401k Marketing Strategy for Retirement Plan Advisors | Rebecca Hourihan

[0:00] Rebecca Hourihan: Media profiles and emails, technically, digital content, blog articles, videos, all of it encompasses create your digital storefront. [0:09] JD: But your website is still a pretty big cornerstone in that, right? [0:14] Rebecca Hourihan: I'd say probably 80% of your digital front. [0:16] JD: Yeah, 80%. There you go. Making up stats like a true retireholic. There you go. [0:21] Rebecca Hourihan: Well, that's the first thing we do [0:23] JD: that a lot around here. [0:25] Rebecca Hourihan: That's definitely the first thing that people are going to see, is they're going to Google you, they're going to look through your website, and then that's going to begin. [0:30] Mark: The digital Google. [0:33] Chad: He knows what it is. [0:34] Justin: Oh, these are your notes. [0:37] JD: All right, so we're talking about a digital storefront. And Rebecca, since you're the expert on this, help us understand, is a digital storefront just your website, or does that include other things that are out there? [0:54] Rebecca Hourihan: So a digital storefront can include a lot of different things, and it really starts with your website, because that's usually where most folks are going to go to first when they Google you and they're looking for more information. [1:05] JD: Website's still the core of it all. But what other stuff? [1:08] Rebecca Hourihan: Well, there's your social media profile. There's any blog articles that you've written, if you've done a white paper, a case study, an infographic. Think of it as when someone types your name into Google or any search engine that you use, whatever comes up that's going to equate to your digital [1:24] JD: storefront, and what comes up in that Google search bar, as you put it, is going to influence their decisions, is going to influence their opinion of you, your business, how professional you are. Like when they Google me, they get super professional stuff, right? [1:44] Mark: Picture of you in jail, surfing. When I envisioned digital storefront, my thought was website was the landing, right? That is the storefront to me. And each of the different avenues of communication are the items within the store. So you say blog posts or different, different social media do you want on your initial website? In my mind, your landing page, connection to all those different resources that you're running, all those different social medias that you're running. [2:11] Rebecca Hourihan: So that's actually a really complicated question, and it has a lot to do with SEO. [2:14] Chad: Leave it to chat, search engine optimizations. [2:18] Rebecca Hourihan: And when you have your person go, your visitor, go to your digital storefront, your website, we'll call it that for now, and they start to click around and they engage with your brand. The next step is how are you going to increase the Google rankings of your company's website? And you can do that. By leveraging LinkedIn. And then at the bottom of your blog post, when you hyperlink your website back to your website, that's called a credible source and then that ticks up your search engine rankings. So you want to have a lot of your content on your existing storefront or your web page, but you also want to make sure that you have supporting or what we call surround sound media sources for pointing back to your website again to increase your SEO. [3:02] Mark: She's the authority, like we said and [3:04] JD: she's talking about SEO. [3:07] Chad: There's not a test on this later. [3:08] JD: Mark picked up on that. But search engine optimization, I don't know. Are there a lot of 401k plans that are searching for their next advisor or their next TPA or what have you? [3:18] Mark: I would say significant research of a person they're trying to vet. [3:21] JD: Well, that's where I want to. You can guarantee that when you meet with someone they're going to Google you and they're. And they're going to check you out. And I would back to your question. I think if you go to that main page, if you have good social media that you're proud of and you think that adds to your professionalism and your content, then by all means you want those there, right? So they can go check out more about you and learn more. But if you suck at that stuff, it probably shouldn't be. [3:51] Mark: Well, it's interesting as I think about this too. You look at some folks websites versus their social media, I'm as guilty as ever. Or so are we as a company in general. One represents who we are and one's kind of the ugly headed stepchild that's off in the corner that we're just not paying enough attention to. And so your branding doesn't really match in that setup. And that's frustrating to me. Even when I'm searching an advisor or a company, someone that I'm looking, that we're looking to do business with and you get two completely different impressions of who you're going to be meeting with or who they are. It's tough to bring them all together. And that's why I was curious. If you have one landing page where you have them all connected, you're probably more likely to be updating each of them if they're on the one that