Financial Advisor Showcase: Thrive Retirement Specialists

1. To start, can you tell us more about how Thrive Retirement Specialists started and some more background about your firm?

I founded Thrive Retirement Specialists to deliver a more thoughtful and strategic approach to retirement planning.  We offer a single, flat-fee service entitled ThriveRetire™ that goes far beyond what has traditionally been known as retirement planning. ThriveRetire™ is an ongoing eight-step retirement planning process and investment management service that seeks to identify all risks, assets, tools, and tactics to develop and maintain an optimal retirement plan. Our goal is to help each retiree live a retired life full of maximum contentment and happiness—and free from fear and regret so they can live life when it matters most, which is now.

2. We love how your website provides visitors with a sense of adventure that can be found in retirement with the right type of financial planning. This really comes to life in the images and copy used throughout your website. Can you tell us more about the approach you took when determining the look and feel for your new website?

I am glad you asked this because it confirms we accomplished our goal of creating this sense. Everything we do is centered around helping retirees make the most of their life in retirement. We take a focused and advanced approach to retirement planning to make the most of a retiree’s situation so they can soak up every bit of what brings them joy and meaning. To communicate this, we were very deliberate in using imagery and copy that could stir those emotions and get people thinking about what it was they felt passionate about. 

3.Being active on social media is crucial to growing your online presence and marketing strategy, and we noticed that you are active on personal and business LinkedIn accounts. Can you elaborate on your social media strategy and discuss how it has helped your firm grow? Do you have any plans to utilize other platforms in the future?

LinkedIn was a place where I naturally had my largest network. So, I decided to leverage my personal network to grow a following on a company LinkedIn page.  I like how easy it is to share my blogs with followers on Linked In. When people click on the LinkedIn blog, it takes them to the website where the blog is posted anyway. I have plans to start a YouTube channel soon to convert some of my written content into video to give followers an alternative means of consumption and boost SEO.

4. We noticed that you are using our one-click integration with Calendly, which is great! In fact, we conducted a survey in 2019 and found that advisors who get 6-10 or 11+ clients per year had a calendar link on their website. Have you found success since using this scheduler on your site? 

The Calendly integration is just awesome. It is so easy to use, and the experience is seamless. I wish I could say I’ve been getting many appointments scheduled, but I have only been officially open for a little over a month, so I am still waist-deep in creating awareness.  I do love the client experience it creates, though, and anticipate it to be very beneficial. 

5. Including a comprehensive FAQ page on your advisory website is a great way to boost the overall user experience for your site visitors, so it’s great that you have included a designed page for your most-asked questions. Do you feel as though including this on your site has made for a more productive initial meeting with prospects? 

I really like having a FAQs page for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a place to put all the important content you wanted to work into the website but couldn’t find a natural contextual place to do so. Second, it allows individuals who want quick answers to their specific questions the ability to do so without having to wade their way through the entire website. I do believe the FAQs page will lead to more productive conversations with better-qualified prospects.

6. Consistently blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website and show you are an industry thought-leader, so great job on keeping up with content creation! Can you tell us more about your strategy and how you are able to keep up with your blogging schedule despite being so busy?

I have so much to say and share that I find content creation fun and easy. I have an educational approach naturally, so blogging is an excellent way to share and educate. Of all the things I love about my website, Twenty Over Ten’s blogging platform is my favorite. The platform makes it easy to quickly write, publish, and share blogs and optimize them for SEO purposes. 

Of all the things I love about my website, Twenty Over Ten’s blogging platform is my favorite.  The platform makes it easy to quickly write, publish, and share blogs and optimize them for SEO purposes.

-Anthony Watson, CFA CFP®, Thrive Retirement Specialists

7. By only providing an email address, visitors can sign up to receive your insights and newsletter. Can you tell us more about using gated content on your website and if it has boosted your lead generation? 

I am working on a couple of e-books that I intend to gate, but I have not published them yet.

8. We love client success or “feel good” stories, where they have a moment when they realize all of their hard work has paid off. Do you have a story like this that you would like to briefly share? It can be about client success or something that you have achieved yourself. 

While I have only been officially opened for a little over a month, I have been building this business over much of the last two years in my mind and on paper. Completing my website was, to me, the culmination of all that hard work. To me, it was the completion of my website that made my business finally feel real.  I am proud of what I have built with Twenty Over Ten’s help, and I wake up excited every day to continue to share our website and mission with clients and prospects. 

9. What would be the #1 marketing tip that you would share with advisors trying to boost their lead generation and online presence?

Take the time to learn about well-established best practices. There are so many sources of great information out there on these topics. Take advantage of them so you can spend your time executing productively rather than experimenting and potentially wasting precious time. I am still learning so much every day and am far from an expert.