Why Content Marketing Matters in Professional Services

Copywriting / 30 Nov 2022

Professional services are stuck between a rock and a hard place. You’re trying to promote incredibly complex services (rock) and you’re in a highly competitive market full of disruptors (hard place). How can you break out? 

With content marketing for professional services. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Almost three-quarters of the most successful businesses use what they consider to be sophisticated content marketing. This means SEO content writing with a killer content strategy targeting fully fleshed out buyer personas.

What can this do for your business? It can: 

• Boost your brand awareness 
• Build your authority and consumer trust 
• Help consistently bring in more leads
• Increase your conversions 
• Improve your client retention rate

This is game changing in the saturated market of professional services. 

Why you need content marketing for professional services 

Content marketing is how you stand out on Google from the thousands of competitors in your industry.

12,000 other law firms, 50,000 other financial service providers, over 200,000 other logistics enterprises. We could go on. 

It’s how you fight back against disruptors by showcasing your prowess. 

Take the rise of alternative legal services providers and the Big Four who have moved into this new territory and are dominating it. 

It’s how you grow your digital presence.

Consumers expect a digital-first approach. Take digital banking where more UK consumers prefer to apply for financial services and products online than not. Or consider financial services where the fourth most popular way to find a provider is to go online. 

Content marketing is also how you save yourself a lot of time. 

With a healthy content marketing strategy in place, you can spend less time chasing down leads as they’ll come to you. Plus, with an SEO content writing agency taking care of your content marketing for you, you’re free to focus on your existing clients. 

Need more convincing? 

Then let’s take a closer look at exactly how content marketing helps. 

3 ways content marketing for professional services helps you

1) Showing you’re better than your competitors

When you’re selling something invisible and intangible – your knowledge and expertise – it’s hard for leads to take you at face value and trust that you’re better at what you do than everyone else. 

After all, your competitors also have an impressive list of credentials to their name. They’re also FCA or SRA regulated. They also promise honesty, integrity and efficiency. 

You, therefore, need to walk the talk. 

But how can you flex your proverbial muscles to a lead when they’re just that, a lead not a client? 

By showing them through your content marketing that you know your stuff and you know how to make that stuff accessible to them. 

Professional services are daunting to most people who aren’t in the industry. No-one wants to end up sitting opposite a financial adviser or solicitor jabbering about what to do with their money, house or life in a way that is completely unintelligible. 

You need to nip this fear in the bud with content marketing that convinces leads that you’re there to empower, inform and ultimately help them. 

So what does this look like? 

Examples of content marketing for professional services

Financial services content marketing that offers real value to leads could look like this: 

• Interviews with your partners, fund managers or investment banking associates on their approach to investment in the current climate. 
• SEO optimised blogs with your financial experts’ top tips on how to create a household budget that really works, how to use digital banking to manage money more effectively, and how to spot financial scams from a mile away. 
• Comprehensive eBooks on the pros and cons of fixed versus variable rate mortgages, or when, why and how to remortgage. 

What about content marketing for lawyers?

It’s a similar story. Think about the questions your leads and clients want answered. Brainstorm on the challenges they’re facing right now or will face in the future. And then get creative. 

Say you’re a law firm specialising in construction. 

In a world where inflation is up, supply chains are strained and supply chain disputes are on the rise, how can your content marketing help? 

You could put out a blog (or several) explaining how inflation affects supply chains, what a contractor needs to think about in terms of contractual clauses before they take legal action against a supplier, and how mediation or arbitration could confidentially resolve their dispute. 

This approach achieves two things: 

1. It shows in-depth understanding of the market and the practical challenges construction businesses are facing.
2. It provides clarity to frustrated contractors who aren’t sure where they stand legally.

That’s two birds – showcasing authority and providing value – taken care of with one stone (well, blog). 

This will have a tangible effect on your lead generation and conversions. Why? Because the most prized skill business clients look for in their lawyers is a deep understanding of their business. 

Content marketing for lawyers allows you to show off your sector-specific expertise, which could be the deciding factor in whether you secure a new client or not. 

2) Building relationships that convert

In professional services, the growth of your business depends on building relationships. 

Your clients aren’t really buying what you do (your competitors do the same thing). They’re buying how you do it (and how that will make them feel). 

Competing on your credentials and experience isn’t enough. Many of your competitors will tick those boxes too. You need to show your leads what it will feel like to work with you. 

You’re not remote, inaccessible or patronising. 

You’re understanding, approachable and empathetic. 

Consider the scenario of a first-time buyer befuddled by what surveys they need to get or how the Help to Buy scheme works. 

They’re too embarrassed to ask professionals face-to-face questions that they think any responsible grown-up should already know the answers to. Rather than spend hours tied up in knots getting conflicting advice from friends and family, they turn to Google. 

And there you are, ready to help. 

Your blog takes them through all the steps they need to follow and the paperwork they need to complete in straight-talking language. You can show them that you understand how daunting it all is and want to make it easier for them. 

Or perhaps, your lead magnet offers a checklist of eligibility criteria for all the different Government discounts for first-time buyers. You can demonstrate that you want to empower consumers to make the right decisions for their life. 

Or how about your whitepaper? You know, the one that takes a deep dive into whether the Help to Buy scheme really is worth it and provides the answers to those questions consumers feel too awkward to ask out loud. You can showcase your knowledge and how you believe that there are no stupid questions when it comes to something as important as a person’s home. 

That’s how content marketing for lawyers connects to leads. And it works the same way in financial services content marketing. 

It provides relief, generates trust and showcases authority. This is a great foundation for a relationship that starts with a clickthrough and ends with a conversion. 

Except that isn’t really the end is it? 

3) Retaining more of your existing clients

You’re probably pretty good at retaining your clients through your service alone, right? In banking, the average retention rate is a healthy 75%. So far, so good. 

But let’s flip the script. If we stick with banking, that means one in four clients is switching to a competitor. 

Add in the fact that a mere 5% boost in your client retention rate can deliver at least a 25% increase in profits, and suddenly losing one in four clients sounds pretty awful. 

So, retaining more clients is essential to growing your bottom line. 

In a market that isn’t saturated, your proven track record of providing a stellar service might be enough. But professional services is a saturated market. 

Of the 10 biggest challenges in client retention faced by law firms, competition comes in at number one. 

Thankfully, content marketing for professional services has your back. 

As your clients’ lives, legal needs and financial circumstances change, your content marketing can provide a comforting, consistent source of advice, support and expert insight to solve their evolving pain points.

Consider the free-wheeling singleton who came to you as they wanted to get savvy with their financial investments. They’re now supporting two kids and a partner, and their approach to risk, savings and investment are looking rather different. But luckily for them, your content marketing still offers the answers they need.  

With a content strategy targeted to your different audiences at the various stages in their life and in the buyer journey, you can stay front of mind. So, as soon as they need a service you offer, you’re still the top pick. 

By consistently providing genuinely helpful content at the right time, you create brand loyalty. 

Client alerts are one great example of how to do this. Has something changed in your industry? How does it affect your clients? What’s your take on it? It’s time to push out some content that answers these questions. 

Ready to roll with your content marketing?

Now you know how content marketing for professional services can give you the edge over your competitors, it’s time to get started. Our specialist team of legal and financial SEO content writers are raring to help your organisation secure more leads, more clients and more business. Book your discovery call today.