you're focused on or connected to the one that you're focused on. [4:32] Rebecca Hourihan: The other thing to your point though is if you google who you are and then you have all of these conflicting. [4:38] Mark: I do that all the time. [4:39] Rebecca Hourihan: You Do. [4:39] Mark: Yeah, I want to see what's out there on me. [4:44] JD: That's really not what she meant. [4:46] Rebecca Hourihan: So when you google yourself, or if you google somebody and if you have just one source that all of your content's posted on, then that gives them one clickable link. But if you have multiple sources, that means you can fill the entire Google page with who you are, your experience. And then if you happen to have those like, I don't know, fishing trophy photos or something interesting that maybe you don't want the professional world to see. The more content that you have to overwrite the Internet, the more they're going to see your professional profile as opposed to that one time in Cancun. [5:22] JD: That's a good point. I haven't thought about nothing more. [5:24] Chad: Phishing trophy. [5:26] Mark: My arrest records aren't going to be as bad as going at all. [5:29] JD: Nothing more. Jump to. But nothing worse than googling someone and having very little come up. How frustrating is that? I've done that. Like for a company, where's your webpage? I can't even find it. Like, what's going on with you? [5:41] Chad: I would have to think that if, and I'm sure our audience would agree. If you google someone, there's no website for them. [5:48] Mark: Not even touching it. [5:49] JD: You're done. [5:49] Mark: You're done. It exists a lot. [5:51] Chad: Get out of my face. [5:53] Mark: And I think we'll probably end up touching on this as we move through this conversation. But there's a whole lot of governance over this for advisors and it makes it difficult for some of them to have a website other than maybe their BD's offered templated page. [6:06] Justin: Yeah, that's really it. [6:08] Chad: We've had this conversation quite a few times about that specific compliance, but I feel like we've talked a number of times. You just have to get creative with what you're given and make it stand out, make it be you. I think your guys point is make it consistent and tell your story and [6:25] Mark: have some fun with it. [6:25] JD: All right, Chad's gonna kind of. Well, I'm gonna help you out a little bit, but steal your job. [6:31] Chad: I think it's always nice to not have a beer for our guest. [6:36] JD: Let's talk about the obvious. First of all, there's someone new on our couch. Rebecca Jorhane from 401K Marketing has joined us for episode 21, 2, 3. Got it. [6:50] Mark: Jeez, I can't wait till it's like 22 because then I couldn't be wrong. [6:53] JD: But I feel like 23 or 23, [6:56] Mark: although you can't wait till 22. Was I missed? [6:59] JD: I think there's an episode in there that might hit the. What do they say? The floor of the editing floor. Cutting room floor. [7:05] Mark: I think I have an idea which episode. [7:08] JD: So maybe this is hyphen 22. I don't know. But Rebecca was super cool to join us for this show. We're going to talk about some subject matter that's kind of in her wheelhouse. We've got a beer of the episode. We're at a new location. So we're here at my house in San Diego or Carlsbad, California. You guys all. You two flew down here. She's a San Diegan. You came down from San Diego? San Diego. [7:38] Justin: What Ron Burgundy says. [7:39] Mark: Yeah, I was going to say, and [7:41] Chad: he is a trusted source. [7:43] JD: I had this beer the other night, and I thought it was pretty good. It's not a dark stout. It's not a porter. It's 17% alcohol, so it feels just a little more refreshing. But we invited Rebecca on the show, and she's such a snooty San Diego ME chick that she wants to have wine. So we got a really nice bottle of Pinot, and it looks like she's. [8:12] Mark: Holy cow. [8:13] JD: So maybe you guys can hook her up. [8:14] Mark: That's a pre game warm up with [8:16] Chad: just a small glass. [8:17] Justin: We have a small glass for her. [8:19] JD: Yeah, we got a glass right here. [8:23] Mark: Like, I need to do curls with that. [8:27] JD: A little bit of wine. [8:29] Justin: How much is actually in that? [8:30] JD: By the end of the episode, we're in trouble. But so, yeah, we are drinking. Coronado Brewing Company, Orange Avenue. Witness. [8:39] Justin: That's pretty good. [8:40] JD: And you, can you help me out with that? It's. You pronounce it. Chad Brewer. [8:47] Mark: Clifton Mikado. [8:51] JD: It's like Sanrio. [8:54] Rebecca Hourihan: It's delicious. [8:55] Mark: Only 15.3% alcohol by volume. Way weaker than our beer. [8:59] JD: So we'll get a shot of that. So there we go. Cheers, you guys, to another episode. Cheers. [9:04] Mark: Thank you for joining us. [9:06] JD: Yeah. And let's kind of pick up back on this. This concept of a digital storefront. And I think we agree that the website's a big, big deal. And Rebecca's got a blog post that's out there, and it's called Don't Be the Ugly House in the Neighborhood. Am I getting that right? [9:26] Rebecca Hourihan: You are, yes. [9:27] JD: And it talks a bit about this, and