If you’re looking for practical guidance, the following broker content writing tips can make marketing more transparent and effective.

Unless you’ve taken the time to study the subject, you probably find marketing a little opaque. It’s a black box, a problem you throw money at and hope for the best. Sure, the basic idea is to attract new clients, but how do you actually get from here to there?

Key takeaways

• Every piece of content you publish has to have a purpose.
• The best way to organize a broker’s content marketing solutions is according to the “sales funnel” principle.
• Communicating with potential clients isn’t just an opportunity to show off your expertise – engage with them at their level.

What is content marketing for brokers?

The starting point for any broker’s content plan is the realization that you can’t compel consumers to buy what you’re selling. You should be looking at ways to entice them to do so. Even worse, you’re in the less-than-ideal position of marketing a solution to a problem few people realise is significant. 

Most advertising aims to engage the heart instead of the head. However, the more significant and complex the purchase, the more time and energy consumers spend on making their choices. Let’s take an example:

If you’re craving a bag of potato chips, the look of the packaging may be enough to sway your decision. When you’re buying a new car, by contrast, the shopping process is likely to involve extensive comparisons, pro-and-con lists, and cost/benefit analysis. 

These are information-driven decisions. You’re also less likely to respond positively to any kind of “hard sell”; you’ll probably turn around and walk out straight away if a salesperson tries any high-pressure tactics. 

Discriminating consumers and broker content writing tips

When selecting a snack, seeing the words: “Cheese flavor!” may be enough to make up your mind. If you’re choosing a stockbroker, though, you’re more on your guard, less impulsive, and less prone to be swayed by pure emotion. Naked appeals to feelings, or attempts to create a false sense of urgency, are only going to create resistance on the buyer’s part.

Now, let’s take things just a little further: what if you’re not even sure you want to own a car? The more abstract and exotic what you’re selling is, the less direct your plan has to be. You’re no longer pitching, because nobody is catching – you first need to invite them to the ball game.

This brings us to one of the best broker content writing tips you’re likely to encounter: everything starts with informing the customer. Along the way, you’ll subtly illustrate your value offering and USP, swaying their decision, but the first step is to provide good advice.

What successful broker content writing tips have in common

In a sense, content marketing is the opposite of advertising: the actual sale can seem to be an afterthought. You’re leading a horse to water, not just insisting that it’s thirsty. The less forceful a broker’s content creation efforts, the more effective they are.

1. Understand the sales funnel

The concept of the sales funnel is not a natural or even a psychological law, but rather a useful mental model that should be kept in mind whenever you’re working on a broker’s content plan. When you snag a bag of cheesy potato chips, you’ve probably gone from awareness of a desire to taking action in under a minute. An aspiring retail investor, however, will most likely go through a few additional mental steps:

“I’ve heard of investing.”

“Investing sounds important.”

“I should invest.”

“I’m going to invest in mutual funds.”

You can’t get someone who’s barely aware of your service to decide on paying for it in a single social media post. Rather, you want to craft content that nudges a potential customer just a little deeper into the sales funnel.

This is, of course, exactly the information you need if you already have your credit card in your hand and the Wall Street Journal open on your lap…but you have to ask yourself: how many new visitors are going to find themselves in that position?

2. Let your broker content marketing accommodate your chosen audience

This implies that you need to tailor your content to individuals at different stages of their journey. Someone who doesn’t yet know much about investing may have to be walked through the long-term benefits. Somewhat later, once they’re approaching the decision stage, they’ll want to learn more about different investment vehicles.

Any broker content plan should include material that covers all parts of the sales funnel. Each should also be appropriate, in tone and complexity, to that specific audience.

This snippet from the GuruFocus newsletter is one of many examples of traders writing for other traders. Information on short-term stock movements doesn’t serve to educate or engage novice investors who’s rather learn about which sectors to invest in for the coming year.

