Content marketing is the most powerful inbound marketing strategy. Content Marketing helps with SEO, building your authority and driving traffic to your site. But the key to getting a positive return on your time and dollars spent is to make sure you are generating leads from your team’s efforts.
In fact, content marketing is so big, companies like The Washington Post, run by Jeff Bezos, are pushing out up to 1,200 content pieces of content per day.
Every day we see finance companies and their marketing directors pushing for more content, but missing the vital component of lead generation.
The number one reason you and your team continue to push out more content should be to 
generate leads. Of course, building the authority and credibility of your business is a worthy goal too. But at the end of the day, a transaction needs to happen to generate a positive return on your content marketing efforts.
Today we are going to take a look at the top 7 ways to generate leads through content marketing. Many of the examples will be specific to the financial services industry, but you will be able to apply these to any industry.
1. Generate more leads through the content upgrade strategy
Our number one strategy to generate more leads for financial services companies is what is known as a content upgrade strategy.
The content upgrade strategy has been around for years and is still as effective today as it was when it was first introduced.
What is a content upgrade?
According to Pat Flynn on the Smart Passive Income blog,
a content upgrade is simply bonus content that people can get access to in exchange for their email address. Unlike traditional “site-wide” lead magnets, however, content upgrades are unique to the specific content that people are already reading or listening to on your site.
For example, you create a content-rich evergreen article of 2,000 words. At the end of the post, you draw a conclusion. Your conclusion might involve a handy next step they need to take.
As a result, your content upgrade could outline the necessary next steps they need to take to get to the next level of their journey.
If you’re in the financial services industry (Forex, CFDs or stock trading) you might write an article on technical analysis.
Traders love powerful entry techniques, so your content upgrade could be ‘The top three chart patterns used by professional traders on a daily basis’.
Another example would be to focus on the handful of categories within your blog.
So your finance blog may have the following categories:
- Forex Trading Strategies
- Technical Analysis
- Psychology of Trading
- Money Management
- Entry Techniques
- Exit Strategies
- Position Sizing Methods
- Fundamental Analysis
You get the idea.
You’ve already done the research to come up with those key categories. Your team is busy writing brilliant content around those. Your job now is to create one content upgrade for each of those categories.
Everytime you publish a new blog post, your content upgrade steps in and provides a good incentive for your visitor to leave their email address.
Next, you want to make sure you have an email nurturing campaign which helps close the sale on your product or service.
Also, you can add tags to each of your subscribers so you can segment your list for future marketing automation email campaigns.
2. Generate leads through webinars
Webinars are by far one of the best sales conversion tools available. People love to learn from webinars.
Webinars are:
- Informative
- An effective way to position your company as the authority
- the perfect way to get people to ask questions and engage one on one
Your goal with a webinar is to make sure it is a necessary next step in their journey. So long as you overcome the top 3 mistakes people make with webinars, you should be fine.
Your prospects read your blog posts; then you give them access to one of your webinars.
In the strategy above (content upgrade), you will be able to gather some very handy information on what resonates well with your prospects. Turn your best content upgrade into a webinar.
Instead of offering an eBook as your content upgrade, your handy next step is your information packed webinar.
Two ways to win with webinars
The two ways to use webinars are:
- Evergreen webinars
- Live webinars
Leverage your time through evergreen webinars
Evergreen webinars are simply a recording of your live webinar.
At the end of each blog post, you ask them to view your recorded webinar to see your ‘strategy’ live in action. If you have done your job in the blog post, people will jump at the chance to view your webinar.
Nowadays, there are many webinar software tools like
They all offer evergreen webinars.
There are other webinar providers, such as GoToWebinar, so check to see which one is suitable for your needs.
Running live webinars
Now, the second type of webinar is a live webinar.
A live webinar enables you to capture the attention of the people right there and then. Obviously, it’s a little more time-consuming because you have to be there on the spot at that time.
Even though they may provide less leverage for your time, you can engage with your prospects in a very efficient manner.
If you find you’ve got an excellent webinar converting your leads into sales, then you must provide access to that as much as possible.
Evergreen webinars on the hour, every hour
More recently, people have been running evergreen webinars where they offer it on the hour every single hour.
When your prospect registers for your webinar, they are given three options.
- They can choose a time at a later date.
- Another option will be a time in the next 24 hours
- They can pick a time starting at the next hour.