it gives an interesting three images down towards the bottom of three websites. Talk to me a little bit more about that, because I thought that was pretty cool. [9:38] Rebecca Hourihan: Thanks. So in today's Day and age, we as consumers, we have choices, millions of choices actually. And most people start any of their organic search on Google for the most part. And when you go to a new person's website, and I saw your notes by the way, which is completely accurate, you have seven seconds to either impress or delight. Seven seconds. So. So when you get to this website, if it's a great website, all right, you're gonna click around, you're gonna start to look at it. And then in this blog post I talk about how, let's just say hypothetically that J.D. is moving into a new home. And he goes to three different realtors websites. And one website is all smushyed over to the left hand side and one is. [10:26] JD: Is smushy. The word smooshy. [10:29] Chad: It is today. [10:30] Mark: Smooshyed, as my daughter always says. I made out that. [10:34] JD: Continue on. [10:35] Mark: I love swishing to word. [10:36] JD: I love swish. [10:37] Rebecca Hourihan: Eat well. It's a retireholics first. [10:39] JD: It's a good word. [10:40] Mark: There you go. [10:41] Rebecca Hourihan: And then you have another website that's just right in between the lines. And then you have another website that's parallax scrolling and it's interesting. It's got a call to action that says set up the perfect appointment for your new home today. Well, based on those websites alone and they're all realtors and you're looking at them and you know that all of them offer an opportunity. Opportunity to see the house that J.D. wants to buy. Just based on that website, where are you going to book your appointment? And that's what that article is all about. [11:11] JD: And the three examples you gave, I'm looking at them now. And we'll flash them up on the screen. [11:15] Chad: Let's make the editor's job really hard. The first one's here. Second one's here. Third one's here. [11:22] JD: I think the third one's gonna end up on the face. [11:23] Mark: The third one is sexy. [11:25] Chad: Yeah. [11:25] JD: When I looked at those, it was like it's kind of a no brainer. And it brings me to a real life story. Just moved in this house and I had to disassemble my pool table and bring it down here. And then I had to find a professional to reassemble it. I googled it. [11:41] Chad: It's like you're picking up a bowl of cereal. [11:43] JD: I did exactly what you were saying. I googled it. San Diego Pool table, billiards assembly and started clicking on the links. The first two I clicked on looked very much like the ones that you don't like. Old school 1980s design, lots of links and weird color combos and just not pleasing to me. [12:01] Mark: Hey, J.D. [12:02] Chad: where do you. Our website falls in? [12:04] Rebecca Hourihan: Not. Not necessarily. [12:05] JD: Maybe we should ask her. Sorry, Brandon. The second one I clicked on, I got a lot of the same. And then the third one I clicked on, kind of like Rebecca said, It was this parallax. It was super clean. Colors were tied in. There was the call to action, as she calls it, in terms of they gave me contact for an appointment. The prices were right there. I mean, I was instantly. I don't know if it was in seven seconds, maybe it was, but I was like, that's the one. [12:31] Chad: And then they said, we'll charge you triple. And you were like, please, maybe say whatever you want. [12:37] JD: But why? Why did I make that decision? Because when I looked at that, I felt like, that's a professional firm, you know, that's someone that I want to trust to do this, where the other one's not so much. [12:50] Mark: Well, I think you just said something that we all inherently kind of do. You want to work with people that you want to work with. Right. And when you see a website that is your style, whether that's professional or laid back, you tend to want to work with that person or that group. [13:08] Justin: It gives you an image of who that person is and how you're going to connect with them. [13:12] Mark: And as I put in my notes, it gives you an impression of what, in our world, at least, what the next 18 months might look like. We always talk about notyourtypical advisor. And for years, you guys have heard me say, as an advisor, you want to show that client what the life with you is going to be like for the next 18 months. This is one way of accomplishing that. You need to have a proper display of who you are, your beliefs, and what you're trying to deliver. I loved the thought of a call to action because that's not something I really see in our world, I imagine would be impactful for people. When you're going to research an advisor and you actually have other than a here's my contact information in the corner, some sort of call to action, you could get a good bang for your buck. Actually, before I say that, I'll question that to you. Is this as relative as we might think it is in the actual advisor arena? Are they getting some ROI from spending time and effort on setting up a proper digital storefront? [14:11] Rebecca Hourihan: So I'm going to give you a little bit of a longer answer there. It's got to go down for that list it down. When you have a prospect who's visiting your website and they're starting to get to know you and getting used to your brand, starting that digital conversation. If someone fills out a contact form on your site, they are 57% through the traditional buying cycle. [14:38] JD: Is that a real stat or a retireholic stat? [14:40] Rebecca Hourihan: That is actually a Google stat. [14:42] Justin: Good. [14:43] Rebecca Hourihan: It's a real one. 57%. So they have qualified themselves, they've qualified you, and now they're ready to begin an actual dialogue. 