Your clients and prospects expect high quality financial content marketing.
This content should enable them to learn more about your service offering and whether you can help solve their financial needs.
By adding value through your content, you can enable your audience to determine whether you are the right fit for them.
Good financial content marketing provides prospective clients with prior knowledge before making contact.
This provides a good understanding of their options and what service they require before making contact.
Although, financial content marketing should not stop once someone becomes a client.
It should add value to them throughout the whole client lifespan.
Financial content is also there to add value to you as a company, as it helps with SEO performance.
This is because search engines use the quality of content you produce as a factor in how you rank on their search engine results pages (Serp)
Financial Content Marketing
Old school marketing is often associated with billboards, radio ads, and TV commercials.
Although marketing has developed rapidly into a much more complex animal in recent years.
These “offline” marketing forms are often classified as outbound.
However, there is a significant distinction between online (or digital) marketing. Which is mostly classified as inbound marketing.
Outbound marketing is known for its disruptive advertising nature.
It cuts through something you were doing (e.g. listening to the radio and receiving an offer you didn’t expect or desire).
On the other hand, inbound marketing focuses on putting great content in front of people who are looking for answers.
This is the essence of content marketing for financial services companies.
You first identify the needs and problems of your audience.
Then, you present helpful content to them to address those issues, where they are looking for it.
If, for example, your prospective client is interested in information on how to transfer their pension safely and wisely, you could offer them a blog or PDF guide to help.
But most importantly, it must be found when and where they are researching.
The true power of financial content marketing
Some financial advisers view blogging as unwarranted and time consuming.
But let us tell you this for sure; content marketing is way more than just posting a blog.
Content is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that should not be ignored in 2022.
Your content distinguishes you from your competition.
If your content explores an area in which other firms are not, or even if you simply do it better, you’re going to stand out in the crowded financial market.
Content can also expand your reach.
If you publish original research or an opinion piece on something relevant, who knows where it might end up?
Maybe a top blog or media outlet will take it up and use it.
Your brand will be exposed to more people if this happens.
It also builds trust.
People exposed to great content from financial firms will begin to see them as a trustworthy and credible source.
Don’t forget the SEO benefits.
Search engines look for original, relevant and high-quality content to appear higher in their search results.
You can drive quality and relevant traffic to your site if your content is organically ranked.
Different types of financial content marketing
Content marketing is an important part of any financial marketing plan.
There are many content types that can be helpful to your clients and prospective clients.
Some considerations are:
- White papers. White papers are long-form pieces of written content that provide comprehensive coverage of a particular financial topic.
- Infographics. A graphic that condenses lots of information into one clear and easily understood graphic.
- Videos. Slideshows, voice-overs and background music can be used to create a presentation allowing a particular financial topic to become more digestible.
- PDF guides. A downloadable document that contains text, images, and graphs to help you learn about a particular financial subject.
- Factsheets. A text-based document (usually 1-2 pages) that provides a summary of the market (e.g. a market overview).
- Podcasts. A podcast is an audio file that covers a financial topic (or set of topics) for between 30 and 40 minutes. It may also include guest interviews.
- Paid ads. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other targeted online ads that show to people based on their interests, demographic or what they have searched for.
Establishing a content strategy
How can you create a content marketing campaign that is effective for a financial service firm?
It is important to set clear goals and follow a strategy, just like when investing.
This will help you stay focused and consistent, while maintaining movement in the right direction.
First, set your goals using SMART goals.
Are you looking for publishing partnerships in the next six to twelve months?
Do you want your content focused on improving your search engine rankings?
Stick to your SMART goals by deciding on three or more overarching goals such as these.
Secondly, craft your content strategy.
A roadmap detailing how you will achieve these goals is a great place to start.
This is where you need to set your key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your progress.
This could be as simple as tracking your publishing schedule, e.g. ensuring you publish a blog at least once per week or that each blog contains at least 1,000 words.
You also need to track the engagement of your content.
This could include session duration, page views and conversion rates.
Your target audience is also an important part of your strategy.
What topics are likely to resonate with them?
What financial problems might they face that your content can help solve?
Which type of content would they like – e.g. articles, videos or podcasts?
Set a budget and choose who will create the content.
Do you have capacity in house or need to outsource to a specialist financial marketing agency, such as Opulent Media Group?
It is also important to control quality and ensure compliance when creating financial content – a worry that a collaboration with Opulent Media Group eliminates.
Financial content marketing golden nuggets
One thing for sure is that it can be stressful creating content as a financial adviser.
Although after years of experience in financial marketing, we have some ways to ease the pressure.
When creating content for any financial company, there are hoops to jump.
The first and most important hoop is compliance, but there are others.
Here at Opulent Media Group, we have experience producing content for hundreds of companies in the financial industry.
We therefore know all the challenges marketers face when creating content to promote financial services brands, but also the solutions.
Let’s first discuss the Your money your life (YMYL) and Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness (E-A–T) Google concepts:
Navigating Google’s Financial Adviser E-A-T Content Guidelines
Google took the lead in creating algorithms to search for information that it considered important, such as current affairs, financial and legal advice.
The reason this includes financial advice is simple: bad financial advice has devastating financial consequences for innocent people.
Google no longer wanted to be associated with bad financial information that can negatively impact your life and money.
Therefore, Google now refers to valuable content, such as financial advice, as ‘Your Money, Your Life’ (YMYL) content.
There are three other keywords that are relevant to remember: expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
These characteristics have become Google’s famous E-A-T phrase.
This is a fundamental part of Google’s algorithm and is firmly embedded into Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guide.
Let’s look at it from the perspective of a content creator:
- Expertise – Is the author or source authoritative?
