Words have power. That’s why financial firms should care about the copywriting that goes into their adverts and wider marketing. This could make the difference between getting no impressions, clicks and conversions or getting the best results you could hope for.
Finding the best words to use in your financial firm’s advertising is not easy, however. Not only do you need to think about the message and tone of voice, but you are typically constrained by compliance from your regulator and character limits from the advertising platform.
Fortunately, there are many ways to include some great financial copywriting techniques within your advertising. Here at CreativeAdviser, our financial marketing specialists offer eight suggestions to aid your thinking on this important subject.
We hope you find these tips helpful. If you’d like to take the next step, then we also invite you to book a free consultation with us if you’d like to discuss your campaign with a member of our team.
#1 Highlight distinguishing features
There are thousands of other financial firms advertising their services in the online sphere. What should lead a prospect to be attracted to your advert over this multitude of alternatives? Here, you’ll need your copywriting skills to help make your advert stand out.
Do you specialise in a particular audience or financial product/service? Is there something unique about your approach to financial planning or your fee structure which people might find appealing or interesting? Spell those out in your copy.
#2 Hold out a special offer
Is there something valuable and rare which you could hold out as a limited offer? Here, your financial copywriting could hold out a free trial for a service which is normally quite expensive, or limited only to a select few people. These sorts of offers can be powerful in a headline – drawing the viewer’s eye from other adverts in the search engines or website sidebars/banners.
#3 Use a clear CTA
Your call to action (CTA) needs to be enticing, actionable and easy to understand. This is where your financial copywriting can be tremendously effective. Rather than writing something unappealing and commonplace such as “join our newsletter”, consider a CTA such as “Get exclusive content shared only with subscribers, here”.
#4 Make it timely
What’s going on in the wider world that you can tap into with the financial copywriting in your advert? At the time of writing, for instance, the world is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are worried about their health, jobs and wider financial security. A great advert, therefore, could speak directly to these fears (provided it is done sensitively and tastefully) – offering a solution in the form of financial planning, investment advice or other useful services.
#5 Integrate with your pillar page
One of the biggest mistake financial planners can make with their digital advertising is to direct users to an irrelevant, unspecific pillar/landing page after their advert is clicked on. If the copy in your advert is talking about inheritance tax advice, for instance, is it really the best experience to simply direct the user to your homepage? It would be better to send them to a specific page on the topic.
#6 Keep mobile in mind
Most likely, you will be creating the copywriting and creative for your financial adverts on a desktop computer. This is fine, but bear in mind that many – if not most – of your audience will see them on a mobile or tablet device. Be careful, therefore, to ensure your financial copywriting still works effectively on these platforms and screen sizes before pushing the “publish button”.
#7 Monitor your rivals
Think you’ve got a great idea for the financial copywriting in your adverts? That’s great. Be mindful, however, that it’s not just your prospects who are likely to notice. Your competitors might do too.
Quite often when you run a search in Google for a financial planner, two or three adverts appear at the top of the search results which have very similar headlines and body copy. This makes it hard for the user to tell them apart. This goes to show why it’s important not to simply take a “set it and forget it” approach to the financial copywriting in your adverts. Be careful to monitor both your own ads and those of your competitors. Change things where necessary to ensure you keep standing out.
#8 Use personalisation where possible
One of the great advantages of email marketing for financial advisers is that you can tailor the opening line to the addressee (i.e. “Dea John…”). Whilst the technology is not there yet to do this within digital advertising such as Google Ads, you can still go a long way to ensure a high degree of personalisation within your financial copywriting.
One tool to consider, for instance, is Google’s Customer Match tool. This allows you to be much more specific with your ad copy. Suppose someone just joined your financial newsletter, which offers a free financial coaching session. With a tool like this, you could personalise the Google Ad to show the user a headline and call to action which promotes this offer to them again – rather than simply showing them the same copy they first saw when they were initially a prospect.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has given you a taster into the power of financial copywriting for your advertising campaigns! There are many other approaches you can take which we haven’t shared here. For more great ideas like this – and for exclusive content which we only share with subscribers – join our mailing list today.
