Content marketing is one of the best lead generation strategies for financial advisors who want to grow their financial planning firm without paying for ads.
With the right content marketing strategies, you can:
- Position your firm as an expert
- Stand out from other advisors
- Generate leads for free from search engines
- Convert more leads into appointments and clients
- Retain existing clients for longer
For over a decade, I’ve been helping financial advisors, insurance agents and wealth managers use content marketing to generate leads and clients.
Here are my best financial advisor content marketing strategies to grow your firm.
Key Points / Summary
- Define your target audience and their pain points
- Develop a content strategy aligned with your business goals
- Create a variety of high-quality, educational content
- Leverage social media and email marketing for distribution
- Repurpose and optimize your content for maximum reach
- Measure and analyze your content marketing efforts
- Stay compliant with industry regulations
To learn more about implementing these tips effectively, watch this video here.
How To Grow Your Firm with Content Marketing
Here are the best content marketing strategies to grow your firm as a financial advisor:
1. Focus on quality over quantity
Content marketing (when done correctly) isn’t just about pumping out content nonstop. As a financial advisor, you don’t have time to create content all day, and quite frankly, creating lots of content isn’t the key to success with content marketing.
I have spoken to many financial advisors who have spent years creating content without generating a single client from it. In contrast, my financial advisor clients create less content each month, but they actually generate leads and clients from it.
How?
It’s all about quality over quantity.
If you create the right kind of high-quality content, you can get more results by doing less work.
What kind of content do you need to get results?
You need to create articles or videos that directly contribute to generating leads and converting leads into clients. I call this “Money Content”.
To learn how to create this type of content, see ‘Step 4’ of my Free Masterclass training here.
2. Answer questions that solve problems
One of the best types of content you can create as a financial advisor is content that answers questions your potential clients ask.
Why does this content work so well?
- It usually has lower competition on search engines, making it easier to rank.
- The more specific the content is, the better it converts.
- This type of content positions you as an expert.
Some examples of content you create include:
- What is the best annuity for retirement? (good for advisors who sell annuities)
- How can I protect my wealth in retirement?
- What are the best retirement strategies for income?
- How to retire with $500K
- How much does a $1 million annuity pay per month?
If you’d like to learn how to create content that converts prospects into clients, click here to watch my free Masterclass training.
3. Have calls-to-action in your content
Have you noticed how, throughout this article, there have been links (like this one) taking you to my sales funnel? This is done to generate leads.
One of the biggest mistakes I see financial advisors make is spending countless hours creating content without having good calls-to-action to generate leads.
What do they do instead?
Most advisors add links to their contact page from their content. However, the problem is that only 1% of people will fill out your website contact form. On the other hand, if your call-to-action sends prospects to a sales funnel, you can generate 5%, 10%, 20% or more leads from that same content!
So, in your blog or YouTube videos, ask yourself: do you have links to your funnel or a contact page? There’s nothing wrong in having links to a contact page, but for best results, make sure you link to a funnel that is specifically designed to get appointments as well!
To learn how to create a high-converting funnel that generates leads and appointments, see ‘Step 3’ of my free Masterclass training.
4. Focus on blog & video content
If you want to grow your financial advisor firm with content marketing, you must focus on creating content that generates more clients.
To do this, I recommend you use the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) in your content marketing.
The Pareto principle states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work.
So, instead of spending hours creating podcasts, shorts, reels, etc., which only contribute to 20% of your results, it would be better to focus on creating blogs and videos that contribute to 80% of your results.
Blogs work well because they allow you to get clients for free from SEO. Videos work well because you can upload them to YouTube and get leads from the YouTube search engine.
To learn how to get leads for free from SEO & YouTube, see ‘Step 4’ of my free Masterclass training.
4. Create unique content
A big mistake financial advisors make with content marketing is to buy (or license) generic content for their website. Generic content is bland, boring and often repeated by many other firms.
It’s appealing to many advisors because they can buy hundreds of articles or videos in bulk. However, the problem is that this content is not unique. And if you want to create content that ranks higher on search engines, the content must be unique.
This is non-negotiable.
Search engines like Google will not rank your website or YouTube videos if the content is not unique. As a result, your content will not be seen by anyone, and you won’t be able to get more clients from your content (which is the whole point of content marketing in the first place!).
