Effective content marketing for financial technology companies

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Life is harder for financial technology salespeople today. It’s not only the economy. It’s a change in how companies make decisions. They’re relying more on word-of-mouth and Internet research. As a result, buyers are waiting longer to speak with salespeople. Luckily for financial technology companies, Candyce Edelen of PropelGrowth has a thought leadership solution.

Edelen suggests tech companies write thought leadership pieces to reach potential clients before they’re ready to buy. This is essential now that more companies do online research prior to meeting with potential vendors.

Target content for each stage of the buying process, says Edelen in “Thought Leadership to Support the Entire Buying Cycle.”

The prospect’s stages include

1.  Awareness, where companies need to “understand and articulate their business pain…” and realize there are solutions.

2.  Research about solutions – “Now, your content should guide them into functionality that they should consider,” says Edelen.

3.  Evaluation of vendors and products – Set expectations about the functionality required in any solution.

4. Commitment – Provide content, such as case studies, that helps prospects manage their anxiety about the risks of buying.

You can download Edelen’s complete white paper for more details.

Independent vs. wirehouse approach to social media

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Want to hear from two of the women who are pioneering social media use in financial services? Watch this webcast featuring Cathy Curtis of Curtis Financial, an independent advisor, and Lauren Boyman, director of social media for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The webcast was organized by LinkedIn.

If you listen carefully, you’ll hear Curtis identify the form of social media that has helped her the most in connecting with prospective clients. She also mentions an interesting measurement of her social media success: The large number of prospects who find her small independent firm through a Google search.

Curtis keeps her content 80% business and 20% personal. The personal content focuses on food and wine. There’s nothing like one of her @CurtisFinancial foodie tweets to make me hungry.

Boyman discusses her firm’s strategy of providing pre-approved content to start conversations. Once that content starts the conversation, there will be more leeway for personalization. This is because a Twitter conversation, for example, moves away from being “static content” that requires pre-approval. It will be interesting to see how much flexibility the firm’s advisors actually receive.

Boyman’s firm will provide a calendar and worksheets to advisors. This sounds like an idea independent financial advisors could benefit from adapting.

To read about some of the webcast’s high points, plus some analysis of the webcast, go to Pat Allen’s “Personal Or Turnkey? This Must-Watch Video Presents 2 Very Different Approaches To Social Media.”

White paper tactic: Advise prospects on how to choose a product or service

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Educating your prospects can turn them into clients. This is especially true when you use white papers to “set the specifications” for hiring.

White papers often feature a “how to choose a ____” section that advises readers a service or product offered by the company sponsoring the white paper.

“If your marketing campaign teaches prospects the seven things to look for in a widget, and your widget has all seven, you will be the buyer’s first choice,” as Robert Bly says in The White Paper Marketing Handbook: How to Generate More Leads and Sales with White Papers, Special Reports, Booklets, and CDs.

Of course, your recommendations need to be relevant and credible, in addition to matching your credentials. For example, you wouldn’t trust me if I recommend that you only consider financial writers who live in Massachusetts and hold a Ph.D. in Japanese history. You’ll react differently if I suggest you seek an investment writer with the following credentials:

1.  CFA charter

2.  Financial journalism experience

3.  Experience working in-house on investment-related marketing communications

4.  Commentator and trainer on effective communications

What about you? If you’ve used the “how to choose” technique, I’d like to hear about your experience.

Pat Allen, a great resource for tracking asset managers’ social media

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Pat Allen of Rock the Boat Marketing works for me. Well, not literally. No money changes hands. But Pat’s tracking and analysis of investment management companies spares me from the need to perform these tasks myself.

Three things stand out for me about Pat’s online presence:

  1. News coverage
  2. Analysis
  3. Twitter lists

1. News coverage

As @RocktheBoatMKTG on Twitter, Pat tweets and retweets news, blog posts, and other information relevant to investment management marketers. Here’s an example.

As @AdvisorTweets, Pat highlights the social media activity of registered investment advisors, brokers, financial planners, and other financial professionals. Asset managers need to track these financial intermediaries who are an important source of financial product sales. NOTE: Pat has put AdvisorTweets up for sale.

2. Analysis

There’s a 140-character limit to how much analysis pat can squeeze into her tweets. So, for analysis I turn to her Rock the Boat Marketing and Advisor Tweets blogs.

3. Twitter lists

To figure out which investment managers have a Twitter presence, simply mosey over to Pat’s investmentmanagers list, which she updates frequently.

