When done right, a good blog can be incredibly powerful for your business, but the problems often begin when ETF issuers start thinking about what would be required to get a blog off the ground. Many feel overwhelmed because they don’t know where to start and feel like they will have to devote a substantial amount of time to constant posting.
While it is true that quality blogs take time, the great news about blogging is that you can do it in a way that completely fits your business needs and goals: there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Quality and consistency are leaps and bounds more important than volume, so there’s no need to worry about constant posting.
The initial blog set-up can be technical in nature, and may involve selecting the right platform. The blog could be built right into your ETF website, or you could opt for a tight integration between a third party platform and your website. Whatever you select, it may be best at this juncture to bring in an expert to implement the blog to your satisfaction and to make sure all of the technical aspects are handled properly.
If you already have a blog, it’s very important to Tidy Up Your URLs; Read more here.
The Audience is King
Yes, we’ve all heard the phrase “content is king” but… content for whom? Hopefully by this stage in your growth as an ETF issuer you already have a good idea of who your audience is and what kinds of topics will interest, delight, and excite them the most, but if you don’t, it’s crucial that you define who your audience is right away. Ask yourself: what sorts of people are investing in our ETFs? What type of investor are our sales materials geared towards? Without answering the “target audience” question, you’ll be blogging and producing content for an undefined audience who may not connect with the content that you create—and that’s a big problem.
Define your topics
Now that you’ve thoroughly, properly identified your target audience, it’s time to start mapping out the topics that your blog is going to cover. What kind of content would they like to see, and what sorts of blog topics would help satisfy that need in the content marketplace? This is a good time to brainstorm: no idea is too wacky! Just list down all of the topics you can think of that might connect with your target audience! Once you and your team have brainstormed a long list of topics, you can whittle it down to the ones that make actual sense as topics for your target audience. Which brings us to our next step…
Make a Commitment
How often are you going to blog? Once a week? Twice a week? Which topics have the highest priority? This is where you can begin to define how much time your firm will actually be devoting to blogging on a weekly basis. If at this juncture it seems like blogging might be sucking up too much of your team’s time in order to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself, it might be time to consider bringing in an outside firm to help shoulder the load with you, in order to develop a regular cadence of blog posts.
The bottom line
Yes, content is king, but it won’t make a whit of difference to your pursuit of AUM as an ETF issuer if you don’t carefully define your audience, ensure you’re covering topics that delight and interest that target audience, and effectively plan the cadence and length of your blog posts. By covering those three main “legs of the blogging stool” you’ll be well-positioned to harness content marketing for your firm’s goals.