages and ensure
consistency throughout the
buyer’s journey
To support each message,
develop two or three key
facts, or pain points that can
be fleshed out in copy and
images.

7. Use the personas that will help you to tailor website copy, content and campaign language,
and to deliver better digital experiences and personalized communications at each stage of the
marketing/sales process.
3. DEFINE A GO -TO-MARKE T MODEL THAT WORKS FOR
YOUR FIRM.
The go-to-market model is based on your business model and it clarifies the elements you will use to grow your
firm. You likely have already defined most of these elements, but clarifying is important.
1. Based on your target market segments, articulate your service offerings, benefits & advantages vs. the
alternatives and how you price (Fee-only/ hybrid, robo, full service, plan development, etc.)
2. Determine how you will engage the market. With what team to what prospects and with what partners
(asset management relationships, custodian, referral networks, etc.)
3. Define the channels and content you will use to reach prospective clients (e.g., web, SEO, social,
advertising, media/PR, content/thought leadership, speaking, charitable activity, e-mail, apps, webinars)
4. Define what technologies and processes you will be using (e.g., Marketing Automation, CRM, Portfolio Reporting, etc.)
Tools: Persona Starter Kit. Contact us for a copy of the 5 personas most advisors target.
Tip: Be selective about
which clients to target.
Which clients have the
potential to be profitable,
and the willingness to form
long-term relationships.
Manage the others - losing
unwanted customers and
manage the others
efficiently without loss of
focus.
•

Tools: An A-B-C Client Model is a handy tool to segment your client base and manage your portfolio.

4. CRAFT A DISTINCTIVE BR AND IDENTITY, POSI TIONING AND MESSAGIN G.
‘Brand matters’ and many advisors look and sound the same. It is essential to set yourself apart with an authentic and differentiated brand identity. A
brand becomes a brand only in the hearts and minds of your client. At its core is building trusting relationships.
1. Assess where you are today. Reveal your business and brand dynamics by interviewing colleagues and
clients.
2. Define your firm’s essence, purpose and authenticity and how you differ from competitive firms
3. Create your brand persona including your brand voice, DNA, positioning and actions
4. Define your brand strategy including name and personality and visual essence.
5. Audit your communications, what is said, what channels, with what resources and collateral.
6. Plan the logistics of executing an integrated brand strategy
7. Build the brand with visual communications assets, relevant content and messaging.
Tip: Put the client needs
above everything else and
make it impossible to separate
what you say from what you
do.
Stand for something. The
brand is more than a logo or
name or tag line, it’s how your
firm comes to life in today’s
multi-channel world through
content, experiences and
personalized touches.

5. ENG AGE A STRONG, MULTI-CHANNEL DIGITAL PRESENCE .
Move away from a static cliché website to establish a more dynamic, mobile responsive website. Your website is your marketing hub that you can use
every day for marketing, selling and onboarding clients.
1. Position your website branding consistent with your brand strategy and desired target market.
2. Modernize your website with a professional design and an engaging look and feel.
3. Get found by optimizing your site for major search engines using the right ‘long tail’ keywords that your
target personas are using – with an emphasis on local search.
4. Build credibility with content that is appropriate for your clients, adding value and showcasing your service
offering.
5. Make the site easy to use and accessible, and ensure the site works effectively on mobile devices.
6. Optimize for conversions by placing appropriate calls to action and fostering an equitable exchange of value
between your firm and the prospective client visitor.
7. Add appropriate functionality including secure file share, reporting and financial tools and services that
deliver value for your ideal client profile and that helps them streamline the onboarding process.
8. Share valuable updates and stories to drive customer interest and activity and amplify your content with
“earned media” - social media content sharing.
Tools: Build your brand identity on LinkedIn. Download the E-Book.
Tip: Consider fewer, longer
pages with ample white space
that scroll to increasing
depth. Avoid cliché images
Establish your brand on
multiple ‘outposts’ by sharing
content on channels that your
target clients use and amplify
this with your ‘right-sized’
social media presence.

