The financial advisory is becoming increasingly crowded. According to The Business Research Company, the global financial services market size is expected to grow from $20.4 trillion in 2020 to $22.5 trillion in 2021. So, how can you stand out in the coming year in this saturated industry? It’s crucial to develop an editorial plan and integrate SEO into your plan, and the following trends will help you to attract more visitors to your blog page and boost your online presence.
9 Trends For Your Blog in 2022
1. Improved Content Experience
It’s no longer just about graphics and text, but advisors need to be thinking about the content experience. What exactly is content experience? Think about landing on a page and then being distracted by pop-up ads without streamlined scrolling. Issues like this will lead to a higher bounce rate.
To improve on this, make sure you have:
- Strong calls to action
- Strong imagery
- A clearly defined niche
- A unique value proposition
It’s all about a streamlined experience so that visitors stay on your website and want to continue to scroll to find out more.
2. Data-Driven Blogging
Businesses that blog 20 times per month generate 5x more traffic than those that blog less than four times per month. That statistic alone shows how important a strong content strategy is to your business’s online presence. And when you blog more consistently, you are going to be able to gather more data, such as the types of content that have performed well versus the types that aren’t performing quite as well. When you determine this, it can help you to plan out your editorial calendar for the coming months, so you will get a better idea of the types of content that you should be posting.
And the way that you determine this is by using Google Analytics, which is a FREE tool, making it even more appealing. This tool can measure 10,000 metrics, which can obviously get overwhelming, so we have broken it down into the top five, which are:
- The average number of total visitors per month to your site
- The number of pages a user will visit per session
- The three most visited pages on your website
- Bounce rate
- Your conversion rate
In the video below, Samantha Russell offers some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that advisors should be tracking when they are reading their analytics.
3. Content That is Highly Visual
According to a recent study, people read only 20% of the content on a page. That’s pretty eye-opening when you think about it, especially since you have put in a lot of effort to create an article to benefit your readers. This tells you that readers are usually scanning your posts. So, to break up your content and make it more digestible, you should be adding strong visuals to your blog. Examples of images you should be including are:
- Infographics
- Graphs
- Screenshots or visuals/websites, etc. that support a point
- GIFS
- Videos
- Polls-and more!
And if you are looking for a way to create your own infographics and images, Canva is a free tool that is easy to use, especially since it’s created specifically for non-designers.
If somebody lands on your blog and it is extremely text-heavy and is not broken up with strong images or headers, then this will make them less likely to read your content, so ensure that you draw them in quickly by making the text scannable.
4. Utilize Multimedia and Share Across Multiple Platforms
As we mentioned above, including visuals is incredibly important. And when you go beyond stagnant images and use videos or vlogs, then this can take your blog to the next level. And what’s even better about creating a video is that ANYONE can do it as long as you have a smartphone. So, if video is a part of your 2022 marketing strategy, then you can get started by simply:
- Recording a video on your smartphone
- Add captions to your video
- Upload it wherever you can (website, blog, social media platforms, email marketing, etc.)
Once your videos are created and uploaded, sharing them across multiple platforms is the best way to get more eyes on your content, shared, etc.
5. Voice Search
50% of all searches were done by voice search in 2020. People use voice-activated search when they use their speakers, smart TVs, smartphones, etc. So, you need to ensure that your content is optimized for voice search and that search engines can process your blog. Three ways to easily do this are:
- Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing
- Use microdata by adding your contact information, address, and other relevant details
- Optimize your site for customer mobile experience
It’s still a relatively new technology, but it’s definitely on the rise, so ensure that your blogs are optimized for voice search.
6. Visual Search
Around 62% of Millenials are comfortable with searching via image while 58% will click an image to purchase it. Based on these statistics, it’s important that you are optimizing your blog for visual search and some ways to do this are:
- Use high-res photos
- Do keyword research and use more detailed long-tail keywords instead of a single one
- Use your long-tail keywords in your image titles and descriptions
- Add alternative text or alt tags, include additional information to put your image into context
- Optimize image size and file types by matching which type of devices your audience uses
Have you noticed a trend? The use of images, multimedia and strong visuals is going to be incredibly important in the coming year, so make sure your blog is optimized accordingly.
7. Writing Long-Form Content
Long-form, evergreen content is a great way to stand out from the competition. First off, when you create evergreen content, it stays relevant, meaning that you can easily repurpose this content. Why is this type of content going to be so popular?
- For one, long-form articles stand out online since most blogs only have about 500 words per article.
- It generates leads for a longer time due to organic traffic and backlinks
- It shows that you are a thought leader in the industry
- As we mentioned above, you can repurpose content and “get more legs” out of your work
So, when creating your content, you can share things, such as, “how-to” articles, tutorials and educational articles that will teach your reader something and keep them coming back for more every time you publish a blog.
8. Utilize Email Marketing
Email marketing has an incredible ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. With a single click, you can reach thousands of prospects and subscribers, so email is still going strong as we approach 2022. It’s a great way to keep your readers informed by sharing:
- Educational resources
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Upcoming webinars
- Webinar replays- much more!
At Twenty Over Ten, we share monthly newsletters on the second Tuesday of every month where we fill our prospects and clients in on upcoming webinars while sharing our latest articles and videos that we feel will help them with marketing. Additionally, we share bi-weekly blog blasts that share articles and videos. It’s a great way to offer useful information to your audience, showing your value while also obtaining emails for the future. Keep in mind, you need your readers to actually click on the email, so make sure you are writing a strong headline that captivates them and makes them want to find out more.
9. Share Your Blogs Across Social Media Platforms
Social media isn’t going anywhere, with usage going up throughout the pandemic. When you are creating your content, don’t you want as many people as possible to get their eyes on your blog? Of course! When you write a blog, take out an important snippet, fact, blurb, whatever it may be and share that. And don’t forget to include an image! In fact, a social post paired with an image attracted 94% more views on average than content without visuals.
Create content that caters to your niche or that is trending, as this will make your content more likely to be shared…getting even more eyes on your blog post. This is going to be a great way to connect with potential clients, especially as we have continued to go increasingly digital. In the video below, Samantha shares tips for using social media to grow your client base.
Wrapping It Up
Is your blog section ready to shine in 2022? We hope that these tips will help boost your online presence and show that you are a thought-leader in the industry. Trends are going to be ever-changing but these ones are consistently strong and are sure to make a difference in the coming year when you implement them.
Want to Ramp Up Your Online Presence This Holiday Season?
We are offering access to our content for advisors to use via Lead Pilot for 7-days completely free (even on our month-to-month plans).
About the author
Blair Kelly
Blair is a social media strategist for FMG Suite and Twenty Over Ten and has a passion for uncovering what drives online traffic and the highest engagement. She follows more animals on Instagram than humans and her greatest achievement is her daughter, Grey.