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Written by: Brian Thorp | Wealthtender
When you hear the term content marketing as a financial advisor, the first thing that likely comes to mind is writing and publishing articles on your own website. But there’s so much more to content marketing and if writing isn’t your cup of tea, don’t worry! We’ll share ideas to help you attract your ideal clients whether or not you enjoy creating content.
Content marketing strategies rank among the most powerful and cost-effective ways for financial advisors to build their brand and increase traffic to their websites. But it’s important to note when you get started with content marketing that many of these strategies involve content published on other websites, not your own.
By going where the eyeballs and ears are (e.g. popular websites/blogs and podcasts), you’ll gain opportunities to get in front of your target market, build authority in your areas of specialization, strengthen your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your website, and ultimately get more visitors to your website from your ideal future clients.
Here are five powerful ways financial advisors can grow their business with content marketing:
1. Get Featured on Popular Websites
There are many reasons why it’s valuable for you to gain visibility on websites other than your own. While your own website is a great place to build a relationship once people find it, you’re much more likely to get noticed and gain SEO benefits when you’re featured on reputable websites popular with your target audience.
One way to get started is by submitting a guest post to a website or blog whose audience will likely be interested in topics relevant to your area of specialization. Beyond the potential of attracting new clients who read your article, you’re gaining impactful SEO benefits as well. When websites with high domain authority publish your content and include a link to your own website, this helps search engines like Google determine that content on your site is trustworthy and helps your site rank higher in search results.
If you’d also like to have your guest post published on your own website, too, you can do this by simply taking one extra step of not indexing the article on your own website, or indicating the original article is the guest post version. While this may sound complicated, it’s quite easy to do and your website designer can help do this for you in just a few minutes.
If you would rather not spend time writing articles yourself and/or you want to maximize your opportunities to grow your business with content strategies, here are two ideas worth considering:
Hire Freelance Writers
Get to know personal finance freelance writers you can hire to write ghostwritten articles. By preparing an outline or having a conversation to help them understand what you’re looking to convey, you can build a library of content that reflects your thoughts without the heavy lifting of starting from scratch. And you’ll be able to personalize the final product to ensure articles reflect your tone and voice.
Alternatively, there are also benefits to offering byline credit to the writers you hire and quoting yourself within the articles they write. Since many freelance writers hold professional designations themselves and/or have established a strong reputation for their writing, they offer credibility that demonstrates professionalism and can improve your SEO.
Subscribe to a Modern Digital Marketing Platform for Financial Advisors
Unlike traditional find-an-advisor websites that only offer you a profile page listing in a directory of financial advisors, modern sites like Wealthtender help consumers learn more about financial advisors by publishing articles you can be featured in to gain visibility and boost your SEO.
Instead of you having to write your own content, you’ll be featured in articles and guides to help you gain recognition in your areas of specialization, for professional designations you’ve earned (e.g. Certified Financial Planner), and ongoing opportunities to be quoted in articles published on wealthtender.com as well as other publications popular with consumers.
By joining Wealthtender, you also gain access to a growing community of financial professionals and educators, including hundreds of personal finance blog and podcast owners who may be interested in helping their readers and listeners get to know you, especially if your niche aligns with their interests.
2. Write and Publish Articles on Your Own Website
While guest posting and being featured on other websites builds awareness for your professional brand and strengthens your SEO, publishing articles on your own website is an important content marketing strategy to increase engagement and convert more visitors into clients.
If you’re not sure where to begin, a smart approach to decide which topics you should write about on your website is by thinking about the types of questions you most often hear when speaking with prospects and your current clients.
This is also a good time to think about what your ideal future clients are searching for on Google when they’re preparing to hire a financial advisor. By writing articles that center on the topics and keywords popular among your target audience, your website can become a popular destination for education in the areas most important to you and your ideal clients.
As we discussed previously if you’d prefer not to write articles yourself or want to complement your own writing, hiring freelance writers can be an affordable and worthwhile investment.
There are also a growing number of service providers who offer access to content libraries you can publish on your website. While these articles are usually not written exclusively for you, this can be a cost-effective way to complement original content on your website with educational articles on a wide range of topics.
It’s also easy to build out an FAQ page on your website with answers to questions related to your areas of specialization. As you develop standalone articles that dive deeper into topics addressed on your FAQ page, you’ll be able to link to them which can further improve your engagement with visitors to your website and help your SEO.
3. Create Lead Magnets with “Gated Content”
You’ll want most of the content on your website to be easily accessible to visitors and indexable by search engines. But you’ll also benefit by publishing some content that is ‘gated’ and only available after you collect an email address from someone who wants to view the content. Often referred to as ‘lead magnets’ and frequently delivered as downloadable PDF files, gated content can be a great way to get more subscribers for your newsletter and learn who among your site visitors could turn into warm leads.