To create unique content, you can use
5. Use AI to help you
Google updated its content guidelines, stating that it doesn’t mind if you use AI to help you write content, as long as the content is helpful.
This is great news because it means you can use AI to help you write content and save time.
However, it’s important that you use AI the right way.
You can’t just use ChatGPT, ask it to create content and copy and paste it to your website. That won’t work.
Instead, you can use AI writing tools like DASH to help you write the content. And then (this is the important part) you need to edit the content with your unique thoughts and experiences.
If you do this, you’ll be able to quickly create unique, helpful content.
I explain how to use AI to create content (the right way) in my lead generation online course.
6. Use AI chatbots on your content
A great way to get leads from your blog content is to use AI chatbots on your financial advisor website.
However, it’s important not to use generic AI chatbots.
You must use AI chatbots trained on your company data for the best results. As a result, it can answer questions your prospects ask based on the data from your blog and YouTube videos.
You can try the AI chatbot on this page for a real-life example of how it all works.
Using AI chatbots is one of many AI lead-generation tools you can use to get better results from your content marketing strategy.
7. Share content with leads and clients
Once you’ve created high-quality content for your financial advisor blog or YouTube channel, it’s important to share it on places such as social media or through email marketing.
In my experience, I’ve found sharing content through email marketing works best for financial advisors.
My advisor clients do this by repurposing any YouTube or blog content they create into a short email. Then, if people want to read more (or watch more), they can click on a link in the email to go to the full article (or video).
This helps you to:
- Build trust with existing clients
- Convert leads into clients
- Give your content a boost in views
You can also share content on social media, but just keep in mind your reach will be limited unless you do paid advertising.
8. Create content regularly
It’s important to create content regularly if you want to see results from your content marketing strategy.
As a financial advisor, you’re busy. I get it.
Your job is to provide financial advice, not to create content.
However, the reality is that content marketing is an essential digital marketing strategy for financial advisors. If you want to grow your firm and become a successful financial advisor, you need to create content.
So, the key to doing this effectively is to be balanced.
Don’t create too much content to the point it becomes overwhelming. And don’t create too little content where it doesn’t make a difference in your results.
So, what’s the right amount of content to create as a financial advisor?
My clients have found that creating 1-2 pieces of content each week works best. If you can do more, great. But as a minimum, aim to create at least 1 unique high-quality piece of content each week.
Tip: Batch your content to save time. For example, you can spend a day recording multiple YouTube videos and then spread them out over the next few months.
9. Measure your results
To ensure the effectiveness of your financial advisor’s content marketing strategy, it’s crucial to measure and analyze your efforts regularly. However, instead of tracking “vanity metrics” like engagement or shares, I would focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your business revenue goals, such as:
- Website traffic
- Leads
- Appointments
- New clients
Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your website’s performance over time. Keep an eye on which content performs best for your firm and then double down on creating more of that type of content.
For example, if you find your annuity content is resonating well with people, then create more annuity related content.
Review and analyze your content marketing data regularly to identify areas for improvement and optimization. Adjust your digital marketing strategy and continuously refine your approach to achieve better results.
Key points:
- Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with your business goals
- Utilize analytics tools to track website performance and audience behavior
- Regularly review and analyze data to identify areas for improvement
10. Stay Compliant with Industry Regulations
As a financial advisor, ensuring that your content marketing efforts comply with industry regulations and guidelines is essential.
Familiarize yourself with the rules and requirements set forth by regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Implement processes to review and approve your content before publishing, ensuring it adheres to compliance standards. As required by regulations, disclose any potential conflicts of interest or disclaimers.
Attend industry events and webinars or consult with compliance professionals to stay current on changes in regulations and best practices. Maintaining compliance not only protects your business but also builds trust and credibility with future clients.
Key points:
- Familiarize yourself with industry regulations and guidelines
- Implement processes for content review and approval
- Stay up-to-date with changes in regulations and best practices
Conclusion
Content marketing is a powerful tool for financial advisors to establish expertise, build trust with potential clients, and grow their businesses.
By implementing these content marketing tips, you can create a comprehensive and effective content strategy that resonates with your target audience, positions you as a thought leader, and ultimately drives business growth.
If you need further guidance or assistance implementing these content marketing strategies, watch this video here.
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners with lead generation. Ash specializes in helping businesses get high-quality leads, appointments and clients each month with automated digital marketing strategies. Learn more about the author here.