Check out these highlights of Pat’s online presence. You’ll probably find more that you enjoy.

Disclosure: Pat wrote a lovely testimonial for my latest e-book. However, this blog post was brewing long before that.

Usage tips for portfolio performance commentary writers

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It’s almost time for quarter-end investment performance reporting. I have some tips for you.

1. Use the past tense.

Why? Because portfolio performance commentary discusses historical performance.

2. Describe benchmarks’ key characteristics, when appropriate.

The general public doesn’t know the difference between the S&P 500 and the S&P 400. They may think one is a subset of the other, like the Fortune 50 and the Fortune 1000. So specify “the mid-cap S&P 400.”

3. Be consistent in how you spell and punctuate terms.

For example, choose between “indexes” and “indices.” Decide whether you’ll use “small cap” exclusively without a hyphen or hyphenate it as “small-cap” when you use it as an adjective.

4. Limit your references to the time period.

Once you establish that you’re writing about the second quarter, don’t repeat that information frequently. However, if you shift between discussing the second quarter and the month of June, name the periods often enough that your reader follows your transitions.

5. Don’t go crazy replacing “returned,” as in “the fund returned 3%.”

There are plenty of other ways to convey the information in the sentence. However, I believe too much variety is counterproductive in a paragraph that consists mainly of returns. Instead, the variety distracts from the reader’s ability to compare returns. If you’re citing many index returns, perhaps you should insert a table.

Do you have grammar, punctuation, or other usage tips for people writing about investment performance? Please leave them as comments below.

Using LinkedIn to boost your blog: “LinkedIn Groups Help Blog Posts Soar”

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One of my best posts for bloggers seeking to grow their readership isn’t on my blog.

I wrote  “LinkedIn Groups Help Blog Posts Soar” as a guest post for the American Society of Business Publication Editors. It describes my accidental discovery of how sharing the right blog post with the right LinkedIn Group boosts your readership.

As I describe in the post, simply blasting your every blog post to every LinkedIn Group is not the recipe for success. In fact, you’re likely to irritate more people than you attract.

Instead,

  • Be selective.
  • Show genuine interest in the responses that LinkedIn Group members post.

I sometimes wonder how many LinkedIn Group posts I can make before I’m perceived as too self-promotional. I suspect that your answers differs from the next person’s. Also, the nature of the content probably influences your response.

If you’ve successfully used LinkedIn to promote your blog–or you have opinions about how bloggers use LinkedIn Groups–please share your story. I’d like to learn from you.

Participants in Brag About Your Blog Day–Financial Advisor Edition

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Some great bloggers have participated in Brag About Your Blog Day–Financial Advisor Edition on the Investment Writing Facebook page. In case you don’t visit Facebook, I’m listing them with links to their blogs.

Thank you, participants! By the way, if I skipped your blog–or if your link needs updating–please let me know.

The next Brag About Your Blog Day is scheduled for June 25. Please join this distinguished group of bloggers in participating!

Bloggers who offer financial advice

ACap Asset Management – Ara Oghoorian

Curtis Financial Planning – Cathy Curtis

The Blog of Chuck Rylant – Chuck Rylant

Planning for Your Life – Strategies for a Healthy and Wealthy Life – Dagmar Pollex

Frazer Rice – Frazer Rice

Getting Your Financial Ducks in a Row – Jim Blankenship

Benefits and Compensation With John Lowell – John Lowell

Upperline Financial – Jude Boudreaux

Wall Street Steward– Matthew G. Griffin

Couples Financial Planning and Coaching, LLC – Nathan Gehring

The Whole Investor – Paul Puckett

Markets, Life & MCFC – Richard Stott

The Wealthcare Revolution – Russ Thornton

YH&C Investment Blog – Yale Bock

Bloggers who offer services to financial advisors

FP Pad – Financial Planning Technology Blog – Bill Winterberg

The Advisor Upside – HNW Advisor eSuite

If you haven’t started your blog yet…

…perhaps it’s time for you to consider enrolling in “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” my virtual class tailored to financial advisors. You will receive personalized feedback from a seasoned financial writer–that’s me. As you turn in your homework, I will coach you through each step of the writing process. If you do all of the homework, you will finish the class with a polished blog post. Plus, you’ll have a process for creating future posts.