57%. And I think in the financial services industry, we don't take advantage of that. We just have our website and we look at it more as billboards. They're not a conversation. It's just this is a splash page or a billboard of who I am and what I do in my bio as opposed to what we should be doing is introducing them to, hey, this is a day in the life, a year in the life of what it looks like to work with me as a professional retirement plan advisor. [15:17] JD: I made that mistake. I used to say out loud that I felt like our website's just an extension of our business card, like a glamorous business card. And that's a huge mistake in today's day and age. [15:28] Justin: I think you've gone completely 180 from that now. [15:31] JD: Yeah, for sure. I mean, because that's where we are. That's, that's where we're. And I want to take that to another level and talk about something I think we're all aware of, but sometimes we dismiss it is mobile. And so when you're building that digital storefront, how mobile friendly is it? Because this is kind of becoming a lost art almost. There's a lot of people that are here a lot more than they're here. And so if your website focusing on that aspect of it function well in the palm of someone's hand, you're probably missing an opportunity. Right. [16:04] Rebecca Hourihan: And to kind of piggyback on that, there's some really cool websites out there that you can. So everyone has different computer monitor sizes, we have different phone sizes, we have different tablet sizes. And there are actually websites that you can go to where you can stress test your current website against all of those different screens to see what it looks like. So does it control? Does it expand? Like how does that, what's the kind of the flexibility, so to speak? Because you're right half the time, you know, you're at the kids soccer game, you got your phone up, you're googling something fast, you're trying to Find information and believe it or not, it can be technical information. It's just whatever pops into your head at that moment. And if you're a plan sponsor, a busy business owner, sometimes it happens when you know you're just on the road and you need that information quickly. [16:53] Mark: When you talk about information, I feel like social media is often used to deliver opinion. At least that's what I see. When I see advisors or industry folks writing blogs, it tends to be their interpretation of something that's transpiring in the industry. Right. But a website is not a website. Seems to be content, list of services, call to action or contact. Is there a place for really connecting those to where when you get on a website, Justin, you mentioned it, you want to get an impression of that person you're going to work with. Is there a world where you really bridge those two? Where the website should be about your opinion on something, this topic, this industry, connecting your blog directly to it, having your blog post on there along those [17:39] Rebecca Hourihan: lines, yeah, you can do both. There's nothing wrong with that. You can have your standard website with all of your different tabs that you have, including your contact one. And then there's a blog tab and someone can click on it and read your opinions. [17:52] Justin: Is there a balance to how much of that you want to have that content? [17:56] Rebecca Hourihan: I think it depends on how opinionated you are as a person and how [18:01] Chad: often you're willing to actually update it and keep it relevant. Because if you have one opinion for 18 months, as you pointed out, then it becomes irrelevant. [18:12] Mark: And so here's my thought with kind of those pointed questions in the traditional advisor role. I think this is extremely relevant for the average private wealth advisor. Right. You're doing this day in and day out. Is this really effective for a 401k focused advisor? I don't see too many businesses going on to look at or let's say from an advertising perspective, having your digital storefront. I don't see too many folks creating marketing efforts towards business. They see marketing efforts towards individuals, private wealth side of their business. [18:45] Rebecca Hourihan: Sure. [18:46] Mark: You seeing 401k folks succeed with this kind of. [18:48] Rebecca Hourihan: Well, if you're saying right now that no one's doing that. [18:52] Mark: No, they are. I'm just saying, what's the roi? I'm still struggling. I'm a nerd. We know this. I'm struggling to quantify it. If they're spending this time and effort and they're a 401 