If your financial marketing strategy requires a continuous stream of relevant, original and high-quality content, then it will not suddenly appear. Moreover, having access to someone who can write good financial copy will not necessarily ensure that your content is produced to a high standard, is delivered on-time, and connects with your audience.
How, then, can you ensure that your marketing is supplied with a steady stream of content which achieves your marketing goals? In this short guide, we’ll be sharing some of the core components to a content “machine” which we at CreativeAdviser have seen work effectively.
#1 Content Review
What is the nature of your existing content, right now? Getting a clear picture of what you’re currently displaying to the world, and dealing with, is vital as you then decide how you’re going to move forward.
For instance, perhaps you are a financial planner with a strong set of blogs on your financial website. Indeed, maybe your content profile even comprises videos, infographics or downloadable guides. Take stock of your inventory and ask yourself:
- Is any of this still usable or relevant to clients? Is the content evergreen, or expired?
- Is the content of a sufficient standard, reflecting my brand in an authentic way?
- Does this content meet my audience’s expectations? Is it what they want from me?
#2 Take Stock of Resources
Once you have a clear idea of your existing content, it’s easier to get a clearer picture of the holes in your content strategy which need filling. Perhaps you don’t have enough content on the subject of inheritance tax planning, for instance, where you know your clients have expressed a lot of interest.
Or, maybe you have relied too heavily on one type of content (e.g. podcasts) when your audience would much prefer to consume your content in another form – such as videos.
Naturally, at this point, you need to take stock of your resources in light of your audience, existing content and goals for your content marketing. For instance, if your audience primarily wants to consume video content on investment topics, do you have the resources to produce these on a regular basis?
Your resources, of course, include your budget for your content marketing. It also extends to things such as time; do you have enough of it to produce videos, for instance, or podcasts either weekly or monthly? if not, could you possibly outsource the work to a content marketing agency specialising in financial services?
Do you also have the resources in terms of staff, required for this work? Remember, even if you outsource the production of your blogs, videos or infographics, you will still need to review these and pass on your feedback or approval prior to publication. If you do not have time to do this yourself, is there another member of staff who you can delegate this responsibility to?
#3 Write a Content Calendar
Assuming you have the budget, resources and determination to begin a content marketing strategy in line with your marketing goals, an important next step is to devise your content calendar.
This document outlines which topics you will be covering over the coming weeks and months. It also details crucial information such as:
- Who will be producing the blogs, videos or downloadable guides.
- Who will check the content once it is produced.
- The intended dates of sign-off and publication for each piece of content.
- Where the content will be published (e.g. on your website, client newsletter, Facebook page etc.).
#4 Agree on a Control Process
So far so good. Yet this isn’t the end of the story. Even once you have taken stock of your existing content, established your resources, assigned roles and agreed on a content calendar, you will still need a clear process in place to ensure that your content strategy moves forward according to plan. You will also need this process to contain sufficient flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances if required.
For instance, let’s assume you have decided to outsource your content production to a financial marketing agency. Their copywriting team sends over four 1,000-word articles to you at the beginning of the month, on a set of previously-agreed topics. What happens next?
First of all, who checks the content for compliance, tone, spelling and grammar? When should this be completed by? Of course, we all hope that the content will be completely error-free. Yet we are all human and it’s inevitable that some mistakes might creep in. Is there a clear process to identify these quickly?
Assuming you have such a process, who makes the corrections? Is it the financial marketing agency, or is it a dedicated person on your side? If it is the former, have you agreed on how many revisions are permitted? After all, if you need to get 4 articles out to your clients every month, no one can afford to end up in a situation of endless iterations to the content.
This kind of control process is vital to ensure that your content marketing strategy continuously meets the quality and timescales expected. Your process might look different depending on your content marketing goals, business structure, style and systems.
On top of all of this, does your control process have a good “feedback loop” built into it? What we mean is, what happens if your clients receive your content and keep asking for you to cover a different set of topics, such as inheritance tax or pension transfers?
How will you ensure that your clients have a clear idea of how to provide you with this feedback? Assuming they know how to pass this information on to you, who will be responsible for picking it up and informing other stakeholders involved in the production process?
A lot of questions to answer! Yet they are important, and getting these things sorted out at the beginning will set your content strategy up for a much better chance of success down the line.
If you would like to speak to our content marketing team about your own campaign or content strategy, then we’d be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch today to arrange a free, no-commitment consultation with our marketing advisers.