Financial Planning Association of Mass. annual conference in tweets and posts

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Here’s some of what you missed at the annual conference of the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts (#FPAMA), as reflected in my tweets and blog posts. I grouped my tweets by speaker. My comments on the tweets are preceded by an arrow (<–).

 

Blog posts from #FPAMA

Bill Bachrach of Bachrach & Associates

  • Advisors, do you find your clients love being videotaped by you? Bill Bachrach says they do. #FPAMA <– Personally, this would make me feel self-conscious. However, I would like the idea that my advisor hangs on my every word.
  • “Financial planners’ income need not decline with the market or the economy.”  — Bill Bachrach #FPAMA
  • “People who are competent know the right questions and when to ask them.” — Bill Bachrach, #FPAMA
  • “You build trust by listening to their story, not telling yours.” — Bill Bachrach #FPAMA  <– This last point is one that more financial advisors should consider when writing their websites, newsletters, and other communications.

Bruce Brumberg of MyStockOptions.com

The restricted stock session at #FPAMA was way more interesting than I expected. Things sure have changed since I listened to stock option talks as the employee of a wealth manager.

  • “Performance shares come in many flavors” — Bruce Brumberg #FPAMA
  • To identify prospects with stock compensation, see proxy statement, Form 10K, and Section 16 Forms. — Bruce Brumberg #FPAMA <– This might work well for advisors targeting public companies that are big in their local area.
  • “Rise of restricted stock, RSUs, SARs, & performance shares makes financial planning more complex.” — Bruce Brumberg, MyStockOptions.com #FPAMA

Mark Tibergien of Pershing Advisor Solutions

  • “Advisors, do you feel your business has become more complex?” — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA <–I felt the entire room nodding in agreement
  • “My job is to disturb you.” — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA
  • Top performers spend more on client experience. Top 25% = $4,306/client, rest = $3,735. — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA
  • “Advisors, what does ‘wealth manager’ mean and does it differentiate you?”  — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA #in
  • “Bull markets camouflage a lot of sins.” — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA
  • “Companies hire people, managers lose them.” — Mark Tibergien at #FPAMA

Craig Zablocki, speaker

  • “The ability to be silly is a blessing.” — Craig Zablocki at #FPAMA conference
  • “When we give more, we have more fun.” — Craig Zablocki at #FPAMA conference
  • “We have a tendency to argue for what we know.” — Craig Zablocki at #FPAMA conference
  • “Get used to ‘no.’ ‘No’ is just information. Yes lives inside ‘no.’” — Craig Zablocki at #FPAMA conference
  • “Fear limits us.” — Craig Zablocki at #FPAMA conference

Miscellaneous

Confession: I did not live-tweet

You may notice the conference took place way back in May.  I’m not much of a live-tweeter, unlike the folks who live-tweeted the Financial Planning Association of Northern California’s recent conference. Even though I tweet like crazy, I prefer to write at greater length about interesting presentations. Also, I feel I absorb information better when I focus on taking notes.

Mark Tibergien’s one thing for financial advisors’ business improvement

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“What’s the one thing that most people in this room can do to improve their business?”

Photo by dawning.ca

This is the question I asked Mark Tibergien, CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions, at the annual conference of the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts on May 20.

Tibergien hit four points in his reply describing how financial planners can build a practice that differentiates them.

1.  Identify your core capabilities–both as a planner and a business person.

2.  Identify your optimal client. Target them in terms of characteristics other than wealth.

3.  Identify competitors who attract your optimal clients. Figure out what makes them special. Think about how you compare.

4.  Identify your personal definition of success.

This four-step process will help you figure out if your current business strategy is still relevant, said Tibergien. If your strategy is outdated, this assessment provides clues about how to tweak your strategy. I imagine it helps you focus your marketing, which can provide an incredible boost to your efficiency.

Have YOU tried this? I’d like to hear how it has worked for you.

White paper questions and resources

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Thinking of commissioning a white paper?

To ensure an effective white paper, make sure you answer the following questions:

  1. Who is my audience?
  2. What do I want them to do after they read my white paper?
  3. What problem can I solve for them?
  4. Why will my readers care about this problem?
  5. What are the three main points I want to make?

Here are some resources that can help you learn more about white papers.

Online resources

Books

Looking for a seasoned white paper writer?

If you’re seeking a white paper writer who has written for leading investment and wealth management firms, I can help. You can learn more in “My process for writing your white paper.”

This post was updated on September 27, 2011, and May 18, 2015, to remove outdated links.