Ready to rock your resources page? This video is for you!
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Perfectly Planned Content’s Writing Wednesday video series, where we dive into the power of words and the many ways writing impacts your business.
This copywriting series aims to give financial advisors practical insights into building valuable, high-performing websites that speak to their ideal clients. Until now, we’ve discussed the following pages: home, about, and services.
Today’s page is for my lifelong learners, advocates for quality education, and those interested in highlighting their best content: the resources page.
What’s A Resouces Page and Why Have One?
Think of your website’s resources page as an education hub.
The resources page houses top-tier content your audience can consume to learn more about your brand, industry, service, etc.
While you may understand the importance of a strong home or about page, the resources page tends to hang in the background.
Why?
Because you need ultra-valuable, high-quality content to feature. And businesses that haven’t begun their content journey might not have those pieces yet.
Here’s why investing in a resources page can help you in the long run.
- Warm up your leads. In today’s marketing landscape, a strong brand and online presence are critical for converting leads into lifelong customers. A resource page invites users to consume relevant content that helps them solve their problems. Perhaps you’ll feature a course, white paper, long-form blog posts, original research, infographics, case studies, etc., which can help you draw more leads into your funnel and give you more opportunities to connect with them.
- Boost your SEO. Remember, every word on your website should have a clear job and purpose. Your resources page is there to help you build website credibility, keep users on the site longer, and provide high-value resources throughout the purchase and decision-making process.
- Cement your brand as a thought leader. Many financial advisors wish to become thought leaders in their niche, and a healthy resources page is one step to help them achieve that goal. By continually adding new resources, insights, and unique practical applications for your audience, you’ll encourage them to turn to you as a trusted source. And once you establish trust, you can build meaningful relationships.
Before you call up your designer and web developer to add this page to your website, here are five ways financial advisors can optimize their resources page.
1. Decide On The Optimal Structure For Your Resources Page.
Every advisor’s resources page will assume a different structure depending on their business, audience, and goals.
The first thing to think about when designing the layout of your resources page is your audience. You’ve already collected this data and used it to build the other pages of your website, but reconnect with the following characteristics:
- Motivations
- Hopes and desires
- Fears
- Values
- Problems and roadblocks
- Unique opportunities
Keeping these traits in mind enables you to create a tailored framework specifically for who you want to target.
For example, this information may help you decide if you need a separate tab for each content offering or if consolidating the assets into one page would be more streamlined.
What does that mean? Let’s break it down.
Option 1: Resources By Content
One option is creating separate tabs for each type of featured content. For example, the Perfectly Planned Content website filters our resources by content type, and we have four categories: blogs, videos, webinars, and downloadable content. This structure enables viewers to select the type of content they’re interested in consuming.
We made that choice so our audience wouldn’t have to dig for an upcoming webinar or wade through multiple blog posts to get to our downloadable resources. Since we have one clear niche, all the content is relevant for that audience; it just depends on how they wish to interact with it.
How could you translate this structure for your company? You might create different tabs for blogs, videos, events, podcasts, media features, etc.
Option 2: Resources By Niche
Many financial advisors serve a broad range of clients and, as such, have different niches. Segmenting your resources library into distinct tabs for each niche ensures that your audience gets a tailored and relevant experience.
Say you serve pre-retirees and business owners. Sure, there may be areas where they overlap, but each group likely needs a unique approach.
A great example is retirement planning. Creating a retirement plan for a tech executive may look different than for a family business owner. Where you might talk about deferred compensation and leveraging company stock with the tech professional, you’re probably talking about exit planning, valuation, and selling strategies with your business owner client.
So, your resources page for the tech professional may include blog content about equity compensation, net unrealized appreciation of company stock within a 401k, what happens to your equity when you retire, etc.
And your resources page for the business owner may include content that talks about choosing a successor, how to obtain a formal business valuation, income diversification outside of the business, etc.
Providing useful information for both types of clients ensures they have a positive experience and gives them the knowledge they need to feel confident about their money—which is the ultimate goal.
If you select this route and have a business blog, separating the resources from the blog might make sense, as it could cover topics for multiple specialties.
