When Kevin Stoddard, CFA®, founder and president of Stoddard Financial, started his business back in 2004, he was focused on finding his clients and growing his business.
As the years rolled on, digital marketing went from being in its infancy to being the norm and social media platforms began to explode. This meant re-examining his marketing efforts and ensuring his strategy was current and competitive in the marketplace.
Time to Find a Marketing Partner
As Kevin explains, “A few years ago, I wasn't really doing any newsletters. I had somebody that used to work for me that built my website on WordPress but he had left for another opportunity. The person that came in after him had enough skills to do a little bit with the website and my marketing, but it wasn’t everything I needed.”
In 2019, Kevin knew it was time to make a move and find someone to partner with him on his marketing strategy.
“I knew I needed a regular touchpoint for my clients where I could share news and more with them. I wanted to build out my own content library. But I wanted everything to be unique, so I wasn’t interested in using canned solutions. I wanted the marketing I was doing to be effective.”
He wanted customized strategies based on proven results, designed for his specific needs, and implemented by experienced professionals.
Stoddard Financial Needs Customized Solutions, CMS Delivers
Kevin was introduced to Crystal through an article she had written for Advisor Perspectives. After reading her work, he was impressed by the way she was able to convey concepts and create content that was valuable to the reader. With that in mind, Kevin decided to reach out to her and see if Crystal Marketing Solutions (CMS) could help him get his marketing handled.
“I reached out to Crystal to set up a Zoom meeting to see if maybe her team would be able to help me meet my goal of having a consistent touchpoint with my clients. What I noticed right away is what a genuinely nice person Crystal was. She wasn’t sales-y or pushy at all. It was clear she wanted to help me with whatever I needed.”
Despite not having investigated any other alternatives, Kevin was confident that Crystal and her team would be a great fit.
“What appealed to me about the CMS team was that they could provide content that was customized. Her pricing wasn’t a barrier to doing business with her. She and her team have extensive knowledge of the industry. The other big key was her ability to access the LPL system and take care of all of the compliance submissions and follow-up cases. They were able to offer what I needed and it would be branded for my company, including customizing off-the-shelf products and content.”
Quality + Consistency = Increased Client Engagement
Once they started working together, Kevin and the CMS team began to prioritize which marketing activities to focus on, taking into account the overall marketing strategy and goals.
“One of the things the CMS team had me start doing is creating video content. They create the content and then I make a video that’s one or two minutes long that goes into the newsletter. It’s helpful because I can actually see that my clients are watching the video, even if they don’t read the whole newsletter. My newsletter open rate is over 30% and now I’m focused on creating more videos and building that library of content. My business has grown in the past two years and I get positive feedback from clients, particularly on the videos we do.”
A big project they undertook in 2021 was refreshing the Stoddard Financial website.
“We just built a great new website and I’m so happy with how it came out. CMS brought in the web developer. The team took the content we had from before and helped me think through what we wanted to accomplish with the website now versus when it was built six or seven years ago. Now it's completely different and it looks so much better. I’m still in touch with the developer who did my original build and he told me the new one looks phenomenal.”
Now that the website project is out of the way, Kevin is looking forward to continuing his work with CMS.
“The best thing about working with the team at CMS is that they’re organized and timely. Whether it’s a blog post or a newsletter, the quality is always very consistent. Because of the nature of the industry we’re in, we can’t always create content far ahead of time because we want what we share with our clients to be relevant. If something big happens, they can quickly help me turn around content to address it. Even though they have other clients, they’re available for what I need.”
When asked what he would say to anyone else considering hiring the CMS team, he shared this: “I’d recommend the CMS team to anyone! They’ll basically customize all of your materials for you. Plus, for LPL Financial Advisors, Crystal has direct access to ComplianceMAX so all the submissions are offloaded to her team. That's a huge differentiator for whoever they’re working with.”
This case study was conducted and constructed by a third party on behalf of CMS. This reflects a summary of an actual client experience and is intended to serve as an example of what it is like to work with CMS. While CMS prides itself on consistency with our work and relationship, no results can be guaranteed.