A blog is a great way to help establish yourself as a valuable resource for your clients and prospects. Your clients look to you for sound financial guidance, and they have friends and family that they can refer to you if they believe those potential referrals could benefit from meeting with you.
It’s important that your blog has consistent content that makes you stand out as a leading, knowledgeable professional in your community. Below are some great tips to get you started with a blog, or, if you already have one, these tips may get the wheels turning on new ways to approach your future posts.
Be a Resource
- Make sure your content is fresh and original. You want to establish yourself as the leading professional, not regurgitate someone else’s thoughts. It’s ok to use quotes and reference other industry professionals (and you should link to at least a few outside sources), but the overall message needs to come from you.
- Write content that you would want to read. Avoid the obvious, and write creative, helpful content for your readers.
- Keep your reader in mind. Don’t get in the weeds with details about policy riders, bonuses, etc. Save the details for face-to-face meetings. Each post should be between 300 and 1,000 words, written for an average reader.
- Include current events in your blog posts, and discuss how they relate to how you work with your clients and their retirements. If someone comes across your blog and you’re still writing about the Recession of 2008, people are going to move on quickly.
They Like Me. They Really Like Me!
- Don’t focus on the numbers too early. While measuring your blog’s success is important, it usually takes around 3–6 months to grow readership. To help look at patterns and trends, use a tool like Google Analytics to help analyze your data.
- Be social. Including links to social pages, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, will help your content make its way around the web faster than word-of-mouth alone.
- Network. Network! Make sure you connect with your readers and other bloggers. If you don’t, you could be missing out on sources for additional content or guest blogger opportunities.
It’s In The Details
- Create an email list. Make sure you include an opt-in or some kind of contact form on your blog so that you can collect reader data. This information can then be dropped into your database for mass emails and other marketing opportunities. Don’t lose these valuable readers!
- Have a clean and concise design. Crowded web design gets in the way of good content.
- If your state allows, give things away. Have an e-book? Offer a free download of a chapter. Giving a seminar? Offer a registration option on your blog.
Blogging isn’t always as easy at it may seem; it’s an art, and it takes work. Don’t be discouraged, though – the result is well worth it!
