Creating Content That Supports a Scalable Client Communications Experience

By Zoë Meggert

The most successful financial planning firms retain their clients by developing lifelong, trust-based relationships. Unfortunately, as these firms grow, it can be harder for them to maintain a personal connection with each client.

That’s because much of the financial planning process is one-to-one. However, there’s no room on the calendar for more individual meetings! So how can advisors continue to nurture and develop these relationships with their clients, all while continuing to grow at a sustainable pace?

One way is by creating content that’s designed specifically for the clients you already work with and enjoy. Not only will this help you to build relationships with existing clients, even if your time is limited, but it also will attract more ideal clients by addressing “pain points” that existing clients have communicated.

In other words, viewing content through the lens of your current clients allows you to build a scalable client experience that also produces leads. Let’s dig into why a scalable client experience is critical and how you can implement this “internal marketing” strategy for your firm.

What Is Internal Marketing?

Creating content for current clients is often referred to as “internal marketing.” Instead of only creating content to generate new leads, you’re marketing to your client base to increase trust and engagement. Internal marketing can lead to “stickier” client relationships and increased referrals. Most importantly, marketing to your current clients can help you to create a scalable client communications model.

Internal marketing leans on one-to-many communication pieces that nurture relationships without forcing an advisor to connect individually. This doesn’t mean advisors need to move to group coaching, canned content, or impersonal client notes as they grow. Instead, they should look at how they can consistently reach out, answer questions, and address client concerns that come up time after time.

Internal Marketing Content

Your first step is to develop a list of topic ideas. Using a tool like SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, or Jotform, create a brief questionnaire that explores what type of content your clients seek. For example, you can ask:

• What content medium do you prefer (i.e., blog posts, podcasts, videos, etc.)?
• What topics are you interested in learning more about?
• How frequently do you want to be communicated with?
• What social media channel do you use most often?

Bonus: The type of content your current clients want is likely also the type of content your ideal prospects are looking for, as well.

Hub-and-Spoke Marketing

Once you’ve nailed down topics that interest your clients, you’re ready to build a hub-and-spoke content plan. Looking at your survey, you can identify the top four to six topics that are important to your clients.

Create evergreen content that you can repurpose year after year on those themes. This content can act as different “hubs” for your content and marketing strategy. Each “hub” should be a core content topic that’s important to your clients. The content could include a long blog post (2,000+ words), a lengthy podcast episode, a video, or a webinar.

To enhance efficiency, you could choose one medium to be your “hub” content based on the content medium your clients are most interested in. Here are a few benefits of each content medium to help you determine which makes the most sense for your firm:

• Blogs are often the easiest content to outsource. You may have to be involved in the topic generation and helping your ghostwriter “nail” your tone, but the writing can be done for you.
• Podcasts may be the least time-consuming, assuming you have a trusted editor.
• Videos are often a popular content medium, and it’s easy to transcribe them for added content. You can partner with an editor who specializes in working with financial planners to turn any transcripts you develop into blog content.

After developing “hub” content, you can build different “spokes” off these topics. For example, let’s say one of your topic hubs is Social Security claiming strategy. After you write a 2,000-word blog post about how to time your Social Security benefit, you can create the following spokes:

• An infographic about different considerations before taking your benefit
• Several short videos about different components of Social Security strategy (when to take it, whether you should delay your benefit, how to leverage spousal benefits)
• Several social media graphics to share with your followers
• A newsletter that highlights the hub blog post on your website

One-to-Many Communication

The goals of developing an internal marketing strategy are, ultimately, to free up your time as an advisor and develop deeper relationships with clients. Creating content that’s geared toward what your clients want to learn more about is only the first step in your journey. The next step is to develop a content distribution plan that gets your content in front of current clients while replacing one-on-one communications where possible.

A few excellent places to begin your content distribution plan:

• Automate emails. Set up an RSS reader web feed within your email marketing software that automatically emails out the new blog, podcast, or video content that’s posted to your website.
• Keep a “content bank.” Feel like you’re getting the same client questions again and again? Keeping a list or spreadsheet of all your content can help you to quickly forward a blog, video, or podcast episode that answers client questions succinctly.
• Communicate thoughtfully. When your content topics proactively address the pain points many clients experience, you’re setting yourself up for successful client communication down the line. For example, if you write a blog post about what to do during market fluctuations, you can reshare that during future market turbulence.

You’ll also want to consider when to send information. One of the best ways to create an efficient content calendar is to sync your topics with your firm’s service calendar. This way, you can send out content that matches up with what you’re discussing in meetings with clients. You can also time the topic seasonally if that makes sense for your firm’s services.

Get the Ball Rolling

Here’s the bottom line: Your clients work with you because they trust your expertise and are looking to you for guidance. Creating content that highlights your expertise while educating your clients can be the sweet spot for helping your business scale while supporting your service calendar.

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Zoë Meggert founded Perfectly Planned Content (PPC) to help financial advisors own their stories and grow businesses they love. Together with their clients, the PPC team helps develop and implement unique content marketing strategies that connect and convert. 

image credit: istock.com/scyther5