Will 2014 Be the Year Canned Content Dies?
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An increasing number of financial firms are adopting social media tools and finding new ways to deliver content to audiences, but one significant problem remains: the content conundrum. Prepackaged, off-the-shelf content is cheaper and quicker to obtain, but it appears canned and impersonal. Custom content, on the other hand, speaks specifically to your clients’ and prospects’ needs and aspirations.
This will be the year when custom content comes into its own and takes on a foundational role in financial services marketing.
Why? Because authenticity is critical to creating credibility with an audience. The ability to tell your story, communicate your business and investment philosophies and become a trusted advisor to your clients hinges on a willingness to educate, communicate, and inform your clients and prospects about market risks and opportunities.
Canned content fails on many levels. First, it’s impersonal. If it’s not coming from you, why would your clients be interested? They can easily get fresher, more thoughtful analysis and reporting by picking up a copy of The Wall Street Journal. Canned content fails to deliver ancillary benefits, such as search engine optimization. Google and other search engines are now engineered to sniff out pretenders and ignore them. With canned content, you lose interest and eyeballs to other asset managers and advisors who are publishing their own thoughtful analysis and using it to ingratiate themselves to your clients through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging and other social tools. You may not even know they are using those tools to communicate with your clients and prospects!
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