folks advisor and they're going after business, is it leading to some return for them. [19:04] Rebecca Hourihan: Yeah. Well, if you have not a lot of authors out there that are talking about the retirement plan space, not a lot of advisors who are blogging or doing newsletters or emails or retargeting ads, and all of a sudden you're that one advisor who's just killing it in the digital space. And don't forget the traditional media space as well, which means like postcards and newsletters. But if you're that one guy or woman who's out there consistently in front of business owners on a regular basis and your website. Let me back up just a sec. Marketing builds on it. So if someone goes to your website and it's really great, and then they say, oh, this is interesting, and they start to click around and then you have a retargeting ad or campaign, so then it kind of follows you around on the Internet and then they click on one of your retargetings and it has a splash page and a call to action. It's a white paper. You fill out that contact information. Now, technically, the advisor has never picked up the phone. They've never called them. They might not even know who that person is. But now you have just begun a relationship with that firm, you've asked for information and that advisor is going to crush it. [20:17] Mark: Yeah, they're qualified now. You're absolutely right. [20:20] JD: And you might be right in that maybe a lot of people aren't doing it now, which, Rebecca's backing you up on that, which means it's a huge opportunity. But there's a lot of other industries where that's the norm and people are running hugely successful businesses through what I think some people call it too, is like funnels. You know, you're getting people to click through and then giving them something and creating these call to actions where they're actually engaging with you. And you haven't even met them yet. And by the time it's time to sign on the dotted line, they've gotten to know you. They're more comfortable with what you're doing. It's a really great way to do it. And I do know of some advisors that are, that are building out these types of things. I'm sure you guys, you guys meet advisors as a daily practice and I know you Google and hit up their website and don't tell me you don't walk away with some impression like, oh man, Joe's really got his stuff together. That was a beautiful website. Or oh, Tom, that thing's hurting. You know, maybe he needs to improve it. [21:16] Justin: So to the earlier Point. There's nothing more frustrating than when I search for an advisor that I'm trying to find a way to meet them and they have Nothing online. No LinkedIn, no website, nothing. [21:26] Mark: You're meeting somebody at a coffee shop [21:28] Chad: and you've never met, don't know what they look like. [21:29] Mark: Somebody find a LinkedIn picture or something. It's always interesting too. You talk about getting an impression of who you're working with. Typically, most advisors have nothing but a list of services on their site. And I'm always curious to see how Many even list 401k. Often when they do, it's listed in a section that is about individual financial planning, like, oh, we can help you with your personal 401, and not from the corporate side of things, which is obviously what we support advisors through. So it's interesting. And I loved what you said about deliverables, because these guys know that's what I preach all the time. We live in a world where when you step into a meeting in order to look like a respectful, responsible company, they want you to be able to set something on the table still. They really do. And so to be able to supplement what you're doing in your digital storefront with some sort of, whether it's a, a postcard or a list of services or a service agreement or something that shows this is an industry you're focusing in on, I think bringing all those together has got to be where you're aiming. [22:27] JD: And I'm gonna touch on that with Rebecca after our quiz of Death, which we're gonna talk about here in a second, which is gonna be fun. But so I do wanna move towards some of the hard copy things and how things like your blog posts, your materials and all that need to be on one type of ethos, feel, vibe, brand. So you look that professional and we can talk about what are the takeaways from what we just talked about for advisors that are out there. And I think it's pretty simple. And the takeaways for me too, I need to get on it. Your website needs to be something that you're proud of. Your website needs to be something that matches your brand and what you're trying to put out there. Your website has to be something that maybe if you go next level, has that call to action or has some engagement to it, right? Where people are really kind of getting to know you a little more by clicking on things or learning some things. And so that's the takeaway, right, Is hey, if your stuff's not looking a plus, you need to get on it. Right? I mean, we're all in agreements. Because when you go meet that $5 million plan three weeks from now and you sit down with them, they kind of like you. And then someone else meets with them the day later