One of the most important components to successful marketing is finding accurate and engaging content to share with your readers. This goes beyond sharing your thoughts on the market and what is going on in your firm, but sharing articles of interest with your clients and prospects that spark engagement and start a conversation.
I recently had a client ask me the question below. I realized that this is a problem that most advisors face, so I wanted to share my answer with all of you.
Question
Where can I find the best content to drive engagement? I’m not looking to provide market commentary. It would be great if I could customize it with our brand but not have to rewrite any of the content.
Answer
There are a few options. Each one has its benefits and drawbacks.
Content Services
Before I go into detail about a few of the more popular choices, I need to explain that with each of these options you do not own the content. You pay a fee to have the ability to use the content. Some may let you add your biography or branding to the content, but you are limited on what you can do with it. Thousands of advisors are paying for the same content and also sharing it on their platforms.
FMG Suite
FMG Suite is a custom-crafted marketing system that has a mix of content, tools and support. They do some things better than others, but one thing that they do very well is provide a content library that is compliance-ready and appropriate for every audience. Topics range from retirement to investing and come in different formats such as videos, articles and multimedia.
The major disadvantage to FMG Suite is that their packages are set up so that you are required to pay for the website tool no matter what you use. They do not offer an option to purchase just access to their library.
Marketing Pro
Marketing Pro was recently bought by FMG suite, but they still offer several services separately. One of them is its Marketing Library. The Marketing Library contains various types of content, all written by financial copywriters. They have everything from shareable social media posts and market updates to various guides and articles. They also offer an email tool within the system, but it is not as flexible as other independent options.
Broadridge / Advisor Solutions
Broadridge offers several comprehensive package options, but they also offer individual services. Some of these services include email and social marketing, print marketing and newsletters, and eNewsletters. They have a wide variety of content pieces covering various topics available in different formats. Their content is written by in-house financial subject-matter experts.
Bob Veres’ Client Letters
Bob Veres provides 4-6 professionally-written articles that you can send to clients every month. At the end of each quarter, and at the end of each year you get a review of the performance of the different asset classes, plus commentary.
Crystal Marketing Solutions Content
Custom Content
My firm, Crystal Marketing Solutions, also offers articles and an email newsletter crafted specifically for my clients. The content is ghostwritten by my staff and used only for CMS clients. We have provided topics from estate planning to IRAs to investing. Here is an example of one of our client’s email newsletters containing CMS created content.
Flexible Email Options
All CMS clients use either MailChimp or Constant Contact as their email service provider. This allows us to have the greatest flexibility when setting up emails. We set up A/B testing, track the statistics, and work to enhance the newsletter depending on the activity of your mailing list. This helps to improve your open and click-through rates and drive and engage your audience.
Your Own Newsletter
You always have the option to use those same (or similar) tools and create your own newsletter. A simple way to accomplish this without all of the bells and whistles is to have an RSS feed set up that sends emails to your subscriber list each time you post a new blog. This helps you to stay top-of-mind for your readers.
If you are interested in having CMS work with you to help you curate content from a service or even have us create some custom content for you, please reach out and let me know how we can help.
Download a free copy of the Financial Advisor Content Marketing & Optimization Guide here.
Sometimes content marketing can seem like an overwhelming task to undertake on your own. This is exactly what we do for our clients! We help create and select the right content, optimize it so it is reaching the right people, and handle the scheduling to ensure it is as far-reaching as possible. Let us help you get a handle on the whole process by scheduling a discovery meeting today.