These free content marketing tools can help independent financial advisors initiate a digital marketing strategy without breaking the bank.
Breaking out on your own as an independent financial advisor certainly has its advantages. However, in many cases going independent means giving up your home office resources. Consequently, you may now be responsible for managing your business’s content marketing strategy.
Indeed, content marketing can be a great way to build brand awareness, demonstrate your expertise, and attract your ideal client online. But you may not have the time or resources to consistently create new content. Fortunately, there are a variety of free content marketing tools available that can help independent financial advisors build a high quality digital presence without blowing your budget.
Consider these 5 free content marketing tools to grow your financial advisory business online:
1. Keyword Tool
You likely know that to be effective, you should optimize your online content for specific keywords. But how do you know which keywords will get you the most traffic? Keyword Tool is a helpful free resource that can help you find keywords relevant to your business and target audience.
Keyword Tool is a free alternative to Google’s popular Keyword Planner. As a free content marketing tool, Keyword Tool doesn’t tell you how much traffic to expect from certain keywords or how difficult it is to rank for them. However, it will generate up to 750+ long-tail keyword suggestions for every Google search term.
If you’re an independent financial advisor, Keyword Tool can help you discover plenty of strong keywords related to any topic. This is a great starting point to create content that’s helpful and relevant to your ideal client.
2. Yoast SEO
Now that you know which keywords you want to target in your next original blog post, you’ll need to optimize your article so it ranks highly on Google and other search engines. Yoast SEO is one the best content marketing tools available, and it’s a completely free plug-in for WordPress users.
There’s also a paid version of the Yoast SEO plug-in, but the free version has everything independent financial advisors need to ensure you optimize your blog post successfully. Once your article is in WordPress, simply enter your keywords in the Yoast form below. The plug-in will then tell you what you’re doing right and where you can improve your SEO score. It also gives your article a readability score and offers suggestions to boost reader engagement.
3. Canva
If you haven’t heard of Canva, do yourself a favor and create a free account immediately. Canva is an online design tool that allows you to create beautiful graphics quickly and easily.
As a free content marketing tool, Canva makes it easy to create professional-quality designs for social media posts, presentations, and more. You can create graphics using Canva’s templates or start from scratch with your own images.
Canva is one of the best free resources independent financial advisors can leverage to improve your content marketing strategy. You can also upgrade for a reasonable monthly fee, which gives you access to more features and templates.
4. Buffer
And speaking of social media posts, Buffer is a free content marketing tool that allows users to schedule posts on a variety of social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Because let’s face it, posting to social media is time-consuming and, at times, overwhelming.
With Buffer, you can upload images and write captions in advance. Then, schedule a date and time that you want your social media posts to go live.
For independent financial advisors with busy schedules, Buffer is a simple way to build your social media presence without detracting from your daily responsibilities. And since you don’t have to publish your posts immediately, the anxiety of posting to social media is all but eliminated.
5. Mailchimp
Finally, you’ll want a way to share all the new content you create with your email list. Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool that allows you to create and send emails, manage subscriber lists, and track your results.
And the free version of this tool has everything you need to kick off your content marketing strategy. Simply upload your contacts to Mailchimp to get started. After writing your first blog post or creating your newsletter, send your update to your email list at your convenience. This is a great way to stay in front of clients and prospects without contacting each individually.
These Free Content Marketing Tools Can Help You Initiate a High-Quality Marketing Strategy
These five free content marketing tools are just a few examples of how independent financial advisors can initiate an online marketing strategy without breaking the bank. They can all be valuable if you’re a dedicated DIY-er. Yet to be effective, you must share your content strategically and consistently. Ultimately, you may find it’s easier to outsource your content marketing strategy rather than do it yourself.
AdvisorPath™ is the simplest, most cost-effective way for independent financial advisors to build your online presence with high-quality content that’s relevant to your audience. To learn more, check out our available subscription plans and download your sample content today.
Lauren took the initiative to lay out an ongoing marketing and communications plan for me and has kept me on track towards my goals for over a year now. I no longer worry that I’m not doing enough marketing or that I’m not communicating enough with my clients. Her background in financial services is a huge plus as she understands the RIA industry very well. Adding Lauren to my team has been a very smart decision for me, and I’m looking forward to many years of this partnership.
Cathy Curtis, CFP® Founder, Curtis Financial Planning