While “content marketing” is a relatively new term in financial services, one of the most commonly used and effective forms of financial services content marketing—newsletters—has been around for a long time. Asset management, investment banking, accounting, private equity, insurance, and estate planning firms have been publishing newsletters since long before CMOs ever thought about putting together a content marketing strategy. Newsletters can help you strengthen client relationships, cross-sell, improve client service, build brand awareness, and generate leads.
According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 survey of B2B content marketing trends, e-newsletters are the third-most commonly used content marketing tactic, behind only social media and case studies. While this data is taken from B2B companies across all industries, it’s safe to say that newsletters get a lot of use in the financial services industry.
Why do so many financial services companies write newsletters? Because they work. In this post, we look at the five primary types of benefits that companies in the finance industry get from publishing a high-quality newsletter.
Five Benefits for Financial Services
- Strengthening relationships with existing clients: A weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletter can be a great way to maintain a connection and stay top-of-mind with existing clients between meetings or transactions. Not only does this help you build the proverbial moat around your existing clients, it also helps you position your firm as a trusted advisor. By writing articles that help your clients think through some of the biggest financial issues they are facing, you are building trust and adding value in a way that’s scalable across your contact list.
Maintaining this connection is especially important in industries where interaction with clients tends to be more transactional and periodic in nature, such as in investment banking, estate planning, and insurance. In these industries, because there can be such a long time between transactions, if you don’t actively communicate with that client on an on-going basis, there’s a good chance that you won’t be top-of-mind when the next transaction opportunity arises.
- Cross-selling other services: In finance, as in most any industry, the best way to increase sales and strengthen your margins is by selling additional services to existing clients. The challenge, however, is promoting your other services to clients in a way that doesn’t seem too “salesy” and doesn’t erode trust. And that’s where newsletters come in.
One of the best types of articles to include in your newsletter each issue is a profile of an existing client. By strategically selecting which clients you profile, you can showcase the various services that your firm offers in a way that doesn’t seem like a hard sales pitch. For example, an asset management firm that has recently launched philanthropic advisory services for its high-net-worth clients might write about a client who the firm has helped set up a donor-advised fund or a private family foundation. Or if the firm is looking to highlight its estate planning services, the firm might profile a family that has recently set up a multi-generational wealth transfer strategy. - Improving client service: Most people consider “client service” to be what happens after a client calls with a question or a complaint. But newsletters can be a great form of pre-emptive client service for financial services companies. By writing articles that answer clients’ most common questions and help clients avoid potentially frustrating issues related to their accounts, firms can use newsletters to improve the client experience.
An accounting firm may consider including a section in each newsletter that lists important upcoming deadlines for filing tax returns or making tax payments. Or a private wealth management firm, in an effort to head off a deluge of calls from clients in February asking how they can get their 1099 forms for their investment accounts, may want to write an article that explains when the tax forms will be available and how to download the forms from the firm’s website. - Building brand awareness: While every asset management, investment banking, private equity, estate planning, and accounting firm likes to think of itself as being highly differentiated, clients and prospects have a hard time understanding what sets one firm apart from another. Companies put a lot of money and effort into creating websites, advertisements, brochures, and other marketing materials that define the firm’s distinct brand positions. Newsletters can be great tools to reinforce and articulate these points of differentiation.
An asset management firm that wants to position itself as a market contrarian, for example, could have a recurring article in its newsletter where the head portfolio manager debates and deconstructs a commonly accepted viewpoint that the mainstream financial media got wrong over the previous month. An estate planning firm that wants to highlight the firms’ commitment to serving the community could publish a series of articles about attorneys at the firm who have gone above and beyond in supporting local charities. - Generating new leads: The holy grail of financial marketing is to generate new leads, and new research from Northwestern University shows that your existing customers are your most effective salespeople in today’s digital ecosystem. As a result, one of the primary goals of financial services content marketing should be to give your clients information that they can easily share with their friends. A well-written newsletter that provides valuable, relevant information and answers readers’ most pressing financial questions is an effective way to do this.
The great news for financial services firms is that social media and e-mail marketing have made it easy for your clients to share your newsletter with just one click. Your loyal clients will be happy to forward, share, or retweet your articles to people in their network who are in the market for financial advice. By writing a newsletter, you empower your clients to become “brand ambassadors” for your firm.
Putting These Benefits to Work For Your Firm
As you can see, newsletters are the Swiss Army knife of content marketing tools for financial services firms. Depending on what your biggest marketing goals or challenges are, a newsletter can be adapted to support those initiatives.
About the Author: Scott Wentworth is the founder and head financial writer of Wentworth Financial Communications. At WFC, he’s helped firms across the asset management, private wealth management, investment banking, estate planning, accounting, insurance, and legal industries write and publish newsletters. And, wouldn’t you know it, WFC also publishes its own newsletter, Return On Content. Use the form at right to subscribe to our newsletter.