Growing To $660M Of AUM By Leveraging SEO (And Now AEO) To Build A Durable Pipeline Of Good-Fit Prospects: #FASuccess Ep 480 With Helen Stephens

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 480th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Helen Stephens. Helen is the founder of Aspen Wealth Management, an RIA based in Fort Worth, Texas, that oversees $670 million in assets under management for 342 client households.

What’s unique about Helen, though, is how she has grown her firm thanks in large part to early investments in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which have paid off over time not only through prospects finding her through Google searches but also now by getting leads from ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Helen’s SEO strategy has evolved over time as Google has changed how it evaluates sites (moving from creating backend pages that mentioned her location and services to high-quality content that demonstrated her expertise in serving her ideal-fit clients), how creating high-quality content and serving a local geographic area has now paid off through referrals from ChatGPT (which often occur when a consumer goes deep enough into planning questions that ChatGPT suggests that they seek out an advisor), and how that while Helen’s commitment to SEO and content creation took time to pay off in terms of a steady pipeline of prospects, it has contributed to her approximately 30% annual growth rate over the past five years.

We also talk about how Helen made the decision to move away from internal content creation to work with an all-in-one marketing service that handles the full scope of her marketing needs, how Helen’s firm uses an intake form to divide leads into those who are likely to be a good fit (who then receive a call from one of the firm’s advisors), those who are edge cases (who get a call from the firm’s client services professional), and those who aren’t good fits (who receive referrals to more appropriate sources of financial advice), and how Helen has found success establishing a program to serve high-earning young professionals who are likely to transition into her ideal target client profile over time.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Helen shares how she started transferring equity stakes early on in her firm’s history (first as gifts, then as owner-financed purchases) in part to reward loyal team members who helped the firm grow, how Helen is executing a succession plan in which she will eventually sell her entire stake in her firm to internal buyers (allowing the firm to remain independent for the long haul), and how Helen sees success for herself not only as transitioning ownership of her firm to second-generation successors but also to see a third generation obtain equity stakes and ultimately lead the firm into the future.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about generating good-fit leads through SEO (and now answer engine optimization), how to work with an external marketing agency, or how to complete a succession plan that will keep the firm independent for years to come, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, with Helen Stephens.