If your web stats show you have traffic coming to your firm's website, but you are not seeing sales, it's time to up your content game and hone your content toward the people most likely to purchase your brand.
Once upon a time, keywords got your brand found online. Now it is not just a case of crafting a page around an individual keyword, or single keyword phrase repeated three times every 100 words, or some other crazy pseudo-SEO rule that was never a part of any algorithm in a search engine anyway. If you remember those days, it's time to change your writing, because that method of marketing is not only outdated and incorrect, but it also was boring for your visitors to read.
The best method for targeting wealth management prospects and turning them into buyers is to inform them with quality content. Keywords are still valid for letting a search engine know what a page is about, but you should write with a goal of having your viewer informed and entertained enough to want to share the content, especially on social media. Content that builds knowledge about your wealth management business builds trust in your brand. When people understand something, they are not only comfortable investing time or money in a brand to solve a problem or make a task more convenient, but also recommending your brand to others for the same purposes.
This is where learning how to build buyer personas is helpful. If you've never done it before or thought it was a useless exercise, you're missing out on a marketing goldmine. You already know you need to inform and entertain your visitors. Now you need to learn more about your buyers. If you're just striking out as an independent financial advisor, you should already have some insights on the main demographic for your firm. Now build an imaginary person from that. If you're already selling, just not as much as you'd like, use your actual sales to build buyer personas; you may be completely offbase as to whom you should target your marketing message. Give your buyer persona a name, relationship status, and a career that fits in with your demographics, and ask questions like, "What would this person find frustrating in their life that our brand can solve?" Whenever you identify a market segment, make a corresponding buyer persona to market to.
No one wants to read an ad. No one wants to read your wealth management firm is the ultimate, best solution. Anyone can say that. Your prospects want to know specifics. What makes your brand the ultimate, and why is it the best solution? When you create content, answer questions your buyer personas might have about your product or service. Content that engages and creates an emotional response is the type of content that goes viral and spreads your brand organically.
A study by Business Insider reported content with the "awe factor" has an average share rate of 25 percent. The top three emotional responses online are inspiration, amusement over something cute, and outrage. The last one can come off negative, and should be used sparingly. For example, if there is a hot-button topic, don't use it unless you also have a positive solution for it. Both online and offline, people are drawn to positivity and turned off by negativity. Consider what inspired you lately, what made you go "aww," or a new use for your brand that has benefits for readers. You want your prospects to share your content and feel like knowledge leaders in doing so.
In the recent past, you could craft short, informational articles that would rank well in the search engines. Now that's no longer the case. Short content is seen as "thin" content no matter how well-written it is. Google and other search engines have a goal, that every page they index at the top of their organic search results should be filled with good information and a quality experiences. This means you have to up your game on the content. Longer content of 1,500+ words is the in-depth information search engines now crave. Adding helpful infographics or video is another thing you can do to raise the quality of your content. As a reward for that effort, your content will organically appear higher in search results for much longer periods of time.
Your headline can determine whether visitors will even look at your content. Headlines that include pain-point words like "how to" or "get rid of" are good starting points. Avoid overly sensational headlines, also called clickbait, such as "She Hired A Financial Planner! You Won't Believe What She Did Next." or "You Won't Believe This Happened" are two examples. A headline should be a happy medium, promising what the article is about but not giving it all away. The headline of your article is a promise of what the reader will get when they click. Tutorials on how to best use your brand, or advice to get the most out of engaging a financial planner, convert well in the long run.
Remember, through your buyer persona creation and the writing of content, you're targeting potential buyers. The thing that will take your content from just informational words to true content marketing is your call-to-action. Your CTA will depend entirely on what your goal is with your prospects. Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter, join a forum, or hire you as their trusted advisor? Your CTA should say it directly with a link to make it actionable.
When you build a buyer persona, it's a good idea to figure out where your buyers are on social media. What groups do they interact with on Facebook? What hashtags do they follow on Twitter? You can send targeted traffic to your website through social media by being an expert in your field. Answer questions and give solutions. Do not drop links to your site unless specifically asked. It looks like spammy behavior no matter how cleverly you try to do it. Your contact information should be in your profile. If people want to know more about your brand, they know where to go. Exploring these areas allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of the people likely to become buyers, and what their frustrations or pushback is for making a final buying decision. This ground-level research will pay off by allowing you to further target your content marketing.
When you appear regularly in the newsfeeds of your followers on social media, it helps build trust in two main ways. First, it keeps your brand in front of people's eyes with consistent, quality content. Second, it positions you as a thought leader in your industry as you continue to produce quality tutorials and informational content.
To best target the people most likely to buy, you need to create good, informational content. Look at your existing content; if it reads like a sales letter, you're losing sales. Update your existing content and cut anything that sounds like an ad. Change your content to present informational or educational material. With everything you publish, include a unique CTA. After tightening up your site's content, post to social media. Encourage people to interact, and engage by asking questions or posting polls. When they comment, answer back and show there are humans behind the brand.
Use these tips to create engaging content that will not only make the search engines love your brand, but will also allow you to reach your true market segment and turn prospects into loyal customers.
You May Also Be Interested In Reading: Robo-Storytelling
