The Complete Guide To Content Marketing For Financial Advisors

A good place to start is Google's requirements for content that will be published on your blog site.

Let’s establish the goals for your content. You want the content to rank on page one of Google for keywords that your ideal types of clients use when they are seeking financial advisors and information on the Internet.

Therefore, understanding Google's requirements is critical before you begin producing content that is designed to increase your online visibility in Google.

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First is Google’s requirements for original content. You cannot download content from a library and expect it to rank on page one, two, or three of Google. That’s because Google has already seen the content - perhaps hundreds or thousands of times.

Second is the need for consistency.  If you want Google to regard you as a source of high-quality content, you have to produce a consistent flow of new content. This could be one new article per month or one new article per week as long as it is consistent.

Third is the need for readability. Your content has to be good enough that people actually read it. This makes sense. Why would Google give you SEO credit for content that nobody reads? After all, Google’s goal is to be the ultimate source of comprehensive information that it can monetize with advertising. It benefits from higher quality content.

Fourth are Google conventions that establish you as an expert. For example, content marketing starts with pillar pages that are published on your website. These pages tell Google you are an expert on particular financial topics. Then you write articles that are published on your blog site and linked to the pillar pages on your website.

Fifth is a bit controversial, but Google has an acknowledged preference for longer articles - 1000 words or more. A lot of people may be able to churn out 300-word articles, but it takes more knowledge and research to write longer, higher-quality articles, and Google knows this.

There is an easy answer to this question. The best use of your time is to focus on the activities that produce the most revenue for your firm. Four examples of these activities include:

• Talking to prospective clients
• Producing financial plans
• Investing client assets
• Meeting with current clients

There is a good chance the highest and best use of your time is not writing the various types of content you need to create online visibility, credibility, and website traffic.

Even if you are good at writing or like to write, you will make more money by winning new clients and servicing current clients.

If you agree with this statement, then it makes sense to outsource the writing of content to a digital marketing agency, like Paladin Digital Marketing, that specializes in working with firms in the financial service industry. 

Why use a digital marketing agency? This type of company can optimize your content for maximum visibility on the Internet: 

• Conduct keyword research
• Write all original content
• Provide an editing service
• Add relevant graphics

Outsourcing your content marketing strategy will free up your time to do what you do best - work with your current and future clients.

Most financial advisors produce similar types of content that serve multiple purposes:

• Educate investors on financial topics
• Solve financial problems (investor pain points)
• Provide information about financial advisors (their firms and professionals)

The key to producing effective marketing content is to produce articles that are based on the financial concerns of your potential clients. For example, what are the financial issues and potential pain points of investors who are getting ready to retire? Perhaps they are rolling their assets from a 401k to an IRA and are hiring their first financial advisor. 

The ideal content will address these financial issues in a way that will make you a credible, trustworthy financial expert who can provide a smooth financial transition from their working to retirement years.

One of the primary goals of your content marketing strategy (pillar pages, blog articles, social media posts, webinars) is to raise your brand’s online visibility as a financial expert in a way that produces relevant traffic for your website. Relevant traffic is your ideal type(s) of clients. 

This creates a one-time opportunity for your website to convert these visitors into qualified leads for your advice and services.

So what is more important? The content that brought them to your website or the content on your website that convinces visitors to give up their anonymity and contact you? The answer is both. Websites do not produce their own traffic. Inbound marketing produces Internet visibility that in turn produces the traffic that websites convert into leads. Then it is the financial advisors’ responsibility to convert leads into prospects and revenue-producing clients. 

This means your website should be a very effective sales platform. It is a delivery system for information about your firm. It is your opportunity to differentiate your firm from all of the other financial firms that investors can find on the Internet. It is your main source of new leads which makes it a main source for the future growth of your firm.

Websites deliver the same categories of information:

• Who you are
• What you do (types of services)
• Who you serve (types of clients)
• Bios of professionals
• Why select your firm (differentiating characteristics)
• Resources & Insights (financial information)
• Case studies
• eBooks on financial pain points (free offers)

The difference is the type of content that is produced for each category of information.