2. Select The Type of Content You’ll Feature.
When it comes to content on your resources page, the world is your oyster! You can feature a diverse range of content, like high-converting blog posts, webinars, videos, case studies, infographics, events, lead magnets, and more.
The most important thing is that the content you feature tells a complete story and gives your audience what they need.
Now comes the fun part: selecting your superstar content line-up.
Consider the following as you narrow it down:
- Your ideal audience’s “why.” Understanding their motivations—navigating equity compensation, transitioning into retirement, opening a business, etc.—will help you select the right resources.
- Your best content. What content have you and your team created that is a cut above the rest? Have you constructed an interactive quiz or lead magnet? Did you build a video course? Do you have a unique blog series that tackles top industry questions? What about a sample financial plan where your audience can glimpse what it’s like to work with you?
- Content gaps. Throughout this brainstorming and strategic process, you may identify missing pieces in your content plan. It could be as simple as consolidating your top blog posts into an ebook or as complex as building a course. Work with your content team to add it to your editorial calendar.
- Relevant third-party content. No, we’re not talking about affiliate marketing. Hand-picking pertinent outside content can elevate your brand and show you’re dedicated to giving your audience the most complete and comprehensive experience. For example, if your niche is college planning, you might include links to Federal Student Aid, loan forgiveness applications, FAFSA logins and updates, your state’s 529 plan, etc.
Remember, if you have multiple niches, you may want to create separate resource pages that follow a similar content formula.
3. Embed A Complementary Keyword Strategy.
Your resources page is a wonderful opportunity to rank for target long-tail, short-tail, and local keywords.
Before you start writing copy, remind yourself of the types of words and phrases on your list and intentionally include them in your headings, meta descriptions, on-page copy, and within the resources themselves.
Say you specialize in helping women in medicine build a life they love (wealth, career, family, hobbies, etc.). Your resources page should help them find the best answers to their questions, like:
- How can women in medicine help close the gender wage gap?
- What do women in medicine need to understand about their disability insurance?
- How can women physicians negotiate their contracts to ensure they get paid what they’re worth?
- What do women surgeons need to know about “X” company benefits?
Knowing your keyword goals can help you select resources that meet your audience’s needs and advance your site’s SEO.
4. Keep The Resources Page Clear and Clutter-Free.
As an advisor, you have so much knowledge in your field, but without organization, that information can overwhelm your audience.
Your customers don’t want to see your messy desk.
Make it easy for them to engage with you by creating a clear, cohesive, and streamlined section.
When you think about the layout and placement of your resources, consider how you ideally want your audience to move through the page. Like telling a story, include a beginning, middle, and end that takes the reader through an educational experience.
You can do this by organizing the information into clear sections—downloadable PDFs, sample case studies, visual infographics, etc. Work with your web designer to conceptualize a visually appealing and user-friendly layout.
5. Give Your Reader An Action.
You can’t forget about calls to action!
Your reader landed on your resources page, which is excellent, but now you need to think through what you want them to do.
A primary call to action on a resources page is often downloading a valuable asset, signing up for a course or webinar, subscribing to a newsletter or ongoing communication, etc. Whatever you have, be sure your audience understands what you’d like them to do.
Here are some quick tips for making click-worthy CTAs:
- Keep it short and sweet—3-5 words tend to work well.
- Maintain tone consistency—select words that resonate with your audience and brand’s tone.
- Demonstrate value—what will your audience get from clicking on your CTA?
Along with your primary CTA, your resources page may have secondary CTAs that keep people engaged on the website, like learning more about your services, “meeting” the team, about the company, or even scheduling an introductory phone call.
Make A Resourceful Resources Page
Your resources page helps your audience be, well, resourceful! It allows them to learn more about how your brand can make a difference in their lives.
People are drawn to valuable content that directly relates to them. If you give high-quality, tailored content in a beautifully designed package, your resources page has done its part in helping you connect with the people that matter most, your audience.
Are you cooking up ideas for your resources page?
Let me know what you’re most excited about!
Thanks so much for tuning in—until next time.
