Content Marketing for Financial Advisors

Written By : Clifford Blodgett

Financial advisors face a unique challenge when it comes to marketing their services. As you have probably noticed, people these days tend to be a bit defensive toward advertising in general. And when it comes to placing their hard-earned money in the hands of another? You’re attempting to row upstream without a paddle if you try to “convince” someone that they should choose you to manage their retirement savings.

Yet, as you are well aware, you do have to market yourself, but carefully and creatively, so that you don’t turn off the very people you hope to attract. You need to “sell” without “selling” and this is where financial advisors can utilize content marketing to improve their marketing results.

What is content marketing for financial advisors?

Content marketing is a strategy in which you consistently create and distribute information (content) which is valuable and relevant to your intended audience. The idea is to communicate with your clients and prospective clients without the intention of selling them anything. The focus is placed on your audience and developing a relationship with them, rather than making blatant attempts to herd them through your office doors.

How does that work?

What we know about consumer behavior is this: People buy products or utilize services from companies that they know, like, and trust. If you’re hoping to convince someone to use your services without first your dedication, you’re going about the process backwards.

Content marketing helps you to show the dedication and in doing so, leads your prospects to deciding on their own that they need the services you provide. In the process, your willingness to provide this information at no obligation builds your credibility.

So how do I utilize content marketing to grow my practice?

You’re probably already using one form of content marketing in your practice. If you have ever hosted a free Social Security seminar then you have conducted offline content marketing. Think for a moment how this process transpired…

• You identified an audience and developed a program (content) that was valuable to them.
• You invited people to attend no obligation meeting.
• You didn’t try to “sell” them anything but rather provided value that was intended to make the audience come to their own conclusion that they could benefit from your review. This fostered a relationship and customer loyalty.
• Bonus: At the seminar you gathered contact information such as phone numbers or email addresses and now you can pursue further contact with them.

Your online content marketing efforts take on the same action steps and goals. Through clever use of your blog, social media platforms, and email, you can accomplish many of the same results as a live seminar. One major difference, however, is that you can outsource this task to professionals in order to leverage your time.

If you’ve ever found yourself wishing for better results from your website or social media tools, then a strong content marketing campaign in the next step.

Stay tuned for future articles on this topic to learn more about starting, maintaining, and evaluating your content marketing efforts.

FOR INSURANCE PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC 14191 – 2015/3/5

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing