Financial planners and advisers are often attracted to the idea of publishing regular newsletters, articles, guides and/or videos to their audience. Yet what, exactly, is the value of these content assets? What purpose do they specifically achieve?
The reality is, many consumers today are wary of traditional advertising. Unless your brand is well-known and immediately trusted by lots of people (e.g. Amazon), you are unlikely to close a sale in the financial services world after just one consumer interaction with your advert. Rather, today prospects expect to see great content from businesses seeking to engage with them.
Besides meeting this customer expectation, what is the value of content for financial advisers and planners? Below, our team at Clients+ shares some of the key purposes it achieves:
#1 Trust & reputation building
Imagine a prospect encounters your financial advice website for the first time – perhaps via a Google search. Why should they trust you with their pension, investments and life savings? Content will play a big role in helping them trust you.
Why? Because great client content answers your audience’s questions and addresses their pain points. In other words, it offers them value from the very beginning – making them want to come back for more. This also shows that you “know your stuff”, which encourages the reader/viewer that you are capable of helping them with their financial planning/advice problem.
Moreover, if sufficient numbers of people within your target audience experience your great content, then you are more likely to build a strong reputation as a thought leader. Reputation is vital for your business to thrive, since it is highly correlated to your referrals.
#2 More brand engagement
Many clients barely hear from their financial planner or adviser throughout the year – until, say, their annual review comes up. This low level of brand engagement is precarious if you are looking to maintain and grow a loyal client base over the years. However, offering regular and high-quality content is a good way to provide ongoing brand “touch-points” which inspire and educate your clients.
A simple place to start is with a regular client newsletter. Suppose you offer your clients four compelling, useful articles each month within a personalised email. Perhaps some of these articles address topical issues about financial planning which may affect your clients. Others might touch upon commonly-asked questions which tend to come up again and again. This kind of communication is typically much appreciated by clients and helps to increase their loyalty and satisfaction with your service.
#3 Social media growth
Are you looking to branch out your business on the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook? If so, then to build a loyal following you need to offer regular, high-quality content which connects with your audience. You cannot simply push out “sales posts”, inspiring quotes or retweets (although these can have their place). To attract and maintain attention, you need to exhibit thought leadership in the form of inspiring and informative articles, guides and videos.
#4 Improved conversion rates (CVR)
Brand trust is directly linked to conversions in all industries and sectors – not just financial services. The more a prospects trusts and feels positive about the content on your website, for instance, the more likely they are to make an enquiry or perform another “conversion action” (e.g. signing up to a webinar).
#5 More marketing outreach assets
Suppose you want to run a digital marketing campaign using display advertising (e.g. Google Display Ads or remarketing). These adverts show on other websites as your target audience browses the web. What should you display on the ad? Some financial firms might simply include an image from their website, their logo and promote their service (e.g. “Get Pension Advice in Reading”).
Yet most people who see your ad for the first time may not be ready to take a big initial step, such as booking a free consultation with a business which they do not really know. However, they might be willing to click on your advert offering a free educational guide or video on a financial/wealth issue that they are dealing with. After that, they may be more prepared to take the next step – such as filling out your contact form or picking up the phone.
#6 Backlink building
To get the most SEO benefit from your articles the content needs to be original, well-targeted (i.e. to search terms where you have a good chance of ranking well in Google) and relevant to the audience. Yet even off-the-shelf content for financial planners and advisers can be a strong way to build backlinks to your website from other sources. This, in itself, is important for growing your website’s domain authority and helping it to increase its search engine presence.
#7 Educating clients
Do you find that certain client questions tend to come up again and again within your financial firm? If so, it can quickly start to feel like you are wasting time crafting an individual answer each time.
What if, instead, you had a set of relevant guides and articles at-hand which can answer these regular client queries? When the question comes up, therefore, you can offer the content resource to them along with a personalised message (e.g. “That’s a good question [Name A] – we have a guide on this very topic which I’ve attached here. I hope this helps and let me know if I can answer any further questions.”).
Our Client+ content, in other words, saves time for business owners in the financial planning and advice sectors – a great benefit! Simply sign up to Clients+ today to receive your free piece of content,
