Episode 020: In this episode of Connected, we’re sharing a conversation between Milemarker Co-Founder Jud Mackrill and Great Hill Partners Executive in Residence John Wernz, about finding success through organic growth for your firm.

John, an expert in digital marketing and strategic growth, has joined us to provide some game-changing insights. We explore how to convert leads into clients, the role technology can play in streamlining your business, and how vital a documented, goal-driven plan can be for your firm's organic growth. Also, we're touching on trends in the industry, like the surprising effectiveness of podcasting as a marketing channel, and strategies to increase your organic ranking.

But that's not all. We're diving deep into the need for experimentation, creativity in budget planning, and looking into more innovative marketing and business development strategies. We discuss why understanding your firm's maturation cycle when assigning business development roles is key, the underestimated importance of technology in communication and scheduling, as well as the impact of aftermarket and direct-response media advertising.

Join us as we discuss:

[02:07] - Intro to John Wernz

[02:53] - Intro to Jud Mackrill

[03:42] - Are webinars trending down? What key topics drive engagement?

[06:13] - We currently show up on Google for "retirement planning near me" but not high enough. What are the best practices to increase ranking organically for certain key phrases?

[08:59] - What's the typical lead-to-client conversion timeline?

[11:28] - What percentage of top-line revenue should firms spend on lead generation or organic marketing services?

[15:16] - How should advisors be thinking about podcasting as a marketing channel?

[18:29] - How are you thinking about AI in terms of supporting organic growth?

[21:48] - How do we best enable our tech stack? How can this help prompt growth within the firm?

[27:05] - Is it more effective to have dedicated business developers rather than assigning business development responsibilities to advisors?

[31:01] - How many clients should an advisor work with and still have time for business development activities? How should the time break down?

[33:46] - What results do you need to see to show that you have a successful organic growth strategy?

[40:03] - How much time should you give a strategy to see if it is working before adjusting or terminating?

[43:17] - What new or seldom used strategies are worth considering or researching?

[45:56] - What are three things advisors can do right away to improve and accelerate their organic growth?

Quotes

“The question to me is not can you get those leads? It's can you actually create a funnel to convert them? Can you get those leads to appointments and clients? To me, that is the larger question for most RIAs thinking about doing organic.” ~ John Wernz

“You have to be continually experimenting with what you're doing and have the margin to do that. You have to have truly creative people you work with that are willing to pivot and willing to ask questions, willing to be accountable." ~ Jud Mackrill

“I'm pretty biased toward just creating unique content. I think that's the thing that's missing in our industry — we've been leaning on these marketing companies that are mostly built for broker-dealers and it doesn't really work. You have to have unique, consistent content." ~ Jud Mackrill

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