Three Crowns Mixtape: March 25, 2022

Johnny Sandquist

Founder & CEO, Three Crowns Copywriting & Marketing

Mar 25, 2022

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Important financial industry news + marketing insights + good music.

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It’s 🏀March Madness🏀, and you know our office got in on a little friendly competition – from Villanova to Kansas and even an unfortunate pick for Arizona, we’ve all got our 👀 on the prize. Which team are you rooting for? We want to know!

Aside from free throws and bracket losses, there’s a lot of #fintech news on our minds this week, like Apple’s botched privacy update (ouch) and Choir’s first conference certification rollout (yay!).

Need the deets? You know we’ve got ’em 👇

Must-Read Financial Industry & Marketing Articles

The Dream of the 90s is Alive at Advyzon

AIM is making a comeback, folks!

No, not AOL Instant Messenger. (Sorry to get your hopes up.) We’re talking about Advyzon Investment Management (AIM), the all-in-one platform’s new TAMP.

From the start, AIM will offer ETFs, mutual funds, and (this is impressive) direct indexing capabilities, to put it on close-to-even footing with competitors like Orion.

As an all-in-one platform, there’s a pressure for Advyzon to keep pace with larger unified systems. Investment management is the next logical step — but does it give Advyzon an advantage? We’re not sure if this move is pure table stakes, or if it gives them a competitive edge to attract advisors already using a TAMP.

It’s wait and see mode for us. Got a different take? Let us know your thoughts.

You Get a Tamp! You Get a Tamp!

Choir Announces First Certified Conferences

Choir, the new startup looking to bring greater diversity to industry conferences, announced the first set of conferences that meet its certification requirements. They fall into two groups: Partner Conferences looking to meet high standards of representation, and those that have passed Choir’s assessment.

We know you’re curious, so here are the groups:

Partner Conferences

Future Proof
Jolt!
RIA Edge

Choir Certified

Envestnet Advisor Summit
ESG for Impact! from First Affirmative Financial Network
Carson Group Excell

It’s impressive to see Choir making strong headway with some best-in-class conferences so quickly.

As more join on, will the peer pressure mount for more large-scale events to get certified? It’s often said that change is slow in financial services, but things might be picking up pace.

Dude, Where’s My Diversity Certification?

Apple’s Privacy Update Wrecks Marketing Metrics – But There is Hope

In case you missed it, Apple had a big privacy update last year that made it so users had to opt in to being tracked rather than opt out. As you can imagine, most people chose to not be tracked. Depending on who you listen to, the number of iPhone owners who have opted in is anywhere from 4% to 21% – so it’s either a miniscule minority or a small minority.

In addition, open rates aren’t all that reliable anymore. A new security feature in Apple Mail preloads all emails, whether the user opens them or not, which registers as an open in your marketing system. So if any of your subscribers use Apple Mail as their iOS mail app (roughly 46% of iPhone users), there’s no way to know whether they’re actually opening your emails.

All of this has put marketers in the backseat of the Struggle Bus when it comes to tracking email metrics. In this piece, MarketingProfs suggests a few different ways you can measure success. You have to sign up for MP in order to get the article, but here’s the gist to help you decide if it’s worth the signup or not:

Pick new metrics to track like clickthrough rates, conversions and unsubscribes
Personalize your emails
Segment your more engaged subscribers and measure email success against actions they take

Get Back On Track

One of Our Favorite Followup Tactics: The 9-Word Email

Have any leads who have gone cold and never responded? Try the 9-word email. Originally developed by Dean Jackson of I Love Marketing, the 9-word email is a quick, easy way to spark action from old leads. It goes like this:

[NAME],

Are you still looking to [INSERT ACTION]?

-[YOUR NAME]

That’s it. Resist the urge to sell any further. You’re just reminding them of something they wanted to do at some point, and you’re opening the conversation in such a simple way that they can just respond with one word. You’re making it as easy as you can for them to re-engage, and that’s why we love it.

For advisors, it could be several things:

Are you still looking to start saving for retirement?
Are you still looking to start a 529 so you can save for college?
Are you still looking to explore ESG investing?

Some of those are 9 words, some are not. The number is more of a guideline than a rule.

Try it this week and let us know how it goes.

Short & Sweet FTW

Want to learn more about the 9-word email? Snappy Kraken put together some great email templates for advisors here.

The D.A.S.T. Test can Save You from an Embarrassing Logo Mishap

Remember the Women’s Network brand fail from last week? No? Quick reminder:

Believe it or not, inappropriate imagery can easily sneak into logos unbeknownst to the designer (hence the importance of consulting with multiple people during the process).

This week, a designer revealed his process for avoiding such a situation – he calls it the D.A.S.T., which stands for D**k And Swastika Test.

After you create a new logo, then you should mirror it, flip it, turn it upside down, and if at any point it resembles reproductive organs or Nazi symbols, then you should start over. It’s a great way to avoid the embarrassment (and cost) of unveiling an unintentionally dirty logo and then having to start over again.

Keep It In Your Pants, People

WealthTech Madness is Back!

In the second installation of this annual competition, you can vote for your favorite of 16 top WealthTech companies to take home the prestigious title.

Who will make it to round two? Will eMoney Advisor take home first place two years in a row? You decide. Vote here!