Advisors: 3 steps to better blogging

Blogging is critical to business development. It’s how you engage with current customers and grab the attention of possible clients.

Taking the time to create consistent blog posts – even if it’s only one a week – can catapult an advisor’s online brand and build awareness of his or her expertise and experience. And to make the most of the benefits of blogging, it's important for advisors to remember that it's about more than just being a writer.

To be successful and obtain the level of influence blogging can bring in the financial services industry, you have to become three things: a strategist, thought leader and marketer.

1. STRATEGIST: BUILD AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

More often than not, one of the top concerns among advisors is time. Many advisors feel they don't have time to write a blog post or share content on social platforms.

One of the easiest methods to planning and consistently publishing content is by creating an editorial calendar. This allows you to form a content schedule and address hot topics in the industry, client questions and trends relevant to you as a thought leader.

Unfortunately, without a strategy for social media engagement, those creative ideas that would have developed into insightful blog posts are simply lost. By building an editorial calendar, establishing your online voice and expanding your brand’s reach can easily be done in a reasonable amount of time each day.

2. THOUGHT LEADER: TURN PASSION & KNOWLEDGE INTO DYNAMIC CONTENT

What better way to share your expertise than through your blog posts?
Blogging provides advisors with the chance to transform the passion and knowledge they have gained throughout their careers into dynamic content with the potential to gain a strong online readership and potential business pool.

By being a proactive blogger and blending expertise, vision and leadership together, advisors can create content that merits attention and sets them apart from others in the industry.

Furthermore, consistent blogging allows advisors to serve as a resource to their audiences and provides a way to build reputations as forward-thinking and trustworthy business professionals.

3. MARKETER: INCORPORATE YOUR PERSONALITY & CREATIVITY INTO BLOGGING

Blogging opens the door to capturing an audience’s attention and establishing a connection with clients and prospects.

For new bloggers, or veterans looking to mix things up, this is the time to throw everything you know about traditional blogging out the window and instead focus on incorporating creativity and personality into your blogging. There are a variety of different formats – articles, videos, infographics, podcasts and more – that can be used for blogging.

This week, instead of authoring another article, try holding a Google Hangout with an industry colleague and embed the video on your blog.

No matter what tools you use, remember to display authenticity and passion in your posts. Subscribers want to absorb content that is not only designed from the thought leadership perspective, but posts that are also refreshing and engaging.

Caitlin Zucal is the marketing coordinator for RegEd

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