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Blogging and video blogging (vlogging) are both crucial for driving leads to your advisory website, but which is better for your firm? In today’s blog, we’re breaking down the differences between the two and finding out which ones you should be using on your own website, if not both!
Why Should You Blog?
So, why do you need to include a blog section on your advisory website?
1. It Drives Traffic to Your Website
Blogging is one of the most important parts of your inbound marketing strategy. When you blog and use the correct keywords that your audience is searching for, it allows for more people to find your content. Maybe they had a specific question about 401(k)s and if you had written a blog about this, then it could show up in the search, therefore leading more traffic to your blog section and ultimately your website.
2. It Showcases You As a Thought-Leader in the Industry
As an advisor, your blog content not only influences someone’s financial well-being but also helps to position your firm as a thought leader in the industry. You want to prove that you really are an expert on this topic, because if a potential client found answers on your site, then they are more likely to pass this information along to other potential clients.
Twenty Over Ten client, Plectrum Advisers serves an incredibly unique niche of freelance musicians, and they often face challenges such as inconsistent income. Writing this type of blog is a great way to address the pain points of your audience and show that you are a thought-leader in the industry.
3. Blogs Allow You to Tell More People Your Firm and Services
Not only do blogs allow you to share information about your business and showcase your firm, but they allow you to share your opinion on specific topics. It answers the questions that your niche is asking and provides information that they can apply to their own financial journey while also showing off your personality. They also tell a story and people are more attracted to narratives, therefore ultimately boosting engagement.
4. Blogging Boosts your SEO Rankings And Online Presence
2020 brought the world to a screeching halt, and as we continue into 2021, connecting online has been more important than ever. In-person meetings have been canceled and so reaching your leads by way of your website is even more important. One way to do this is to blog, which increases your SEO rankings by driving more visitors to your website.
Now that you know a bit more about WHY you should be blogging, the below offer some tips to give your content a leg up.
5 Tips For Blogging
We are constantly discussing the importance of blogging, as it’s such a great way to drive traffic to your advisor website. Even though you may be considering vlogging, it’s important to have an active blog so that you can continue to drive qualified leads to your site while showing that you are a thought-leader in the industry.
When it comes to blogging, some key tips to remember are;
1. Cater to Your Niche
If you provide financial services to a certain niche, then it’s important that you are addressing their pain points in your blog section. Twenty Over Ten client, C.L. Sheldon & Company provides financial planning and wealth management advice to active and retired military members and this is made evident in the blog posts that he creates on his website.
2. Keep It Consistent
Keep your posting consistent and develop a cadence so that your readers start to expect when you will be putting out new content. Try to develop a schedule and stick to it, which can be difficult as things pop-up, however an editorial calendar can help with this. It helps you to plan out topics and when you will be posting them so that you can keep up with your schedule.
Also, don’t forget to share all new posts on social media and routinely reshare old posts as well. This is so important because it’s an additional outlet for your clients and visitors to find your information and reshare themselves if they really enjoyed it, opening your posts up to even more people.
3. Convey Your Personality
Let your visitors get to know you and find out more about who you are by conveying your personality in your posts. Keep it professional, but also show your real and “human” side, as you are looking to form a relationship with your clients by showing that you are trustworthy and “real,” not someone who only discusses business at all times.
Platinum Bridge Wealth Strategies uses videos to convey messages to their audience in an easy to understand and follow way while also showcasing the personality of Chief Planning Strategist, Antwone Harris, MBA, CFP®.
4. Implement a Link-Building Strategy
A strong link-building strategy is so important when it comes to boosting your SEO. The two types of links that you need to include and those are internal links and external links.
INTERNAL LINKING
An internal link is a link that leads to another page on your website, going from one page on your domain to another. When you write blog posts, it’s a best practice to link to other blogs on your website, which not only provides bots with a smooth transition when they crawl your site and find other content but it helps you to utilize older posts, as well.
EXTERNAL LINKING
External links are hyperlinks that target any domain other than the domain where the link already exists. So, if you link out to another website, then this would be considered an external link. It’s important that you are linking to quality sites so that you are seen as more credible and are connecting with reliable and useful resources.
5. Include Images, Videos, Infographics, etc.
You want to create content that is packed with pertinent information, but it’s not just about words, including strong imagery is a great way to not only make the text more digestible but also add relevance to the subject that you are discussing. When you use images, then this will improve the overall user experience which will boost the time spent on a page and ultimately increasing your SEO rankings.
Twenty Over Ten client, WealthKeel, LLC has included a video with the transcript in their blog, “How to Stop Being a HENRY.” Including videos in your blog is a great way to get more information across to your audience, and additionally, your audience can retain up to 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to only 10% when reading it.
How Vlogging Helps your Website
Vlogging is a great addition to blogging, and as you can see above, blogging is incredibly important to your advisor website. However, use video in your blogs as supplements since Google cannot index them, so in order to make sure your content is showing up and ranking, include a summary of the video. You can imbed it onto your website, write some content and include a transcript, as well. Chief Evangelist of FMG Suite and Twenty Over Ten, Samatha Russell makes videos every week, which are included on the blog section of Lead Pilot with the transcript.
4 Things to Consider for Vlogging
When you are first starting to vlog, there are several things to consider that can help you to do this more effectively.
1. Choose a Strong Topic
If you are trying to explain a topic that is in-depth and incredibly detailed, then blogging would be the best route to take. If something has multiple layers and requires a lot of detail, then this would probably get too long for a video. You want to keep your videos short and sweet so that your audience doesn’t leave. If a topic would require a lot of visuals and images, such as graphics, infographics, etc. then vlogging would be a great option.
2. Think About Your Audience
Who are you trying to target? What clients do you serve at your firm? Consider this and then think about how they want to receive their information. In 2020, 70% of millennials watched YouTube in order to learn how to do something new or learn more about a topic that they find interesting. So, if your firm targets millennials, then vlogging may be a great way to reach them. Doing research on your niche to find out how they get content will provide more insight into if you should be blogging or vlogging.
3. What are your Personal Qualities?
Who is going to be creating the content? If you or the team member who is going to be creating the content is an amazing writer, then you should continue to blog, however, incorporating vlogs is still a good idea for boosting rankings and adding more to your content section. If you or a team member is great on camera and can get their point across over video more than blogging, then spend additional time creating vlogs.
4. What Resources are You Using?
Take some time to think about the video you would like to make. While many people think that they have to use expensive equipment, that is no longer the case. You can record your video on your smartphone, add captions with Headliner and then upload your video on a hosting site, and we suggest YouTube. The video below offers up the three quick steps necessary for recording quality videos.
Which Works Best For Your Firm?
Like many things, it depends on your firm and what you are trying to accomplish. What is the topic that you have chosen and who is your audience? What resources do you have available? If you can blog while also vlogging, that would be the best solution, as they supplement each other well. Find a routine and find out what type of posting cadence works best for you and your firm.
Related: 5 Elements Your Advisor Website Is Missing That Are Costing You Revenue