and they kind of like that person too. It could very well be your digital storefront that closes you that deal. [23:52] Mark: If you had to rank them in order of importance in terms of your digital storefront. Because I imagine some people are spread fairly thin, spending time in areas that maybe they shouldn't be. Regarding that digital storefront, start with the website. You move on to social media from there. I mean, what would you say would probably be the hierarchy of that? [24:11] Rebecca Hourihan: So we actually at 401k marketing, we break it up into three. [24:15] Chad: Did you just like, give your company name on. [24:18] JD: You can't give a crap for that. Mark. You're the one that marks the PDC like every. [24:24] Mark: Do you know which way it goes when. When it's on camera? [24:27] Rebecca Hourihan: I just thought I'd go like that. [24:28] Mark: I see you're taking a safe way. [24:29] Rebecca Hourihan: Well, I watched the episodes, guys. I'm a fan. [24:32] Chad: You've actually seen this show before and you came on. [24:35] Rebecca Hourihan: I did like to. On YouTube. [24:39] JD: When you're on the show, you need to understand will derail you at all [24:42] Mark: times as fast as he can back [24:43] JD: to where you were. Don't forget. [24:45] Rebecca Hourihan: So we actually break it up into three different sections. The first one's called foundation marketing, and that includes understanding your brand ethos or your corporate identity. Then there's your website, your brochures, anything that you are going to physically hand or email to a prospect or a client. First impression, that is your foundation. [25:08] JD: I like that. Can we stop there for one quick second? What you said in terms of figuring, number one, figuring out your ethos or your brand identity, what I think you're saying there is some people feel like they know what it is, but they haven't really defined it yet. Right. And maybe you can help them do that. Right. Tell me about your company. What are your strengths? What are you guys into? You know, and then they can help. Kind of help them put a story to it. [25:37] Rebecca Hourihan: Most of us in the retirement plan space, we didn't wake up one day or go to college one day and go, I'm going to be a retirement plan advisor. I'm going to be a tpa. We just happen maybe. Jamie, did [25:51] JD: you read my bio on retirement? [25:55] Rebecca Hourihan: But the rest of us, we kind of somehow stumbled or fell into this wonderful industry for sure. [26:02] Mark: Stumbled. [26:03] JD: My Bio Rebecca on retireholic says, raised in the wild by a pack of retirement plan administrators. His first words were annual defined contribution limit. Go on. [26:13] Mark: Sorry. [26:14] Chad: Talk about me derailing conversations. [26:19] Rebecca Hourihan: So all of us have one element or another that really stands out when we think about why we love what we do. I feel like for Chad it might [26:29] Mark: be plan design because I'm a nerd. Is that what you're alluding to? [26:33] Rebecca Hourihan: Yes, but other advisors. It's a fiduciary process. [26:37] JD: A what? [26:38] Rebecca Hourihan: Fiduciary process. [26:39] JD: Mark doesn't know that word yet. [26:42] Rebecca Hourihan: We'll whiteboard it later. [26:43] JD: It's an insight joke. [26:45] Rebecca Hourihan: Participant outcomes. I mean, there's a wide range of what specifically is your core mantra? And then mix in the cool aspects like I love surfing, for example, or drinking beer, hanging out with my kids. I actually don't know that much about you. [27:02] JD: Good. [27:07] Mark: Speaking of drinking beer and surfing, I was reading through some of the articles that you sent out along this topic and I read the first three and I'm like, these are good. And then I read the fourth one and it starts off with talking about golf and then it concludes with these posts may become less. May come out less often depending on how the waves are in California. I'm like, I gotta work with this guy. This guy's awesome. I look up and it's 401k dot com. [27:35] JD: I read the whole thing and didn't [27:37] Mark: realize it was JD or anything. [27:38] JD: That was actually a swear reader. [27:40] Chad: And you'd think, oh, it's probably JD [27:44] JD: since you're being so nice. Thank you. I'm gonna return the favor by doing something very mean with you. We do a quiz of death each and every show. By the way, usually right now we would segment to one of my favorite parts. Oh goodness. And I want you to know that I was walking the aisle to find these beers and I said, walking the aisle, huh? I've got it at the store. And I said, I've got to get Smirnoff Ice. And then I realized, no, I don't have to get. [28:09] Justin: Do we even have any form of wheel here? [28:11] JD: Let's move on. We don't do the wheel anymore. [28:14] Mark: We should have made. [28:17] JD: All right, so Quiz of death. The quiz of death for this show will not be a mousetrap. We will not tear hair off of your leg, etc. Etc. My 12 year old son Tristan has a really badass airsoft gun. It looks like a AK47. I want you to be clear. It was expensive enough that it's at the Highest limit of. Of velocity that you can have