3. Always include a Call to Action

If all some piece of content does is move a prospect from “I’m interested in learning more about ETFs” to “I’m still interested in learning more about ETFs,” you haven’t lost any ground with that person but neither can you really count that as a win.

The most ironic kind of fail in content marketing must be to get potential clients to the point where they’re willing to pull the trigger but aren’t sure of what their next step should be!

A single line encouraging them to subscribe to your newsletter or try their hand at your no-risk trading simulator may be all that’s needed. If you neglect this step, you’re only sending your prospects to Google or a competitor. If there is only one broker content writing tip you take away from this article, make it including a CTA.

4. Be Consistent

From the consumer’s perspective, the sales funnel is often described as a journey. Given that people’s attention span is limited, a broker’s content plan should take the shortest feasible route towards making the sale.

If you’ve only just gotten someone interested in making the most of their retirement savings, is it really helpful to start telling them about short-term trading strategies? More probably, they’ll want to hear about paying less tax, or perhaps making early withdrawals from a 401(k) or IRA.

Take, for example, eToro’s investment academy. Each course feeds visitors information in bite-sized, systematic chunks, gradually building interest and excitement along the way. Once they’ve worked through the material, they feel knowledgable and in control – not as if they’re being dragged along.

Repeat visitors to your blog or social media are worth their weight in tuna fish if not actual gold, so don’t confuse them by covering topics ad hoc. Schedule a “pipeline” of related posts that steadily build awareness of your value offering in some particular area and maintain a consistent brand voice througout.

5. Do Your SEO homework and use analytics

One of the great advantages of digital marketing, including content marketing, is that you can get a pretty accurate idea of the ROI of each campaign. This way, you can build on your successes and cut your losses.

Many brokers’ SEO performance – the likelihood of people finding your content on the internet – can be improved significantly with a little professional help. In addition, you’ll want to look into tools like email newsletter software, social media tracking, and even A/B testing for larger campaigns. Keep in mind, you can always bring in a content marketing agency to run the SEO aspects of your broker marketing campaign or more.

6. Quality over quantity

The flipside of focusing on a broker’s SEO and planning a content schedule in advance is that you may end up publishing material just for the sake of it. If you’re only offering the same information people can get in any of a hundred online locations, neither Google nor potential clients are going to acknowledge your existence. 

The twin antidotes to this kind of obscurity is to stand out in some way and ensure that each post adds value to the readers’ lives. Cover a few off-beat topics other brokers ignore, offer actionable information. Posting just one blog post each month that converts at 10% and helps build your brand is obviously better than publishing one per week that only hits 1% of the time and dilutes your company’s image.

7. Cover all bases

Details matter. An excellent video with mediocre sound quality is mediocre.

Missing a trick while writing a headline can scupper your best efforts, as is possibly the case here from Public.com

This is actually a pretty cogent article, arguably let down by a disappointing title.

When you abuse proper case, uses a fast-food color scheme (rather than cooler, more cerebral colors) in an investment platform’s content marketing, or the kerning looks weird, viewers may not notice it on a conscious level – but very likely it will weigh on the effectiveness of your campaign.

Most of us don’t really know what content writers, graphic designers, and other professinals really get up to, but it’s a fact that well-laid out websites outperform indifferently designed ones. You definitely need to source your own freelancers for these tasks, or let a digital marketing agency take care of this and let you get on with business.

Final thoughts

Back in the 1970s, when TV and print media reigned supreme, the average citizen of the First World was exposed to about 700 commercial messages per day. This was, back then, seen as cause for concern.

Today, the figure is estimated at between 6,000 and 10,000. Its a cacaphony; there aren’t many foolproof ways to stand out from the crowd and, for a broker, content solutions that hit the mark don’t simply happen by themselves.

If someone isn’t even aware that your service exists, never mind how it can add value to their lives, direct marketing tactics means building on sand. Instead, you should try to inform prospective clients rather than influencing them straight away.