• By michelle
• In Copywriting

Copywriting Strategies for the Financial Planning Industry

Introducing our Copywriting Strategies series! Each month, Copy Doodle readers will gain access to industry-specific content marketing information that you can’t get anywhere else.

Whether you work in the realm of education or you are in charge of creating marketing content for a large corporation, you will receive crucial action steps that help you convert your specific market into loyalist customers.

This time around, we’re offering content marketing tops for the financial planners out there. (Shout-out to our clients at Lethemon Financial and Main Street Alternative Asset Planners!)

If you work in the financial industry, you have a big challenge in front of you. Not to worry. Our professional copywriters have learned how to create converting content that sets your business apart. Take note…

How to write for the financial planning industry.  

For the past couple of years, we’ve had many clients from the financial planning industry contact us to create or improve website copy, strategize and market webinars, and write actionable lead magnets.

Even though no two financial planners share an identical target market or have the same service offerings, we’ve discovered a few principles that help you communicate with your audience more effectively and gain more clients.

Use plain speech in all your marketing communication.

Financial planners are experts, but with expertise comes a mastery of a certain kind of language. To be blunt, your target market will not take well to jargon. Think of a literature professor who walks into a classroom espousing the “pastiche and simulacrum” of a book’s narrative.

Students would react with, “huh?” and then stare at their smartphones as the lecture commenced.

The same rule applies in the financial industry. While your prospects will most likely be familiar with 401(k)s and IRAs, they might not know much about the stock market and portfolio management. Educate your audience with plain speech, and use everyday terminology that anyone would understand.

For example, this copy below reveals that the audience will receive a valuable takeaway, and it does so without industry-specific language.

Highlight the emotional appeals.

In the world of finance, most planners use logical decisions that give their clients the best solutions. You most likely take past stock performance, future indicators, and other data to help your clients invest wisely.

While there is much logic at play, your customers come to you for an emotional reason. They want you to help them build a more secure future using whatever means necessary.

In this regard, here is an example of ineffective copy:

“Download our speculative report on investing in high-performance stocks.”

This call to action is dry and logical, and doesn’t offer any emotionally driven takeaway.

Here’s how we might rephrase this:

“Discover how to reverse the risk of stock market investments and build a brighter future by putting your money in real estate.”

Make sure the copy expresses “human solutions,” not software algorithms.  

We work with financial planners who compete with the giant financial powerhouses such as Wachovia, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, etc. Our copywriting team is proud to serve these independent firms because our clients provide custom solutions based on the exact needs of their individual customers.

That sentiment is what financial planners need to express in their marketing content. Outline how you look at individual cases, and make decisions based on the best interest of your customer.

Here’s an example of copy that performs this function:

Statistics up the urgency factor.  

As a financial planner, you are a de facto teacher. In other words, your clients look to you for information on what’s at stake and how to move forward. Leveraging statistics in your marketing content allows you to deliver crucial information and reveal why it’s so important to work with your firm.

Use the agitate and solve technique.  

The agitate and solve technique? It’s a copywriting method wherein the content grinds the pain of a specific problem and then offers a solution that negates that particular struggle.

OK, that definition might not explain it. As an example of this copywriting trick, see the copy example below.

If you ever dread what you’ll find inside your 401(k) or IRA statement because you fear it’s gone down instead of up….                                       

Luckily, there’s a way out of this gamble—the solution is alternative asset investments.

These steps will definitely help you increase your conversions…

But…

Keep in mind: no two financial planning firms are identical! For specific advice on your content marketing, click here to access your personalized website conversion analysis.