to plan mean it goes. [28:48] Mark: I don't want to hear it. [28:48] Chad: It's like the Lamborghini of airsoft guns. [28:51] JD: No, organic. [28:52] Justin: So do we have a gun? [28:53] JD: Thanks for making that obvious. If I were to do movie magic and cut it in, but study out. So I'm gonna give you a question. Where are you getting shot at? [29:02] Mark: And I don't know yet. [29:04] JD: If you don't get the question right, you will get a shot to the buttocks. [29:10] Mark: Oh, there's padding there. [29:11] JD: We'll put a little retireholic target there. [29:14] Justin: No, I say you gotta drop your drawers. And you just. [29:16] Mark: That sounds. [29:19] JD: Did I mention that the gun has a semi automatic? [29:23] Mark: I'm putting one pellet. [29:24] JD: Okay. [29:25] Mark: So this could be very tiered to me losing. So this could very well be this color. [29:30] JD: You have a shot at this, by the way. Pun intended. And if you get it right, I will gladly put my butt on the line. Okay, we all know everybody, but mark knows what 408 regulations are. Fee disclosure regs, and they came out with deadlines in 2012. But do you know when the IRS first proposed these regulations? [29:59] Mark: I missed the whole question. [30:01] JD: Not a day, just a year. [30:03] Mark: All right, I'm gonna say I'm nervous. [30:06] Justin: I bet Paul Hoes. [30:07] JD: All of a sudden, I just got nervous. [30:08] Mark: I'm gonna say 2003. [30:11] JD: 2007. [30:12] Justin: Dang. [30:13] Mark: Six was my first guess. [30:14] JD: So. [30:15] Mark: Okay, you were wrong twice. That was an easy one. [30:18] JD: You guys are working with him. [30:20] Mark: I could have been able to get that. [30:21] JD: Yeah, well, he had a shot at it. So imagine now. Little scene cutting too. Chad's getting shot. [30:31] Mark: I could shoot. All know, I'm going to research this because I do feel like it's a bit older than 077. You said first proposed. [31:32] JD: The first proposed rags. [31:33] Chad: You don't get to research anything, dude. [31:35] Mark: Oh, yes, I do. [31:36] JD: Okay, so back. Back on to [31:40] Mark: Google. [31:41] JD: Our branding front wins with our guest Here, Rebecca from 401K Marketing out of San Diego, who focuses on advisors, but also works with TPAs and. And record keepers and vendors and industry professionals. You brought it up. Let's talk about the hard copy stuff. So, yes. Digital storefront. Yes. Blog posts and social media, which you know, I'm a huge fan of. But you also have to put across your company and some brochures or some business cards or some things of that nature. So talk to us a bit about your firm and how you help people do that. [32:21] Rebecca Hourihan: Sure. So my company is called 401K Marketing and again, I know 401K Marketing. [32:31] JD: Oh, boy. [32:32] Rebecca Hourihan: Okay, I'm getting good at this. [32:35] Chad: Our producer doesn't know how to spell that, so you're good. [32:37] Rebecca Hourihan: Oh, darn it. F O U R. So we help retirement Plan Advisors as JD said TPAs, record keepers, service providers and DCIOs with their marketing. We're kind of that one stop shop from when you want to do brand creation. Figure out who you are, what's your unique value prop specific to the retirement plan space all the way through content creation. And that can be your digital storefront. That can be brochures, executive overviews. Right now actually with the conflict of interest rule. And I know there's been some bumps in the road along with that. However, plan sponsors are smart, they're educated, they're addicted to Google. So maybe think about case studies and infographics. We can help with those as well. So it's kind of this beginning to end when it comes from brand creation all the way through ongoing content marketing. [33:36] Mark: Nice. [33:37] JD: Super cool. [33:38] Chad: Can I ask a question real fast? [33:39] Rebecca Hourihan: Shoot. [33:40] Chad: Jd, I thought you were a genius when you had our business cards with some unique content on it. But I just want to ask. You have to be very open. Full disclosure on your website, Rebecca, when [33:55] Mark: you go to your page. [33:56] Chad: I did my research. You have a very long title. Many things on there. I can't remember what they say. Some cool stuff, personal, fun stuff. Did jd, did you steal that idea of increasing our titles and making it fun and cool and adding stuff from revivals? [34:14] JD: I didn't even see that part. [34:19] Rebecca Hourihan: I love the episode that you guys did where you were like, you know, your child's dad or your children. [34:26] JD: Did you steal it from us? [34:28] Rebecca Hourihan: No, actually, it's just part of like, people like to do business with who they like. [34:32] JD: I want to have you get. Get some free work for us right now. Okay. I've worked very hard over the years to try to create as an amateur some of our own pieces and branding stuff that we can bring to point of sale and whatnot. I usually try to keep like a clean font and very little things and maybe an image and bring my colors together. I want it to be pleasing to the eye. I give them to Chad and I come back and I see them 12 months later. And he's added text