Financial advisors are popular. Over one in three Americans work with one. 

Even so, many advisors don’t reach their full potential. One reason for this is that they fail to engage in content marketing. Thus, clients can’t find them easily or learn enough about them to trust them with their hard-earned cash.

The good news is that financial advisors don’t have to miss out on all that content marketing has to offer. Following are tried-and-proven ways to create great industry-related content that will bring in traffic and customers.

1. Explaining Financial Concepts in Layperson’s Terms

Over-explaining financial concepts can turn off potential customers who are familiar with the industry lingo. Inadequate explanations won’t help potential customers who don’t know much about financial investments. 

That’s why you need to accurately identify your target audience. Your content can’t appeal to everyone. However, it does need to appeal to the people who are most likely to turn into customers. 

Don’t try to explain all industry terms at once. Rather, segment explanations to meet the needs of people looking for a particular service. Barron’s does this with its excellent article on terms to know when looking for a financial advisor.

2. Creating Step-by-Step Guides for Investment and Savings

Most people love step-by-step guides. They provide detailed information in an easy-to-understand format. They can enable people to do things they’ve never done before. 

As a financial advisor, you may be worried that a step-by-step guide will encourage DIY finances that will cost you customers. Don’t be concerned. 

Your guide doesn’t have to take your place. You can cover topics such as choosing investment options or deciding how much to invest. You can (and should) also use your piece to encourage people to seek professional help and advice. 

This type of content is ideal for people with limited experience with financial investments. However, you can also create high-level, specialized guides for people with investment experience. 

If you think about it, step-by-step guides are actually a sneaky good way to display your expertise without sounding like a walking commercial. People tend to remember the name of the person who walks them through something complicated, like sorting out retirement accounts or setting a realistic savings target. It’s just human nature—we latch onto someone who makes sense of the mess and gives a little practical direction, even if, somewhere in there, we know they’re angling to be hired. If your guide manages to be genuinely helpful, a portion of those readers will actually come back to you when it feels overwhelming or they’ve hit a limit on what they want to do themselves.

And for what it’s worth, you can toss in a quick example drawn from your actual client experience (all anonymized, of course). Maybe mention how, once, someone thought they could handle all their investments solo after reading a few blog posts—until they realized the tax situation had gotten a bit sticky or the market had turned. This makes your content real and signals that yes, tons of people try to go it alone first… but wind up pinging a pro anyway. That’s not a failure—it’s life. Keeping it relatable helps cut through the noise of bland, one-size-fits-all advice, and that little bit of authenticity does more for trust than a thousand buzzwords tossed in for good measure.

3. Tips for Effective Budgeting and Money Management

These types of articles will appeal to middle-class people who don’t have lots of disposable income. They can also appeal to seniors or retirees with a limited budget. 

Granted, there are lots of articles on this topic online. However, most aren’t written by savvy financial advisors. Your position will give you the authority needed to offer unique information on the topic. 

4. Real-Life Stories of Financial Success and Transformation

Stories are especially appealing to people who are still unsure of the benefits of hiring a financial advisor. They create a connection and build trust.

Stories can be inspirational or cautionary. They can inspire, motivate, or even stir up anger or frustration. What matters is that your stories elicit emotion and move people to action.

Julien and Kiersten Saunders run the financial blog “Rich and REGULAR,” which relates to their journey of wealth creation. The couple credits their love of storytelling for helping them create successful content.

5. Inviting Industry Experts to Share Insights and Advice

Ritholtz Wealth Management’s blog, “The Big Picture,” is the top advisor blog in the United States. It regularly features industry experts discussing topics related to their field of expertise.

Choose people whose expertise would attract your target audience. You can post interviews as text, audio, or videos. 

6. Q&As Addressing Common Financial Concerns and Queries

Google’s Featured Snippets highlight answers to direct questions a user types in. Needless to say, a Featured Snippet from your site will drastically boost visibility, traffic, and sales.

A Q&A or FAQ section with common questions and direct answers can help you get listed in Google’s Featured Snippets. Think of questions your current clients tend to ask and write a post with your answers. This boosts your overall SEO and helps you effectively reach your target audience. 

7. Building Financial Calculators

A financial calculator can be made to appeal to just about any audience.

NerdWallet has one to help people make a budget. Premier Members Credit Union has one to help clients see the cost difference between renting and owning a home. Save and Invest has one for parents to see how much they’ll need for a child’s college tuition.

Thankfully, financial calculators aren’t hard to make. The Ion platform can help you create one even if you can’t code. Ion also has a handy stats platform that lets you see how people interact with your new tool.

8. Creating Infographics on Economic Trends and Insights

The human brain process images 60,000 times faster than text content. An infographic also helps you share complex information in an easy-to-understand format.

You can even make your infographic interactive. Premier Members Credit Union does this with its combined calculator and infographic. A user puts in personal information and can then see how much he or she needs to save for retirement.

9. Analyzing Market Movements and Investment Opportunities

Are your clients interested in a particular financial market or investment opportunities? If so, creating content analyzing that market or investment option is a smart idea. 

Analyzing market movements and investment opportunities establishes you as an industry leader. It builds trust with current and potential clients. 

10. Tips for Protecting Personal and Financial Information

Consumers making digital payments are concerned about data privacy and security. Your clients may feel the same way about their investments. After all, even the stock market isn’t impenetrable.

Content about protecting personal and financial information appeals to everyone. It shows you care about your clients and their financial well-being. It also helps your clients avoid scams that could set back their wealth-building efforts.  

Conclusion

There are many types of content that can help you effectively reach your target audience. However, creating winning content takes time, research, and hard work.