9. Establish brand outposts on, for example, Fee-Only Network, NAPFA, LinkedIn, Brightscope. Consider highly targeted PPC advertising and re-
marketing and syndicate articles, answer investor questions across touchpoints to build credibility and get found (e.g., Investopedia, Yahoo Finance,
local media outlets etc.)
6. INTEGR ATE A TECHNOLOGY -E NABLED PROCESS AND
SALES FUNNEL .
A systematic and repeatable process will use a range of enabling systems and tools. Use marketing automation
and CRM along with LinkedIn, live chat, search optimization and other tools to better draw interested
prospects and engage them in the moment while they are actively considering. Map these tools to your selling
process.
1. Use modern web technology and content management like WordPress to power and tailor your digital
content and manage your web presence.
2. Use tools like online chat to engage interested prospects on your website in the moment.
3. Use Marketing Automation to monitor and analyze site visitors, track behaviors and facilitate more personalized email communications that help
nurture relationships.
4. Use search analytics / SEO tools to see how well you are doing against competitors, how you rank for important keywords, your top pages, user flows,
geographies and demographics.
Tools: Assess your web presence with a DXI – Digital Experience Index. Contact us for a complimentary assessment.
TIP: Use technology that
will enable you to: 1)
increase website visitors and
build brand awareness; 2)
generate leads with offers
and downloads; 3) identify
leads for immediate focus. 4)
nurture leads with tailored
content until they are ready
to meet.

5. Integrate your CRM with marketing automation, so you can more fully orchestrate the buying process and align marketing & sales.
6. Use calls to action, landing pages and forms to capture contact information with an equitable exchange of value.
7. Use social sharing tools that enable visitors to share blog posts (news & insights) via social media and email.
8. Consider applications like Riskalyze to engage clients and capture prospective client interest.
7. GAIN LOCAL & NATIONAL VISIBILITY WITH PR/ MEDIA
OUTREACH AND SEARCH OPTIMIZATION.
Most of your clients look for relationships locally. Use the right mix of marketing strategies to maximize your
local impact and attain national reach.
1. Use local PR and media outreach to give your marketing a charge, lend credibility and raise brand awareness.
Multi-channel distribution including social media is key to impact.
2. Don’t be promotional: Use PR/media outreach as an opportunity to announce new developments at your firm,
to comment on a new trend, and more importantly to share knowledge about a timely or trending topic that
would be of interest to your target audience.
3. Attract new customers in your surrounding area by optimizing your website, blogs and social media with local
search terms.
Tool: Use an Objective Selection Process to choose your marketing and sales technology.
Tips: Pick some local
activities that fit your team’s
personal style. Examples
include active charitable
engagement, business
leadership and networking
groups, hosting client events
and retirement parties. Get
found on local directories
and networks like NAPFA
and the Fee Only Network.

4. Setup and verify your business details including website URL, address, phone number, profile -- for users across search, maps, and Google My
Business, Bing and other local search directories. Also, be sure your phone number is encoded properly to enable click to call.
5. With more than half of searches taking place on mobile devices, and more than 56 percent of mobile searches having local intent, be sure your site is
mobile responsive and displays correctly on a mobile device.
8. COMMUNICATE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION WITH CONTEXTUAL, PRO-ACTIVE
MESSAGING.
A compelling, concise and agile value proposition is needed for each target client to win in a competitive
marketplace. Educate prospects on the benefits of working with your firm. Build a case around the benefits
that investors can derive from comprehensive financial, estate and portfolio planning and disciplined
investment management.
1. “Discover” activities will have already defined the target audiences in chosen markets, assessed the
competitive environment, and understood target customers.
2. For each target segment, develop a compelling CVP. This should be based on customer insight, and with
active leadership involvement.
3. Evaluate the CVP for sense and feasibility (although it may require creative implementation, e.g. how to
deliver “vibrance”), and validation with customers.
4. Creatively develop and select a set of unique benefits for the target customers which are differentiated and desirable.
Tools. Get a complimentary PR and Visibility review including the 8 factors for local search ranking. Contact us.
Tips: For each target segment,
develop a compelling client
value proposition that
includes ‘proof points.’
Proof points can be developed
in a number of ways
including case studies,
thought leadership, client
references, partners,
affiliations, published articles
and more.
.