- Authoritativeness – How authoritative is the website and its author? This is decided by back-links, page traffic, and social signals.
- Trustworthiness – How reliable is the source? Deciding factors include how much traffic the source gets, and if they have ever received bad reviews.
Google’s algorithm doesn’t yet have the intelligence to recognise what viable financial advice looks like.
This is why author expertise and authority is paramount when it comes to ranking content.
This is why all top searches such as “how to retire early” are all brands that most would trust and recognise.
This presents a challenge for small financial advisory brands and businesses to tap into the financial sector via organic search.
Although it is possible, it takes time and commitment.
Content Marketing Challenges
A financial website or blog will find it hard to battle for top positions in competition with well known brands, due to strict Google EAT guidelines.
Organic Search
Although it is still possible to create thought leadership for your brand.
We get it, it’s catch 22 and sometimes super frustrating.
But remember that organic search is a marathon, not a sprint.
First, you need to build authority.
Here are some ways to improve your content and offer unique ideas.
- Thought-leadership. By contributing to reputable blogs, publishing a guide or ebook about your service offerings, and establishing a strong social media brand.
- Long-tail keywords. Helping you to find unique topics relevant to your audience.
- Using financial expert content. This will provide a source of additional information and authoritativeness on a wider topic.
- Guest posting. Experts producing content on your website will generate buzz and authority.
- Surveys. Create a survey on a broad topic around industry trends.
- Original research. You can turn research into trends, form partnerships with data and analytics companies.
- Video. Both video and other media allows you to create and share content on your website and social media channels.
Respecting Industry Regulations
False information can quickly lead to financial problems.
This will damage your brand reputation and could even affect your ability to trade.
Financial services are subject to the most stringent regulatory scrutiny when it comes to producing content online, sharing it on social media, and advertising your brand.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), monitors everything on social media, from financial service content to influencers, here in the UK.
What to do
- Make disclaimers to protect your client from legal liability.
- Make sure you implement a well-oiled compliance process.
- Stick with topics that you are familiar with and have experience in.
Finding Knowledgeable Content Creators
We have already highlighted the importance of finding writers who are experts in the financial industry.
The financial world is full of abbreviations and acronyms, and let’s face it, every topic is pretty complex.
This is why it is important for the person writing your content to really know their stuff.
Our Advice
- If you have a budget, work with writers (like Opulent Media Group) to produce high-ranking SERP articles.
- Alternatively, you could hire and train in-house writers.
Time is against you
Financial news and current events are updated daily.
Therefore a week long review of a major story is not what you want.
These frustrations can be magnified when your compliance team wants further days to review.
It is essential to optimise your review process to ensure that you can quickly produce content for any type of financial advice.
This is to ensure that you can be reactive and consistent.
What to do
- Try to speed up review times with your compliance team
- Work with an financial marketing agency, such as Opulent Media Group, with an internal compliance process.
Your target audience
There will be many people in finance with different levels of experience.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by financial jargon and complex financial procedures when reading about topics such as taxes, cryptocurrency, retirement accounts and portfolio investing.
It’s important to simplify content so that it is understandable for all.
However, optimising content for the most loyal readers of your brand is equally important.
To increase the authority and create targeted content for those interested in your firm, you will need to develop an in-depth content strategy.
Our Advice
- Nurture intent through following up with relevant advice, and selling points based upon their engagement history.
- Send this information to your sales team to follow up allowing them to specifically focus on client pain points.
- To attract a wider audience, simplify your top-funnel content.
- Use a CMS to reach customers mid-funnel by providing targeted content based upon their interactions with your site. (Content can then be more complex).
Outdated Content
Outdated content on any website is a waste and can actually have a negative impact on your organic ranking.
It could also lead to legal issues if your content is no longer compliant advice.
What to do
- Remove any content that is out of date or no longer in compliance with regulations.
- Perform a site wide audit with a website crawler, such as Screaming Frog. This should be done at least bi-annually.
- Find out which topics are hot using SemRush, or any other tool that can help you determine which content should be updated or instead disposed of.
- Update your Evergreen content.
Locating Resources
Financial content marketing, as you probably understand by now, is pretty complex.
It can sometimes be hard for smaller firms to justify spending on research and labour, although we believe that content marketing should be part of every financial adviser’s marketing strategy.
If you commit to financial content marketing you’ll definitely see a return on your investment.
Our Advice
- You should set aside time and marketing budget to create long-form content.
- When working with financial agencies such as ourselves, set clear expectations to get the best results.
Conclusion
The results of investing in content marketing can be enormous.
Without engaging with relatable content, how would you communicate with your audience?
Content marketing not only gives your clients and potential clients added value, but also helps boost your organic SEO, build trust and enhance credibility.
Providing both context and valuable information is paramount when it comes to content marketing, especially for the financial world.
Posting at the right time and using targeting techniques are also key factors to consider if you want to ensure your target market has your brand at the forefront of their mind.
Here at Opulent Media, our content creatives are fully immersed in all things financial.
We can build on your brand presence, giving you exposure, recognition, and ultimately generating your quality leads.
Regular content will boost the authority of your website, meaning extra traffic and more conversions.
77% of internet users read blogs and digest content on subjects in which they are interested.
In our eyes, it is therefore essential to produce regular content that actively makes your audience visit your site and ultimately convert into a client.
Our last nugget of advice is to always focus your efforts on a mix of trending and evergreen content to get the best results from your financial content marketing.
Good Luck on your financial content marketing journey!
Please get in touch if you need any further advice.
Read our 30-page comprehensive guide to marketing for financial advisers in 2022 here
