You know how to write great content of all types, but what do you do with it? In the not-so-distant past, financial professionals needed to rely on printed materials, such as brochures and booklets sent through the U.S. mail, to get information in the hands of potential clients. Now you can deliver your best tips, advice, and insights with a few simple clicks.
In part eight, Why Your Financial Advisor Content Strategy Needs a Schedule & How to Create One, of The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Financial Advisors, I went into detail about how to optimize your content for search engines so people can find your website organically online.
Now it is time to learn about the importance and logistics of sharing your content with your readers in the most effective ways.
To promote your financial services using content marketing, start by harnessing the power of your own website, social media, and email marketing tools.
Financial Advisor Website Content
First, publish content on your own website. Every article you write and create should be posted on your blog.
Your website is the hub for all your online marketing. Think of it as a destination where readers can find the best content for topics relevant to financial planning. The trick is to create a value-packed resource that becomes magnetic, pulling potential clients to your company whenever they need help from a financial professional.
Posting content on your website builds your authority, boosts your site’s ranking in the search engines, generates traffic, and drives leads. You have control of the content on your website, so it can become a powerful marketing tool for you, especially as you gather data and insight about your readers.
Google Analytics will tell you which blog post topics are most popular and how people are using your site, which provides guidance on what your potential clients want from you and how to improve your content marketing.
How Often to Update Website Content
Post new content on your website once a month at the very least, but ideally once a week. As a small financial services firm, posting new content on your website more than once per week is probably overkill. You’re better off maintaining a consistent schedule than burning out with an overly aggressive publishing schedule.
Although posting original content up to once per week may be difficult, you can always repurpose existing content or utilize outside resources. Hire a marketing firm or ghostwriter to create high-quality content for you if you prefer not to spend your time writing.
Time Saving Tip
You can always batch content and schedule it ahead of time. If you think writing and posting a weekly blog post will bog you down, set aside one day per month to write a series of posts. Then load them to WordPress or your content management system as drafts and set them to publish automatically on a particular date and time.
Financial Advisor Social Media Content
Every time you publish an article, it should be shared with your social media accounts. You worked hard to pull this information together, so let the content work for you to gain visibility and grow your credibility and audience online. Once content has been posted to your website, you can easily share links to it on your social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Social media is a great place for financial advisers to draw attention and generate buzz. When your friends, followers, connections, and clients engage with your content by liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it, even more people will see it. The more people engage with your content on social media, the more the various social network algorithms will serve the content up to a wider audience.
Even though your posts probably won’t go viral, you can still take advantage of the viral nature of social media as clicks, shares, and likes gain you more exposure.
Something you might not realize is you can share the same content on your social media many times without overwhelming or annoying followers. Most people are not paying close enough attention to notice when you’re sharing it more than once; the majority of your audience will miss it the first time. Plus, you probably have different followers on different networks.
If you have a new article, don’t shy away from sharing that content repeatedly throughout the week on each platform. If it is an evergreen topic (one that is always relevant), you can put it in the rotation to share in the future. You can also switch up your images, overlaying different quotes pulled from the article.
How Often to Update Social Media Content
Post to social media platforms daily. Each social network has a different rhythm. You can share on Twitter multiple times throughout the day, whereas you will annoy LinkedIn connections if you post more than once a day. Become familiar with best practices by observing and you will get into the right flow with when to share your content.
Content can be varied. You can choose to curate relevant content from industry publications and share it two-three times per week, mixed in with your own original content. You should also continuously circulate your older evergreen content along with more timely fresh content.
Time Saving Tip
You can use free or low-cost social media tools, such as Hootsuite or Buffer, to plan, schedule, and automate your content sharing in advance.
Once you’ve shared new evergreen content, also add it to a social media automation tool such as Edgar to automatically recirculate it and share it repeatedly in the future. For example, if you share new wealth building tips every Wednesday, you can add your new wealth-building article to the queue and it will be automatically shared on Wednesdays several more times throughout the year.
Financial Advisor Email Marketing
The next step in delivering your content to your readers is to share it via email in a newsletter or update. Obtain permission from each of your subscribers before emailing them, otherwise, your email could be reported as spam. Email programs like Constant Contact and MailChimp make it easy for even the least technically inclined users to create professional looking newsletters and mailings.
Share links to your blog articles in a newsletter. This is a huge value add to your audience. It gives you the avenue to get your content in their hands without having to wait for them to find it on their own through your website or social media. It also helps keep you “top of mind” when they start thinking about financial services and has the potential to establish you as their go-to expert.
As a financial advisor, you have to comply with regulatory rules. Not only are you required to keep your message above board, but you must archive all posts in case problems or issues arise with a client. All such activity and associated content must be kept on hand for three years.
How Often to Send Email Marketing Content
I recommend sending an email newsletter with your blog content once a week, twice a month, or at least once per month. You might think sending a weekly newsletter is too much but if the information you’re sharing is truly helpful or timely, your readers will welcome it.
A quarterly mailing works well for mailed print newsletters, but that is not frequent enough for an email newsletter. When people have forgotten who you are, they’re less likely to open an email from you and more likely to mark it as spam.
Regardless of how often you publish, establish a regular email marketing schedule and stick to it.
Time Saving Tip
An email newsletter does not have to be a big production with a wide variety of content. Simply share a blog article with a short personal note introducing it. You also don’t have to share your most timely or recent content. Some firms load and schedule up to a year’s worth of email newsletters at a time.
Conclusion
Marketing is about creating and sharing content. Take advantage of the technology and free to low-cost tools available for sharing content with your readers. From turning your website into a magnetic content hub that generates traffic and leads to sharing with your social media audience to sending email newsletters, put your content to work for you.
Download a free copy of the Financial Advisor Content Marketing & Optimization Guide here.
Sometimes content marketing can seem like an overwhelming task to undertake on your own. This is exactly what we do for our clients! We help create and select the right content, optimize it so it is reaching the right people, and handle the scheduling to ensure it is as far-reaching as possible. Let us help you get a handle on the whole process by scheduling a discovery meeting today.