So you’ve written (or purchased) a blog and posted it to your website. Now what?
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how many
financial advisorsI see who make the mistake of stopping at this step.Yes, it is true that your website is where your blog belongs. But realistically, how many people are going to see it here if you don’t let them know it is available? Far fewer than the number that would if you published it, shared it, and disseminated it in the places that matter.People who are willing to pay for your advising services are missing out on the awesome, life-changing
content available on your site and you are
missing out on primo prospect-nurturing opportunities.Your Blog Is Useless (If You Don’t Share It)Your blog is useless if people don’t read it. This is a logical statement, but surprisingly, one that is easily forgotten.Don’t get me wrong. I get it! The process is time consuming. After the hours it has taken you to write the first draft, proofread it, pick out accompanying graphics, insert the appropriate
backlinks, and transfer that draft into your website, you’re probably already up to your eyeballs in new emails, voicemails, and staff requests. The last thing you want to do is open a bunch of web pages and copy and paste and write captions and re-proofread and hashtag and on and on.But, committing the extra time to publishing, sharing, and disseminating your blog articles to the people that matter will be worth the effort. Because if you aren’t doing these things, you truly aren’t getting your time or money’s worth.
The Action Plan:
1)Publish to Your Website: Your website is your blog’s permanent home, so naturally you’ll want to publish the article here first. This is actually one of the blog’s main benefits:
driving traffic back to your advisor site. But in order to drive traffic back, we’ve got to share the blog link with our target audience.
2)Share the Link to Social Media: Now that our blog has a permanent home (the website) and address (the URL or link), we can share it to
social media. Not only does this allow non-website visitors to read our awesome work, but also directs them back to our site. If they like what they see, they may be prompted to stay a while and look around.ProTip:Don’t underestimate the power of
hashtags in your social post to increase your article’s exposure with users who aren’t in your network. Google the top hashtags relevant to your target audience and include a few of them in the caption for your post.
3)Disseminate Through Email: Ask any marketer you know about the
Return on Investment (ROI) of email marketing and you’ll get the same answer: it’s untouchable with a
4400% ROI. Emails are intimate, yet non-obtrusive. They stay in a subscriber’s inbox, available for them to read at their leisure, until they so choose to do so. After all, you never know when or why someone might open your email. It could be because they are genuinely interested in what you have to say, or because you crafted a super compelling
subject line. But if we’re being honest, how many times have you opened an email that only seemed half-interesting because you were bored? Maybe you were waiting at the doctor’s office or sitting in car line at your child's school when suddenly your dentist’s newsletter (which is usually about as painful to read as getting a root canal) started looking pretty appealing.Related:
It’s a Marathon! Why Consistency in Advisor Content Marketing is CrucialBut let me give you some more interesting information: even when a subscriber doesn’t open your email, chances are they’re still seeing it. Your
consistent presence in their inbox is burning an indelible impression on their brain. And you’re demonstrating to your subscribers that engaging with them is worth your time and effort. So even if you’re open rate isn’t always what you’d like it to be, the mere fact that you continue to show up is making an impact.
Mailchimp,
Myemma, and
Constant Contact are all popular advisor choices for email marketing. Mailchimp tends to dominate for advisors new to email marketing because the service is free up to 2,000 subscribers and allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month. Once you outgrow the free option, paid subscription packages are available.Ready for More?This list in no way exhaustive, but at a very minimum will help to increase your exposure and drive more traffic back to your advisor site. To learn even more ways to get the most bang for your blogging buck, shoot me an
email and we can discuss which blogging strategies will be the most effective for your firm.
