Let’s face it…content marketing is nothing new. It’s simply the sharing of materials—articles, blogs, social media posts, videos and infographics—online in a manner intended to be informational, rather than explicitly promotional. It’s meant to establish familiarity and trust with the sender.
Why is content marketing so important for investment management marketers? First, advisors need to understand how your product fits into their clients’ portfolios. Content marketing is a great way to regularly communicate and educate. Second, the investment management industry is a difficult place to establish trust. Communicating regularly with content about what’s important at your firm, how your products and services work, and why you offer them in the first place is a great way to give advisors a feel for your firm and your managers. And, it can point your ideal advisor clients to you.
What’s the catch? Content marketing takes time. It typically doesn’t work overnight. It may not result in direct sales immediately. This is why it’s important to plan ahead, in terms of topics, budget and resources. It’s in an online relationship of sorts, and it needs to be nourished.
What should your content say? Sometimes it can be hard to come up with what to say week after week, month after month. Consider what you want your clients to know about your business, your products and services and common misperceptions as well as the common questions you get from advisors. These are your topics.
How often should I send content? Your content deserves a calendar, so you’re sending it out regularly—not too frequently, and not so infrequently that people forget about you. This doesn’t mean you can’t change the content schedule as timely events require that you send something other than what you’d planned.
What do you do with your content? There are so many easy ways to publish content these days. Contributed articles, press releases, blogs, email blasts and social media are all on the list. You can submit to investment news publications, where contributed content is accepted. Where and when you publish your content should also be part of your calendar. This is all part of the content marketing formula.
So what’s the formula? Once you have written just one piece of content—an article or blog post for example—you can leverage that content in numerous places. For example, you can publish a white paper on your website, but it shouldn’t stop there. You can then send a link to it with a quick summary out in an email blast to current clients and prospects. You can send out a news release to investment news publications. You can post links to it on social media with a note about why it’s important or significant. You can create a infographic or short video discussing the content for more visual learners. You can even create summary pieces or FAQs to use again later, pointing advisors back to the original paper. Your content should have legs.
What’s the gist of this all? Successful marketing is impossible without great content. It can be hard to find the time and resources to keep you content interesting, but it’s worth the investment.