Your Firm's Website: AI Tools, Local Search, and What Actually Converts | Craft on Tap #34

Your Firm's Website: AI Tools, Local Search, and What Actually Converts | Craft on Tap #34

Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber of Craft Impact break down what RIAs should know about websites in 2026, including when AI-generated pages make sense, why local Google search still outperforms AI search for most advisors, and what it takes to convert high-net-worth referrals once they land on your site. 00:40 Websites as your firm's biggest marketing asset 04:20 The elephant in the room: AI-generated websites 05:40 Pros of AI site builders: cost, speed, and low commitment 08:10 Speed-testing new markets with AI pages 09:40 The con: AI sites all look the same 12:30 Credibility cost for firms going upmarket 14:40 High-end clients can smell AI from a mile away 18:40 AI search vs. traditional search: what the traffic data shows 22:30 Balancing SEO for bots vs. humans 25:00 Google Local Search: $1M+ in new clients in 48 hours, no paid ads 28:40 What to include on your pages to rank locally and in LLMs 34:00 Ensemble Investor Survey: how $1M to $5M clients actually find advisors 43:00 Wrap-up and resources Subscribe for more Craft on Tap episodes. #CraftOnTap #RIAMarketing #FinancialAdvisorWebsite #LocalSEO #WealthManagement

Guest Kendra Wright: What’s working in financial advisor marketing | Ep 33

Most advisors are running their marketing in too many directions at once, speaking to too many people, and wondering why nothing converts. In this episode of Craft on Tap, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber sit down with Kendra Wright, founder of Rebel Media Agency and host of Advisor Marketing Made Simple, for a candid conversation about what is moving the needle for RIAs right now. Kendra is one of the sharpest marketing minds in the financial advisory space, and yes, she and the Craft Impact team are technically competitors. But they're also aligned on something more important: the industry deserves better marketing, and there's more than enough room to raise the bar together. They cover: * Target personas and the funnel * Scaling lead flow with video * The efficiency of repurposing * Logic-based booking systems * Referrals versus scalable digital channels * Generational shifts in advisor selection * The 50% marketing cut ⏱️ Timestamps: (0:28) Intro: Welcome, Kendra Wright of Rebel Media Agency (4:40) Why "one client type per funnel" is the first fix (13:02) Case Study: How Thomas Cook landed 10 new clients via YouTube (22:39) Kendra’s spicy take on why content repurposing is often a waste of money (31:51) Designing a right fit booking process to protect your calendar (46:53) Real-world impact: Adding $160,000 in revenue by removing 100+ unqualified leads (53:23) The Great Debate: Are referrals the icing or the cake of an advisor’s strategy? (1:00:35) Exploring the "referral ceiling" and changing generational consumer habits (1:11:40) Closing exercise: Reclaiming focus through the 50% marketing cut  Interested in more marketing tips? Reach out directly: stephen@craftimpact.com or faustin@craftimpact.com 🎙️ Learn more about how Craft Impact helps RIAs with their marketing: craftimpact.com [https://www.craftimpact.com/] 🔔 Subscribe to Craft on Tap on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts ➡️ Follow Kendra Wright on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-wright-41602a64⁠] 🔔Subscribe to Kendra’s Newsletter [https://rebelmedia.kit.com/eb17bcf508] ⭐ If this episode was useful, a 5-star rating helps other advisors find us. #RIAMarketing #AIMarketing #FinancialAdvisors #WealthManagement #GrowthMarketing #CraftOnTap #CraftImpact #ClaudeAI #MarketingForRIAs #FinancialAdvisorMarketing

3 ways to level up your firm’s marketing with Claude | Ep 32

Most advisors are still using Claude the same way they use ChatGPT: one question, one answer, starting from scratch every time. In this growth marketing Craft on Tap episode, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber tackle three specific ways to go further with Claude for your RIA’s marketing strategy. Each one builds on the last, and together, they can turn Claude into a real content engine. Whether you're brand new to AI or already comfortable with the basics, these steps are for you. They cover: * How Claude Projects eliminates the back-and-forth by giving Claude everything it needs to know about your firm before you type a single word * How Craft Impact uses Projects to onboard clients and share context seamlessly across their team * What Claude Skills are, why most advisors haven't discovered them yet, and how to build one that applies across every chat and project automatically * The anti-AI writing skill Faustin built to strip out AI slop, and how you can download it for free * What Claude Code actually is, why it unlocks a different league of marketing automation, and what a realistic setup timeline looks like * A real use case: using Claude Code to plug into YouTube's API, fetch transcripts, and optimize your content titles based on what's actually performing * Why content distribution is 50% of the equation, and why most advisors never get there * What will actually differentiate your content as more firms get up to speed with AI: personal stories, client case studies, and real thought leadership ⏱️ Timestamps: (0:35) Intro and Andy Baxley, CFP®, shoutout (3:40) Claude Chat versus Claude Projects (6:50) Sharing context across team members (9:25) Powerful features of Claude Cowork (12:15) Creating skills for repetitive tasks (15:35) Compiling team feedback into skills (18:28) Human review pass before publishing (21:05) API research using Claude Code (24:25) Synthesizing research into content scripts (27:15) Rising above noise with storytelling (32:15) Video and podcast marketing engines (34:40) Action items and final wrap-up Resource: ⭐Anti-AI Writing Skill [https://craftimpact.com/hubfs/Craft-on-Tap-Resources/anti-ai-writing-code.md] Interested in a free one-hour Claude Code workshop? Reach out directly: stephen@craftimpact.com or faustin@craftimpact.com 🎙️ Learn more about how Craft Impact helps RIAs with their marketing: craftimpact.com 🔔 Subscribe to Craft on Tap on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts ⭐ If this episode was useful, a 5-star rating helps other advisors find us. #RIAMarketing #AIMarketing #FinancialAdvisors #WealthManagement #GrowthMarketing #CraftOnTap #CraftImpact #ClaudeAI #MarketingForRIAs #FinancialAdvisorMarketing

