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6 must-see examples of great content by advisers

Last week I wrote about the importance of advisers producing great financial content to engage and inform potential clients, whilst demonstrating their own knowledge and expertise.

Essentially there are three types of financial content:

Written: blogs, articles, white papers, reports, guides, press columns and even books (more of that later)
Audio: Principally podcasts
Visual: Video and animation

The options you choose depend on the audience you want to reach, what you feel comfortable doing (not everyone likes to be in front of the camera), your budget and the time available.

I’ve written before about the characteristics of effective financial content. But you can’t beat practical examples. So, over the next three weeks, I’ going to showcase some of the advisers producing great content.

Starting this week with written pieces.

Before I do though, please take my thoughts in the spirit they are intended. This isn’t a scientific survey, just me giving examples of great content to get you thinking. Please also let me apologise now, to anyone I have overlooked and point out that none of the firms mentioned are our clients!

Click the green links, or the images…

Genius With Money www.geniuswithmoney.co.uk

I really admire Adam Carolan’s work; especially the NextGen Planners project.

His own content, which sits on a separate blog, is equally effective. Regularly updated, incredibly useful, it’s a great example of how you can be in control of your own content.

It’s well targeted at Adam’s niche and innovative too. Headlines such as: “5 reasons you shouldn’t hire a financial planner in 2017” will certainly increase the readership; as will the well-chosen images.

Magenta Financial Planning www.magentafp.com/blog/

This is quite a new website, so doesn’t have the depth of content that others do. But if they carry on the way they’ve started, it’s only a matter of time before a valuable bank of articles have built up.

I love the mix of finance related articles and personal opinion; the “3 things Magenta learnt this week” is great. It really does inject some personality into the blog section and compliment the other articles well.

The Time Bankwww.thetimebank.co.uk/blog

Not advisers, but nevertheless, their content is superb.

It’s held on their website and regularly lands in my inbox as a newsletter. I make a point of reading and sharing it with others. I always learn something; I’d imagine advisers feel the same way.

There’s never a sales message either, just high-quality, useful content, written in an easy style. It’s a perfect example of how to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, whilst adding value.

Cervello Financial Planning www.cervellofp.co.uk

Quality writing is crucial, but so is consistency of output. When I visit the Cervello website, run by Chris Daems, I’m offered 167 articles; that’s a mighty impressive level of output.

The quantity is matched by the quality. It’s varied, informative, very easy to read and often quite personal. Chris covers subjects I’ve not seen written about on other adviser’s sites.

He ticks another box too; the images used to accompany his blogs are great and clearly carefully chosen.

Finally, there’s a useful e-book visitors can sign up to as well.

Informed Choicewww.icfp.co.uk

No article about content would be complete without a mention of Informed Choice.

The ‘Recent Insights’ section of their website is regularly updated by Martin and Nick Bamford, as well as other members of their team. The content is great too, dealing with traditional issues and some trickier, yet very interesting topics: “Would you date someone with debt?”

Martin also regularly contributes to both the personal finance and trade press. Again, often tackling thorny issues; his recent piece giving an alternative view of SJP being a great example.

Finally, there’s a page of books they have written.

The content produced by Martin and the Informed Choice team is superb and positions them perfectly as financial experts, prepared to unselfishly share their knowledge.

The Financial Wellbeing Bookwww.financialwell-being.co.uk

Written by Chris Budd, with all proceeds going to charity, this shows that content doesn’t have to be published online to be effective.

The book is aimed at helping people create a financial plan that’s based on what makes them happier, not just wealthier. It looks at ways people can spend money to increase wellbeing, from buying experiences, not stuff, to how to bring your ideal future closer.

The book also promotes the benefits of using a financial planner, but doesn’t push Chris’ firm. In fact, I know advisers who have bought copies for their clients.

Not only is it brilliantly written, it’s beautifully printed too and has raised thousands of pounds for charity.

Click the links, have a read, get inspired

I hope you’ve found these examples interesting and thought provoking. And who knows, inspiring too.

Next week it’s podcasts. In the meantime, please do visit the websites we’ve highlighted, they are producing great content and should be recognised for their efforts. If you need help with financial content then please get in touch.

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