Marketing these days must involve the Internet. To be successful, an RIA or IAR needs to expand their digital footprint, so that when investors come looking for a financial advisor, their name comes up in a search. Part of expanding this online presence is keeping a regular, fresh and original blog. Offering content where investors are looking for it and answering questions potential clients have is key. But how do you come up with new financial topics to write about on a regular basis?
Here are 7 tips.
1. Be a Problem Solver
Having a blog is an important part of having an online presence for any business, especially those that require trust from their clients, such as financial advisors or anyone dealing with personal and financial matters. An important part of managing a blog is understanding your audience and how you can help them better understand your services and how you can help them achieve their goals without sounding like a 1,000-word advertisement.
Chances are, if someone is reading your blog, they’re looking for help with their finances in some way. That may be because they have a specific problem they need solved or they’re simply looking for financial guidance. Remember that your blog is meant to be a place where people come for information from a trusted authority. How can you help solve the problems of your readers? Think of this first and foremost when creating any content and decide how you can highlight the services you provide that solve those problems. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship, wherein the reader is gaining valuable insights and you’re gaining visibility in front of new clients or solidifying your role as a trusted resource with current clients.
For example, is a common pain point on your clients trying to save for their kids’ education? Do you offer a service that could help? This may be a good topic to write about.
2. Stay Relevant
Another way to come up with new content and financial topics to write about is to keep up with relevant trends in the industry. If you come across any relevant information when you’re searching the Internet yourself that may be beneficial to your clients, repurpose it from your point of view. Write it from the voice of a financial advisor and highlight the aspects of the news that would be most beneficial to the readers of your blog.
Be careful not to get too caught up in industry lingo that might not resonate with your audience and keep the specific details to a minimum, since every client is different and could be affected differently by any changes in the investment space.
Additionally, if you keep a calendar of events on your website that includes speaking engagements, workshops or conferences, you can use your blog to promote and inform your readers of those events.
3. Create FAQs
Another good way to create content for your blog is to feature content based on recurring questions that come from your clients.
When meeting with new clients, are there a number of initial questions that come up time and time again? Creating a blog post based on those FAQs is a great way to handle those initial questions and can help leads feel more comfortable up front. If potential clients can find this information right off the bat, they may use your services over someone else’s who isn’t as up-front and transparent from the beginning. This also creates a piece of evergreen content, meaning something that can be shared multiple times, as the content isn’t related to a specific point in time such as an event announcement or industry trend.
Just remember, if you’re going to re-use any content, be sure to check for needed additions, edits or updates.
4. Use Keywords
Keywords are a specific set of words that make your article appear in online searches. The more relevant your keywords are to a given search, the more likely it will show up in the search rankings – thus the more likely someone will click on your post and read it.
Taking keywords a step further, you can also create blog posts around them.
A word of caution: Be careful to avoid keyword stuffing. That happens when keywords are just added throughout a post with no real relevance; just added for the sake of ranking purposes. Not only will search engines like Google be able to spot this and weed out your link because of this (in other words, Google will not show your blog in search results), but readers will notice as well. Every article needs to be relevant and helpful.
5. Avoid the Hard Sell
A blog should not sound like an advertisement for your services. While readers know the information is coming from a business, it’s a big turn-off when blog posts only tout their own services and don’t provide unbiased, useful information. If you choose a hard-selling approach, readers will notice and most likely not continue reading. You can mention your services in a casual approach that doesn’t come off as a harsh direct sell, but remember that the point of a blog post is to educate first, sell second.
6. Keep a Pulse on the Competition
Keeping an eye on the competition isn’t a new concept – it’s one of the oldest aspects of running a business. And that’s no different when it comes to managing a blog. Read the blog posts of your competition and see what is working – and not working – for them. You can get new ideas on financial topics to write about, but you will also come across this information with the perspective of a consumer. If it sounds like something you think your readers would benefit from, you can then create your own blog post on that topic.
7. Keep a Content Calendar
To stay organized and efficient, consider creating a content or editorial calendar. You can use this as an outline for how you want to manage your blog, including seasonal posts that revolve around holidays, seasons and events within your business.
This also allows you to pre-schedule posts. For example, if you know you’ll be extremely busy at the end of the year, you can prepare some blog posts in advance when things are a bit slower. You don’t want your blog to have a large gap between posts, because this could result in a loss of traffic and potential new clients coming on board.
Another way to manage your blog is to get help. A good marketing agency with expertise in the financial services industry can take the guess work out of creating and/or maintaining a blog and should be able to create the content you need as well as an editorial calendar for you. While you will have to pay for these services, in the big picture, this can actually save you a lot of time and money.
