Bespoke or ready-to-use – are you content with your content?

The proliferation of communication platforms mean that most businesses feel they need to keep up with the competition and post or communicate on a regular basis with clients. Plus, the introduction of GDPR has meant that firms are perhaps focusing on website content and social media more to attract new clients.

Writing content on a regular basis takes skill and imagination, and of course time. Larger businesses have the option, and the money, to contract external agencies to write content – whether it’s articles, blogs, social media posts – on their behalf as part of their marketing support. For smaller firms this is more difficult as they don’t have the same budgets as larger ones. The answer for many is ‘common content’, i.e. articles written by specialist agencies (like us) and used by multiple companies.

Common content is a very good and cost-effective option, ready written and often pre-approved by the compliance teams of the networks, they are available on all topics that financial advisory firms need to communicate about. Of course, they aren’t unique and other firms will be using the same article on their website or newsletter. They are also written with a ‘mass audience’ in mind, so may not be appropriate if you are targeting a particular niche or HNW individuals. Search engines such as Google like websites that are regularly updated with fresh, unique content so bespoke articles will score more highly.

The benefits of articles produced specifically for your firm – whether they are produced internally or by a marketing team – are, of course, that they are written with your audience in mind and using your ‘tone of voice’, i.e. they portray your style and personality. The downside is that they obviously cost more.

So, what’s better, bespoke or ready-to-use? The answer is…both. By taking some ready-to-use content, especially on subjects which are time sensitive (such as the Budget), adapting a few pre-written articles to be relevant to your audience and commissioning some bespoke work, you’ll be getting the best of both worlds. That is, you’ll be maximising both your budget and the amount of content you can post and use.

Whichever route you choose, it’s important to plan how you’re going to use it and integrate it with your overall marketing plan.

By Mike Johnstone