Three Crowns Mixtape: July 8, 2022

Johnny Sandquist

Founder & CEO, Three Crowns Copywriting & Marketing

Jul 8, 2022

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Important financial industry news + marketing insights + good music.

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We’ve got marketing on our minds this week (and Metallica) – so we’ve rounded up a few of our fave must-reads to help your next campaign rock ‘n roll.

Must-Read Financial Industry & Marketing Articles

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MESSAGING AND CULTURE DON’T MATCH

Victoria’s Secret is the company everyone thinks of when they want to apply marketing lessons to financial advisors…right?

OK, maybe not, but here’s the thing: Their new marketing campaign is a perfect example of how messaging can fall flat on its face even when it’s seemingly “good.”

The problem is that in this case, the message and the company’s culture just don’t match up. Victoria’s Secret is trying to reposition itself as an inclusive brand, as most companies are now. And that’s good! Companies should be inclusive.

But Victoria’s Secret’s internal culture has traditionally flown in the face of this new message, and it hasn’t shown that it’s changed on the inside before trying to reinvent itself on the outside.

What’s the solution? It’s under there!

Underwear? (hehe, get it? Underwear and VS? No….ok we’re done).

The lesson for advisory firms is that you have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. It’s incredibly easy to add language to your website about how you serve people of all genders, races, religions, and backgrounds. But if you aren’t taking action to back up those words, they can easily be viewed as hollow. Instead of increasing trust in your brand, they accelerate trust destruction.

Put Your Breast Foot Forward

MARKETERS LIST THEIR FAVORITE (AND LEAST FAVORITE) MARKETING TOOLS

If you’re wondering which tools marketers use to do their job, this informal survey from Marketing Brew gives some great info on which tools are essential and which they could live without.

Turns out lots of marketers (present company included) are not crazy about social media schedulers. We recently left Buffer (sorry babe) for Planable (hello hot stuff), and it’s definitely a step up but still leaves much to be desired – is there a perfect option out there for social media scheduling? Probably not. What do you use?

It’s Not Us, It’s Them

SEO CHECKLIST BY DAY, MONTH AND YEAR

As an advisor, you can’t be expected to know everything about SEO (if only there were such a thing as an advisor’s guide to SEO that cut out all the non-essential stuff 😉).

This list from Search Engine Journal is pretty darn tootin’ close to perfect. It breaks down the stuff you want to do every day, month, quarter and year. But again, you don’t necessarily need all of it! If you can just pick a handful of items from this list to implement, you’ll be heads and tails above the average advisor.

This is SEOper Helpful

IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO DISNEY, IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU

If your idea of password protection is just a ‘lil fairy dust, you might want to think twice.

Disney’s Instagram account was hacked for like a full hour this week, which is basically an eternity in the world of social. The hacker(s) proceeded to post a bunch of not okay stuff on it before Sleeping Beauty finally woke up and fixed the issue.

What Elsa can you do to secure your accounts? Make sure you have good passwords and aren’t using the same login for everything! That glass slipper should fit only one foot, dude.

Do you know where your social credentials are? If not, give your online accounts a Minnie makeover this weekend.

Make Those Passwords Hillary Buff