Whether you’re trying to attract potential clients or keep current ones up-to-date, financial advisors can use content marketing to engage leads and boost SEO. In fact, content marketing is highly flexible, so financial advisors can customize what content they wish to create. Thanks to this, content creation-based marketing gives financial advisors the opportunity to create something unique and stand out from competitors. In this blog, we’ll go over the benefits, channels, and types of content involved in content marketing to help you decide the type of content that works best for your brand.
What is Content Marketing?
Simply put, content marketing is the creation and sharing of online material. This can include videos, blogs, social media, and more. In this case, it does not directly promote a brand but instead stimulates interest in products/services. For example, some magazines are considered content marketing as they promote brands and spark interest but don’t directly advertise. Another way to look at it is content that provides relevant and useful information to prospects and clients to help them solve their issues. When done well, content marketing can provide a range of benefits to a business. Here are a few:
- It Proves Your Unique Value & Perspective: As a financial services professional, you offer specific insight and value that is different from other advisors in your area. Marketing with custom content allows you to share that value with anyone who comes across your financial services blog or social media sites. When you create custom content that lets your personality and voice shine, prospects can get to know you without having to pick up the phone. It helps to build a relationship that eventually convinces them to become a client.
- It Caters Toward Your Niche Audience: A recent report from TD Ameritrade found that advisors who were able to target market niches were substantially more successful than general practitioners. Financial services professionals who marketed toward niche audiences had a median annual client growth that was 35% greater than those who did not.
- It Drives SEO: In the digital age, a high ranking on Google could be your golden ticket to success. Customizing your content or creating your own is what will get your financial services business there. When you build blogs that address your unique value and speak to your niche audience, you’ll improve the chance that you start ranking for the financial services terms your blog targets.
Different Types of Content for Financial Advisors
Next, it’s important to understand and know each type of content that advisors can use for content marketing. Unsurprisingly, each has its own set of advantages and reasons for use. Below, we’ll outline the most common and effective types and how they help.
Blogs
First, we have blogs, one of the most common forms of content for any financial advisor. Blogging simply takes a topic and writes about it while including links, images, and videos, if available. Yet, in spite of being so common, it’s also one of the most impactful. Research by Hubspot has shown that “Companies that published 16+ blogs per month got almost 3.5x more traffic.” The reason for this is that blogs tend to typically be easy to create. In fact, it really only takes a nimble pair of fingers and someone whois enthusiastic about writing to get a blog going. The best thing about blogs is that there are always going to be new topics to write about.
PDFs
Lastly, we have PDFs, one of the most underrated forms of content that financial advisors can craft. PDFs are very simple as they’re usually just documents that consist of text and images made to inform. Think of them like eBooks but usually much shorter and don’t usually require email to access (but that all depends on the advisor). The best use of a PDF is to select a topic or idea and write about it. Think of it like a blog that isn’t put onto a live website but stored in a document that can be shared around.
Infographics
Next are infographics, which are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. These can either be presented individually or within other content to add context. For example, if you’re writing a blog and want a way to present statistics in an easily digestible way, create an infographic. This works really well because infographics improve cognition by using graphics to enhance a person’s ability to understand patterns and trends. Think of it like using alt text on an image. Most people can see the image well enough, but for those who can’t, the alt text provides the information they may not be able to see or understand.
Videos
Now, we move on to one of the more involved forms of content that require multiple skills. Video has become one of the most popular forms of content across the internet. Cisco reports that 82% of global internet traffic came from video streaming or downloads in 2022. In the case of financial advisors, a video usually consists of a spokesperson (face of the company or someone who frequently appears in videos) talking about a topic. This could be anything from new updates in the world of financial advisory or topics they think you should be knowledgeable on. Additionally, videos allow advisors to show off their expertise and creative skills, which goes a long way toward establishing their credibility and attracting leads.
eBooks
eBooks are exactly what they sound like they would be: electronic books. Simply being books that can be read on a computer or handheld device instead of print. eBooks are created to be large sources of information on certain topics that advisors create so that anyone who wants to learn can. If done correctly, eBooks allow advisors to communicate their expertise on a subject and attract target audiences. They’re an extremely powerful tool for both learning and lead generation. In most cases, financial advisors share eBooks on their site, allowing visitors to unlock them by simply sharing their email.
What Channels to Share On
Google Search via SEO
As many advisors know, Google and other search engines are crucial to sharing the content you wish to market. That makes SEO a key player during the creation of your content. Of course, that means implementing SEO within the content as you create it. Keywords will become one of your best friends when it comes to content marketing. Ensuring your content covers the important keywords you wish to rank for on search engines is part of the content process.
If you’re unsure of what keywords to use, check out this list of some of the most popular keywords for financial advisors.
Social Media
We live in the age of social media, which is where you should be sharing all the content you create. In fact, research has shown that 9 in 10 internet users are active on social media every month. Along with that, more than 75% of the eligible global population uses social media. If you’re not using social media to market your content, you’re missing out on a huge potential audience. In this case, use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or more to post your content and reach out to your target audience. You can share blogs, videos, images, infographics, and more. Remember that when you post on social media, continue interacting with users on that post by replying to comments or using reactions.
Finally, we have our old, reliable friend email. One of the oldest forms of communication (in terms of technology). Email is great for any sort of content marketing because of the sheer amount of users. According to Hubspot, there are 4 billion daily active email users. This means if you’re not using email to get your content out there, then you’re missing out on a huge segment of your audience. In fact, email fits perfectly into content because, as an advisor, you lock some of your content behind an email wall. This means that once a user submits their email, you now have a vehicle in which to send them new updates and content. When sending emails, ensure that you maintain your brand voice and message in a way befitting your target audience.
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