How Financial Professionals Can Use Content Marketing to Stay Competitive

This was originally released on Fintech.ca.

As the advisory business continues to evolve, there is a common theme emerging. Digital adoption is essential to stay relevant and financial professionals that get on board faster will thrive. So how can you differentiate yourself from others and keep up with the pace of FinTech? Content marketing is a great way to show potential clients what you do and also add value to current client relationships while leveraging time. 

Content marketing is about giving away knowledge and providing education to your audience in the hopes that they will be engaged, reach out to get more information and ultimately become a client. The financial advisors that are capitalizing on content marketing are providing small bite-size pieces of content that pique their audience’s interest. It’s essential that you are being authentic and informative and not coming across as giving a sales pitch. So how can you provide a tailored content marketing strategy and have the right people find you? Here are some tips: 

Start with a plan.

When you start to add content marketing to your marketing mix, you need a plan. The first step in creating a successful content marketing strategy is defining the goals and then finding the approach that will help you achieve them. Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can start to focus on how best to make it happen. 

Know your audience.

Who is your ideal client? What are their demographics? Defining your target audience will allow you to customize your content marketing strategy. If you are specialized in helping business owners, your content needs to be relevant to these individuals. What wealth planning opportunities are they most in need of? How do you help other clients that are in similar situations? By completing this exercise, you will be able to post relevant and engaging content that speaks directly to your ideal clients. 

Create your content bank.

Simply posting content because you feel you need to stay relevant won’t lead to new client relationships. Distributing quality pieces that educate your audience on who you are, the types of services you offer and the types of clients you help should be your main focus. Astonishingly, the human brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text and when it comes to explaining complex information you need to deliver information visually to get engagement.

So where are you going to get highly visual content? The big question here is:

Are you going to be a creator or a curator?

Creating content is time-consuming and when someone is a subject matter expert, it can be difficult to simplify the message and make it easy for your audience to understand. The advisory business is time-starved and finding the time to create quality content isn’t possible for everyone. 

Curation on the other hand, if done correctly, can save you time and still allow you to achieve the same results. The key is to find content sources that are reliable, relevant and research-backed. Going one step further and finding content providers that allow you to white-label the content gives you the best of both worlds. It gives you the look and feel as though you created it but allows you to free up time to spend with your clients.

Post consistently.

Consistency is essential when it comes to social media. Decide on a schedule that works for you; maybe it's once a week on Tuesdays at 2PM. Posting at the same time and same day each week will increase the chances that your post will be seen. This has to do with the algorithms that are in place on various platforms. Consistency also leads to more engagement with your audience. Consistent posting will make your content appear more in your audience’s feed and in turn, your followers will be more likely to comment, like and share. 

Listen to your audience and adapt.

Content marketing is a journey, not a destination. It takes consistency and patience to build your audience and keep them engaged. Monitoring your content engagement is key. Are people reacting to what you post? Are they sharing content across their platforms? Start to identify the type of content that receives the most attention and adapt your strategy accordingly.
 
The FinTech landscape is changing quickly and keeping up with the pace is critical. Content marketing is an effective way for financial advisors to connect with prospects and clients but it’s important to remember that the real goal is not just gaining more traffic. To be successful, you need to focus on building trust and relationships with your target audience.