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My five-year-old daughter recently decided that she wants to be a gardener. I took her to the store, where she selected various seeds to begin her new adventure. She thought it was as easy as just planting the seeds in our flower bed. I slowed her down a little bit and explained that we would need to buy some special nutrient-rich soil and start the seeds in an empty egg carton in the house before we moved them out to brave the weather on their own.
Content marketing is incredibly similar. Every time you write a blog, post something on social media, host a webinar or send an email, you’re planting seeds. You’ll have to exercise a little patience, but with proper attention, the harvest will come and you’ll begin to get prospects.
How plentiful that harvest is depends on how well you planted the seeds.
I talk to advisors regularly who struggle with content marketing. They’re writing and publishing, but they’re reaping little to no reward. When I dig around for the source of the problem, I’ve found it comes down to three problems.
1. Their content isn’t focused enough
How to lose: Play it broad
It’s easy to understand the motivation behind playing to a broad audience. If you cast your net wide, you can bring in more fish, right? Well, that might work with fish, but it’s not a great strategy when you’re trying to attract clients.
Have you ever watched a movie or listened to music that was trying to appeal to a mass audience? It probably felt impersonal and generic. You don’t connect with it, and you certainly aren’t interested in seeing or hearing any more of it.
An example of broad advisor content would be a piece explaining financial planning. While that might get some traffic at Investopedia, that’s not where you want to aim.
How to win: Get specific
It would be great if everyone could be your client, but they can’t. If you create catch-all content to try to appeal to everyone, your firm will end up impersonal and generic, which doesn’t appeal to anyone.
Figure out where your specialty lies and zero in on those personas. Then, think about what your personas would search for and write your content around that. No one is Googling “What’s wrong with me if I have a cough?” Online searches are more specific: “What’s wrong with me if I have a cough, chest pain, headache, and swollen glands?” That search might not bring in as many results, but the results are of greater value. Advisors who write specific content are seeing better results.
Take Evelyn Zohlen at Inspired Financial, for instance. Rather than creating generic financial planning and advisory content, her website and blog cater specifically to women in transition.
A financial planning piece for Inspired would talk about how to plan your financial life after a divorce. Or maybe yours would be “Financial planning when a loved one passes/when you want to retire/when you live in Nevada/to minimize your tax burden…”
That content wins because it is specific, focused and appealing.
2. Their content doesn’t contain any meat
How to lose: Take a closed-hand approach to content marketing
The reason content marketing works for advisors is because clients and prospects are worried about their financial future and want to learn how to take care of themselves and their family. When they find an article that helps ease their worries or educates them, they are much more likely to begin building a relationship with that firm. If your information helps them, the next time they have a question, they’ll be more likely to search for your specific advice.
Content marketing is built on answering questions – the problem comes when an advisor worries about “giving away” too much information. They want to attract the prospects, but they don’t want to educate them, fearing that the prospects will take all of their information and invest on their own.
So advisors write content that only half-answers questions, leading the prospect up to the point where they’re about to answer the question, and then abruptly end the article with “Contact us today to learn more,” thinking they’ve hooked the prospect.
Let’s say someone searches for “How much money do I need to retire at 65?” (this is a popular search).
Of course you’re not going to have a specific answer for these people. Their amount depends on a number of circumstances.
A closed-handed answer to this question would say, “The amount you need to retire depends on a number of factors, including your goals, lifestyle, portfolio and much more.” It wouldn’t go into the specifics of how to evaluate each area.
The problem is that this article hasn’t provided any value, and the advisor didn’t become a helpful voice in the midst of Internet noise.
How to win: Become the selfless teacher
Again, content marketing works because it provides education on relevant topics. Advisors are fortunate to be a part of the financial industry because everyone wants to know how to take better care of their money – as opposed to a company that sells tiny cables that needs to get more creative with its content to get people interested.
Write educational content that truly teaches people how to solve their own problems. It might sound counterintuitive, but it works. By providing helpful information, you build a relationship with prospects who keep coming back for more information, creating a bond of trust that keeps you top of mind when they recommend an advisor to friends or need help with their own finances.
Advisors who take on the role of selfless teachers provide in-depth explanations and, if they’re setting that information up properly, find themselves inundated with prospects.
So how would such an advisor answer our question, “How much money do I need to retire at 65?” They still wouldn’t give a specific number, but they would give thorough explanations of the factors involved in such a decision, and plenty of examples to help give a clear understanding.
That content wins because it provides real value to prospects.
3. Their content is focused on the wrong person
How to lose: Focus on you
People come to your website to find out what you can do for them. But all too often, advisors treat their website as their application to the “advisor hall of fame.” They list their certifications, years of experience, awards and more. It’s the equivalent of throwing your resume at someone who just walked into your office to talk about funding their children’s college. If you wouldn’t do that in real life, don’t do it with your website.
How to win: Focus on your prospects and clients
There’s an easy test to see if your website’s focus is in the right place. Open up your homepage, click the “Edit” menu and then click “Find.” In the box that opens, search for second-person pronouns (you, your) and write down how many times they show up. Then search for first-person pronouns (we, our, us) and calculate how many times they show up. If your first-person pronouns outweigh your second-person pronouns, you’re talking about yourself too much, and it’s time for a rewrite.
Ultimately, advisors fill a second role as therapist, helping them work through life’s challenges. Therapists don’t talk about themselves and they don’t sit behind a desk. They remove the barriers to more easily identify with their clients. It should be the same with you and your clients, and that thinking should permeate your content and messaging.
Share your life. Build a relationship.
Talk about yourself, but in a way that allows people to share in your life and your business. Tell them your assistant just had a birthday, or share the story behind your office dog’s name. Don’t talk at people, talk to them.
That content wins because it allows prospects to identify with you and build a strong relationship.
When it comes to your content marketing strategy, take the winning approach: be specific, selfless and focus on your clients.
Jud Mackrill the CEO and founder of Mineral Interactive, a digital consulting, design, video and marketing firm that serves the financial advisory industry with web design, content development, and strategy. He lives in La Vista, Nebraska, with his wife, Kim, and their four children.
Read more articles by Jud Mackrill
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
