Content Marketing For Financial Advisors
Simply put, if your financial advisor content isn’t good, then digital marketing will not be a successful way to generate leads. And that will not bode well for the financial advisory firm’s long-term survival. Content marketing is meant to provide information and resources as a means of educating and empowering your target audience. For financial advisory firms, this provides an opportunity to do all the above, while also building trust and credibility with these prospective clients.
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On your financial advisor website, content is crucial. This includes content on individual pages, specialized landing pages, and specialized content such as blog posts, videos, infographics, white papers, eBooks, or any other type of financial advisor content you produce. Because of the importance of financial advisor content and the role it plays in digital marketing success, it should be updated regularly, and current content should be reviewed periodically for updates and relevance.
For example, some content may be posted that was accurate at the time but is now outdated. Without reviewing regularly, this can hurt not only SEO but also cost your financial advisory firm valuable leads. To keep up with the demand for content, many financial advisory firms maintain a content calendar or schedule for months in advance.
This can help you map out content based on seasonality, as well as show the bigger picture for where and when content needs to be added. And while some evergreen content can be written in advance, changes in the market and happenings in the news will need to be added as needed to stay current.
A Quick Note About Content and SEO: Did you know that SEO is not just for your financial advisor website? This is why your financial advisory firm’s digital marketing strategy should be incorporated into all digital content, from social media posts and profiles to online directories (such as your Google Business Profile) and even online forums such as Reddit. In short, anywhere your financial advisor website content exists, SEO should be a consideration.
CTAs – Not Just an Afterthought
Producing high-quality financial advisor content alone is not enough to generate leads – there needs to be a CTA (call to action) that encourages your audience to take the next step. Usually in the form of a button or link to a contact form, CTAs are a necessary part of getting leads for your financial advisory firm.
Without clear instructions, your audience may not know where to go next and could leave without taking any action, and thus become lost as a prospect. As such an important aspect of lead generation, CTAs should be more than an afterthought. Some important considerations for CTAs include being clear and easy to complete. Depending on the purpose of the CTA, you want to consider the information you’re asking for, as well as which fields to make mandatory.
For example, “Contact Us” CTA would need name and contact information as well as what they are looking for, whether that be to set up an appointment, or ask questions about a specific product or service. However, a CTA that is used to allow someone access to a gated piece of your financial advisor content should be more detailed, asking for more information that can help you qualify them as a lead. This is a common practice for gated content, and for most of your audience, will be accepted as “quid pro quo” to acquire this valuable information.
The placement of CTAs also matters, as well as how many are sprinkled throughout any given page of your financial advisor website. It’s also important to consider the device someone will be using when completing a CTA. If the form isn’t mobile-first, the experience could be tedious on a phone or tablet, resulting in them abandoning the form altogether.
Audience Segmentation
Just as all financial advisory firms are not the same, neither are the prospects that make up your financial advisory firm’s target audience. That’s where audience segmentation comes into play. Segmenting your target audience involves breaking down your overall target audience into smaller groups based on more specific characteristics to offer personalized content and messaging that is more likely to appeal to members of that audience specifically.
Segmentation can be broad, using basic demographics such as gender, education, geography and age. You can also dive much deeper into the data and segment audiences based on lifestyle, online and offline behaviors and hobbies, values, and even estimated net worth. You’re only limited by the amount of data you have and how much time you must allocate to create individualized content for each audience.
Measuring and Testing
One of the advantages of digital marketing is the ability to measure campaign metrics in almost real-time. However, it’s important to remember that digital campaigns can need time to gather enough data to determine if they are successful as-is or need some tweaks. However, it can be apparent early on if something isn’t working, based on previous campaign results.
The trick is to wait long enough to get accurate results, but not so long that you’re wasting your budget on a campaign that is not going to bring in leads. Whether from paid advertising platforms like Google Ads, to monitoring website analytics and lead generation content through Google Analytics, it’s vital to constantly monitor, measure, and optimize when necessary.
Partnering with Digital Experts
Lead generation is too important to be placed low on your financial advisory firm’s priority list due to a lack of time or personnel. And because lead generation is part of an overall financial advisor digital marketing plan, many firms are choosing to partner with a digital marketing agency to help with lead generation.
Working with a digital marketing partner with experience in the financial advisory space can take the pressure off the financial advisory team, especially those without a digital marketing professional. A digital marketing agency can act as an extension of the team, while helping streamline, optimize, and maintain all digital marketing efforts across all channels.
