Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives
Back at the dawn of the internet in 1996 Bill Gates declared, “Content is king.”
I experienced the truth of these words in 2001. Then, as a brash young marketer, I talked my way into being hired as the first director of marketing for a small software firm selling compliance and archiving solutions to financial services firms.
I had to prove myself immediately and cheaply. I did so with “king” content.
With my first marketing promotion, I generated 300% more leads than the firm’s best-performing evaluation or demonstration campaign to date. The vehicle to unprecedented results? An educational white paper.
Exactly what is content marketing?
Simply put, content marketing creates and shares content to attract, engage and inspire a chosen audience.
A few starter ideas for you are a free report or white paper, a video, a webinar, an email checklist, writing articles or a blog, newsletters, a live seminar or workshop, a radio program, a podcast or an infographic.
Audiences for content marketing include your prospects, clients and centers-of-influence (COIs).
What’s in it for you?
Custom content in an advisor’s or a firm’s voice creates an opening to build a relationship with your audience.
Your content can reflect your view of the markets or your investment or planning philosophy. It must be highly relevant to your current and potential ideal clients.
That’s how content marketing can boost your practice above all others.
Content marketing is a priority for advisory firms
In a fall 2017 survey by my firm, 73% of financial advisors and firms servicing advisors selected content marketing as a high-priority initiative.
In addition, those advisors and firms servicing advisors rated content marketing tops for effectiveness because of its ability to create new sales opportunities.
Here are five steps to attract qualified prospects and accelerate your practice growth.
1. Activate growth with your content marketing plan
Don’t wing it: Aimlessness will waste your limited marketing budget.
Settle on the must-haves in your plan. The plan is the foundation to unlock your growth, and it includes your goals, budget, media, and the types of content you will call on.
2. Clarify your target audience to generate more leads
Don’t be afraid to disqualify a large group of people who have no interest in what you offer.
The category of millennials, for example, is much too broad as a target market. Offering more promise could be high-income, professional couples in their 30s, who are also recent homebuyers in your area.
It’s up to you to grasp without doubt what they want from you.
What message will zing straight to the heart of your audience? For instance, a white paper offering or an overview on how to create a retirement plan may be perfect for prospects approaching retirement, but may be old news to retiree clients.
3. Differentiate yourself and your practice with content that leaves the pack behind
The subject of your content and the form it takes grow directly from your target audience or audiences and from your strengths and practice expertise.
The form of your content is curbed only by your imagination.
Pay special attention to your topic – that becomes your headline, your magnet to attract your target audience. As an example, recent homebuyers may be interested in downloading “Financial Planning Must-Haves for Recent Homebuyers,” which you’ve created as an illuminating infographic.
4. Don’t wimp out at the close
To attract your desired response, be clear about what you want your audience to do next after they have viewed or downloaded your content. No matter which type of content you are promoting this step is vital.
Pre-retirees who attended your retirement planning webinar may be interested in a “Retirement Readiness Review.” Readers of your article on a financial planning topic may respond to a “No-Obligation Financial Health Check.” Listeners to your podcast about volatile markets may sign up for a “Second Opinion Portfolio Review” consultation.
5. Promote your “evergreen” prospect content like crazy!
Your monthly client newsletter may offer new focused content every month to essentially the same list. In contrast, your content marketing for prospects can be “evergreen.” The same content can appear in front of new prospects each month.
You can benefit from a promotion strategy described by a client as a “multi-media explosion.”
Promote your content through diverse avenues. For example, you can promote a core white paper through your website and web marketing using search-engine optimization (SEO) and ads. Then add layers such as targeted social media channels and perhaps direct response spots on TV and radio.
Bob’s breakthrough
I remember well my summer job back in 1988 as a stockbroker intern at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Then, the strategy to gain new clients was through cold calls to pitch “triple tax-free bonds.”
Brokers engaged a potential new investor by phone and introduced this investment concept – in favor after the crash of 1987. To win trust they called on their sales savvy to prompt the potential investor to try out “triple tax-free bonds” on a small level. And, of course, they built the relationship on the response to that offer.
Flash forward 30 years.
Social or online content can be doing the cold calling for you 24/7/365 and engage prospects when they are unhappy with the markets or have “money in motion.”
Today we could promote a special report, say, on dealing with a divorce, deciding on a retirement date, or creating your first family financial plan.
What will be your “king” content to help you drive your RIA or practice to the next level?
Bob Hanson is a fractional marketer and author of Marketing Power for Financial Advisors. Get his checklist, Nine Questions Advisors Must Ask Before They Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional or Full-Time Marketer, click here.
More Evergreen Topics >