For example, if they’re on your site at 7:40 p.m. and register, then an 8:00 p.m. opportunity to watch the webinar will be presented to them.
3. Offer a giveaway or contest.
Now, another way to proactively capture leads is to provide a giveaway or a contest.
Providing your contest is congruent with your blog post, they can be very powerful ways to generate new leads.
As an example, an SEO company recently created a useful blog post on using data to improve your front page rankings in Google.
At the end of the blog post, they ran a contest giving away two monthly SEO subscription services to SEMRush valued at $1,999 per year each.
As you can appreciate, this was a red-hot offer for those interested in SEO.
To maximise this content, he could write two posts per week on SEO, and ask his readers to “Drop your information in to enter the contest to win a year subscription to the SEO service valued at $1,999.”
Next, he could promote it via social media, driving people to his SEO blog and generate new leads that way.
What sort of giveaways can financial services companies offer?
If you are in the financial services industry, you might run a contest where you offer:
- A year’s subscription to your CFD, Forex or Stock recommendation service
- As a Forex broker, you could offer loss protection up to $200 if they trade certain products (Indices, Forex or Precious Metals)
- Stockbrokers could offer free brokerage up to $XXX in value
- Managed funds could waive the setup fee over the next 60 days
You get the idea.
4. Turn every YouTube video into a lead generation asset
Video is such a powerful lead generation opportunity. Through video, you’re able to build your authority and become a company of influence in your niche.
Unfortunately, many people create their videos without giving lead generation as much thought as they should.
Every single video you create must turn into a lead generation asset.
What this means is you have a strong call to actions within the video itself.
At the end of your videos, mention something like this:
“If you like this video then please give it a thumbs up and feel free to subscribe to our channel. For those looking for a bit more, you can download our latest eBook by clicking the links on this page.
You can use the new YouTube End Screens linking to your landing page and capture their details there.
From here, run your email nurturing campaign and do everything you can to push them over to a live client.
We have created a blog post which has been very popular called “YouTube Video Ideas,” so feel free to check that out.
5. Promote your landing pages via social media.
Social media continues to shine as one of the most powerful inbound marketing methods.
When it comes to financial services, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube rain supreme.
There are other ones like Instagram and Pinterest, but you need to see how they fit into your company’s creative and content marketing plan.
Your job now is to create a series of promotional social media posts pushing people back to your key landing pages.
In addition to driving them to your landing pages, give people the opportunity to find out about your product and service pages.
You must drip feed these on social media and rotate them around.
As an example, with Twitter, you want to make sure you’re pushing out your content, your news, your information and your interesting blog posts.
For every three or four newsworthy or informative posts, stick a promotional post in there.
There are no hard and fast rules with the frequency, but if every post you do is, Buy my product, Buy my product, then you’re going to have people unsubscribe from your social media profiles.
In combination with your best content, you entice them back to your landing pages and lead capture opportunities. Or else your social media strategy will be generating a little return on your time and money.
6. Guest blogging will help you reach a new audience.
Another way to generate leads through content marketing is to leverage the platform and the exposure of the most influential people in your industry.
Many of the influencers in your space will have an excellent profile and following on their blog.
Their blog may rank very highly and generate a lot of organic traffic. They may also have a solid email list.
Guest blogging allows you to leverage their authority and positions you as the go-to expert in your niche.
Your job now is to offer your best value-added content to their blog, allowing you to win their audience over.
At the bottom of your guest post, you’ll have your contact details including your website and social media profiles. This allows your new audience to get in touch with you.
For many, guest blogging continues to be their most powerful lead generation strategy.
7. Offer a case study at the end of your blog post
Lastly, instead of offering an eBook as your content upgrade, pop in a case study option.
A case study can be a powerful way to engage with your prospect. When done correctly, a case study will allow your prospect to be in the shoes of the people you helped get a positive result.
Your job is to provide a case study highlighting a company or individual your prospect can relate to.
Provide real numbers and give as much detail as possible. The more engaging and relatable your case study, the more you will influence them to your products and services.
By offering a case study, you intrigue them. You generate curiosity with what you’re doing, and then you get them to subscribe to get that case study.
So there you have seven of the best ways to generate leads through content marketing.
Why not get in touch with us today and book a 30-minute phone consultation to see how we can help you generate more leads to your business. We will help you find the pockets of opportunity missing from your lead generation efforts. Sometimes a new set of eyes is all you need to get to the next level.
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