The best types of content to turn into lead magnets can vary, but often include resources like case studies and more in-depth tips or ideas you can share related to your areas of specialization. For example, if you specialize in serving couples who are nearing retirement, what guidance can you offer in an article that demonstrates your knowledge and previews the types of insights they can expect to receive when they hire you? Or if you specialize in a niche like alternative investments, what information can you provide to help them understand the opportunities and risks associated with alternative investments?
4. Become a Podcast Guest
While launching your own podcast can be an effective way to grow your practice and many service providers now make it easier than ever to get started, most advisors can achieve considerable success growing their business by being interviewed as a guest on podcasts.
Being a podcast guest is an effective way to reach new audiences who may be interested in working with you. And listeners who hear your podcast may also tell their friends and family about you if they think you’re a good fit for their needs.
During the interview, you’ll gain opportunities to highlight your expertise and gain recognition in your areas of specialization. And because listeners are getting to know you as a person, an emotional connection is established that warms up cold prospects making them more likely to set up an introductory call.
You’ll likely also enjoy SEO benefits with a link back to your website. And you’ll gain a closer relationship with the podcast host who will keep you in mind for their listeners’ needs. When you promote the podcast episode you’re featured to your clients and prospects, the podcast host gains new listeners, too. Everybody wins!
When you’re ready to find podcasts you would like to be interviewed on, you can turn to general services like PodMatch that connect podcast hosts with people interested in becoming a guest, or advisor marketing platforms like Wealthtender for introductions to owners of financial podcasts in their community.
5. Get Quoted on Popular Websites and Media Outlets
Another effective way to build authority, strengthen your online reputation and boost your SEO is to get quoted in articles relevant to your areas of specialization and media outlets popular with consumers. Effectively, this content marketing strategy is piggybacking on someone else’s content and you’re along for the ride.
Callout quotes build authority and generate interest with SEO benefits that help you rank higher in search results. Once you’ve been quoted in an article, there are several ways you can turn your feature into a powerful marketing opportunity, including:
- Creating social media posts highlighting your callout quote
- Previewing the article in your newsletter sent to clients and prospects
- Adding the article to your ‘media mentions’ page on your website
- Syndicating (republishing) the article on your own website (ask permission first)
- Sharing the article with COIs in your niche and local reporters
Finding opportunities to get quoted does require a degree of effort, but today it’s easier than ever to uncover opportunities to become a source for articles through services available to advisors and subject matter experts.
For example, financial advisors who sign up for Wealthtender gain opportunities each month to be quoted in articles that strengthen their authority and build their professional brand. Or you can sign up for services like Help A Reporter Out (HARO) or Qwoted to receive emails daily with opportunities to be quoted in articles relevant to your niche or areas of experience.
And when it comes to engaging with the media and local reporters, keep these tips in mind for your strategy to be most effective:
- Be persistent in sending emails to journalists and reporters you want to connect with; Ensure your emails convey your areas of knowledge and specialization where you can offer useful insights their readers will appreciate. Have a contrarian point of view? Express it!
- Many reporters read (or at least skim) every email they receive, so even if they don’t respond, continue to keep in front of them with timely insights, offer your views on recent stories in the news, etc.
- Follow the social media accounts of the reporters you’d like to get to know; Like and respond to their posts; Engage and add to the conversation; Great opportunity to showcase your knowledge
- Remember, reporters, are people, too. Get to know them. Offer to take them out for dinner or drinks so you can get to know each other.
- Reporters are tasked with answering the question “why will my readers care about this?” when writing articles. When reaching out to reporters, think about how you can offer value that addresses this need.
Promoting Your Content
Once your written content is published or a podcast episode featuring you is released, promoting your content proactively is a best practice to ensure your content gets noticed. Whether the content is on your own website or published elsewhere, there are many ways you can improve its visibility and maximize its impact.
For example, creating posts across your social media accounts with links to the content can drive traffic when it’s first published. Think about relevant LinkedIn groups where the content may be valuable to share and Twitter hashtags that could drive additional engagement and sharing.
It’s also valuable to use social media scheduling tools to periodically recycle your social media posts or set reminders to create new posts linking to your content. This can help keep traffic flowing to older articles and can benefit your SEO, too.
Content Marketing Offers Many Benefits for Financial Advisors
No matter which content marketing strategies you decide are best for you, you’re establishing trust with consumers and showcasing your knowledge and ability to help them achieve their financial goals. Unlike traditional sales tactics like cold-calling or knocking on doors, content marketing is a powerful form of inbound marketing, inviting consumers to learn more about you in a very approachable manner.
The world has changed and the way people search for financial advisors has evolved with it. As searching online becomes the leading way that consumers find and research financial advisors, content marketing should become a key part of your overall marketing plan to strengthen your online reputation and boost your SEO.
Related: Four Reasons Consistency is Key in Content Marketing