The ideal content will describe the features that define your firm and how investors benefit from those features. For example, your website says you are a financial fiduciary. What exactly does that mean and how does that benefit your clients? Investors buy benefits, not features.

Attaching a blog to your website is critical because it will:

• Increase your visibility on the Internet
• Promote your brand
• Enhance your credibility
• Build trust
• Produce traffic for your website

Blogging, aka content marketing, is a way to produce fresh content that is visible in the major search engines. The financial topics are based on what types of information investors are seeking when they input certain keywords into Google.

Search engines thrive on fresh, new content that answers important financial questions and solves important financial problems. This is the foundation of the service that enables search engines to monetize the value of your content. 

The more content you produce, the more visible you are in the major search engines. The more times you rank on page one for important keywords, the more visitors you will have to your blog/website. 

How important is page one visibility? 75% of Google users do not scroll to page two. 25% scroll to page two and 1% scroll to page three. These are two of content marketing’s biggest challenges - A lot of competition and a limited amount of space.

Blogging is also a way to build your brand. What sets your firm apart from all of the others competing for the same clients in your market? What makes you special? Blogging is a way to share your firm’s philosophy, vision, and business practices through the articles you write. 

Your blog articles are also an opportunity to establish you as an expert on a particular financial topic. This expertise is what will attract investors to your website. This is a great way to market down the road because you are already an expert in the eyes of investors.

Like other forms of content marketing, the use of social media comes with compliance regulations. It is important to know what you can and cannot post. Here are a few tips to make sure you are compliant.

There are several different social media platforms that a financial advisor can use: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Once you have identified your target audiences, you will be able to choose which platform works best for each audience.

Creating original content or using curated content to post or tweet on a daily or weekly basis requires consistency and perseverance. That is why most financial advisors use the services of a social media expert. This can be a dedicated employee at your firm, or you can outsource this type of work to an agency like Paladin Digital Marketing.

eBooks are a fantastic way to market your services. They establish you as an expert and they can promote the services of your firm. More importantly, access to eBooks should require online registration which creates future marketing opportunities for your firm.

eBooks also have other marketing applications. For example, it is a free offer that is integrated into your drip email system, or is the free offer for a webinar or paid advertising campaign. The marketing applications are only limited by your imagination.

You should consider eBooks as an exchange of information. You provide free information in the eBook in exchange for the investors’ contact information. This should be a win-win for both parties. The investor is able to download a free eBook on a topic they want to read about, and you receive their contact information to follow up with them.

The best eBooks solve financial problems by providing guides and how-to lists that investors can implement. Ideally, the guides and lists route them back to you for implementation.

Drip emails are a way to keep your name in front of contacts and prospects. They can even be used for marketing to current clients who can be a source of high-quality referrals.

As usual, the best drip emails will solve financial problems. They may not be the ideal way to distribute newsletters that contain generic financial information. You should assume most investors are already inundated with information so you need a strategy that causes them to read your emails and not unsubscribe from future emails. 

You should personalize the subject line of your drip emails to maximize your open rates. People want to feel that you are trying to connect with them on an individual basis and are not just sending them a mass email. Segmenting your email list using various data points and creating more thoughtful emails are a couple of best practices.

White Papers are articles that appear on your website under a navigation aid titled Resources or Insights. Papers are a great way to showcase your knowledge and understanding of important financial topics and strategies.

By including these in-depth articles on your website you will be increasing your credibility with the investors that read them. This may be the incentive they need to initiate contact with your firm. 

White papers differ from the other content on your website. For example, they can be comprehensive research articles that educate investors about your investment strategies and processes. 

The best white papers are like the best eBooks. They solve financial pain points for investors who are visiting your website. It is a proven fact that investors will read content that serves their purpose and they ignore generic content that has nothing to do with them or their situations.

It is an established fact that increasing numbers of investors are using the Internet to:

• Find financial advisors they can contact for interviews
• Find information about financial advisors
• Find financial information

It stands to reason financial advisors market their services on the Internet because that is where investors go to find them. 

If you are not staffed to provide these services internally, then your best solution is an agency, like Paladin, that provides comprehensive digital marketing services to firms like yours.