Email marketing for firms: Do this first | Ep 31

Is your firm sending the same email to everyone? In this episode, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber explain why contact segmentation is the real secret sauce to growth marketing for RIAs. Before you worry about your subject lines or send frequency, take this step to get your data foundation done right. We cover: * Why many advisory firms have disorganized contact lists and why that's costing them results. * The first two segments every firm should set up immediately: clients vs. prospects. * How marketing personas take the guesswork out of what content to send. * The danger of irrelevant content and how it creates a "sour taste" for your clients. * Why segmenting by retirement status and age range can dramatically improve engagement. * How your tech stack (HubSpot, Salesforce FSC, Tamarac, MailChimp) affects your segmentation strategy and what to do about it. ⏱️ Timestamps: (0:00) Welcome and why email segmentation is step one (1:59) The messy reality of firm contact lists (3:15) The first step: Breaking contacts into clients, prospects, COIs, and team members (6:23) Marketing personas and why they are worth the effort (10:28) Case study: Using exit planning content to drive referrals (11:13) The "annoyance" factor: Why irrelevant content hurts your brand (12:18) Segmenting by retirement status and age range (14:43) Tech stack considerations: CRM integrations and manual exports (17:37) Data hygiene and keeping lists clean as your firm grows (18:27) Key takeaways and how to get started today Whether your list is a single massive export from your CRM or a patchwork of spreadsheets from three different platforms, this episode gives you a clear, practical starting point for making your email marketing work. 🎙️ Learn more about how Craft Impact helps RIAs with their marketing: craftimpact.com 🔔 Subscribe to Craft on Tap on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts ⭐ If this episode was useful, a 5-star rating helps other advisors find us #EmailMarketing #FinancialAdvisors #RIAMarketing #MarketingForAdvisors #GrowthMarketing #CraftOnTap #WealthManagement #ContactSegmentation #HubSpot

AI Search update & top takeaways from Gregory Report | Ep 30

Everyone's talking about AI search. But what does the data say? After giving a contextual data update, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber share their top takeaways from the Gregory Agency's new research report on AI search for wealth management firms. Spoiler: Google isn't dead. And you probably shouldn't panic. They cover: * Why ChatGPT still represents a small fraction of overall search volume and what that means for your marketing strategy * The massive traffic gap that still exists between traditional search-sourced website visits & AI tool-sourced website visits as of February 2026 * Why AI search is a visibility percentage game, not a leaderboard…and why anyone selling you "rank #1 in AI" is selling fool's gold * The single highest-leverage AI search asset your firm can create (hint: it's a page you probably don't have yet) * Why specific localized & persona searches level the playing field * How press releases and awards can become a triple play for AI search visibility * A reality check on how many leads are actually coming from AI search right now ⏱️ Timestamps: (0:00) Intro: AI was everywhere at Future Proof (let's talk about it) (2:41) The data before the hype: Q4 2025 search volume breakdown (5:50) Traffic, not just searches: Traditional search vs. AI tools in February 2026 (9:18) Why driving traffic from LLMs is a "fool's errand" for most RIAs (11:40) AI search is a visibility percentage game, not a static leaderboard (14:34) Why you can't rank #1 in AI search (and how to spot "fool's gold") (18:38) Gregory Report breakdown: methodology and key measurements (21:11) Localized vs. national searches: David vs. Goliath for smaller firms (25:57) Persona pages: the highest-leverage AI search asset you can build (29:38) What if you don't have a niche? Service-specific pages as an alternative (33:00) PR citations and why awards press releases punch above their weight (35:42) The awards triple play: credibility, press releases, and distribution (37:07) Don't panic: how to build a long-term AI search strategy (39:39) Reality check: how many leads are firms actually getting from AI? Whether you're getting pitched on AI search optimization or just trying to figure out if you're falling behind, this episode gives you the data, context, and practical steps to make smart decisions,  not reactive ones. Download the full Gregory Agency report at gregoryagency.com/ai-search-report [http://gregoryagency.com/ai-search-report] SparkToro Reports: https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-search-happens-everywhere-an-analysis-of-41-websites-with-significant-search-activity/ [https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-search-happens-everywhere-an-analysis-of-41-websites-with-significant-search-activity/] https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-ais-are-highly-inconsistent-when-recommending-brands-or-products-marketers-should-take-care-when-tracking-ai-visibility/ [https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-ais-are-highly-inconsistent-when-recommending-brands-or-products-marketers-should-take-care-when-tracking-ai-visibility/] https://chatgpt-vs-google.com/?exclude=Bing%2CDuckDuckGo [https://chatgpt-vs-google.com/?exclude=Bing%2CDuckDuckGo] 🎙️ Learn more about how Craft Impact helps RIAs with their marketing: craftimpact.com 🔔 Subscribe to Craft on Tap on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts ⭐ If this episode was useful, a 5-star rating helps other advisors find us #RIAMarketing #AISearch #FinancialAdvisors #WealthManagement #GrowthMarketing #CraftOnTap #CraftImpact #GenerativeEngineOptimization #MarketingForRIAs #FinancialAdvisorMarketing