As the owner of a financial planning or wealth management firm, you already know how important it is to maintain a powerful online presence. The days when business owners could afford to ignore the Internet are long gone, and modern financial planning customers want to know that their advisors are technologically as well as financially savvy.
If you have been a financial advisor for some time, you probably already have a robust website where potential financial planning customers can learn about your services, inquire out your rates and get a feel for what you have to offer. Maybe you also have a dedicated portal where existing customers can log on to get balances on their accounts, make changes to their investments and ask questions.
The Power of Content Marketing
Your online presence may also include accounts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps even a blog or two, but are you making the most of your content marketing efforts? Smart content marketing can be an excellent way to grow your business, attract new clients and educate the public about the value financial planners bring to the table.
Content marketing is a popular subject, but it also widely misunderstood. Successful content marketing is more than just keeping your blog updated and communicating with your clients through social media. If you want to be successful as a content marketer, you need to provide your readers with real value, including information they just will not find anywhere else.
Financial Advisors: Establish Your Expertise
Readers can go anywhere to learn about finances and investing, so you need to give them a reason to seek out your advice in particular. When individuals search for information on the stock market, bond investing or the future direction of interest rates; chances are they are looking for expert advice and guidance they can trust.
That is why it is so important for financial planners and the owners of wealth management firms to establish their expertise right from the start. If your readers recognize you as an expert in the industry, they will be more likely to treat the advice you give seriously.
There are some effective ways to demonstrate such expertise, and there is no one right approach to the subject. If your reader base is sophisticated and financially savvy, simply listing your industry accreditations may be enough. Those experienced investors will understand what all those strange letters mean, and be suitably impressed when they read them.
For a more general public, you may need to express your expertise in other ways. From showcasing your education and training to talking about the results you have been able to achieve in down markets, there are numerous ways to establish your position as a market expert and give potential clients the confidence they will need to seek out your services.
Know Your Audience
Content marketing can be a powerful tool for communicating with your existing customers, and the more you know about those clients, the more successful your efforts will be. As a professional financial advisor or wealth manager, you should be conducting regular surveys of your customers to determine their investment goals and learn more about their income their careers and their financial planning needs.
You can use the information you have already gathered to fine tune your message and give your audience the information they want and need. Learning about your audience is a vital first step. Just consider that an audience of sophisticated investors will naturally respond differently than one consisting of newcomers to the market.
Strive for Education
No matter what the nature of your audience, you should always strive for education. Your readers are busy people, and they are seeking information they need right now. Making your messages as informative and educational as possible will serve you well, as will asking what the average client will gain from reading your piece.
Providing quality educational articles is also an important consideration when trying to attract new clients. No matter how successful you currently are, you can always do better, and that means finding more customers and convincing them to invest in your firm.
Content marketing can be a powerful tool for soliciting new clients, but the educational aspect of your posts will be critical. Modern financial planning customers can spot marketing messages a mile away, and they can tell which blog posts are advertising pitches in disguise.
Instead of marketing to potential clients, educate them about the current state of the market and how financial planning services can boost their returns over time. There have been some high-profile studies demonstrating the performance benefits of sound financial planning, so linking to those reviews is a good place to start.
Quantify Your Results
One of the best things about online marketing in general, and content marketing in particular is that it is relatively easy to quantify your results and see what is working and what is not. When you buy an ad in the local newspaper or run a spot on the local radio station, you may not be able to tell how many new inquiries they generated, or how much of your hard-earned money was wasted.
Content marketing efforts are quite different, thanks to the many analysis tools now on the market. These tools allow you to analyze traffic to your blog on a per-post basis, so you can instantly see how many views, and how many clicks, each post has generated.
That careful analysis makes it easy to see what type of content your readers are responding to most readily, and where your content marketing efforts should be directed in the future. Over time, you will get a feel for which types of content and which subjects resonate most readily with your audience, but in the beginning, at least, these analysis tools can be a big help.
If you have not already incorporated content marketing into your client outreach efforts, now is the perfect time to get started. As 2017 gets underway, it is time to redouble your marketing efforts, focus on the education of your clients and look for new ways to grow your financial planning or wealth management business.
Check out our latest eBook: The Six Marketing Metrics That Your Practice Should Care About
