As a finance professional, you’re an expert at what you do. You can advise your clients to stay calm when market volatility hits, explain the crucial role of diversification, and provide the reassurance of regular reviews.
You no doubt take this advice into your personal and business finances, too. But you might not know that some of your best investment tips can be transferred into your marketing.
Keep reading for three indispensable pieces of your own financial advice to take into your content creation now.
1. Diversification is key to your content portfolio
When news headlines are dominated by FTSE crashes or Dow Jones falls, you know exactly what to do. You remind your clients that their portfolios are diversified across asset classes, sectors, and geographical regions.
But have you considered the importance of diversifying your content?
Financial articles
Arguably, there are two main types of financial content.
- Topical pieces responding to political and economic crises or regulatory change.
- Evergreen articles, offering advice on perennial issues like Inheritance Tax or retirement planning.
In truth, there are plenty of sub-genres too.
These articles help to position you as the go-to expert on financial matters, but have you considered the potential benefits of covering non-financial topics?
Lifestyle articles
Non-financial, lifestyle articles can cover a wide range of topics, including:
- Health and wellbeing
- World travel
- Culture.
Not only could these topics help to spread your content’s appeal, but you’ll be demonstrating how financial wellbeing and stability feed into all aspects of your clients’ lives.
Team update articles
Your client relationships are likely long-term and built on trust. Your clients will have had plenty of time to get to know you, or their designated adviser, but how well do they know the rest of your team?
When you have a meeting with a new client, you probably don’t start by asking them how much money they have. Instead, you’ll ask about their lives and their family.
It stands to reason that clients will want to know about you too, so use your content to tell them.
You might use “Meet the team” articles to introduce new staff members or keep clients up to date on exam successes and promotions. These stories humanise your company and help to strengthen your client relationships.
2. Conducting regular reviews helps you assess the makeup of your portfolio
Diversifying your portfolio is one thing, but we all know that priorities can change.
Policy changes can affect bond markets at home. World events can trigger huge downfalls in a country’s stocks. And a single social media message can wipe billions from a sector.
That’s one of the reasons why you conduct regular reviews with your clients. As well as offering reassurance that their plans remain on track, you can discuss changes in circumstances and check in with their asset allocation to ensure it still aligns with their goals and risk profile.
You’ll want to show your content the same level of care.
Conducting a content review should help you find out which topics are most popular with your readership. This could inform the type of articles you send out in the future or the advice you give, maybe by identifying a knowledge gap you didn’t know existed.
You might discover that your evergreen “explainer” articles are performing better than market updates. Or that your lifestyle travel piece fell flat.
Try cutting market updates to quarterly and the next time you try a lifestyle piece, consider opting for a health and wellbeing angle.
When we send newsletters on your behalf, your Yardstick Membership includes a monthly management information report, accessible through our portal.
You can easily access open and click-through rates, find your top-performing articles, and see who, if anyone, has unsubscribed. This provides a regular touch point and the chance to constantly review your content.
3. Stay calm, avoid emotional decision making, and speak to the experts
Once you know exactly what you should be writing, it’s time to write it. This bit can be as nerve-wracking for you as tumbling markets are for your clients. So, take your own advice and stay calm.
Writer’s block can strike at any time, and at The Yardstick Agency, we’ve written before about how to overcome it. Only back in April, Liam provided five tips for what to do when you simply can’t write, and they’re perfect to get you started.
But if the words simply won’t come, remember that help is at hand.
Just as you suggest that your clients defer to you, the experts, for help and reassurance, we’re on hand to offer guidance to you.
Get in touch
If you’re finding it hard to take your own financial advice into your marketing, speak to the experts.
Our team of talented writers can help you produce creative content to engage your target audience, so you can concentrate on giving, rather than taking, the financial advice.
Email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300 to learn more.
