I was reading an article in Risk Info last week which encouraged financial advisers to embrace content marketing. You can check out the article here, and I’ve also copied it below:
Advisers Should Embrace Content Marketing
Advisers should invest in content marketing in order to achieve greater cut-through with their promotional activity, according to marketing expert Claudio Pannunzio.
Mr Pannunzio, President of US-based financial services marketing firm i-Impact Group, explains that content marketing involves the creation and dissemination of original and useful content aimed at educating key audiences, rather than just promoting a product or service.
“The ultimate goal of content marketing is to provide information on a proactive and ongoing basis; information that the target audience finds valuable and that ultimately positions the adviser as a trusted professional,” he said. “In essence, your clients and prospects engage in conversation with you before you even know they are interested in your services.”
However, Mr Pannunzio warned that it is not simply enough to create content, the marketing material must also prompt action.
“This could be by simply downloading your newsletter, signing up for a seminar/event, accessing significant articles or white papers or becoming your advocates,” he said.
I 100% agree with Mr Pannunzio on the importance of content marketing, but in my experience most financial advisers are still way behind.
There are quite a few clients who I regularly write financial content for, but the vast majority of them are not financial professionals.
Most of my clients are website owners with no financial qualifications or experience. Instead, they are smart and forward-thinking entrepreneurs who can see the money making potential from generating leads for financial advisers and mortgage brokers who cannot generate leads of their own.
It amazes me that financial advisers are willing to pay between $50 and $100 per life insurance lead, adding up to thousands per month in some cases, but they are not willing to invest in their own lead generating websites.
I do get the occasional financial adviser who will contact me looking for content, but unfortunately most of them have been time wasters. I hate to say it, especially since I love the financial advice industry so much, but most advisers who have contacted me about content just carry on about their big plans without ever going ahead with them.
It has gotten to the point where I tell some financial advisers that I simply don’t have any spare capacity to provide content to them, because I know they are just going to waste my time anyway. Unfortunately they’re also wasting their own time.
For the small minority of advisers who are embracing online and content marketing properly, the rewards over the coming years will be huge. For those who fail to do so, they will be paying the rest of us for leads for the rest of their working lives.
Shane,
I agree. Sadly for most of his competitors, Andy Lark the CMO at Commonwealth Bank has blogged recently about the importance of content marketing. So Commonwealth are full speed ahead even if some of their competitors are not.
Julian.
Yes agree with you Julian – Commonwealth Bank totally get it, so much so in fact they have recently hired a team of 12 ex-jounos and content writers to churn out content.
They are way ahead of the pack
Larry
That’s very interesting Larry. There is certainly no shortage of print journalists out there who are worried about their job security, so the timing couldn’t be better for them.
Unfortunately for an independent financial planning or insurance broking firm it isn’t sustainable to hire a single blogger, let along a crack team of ex-journalists.
But as I’ve written in the past, virtually all finance professionals have some ability to produce their own content. It’s just a matter of giving it a go and putting it out there.
How can we when compliance departments make it impossible? This is just more evidence that the big institutions will take over life insurance distribution.
They own the dealer groups and direct their compliance departments to not allow content marketing by their advisers, then go hammer and tongs with content marketing for their direct channels.
Hi David. It’s disappointing to hear that, but I’m not entirely surprised.
If your current dealer group is making it difficult for you to publish you own content, then I would recommend finding a more progressive dealer group.
Plenty of advisers and brokers are taking advantage of content marketing with the blessing of their dealer group or licensee, so don’t let yours stand in front of you.
People do get scared of the compliance implications, but the main thing is to make sure that your content contains factual information that doesn’t cross the personal advice or recommendation line.