As a financial advisor, there are numerous ways to market to your target audience. But one of the most effective and strategic approaches is content marketing. Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of online materials. These include videos, blogs, social media posts, eBooks, etc. What makes it so unique and tactical is that content marketing isn’t used to promote a brand directly but to stimulate interest in its products or services. It allows it to stand out from other marketing techniques and uniquely impact your audience. One of which is the ability to uniquely position themselves as trusted thought leaders within their industry or field.
We believe that content marketing is an essential tool. For that reason, we’ll be going over how content marketing works, why it’s beneficial to advisors, and then 5 content marketing tips for financial advisors.
How Does Content Marketing Work?
The way content marketing works is heavily reliant on the type and quality of content that you make. Even more so depending on your target audience. For example, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, video is going to be a better choice for your content marketing strategy. For an older demographic, posting to social media like Facebook and LinkedIn might be the right move. Either way, the content you create is what pushes your marketing forward.
Content marketing also works by improving your search engine optimization (SEO), allowing you to rank better and expand your reach online. That’s one of the reasons why incorporating relevant keywords is so important when crafting content that you plan to share. It improves your website’s search ranking and helps optimize your content for search engines. The more you’re able to optimize your content, the more traffic you’ll bring to your website and advisory firm. That’s how content marketing works, it’s all about taking things you’ve created and using them to bring in clients, prospects, and overall business interest.
What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing?
Putting effort into anything as an advisor should yield results or benefits. This is a big aspect of content marketing. You may be asking what kind of benefits content marketing brings. When it comes to content marketing, the kind of benefits you can expect include:
- Becoming an Industry Thought Leader; building trust and credibility within the industry by showcasing your expertise through content creation
- Attracting More Clients and Prospects; your content acts as a magnet, bringing in new clients who seek your expertise
- Boosting Brand Reputation and Recognition; crafting consistent, quality content helps to build your brand and boost its reputation and recognition
- Make Use of a Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy; if done correctly, content marketing can be extremely cost-effective as it organically increases firm recognition
Content marketing is all about boosting your brand through the creation of content that you feel will benefit your clients and prospects. In turn, that content will help benefit your firm by attracting your target audience and increasing their interest in your services.
The Type of Content to Create
Now, you may be wondering what type of content is the best fit for your marketing. It depends on your target audience but here is a list of potential content types that you can use when content marketing:
- Videos
- Social Media Posts
- eBooks
- Blog Posts
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Case Studies
- Newsletters
These are just some of the types of content that can be created for marketing. Advisors should test to see which combination works best for them.
5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Content Marketing for Financial Advisors
Finally, let’s go over some of the best content marketing tips for financial advisors that will help you get the most out of your content marketing as a financial advisor.
1. Create a Content Marketing Strategy Plan
First, it’s important to remember that going straight into a marketing strategy without any prior planning is never the best idea. You MUST plan out how you want your marketing strategy to go. I.E. setting certain goals and expectations so you know what you’re working towards. Along with that, advisors should plan out the type of content they wish to create and set a consistent schedule to post on.
Additionally, remember to ask yourself “Who is my target audience?” Without a clear understanding of who you’re marketing to, the campaign is doomed to fail. Once you understand who you plan to market to, the content will not only be easier to create but also have a larger impact on your overall marketing strategy. When you have your marketing strategy all planned out, you can start crafting content and sharing it with your audience.
2. Repurpose Previously Created Content
Next, it’s essential to understand that content ideas aren’t infinite. While you can and should continue to create fresh content on new topics that interest and benefit your target market, it’s important to make the most of what you already have. That’s why repurposing content is a key skill to have as an advisor. While you’re waiting for your next big content piece, you should be looking for ways you can reuse previously created content.
For example, if you’re an advisor who has a bi-monthly webinar, that’s prime content for repurposing. Try taking that webinar and editing it into digestible clips that you can share on social media and other platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter/X. With that, you’re taking one large piece of content and transforming it into 5-6 more pieces of sharable marketing material. Additionally, you can take blogs you’ve written and turn them into short informational videos or turn statistics into sharable infographics.
3. Be Timely and Keep Your Content Fresh
On the opposite side of the spectrum, when not reusing content, you must create material that is fresh and timely. Don’t let the content you currently have go, stale, be sure to create new pieces based on what’s going on currently. This can be changes in the industry, the economy, and the advisor landscape as a whole. What you want to do is just give followers a reason to keep coming back for more. Even better, fresh content based on current situations is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader and someone whose voice is valuable and up-to-date.
For example, if you’re able to jump on an important industry update, you can be the one people turn to for that topic because you reacted quickly. This puts you on people’s minds and allows you to showcase your expertise and share your ideas. It can be simple content like a social media post or an image. What’s important is that you keep it fresh and timely and are the one people turn to for updates and information.
4. Personalize Your Content
These days, people expect their content to be personalized for their experiences or benefits. They don’t want cookie-cutter pieces that are vague and give little in terms of usable information. In fact, according to research from McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect a personalized experience. Meaning that you need to find a way to personalize the experience for your clients, prospects, and followers.
This can be done by focusing your content on certain aspects of the market that pertain to your client base. For example, if you’re an advisor who focuses on retirement, gear your content toward retirement and retirement matters. Find ways to talk about the current state of retirement or ways to ensure that you’re financially ready for it. If you’re still struggling with personalizing your content for your consumers, check our FMG’s content page which makes it easy for advisors to personalize their content.
5. Automate Your Content Marketing
Lastly, creating content consistently is important for maintaining audience interest and ensuring organic growth. The problem that some advisors may be faced with is that they don’t have time to keep up with content planning and creation. It can be a huge time investment and take time out of your day which you might need to work with clients or manage other business tasks. That’s where content automation comes into play. It allows advisors to use personalized content that is automatically shared to chosen platforms at set times.
That’s also where FMG comes into play, offering advisors a way to save time with powerful marketing automation. Set it and forget with our pre-built campaigns that automatically trigger beautifully designed emails, social posts, newsletters, birthday greetings, and more.
Wrap Up
Content marketing is a powerful tool for advisors to use. It allows them to reach a larger audience and boost growth organically through the use of client-beneficial content. Knowing the best type of content to produce for your target market is important. Be sure to keep those ideas in mind and the 5 content marketing tips for financial advisors included so that you can make the most out of your content marketing!
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