boxes and more descriptions and graphs and it's an educational piece. Jd, I had it before. [35:16] Chad: It looks like a research paper. [35:19] JD: Can you help us with our relationship on this? [35:24] Mark: Because she's not a therapist. [35:25] JD: Is this couples counseling? [35:27] Rebecca Hourihan: Put them in hands. [35:30] JD: Can we can you counsel us or we can come to some type of happy. [35:34] Mark: There is a balancing point, but right now we're on the ends of the spectrum. You're doing marketing. [35:41] JD: I want your professional opinion. There's a. There's a marketing piece and then there's something we called a white paper. The two should not come together as they should. Yes, they should. That's the way people want to. Should a white paper and a marketing piece come together and have a child full of text and graphs and what have you. What is your professional thinking? [36:04] Rebecca Hourihan: I talk about this actually a lot when I talk at conferences. And I always say when you are the person who's the marketing hat at your organization and eventually someone is going to come up to you and go, hey guys, I have this great idea. And I know that our color scheme is blue and gray, but check this out. What I want to do is I want to take the marketing piece. I want to put a giant circle on it in orange. Yeah. What do you think? And you as the marketing head have to go, no, Chad, no. Stop doing that. So J.D. [36:42] JD: i win. That's what she's saying. Not a chance. [36:45] Mark: So here are my def fence so that everybody out there that is creating these. [36:49] Chad: This is going to take a while, folks. [36:52] Mark: You, when you are on the front line, you know what you need to win business. [36:57] Rebecca Hourihan: Okay. [36:57] Mark: You know what you need to get beyond the marketing stage and to get the income. So we just had a meeting about this. And so I'm sitting with these guys and you don't act like you guys are not telling me this behind their backs. They're saying, hey, we want to join the show. Right? Telling a client that a safe harbor match is the right type of plan design for them. But they want something more after that. Not just my verbiage and not just our presentation. And I say, okay, our options are to give them a primer, which is fantastic. Which is seven pages. They're not going to touch it. It's seven pages. So what do people want? What are the day and age that they want? [37:30] JD: They want to j up one page filled with text. [37:34] Mark: Quick. They just want Jay's picture. Marketing is because I brand it. Yeah, but you're quick. [37:38] JD: Still takes like 5 to 10 minutes to read logo. [37:41] Rebecca Hourihan: It gives me the shots. [37:44] JD: Fire. [37:44] Mark: No, it's in publisher. [37:46] JD: One last, one last thing. One last thing to get really nasty here. So last time he did one and you notice how he brought up the safe harbor. Cuz it's still fresh in his mind. Cuz we're talking about a safe harbor piece originally. Cuz he got denied by the marketing. No, no he didn't. He wrote this piece. I then brought in a third party and I said to the third party, our internal sales guy happens to be Chad's brother. But a very. No, no. But a very independent. He'd tell me the truth. What do you think? Should we make a white paper or should this be a leave behind? What's the deal? And I just want to be clear. You son of a bitch. Ryan wrote in his email. [38:30] Mark: You son of a bitch. [38:32] JD: Well, after having a discussion with Chad on the phone, I feel as though Chad's making some logical points. Did you pick up the phone and call him and give him your. You know. [38:43] Justin: He did? [38:44] JD: Of course I did. [38:45] Mark: Well, before you consulted with him, I even went through it with these two before I even brought it to the marketing side there. [38:51] Justin: Hey, what? What was my recommendation when I asked [38:54] JD: a third party person to make a decision opinion. You're not allowed to run off and call them in. Pitch your case. [39:03] Mark: Next time send it to your dad. I'll call him as well. Jump on my side, please. [39:08] JD: My brother, producer of our show. What did you say? Because Paul is known for lots of verbose texts because he came from the 70s and 80s and 90s when that stuff was actually okay. [39:19] Mark: It still is. [39:21] JD: And my brother said that he looks like Steve Jobs. Clean, simple, compared to you. So with that, [39:32] Rebecca Hourihan: I don't know if [39:32] JD: I keep promoting this stuff through these shows. These will. This will come out for the other. But check us out. Come and see us and meet us in Vegas for the Excel 401K. Rebecca will be there last year. Absolutely. Come and see us if you're in Chicago for the PSCA 70th annual conference. We'll hit you up with a bit more of that kind of stuff. We are the retireholics with a guest and we are changing the 401k plan industry. One super big glass of red wine at a time. [40:10] Mark: Cheers. Here we go. Where am I going get the white paper. I'm going to get that piece of paper. [40:19] Rebecca Hourihan: 2007. [40:19] Mark: Oh. [40:20] JD: Oh no. [40:20] Mark: That's your funeral.