5. For each segment, add appropriate price positioning, and define the customer trade-offs, i.e., what you choose not to offer customers, but they
could get elsewhere.
Tools: Use a top-down persuasive communications model and ‘SCQA’ to communicate your value. Contact us to learn more.

9. PERSONALIZE YOUR CLIENT’S EXPERIENCES
You know a lot about prospects before you meet with them and personalization is part of an effective customer experience. By intentionally designing
relevant experiences, you show prospects that you understand them and care about their specific needs.
1. Use data and analytics captured in search, automation, targeted online ads and other channels to understand
client interests and customize experiences based on ‘behaviors’ they exhibit at different stages of the customer
journey.
2. Without over-automating the experience, determine the forms of personalization you can use for the self-
directed ‘buyer’ including relevant or smart web content, tailored offers via email, being available in the
moment with agile tools like chat, re-marketing Google PPC advertising, mobile apps and web applications.
3. Plan and coordinate your personalization strategy across customer journey touch points; refine and prioritize
what works.
4. Use progressive profiling via automation by collecting additional valuable new information each time a prospect
completes a form.
Tips: Don’t over-automate
the experience. Technology
allows you to offer the self-
directed ‘buyer’ more
relevant content.
Your goal is to nurture
these self-directed buyers
until they are ready to
engage in an in-person
conversation.
Tools: Use SharpSpring Marketing Automation to deliver dynamic content based on your client’s interest.

SUMMARY
To achieve more predictable and sustainable revenue growth, establish a revenue architecture that fits your firm and commit to a systematic sales and
marketing process. Use this Financial Advisor Revenue Architecture SMART BOOK and the 9 proven strategies to guide your approach.
STRATEGY: DEFINE YOUR GO-TO-MARKET ACTION PLAN:
1. Align your team on a vision and SMART goals
2. Build persona-based messaging for your ideal client profiles
3. Define a go-to-market model that works for your firm.
SYSTEMS: BUILD YOUR MODERN MARKETING AND SALES PLATFORM
4. Craft a distinctive brand identify, positioning and messaging
5. Engage a strong, multi-channel digital presence.
6. Integrate technology-enabled process and sales funnel
PROGRAMS: EXECUTE A SYSTEMATIC SALES & MARKETING PROCESS
7. Gain local and national visibility with PR/media outreach and search optimization
8. Communicate your value proposition with contextual, pro-active messaging & campaigns.
9. Personalize the experience along your client’s journey.

HOW WE HELP INDE PENDENT FINANCIA L ADVIS ORS
Revenue Architects is a full-service agency with an expertise in wealth management marketing. We provide comprehensive, flexible consulting and
agency services with a particular focus on independent financial advisors. Our programs are customized for different advisors based on their size, growth
ambition and specific requirements.
Our services deliver a continuous process that includes growth strategy development, branding & creative, technology and systems support (including
CRM & marketing automation), and marketing and sales program design and execution. Activities include: campaign execution, social media, website
design and management, search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising (PPC) and public relations (PR / local PR), as well as sales enablement and
support.
We begin with “Month Zero” – a process to rapidly define the marketing and sales plan for sustainable growth. Our pricing page outlines illustrative
retainer models

Contact John Stone or Thérèse Byrne to for a complimentary consultation or visit www.revenuearchitects.com to learn more.

2018 Financial Advisor Revenue Architecture Smart Book™

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2018 Financial Advisor Revenue Architecture Smart Book™