How To Spot Crappy SEO Pitches And Avoid Content Marketing Consultants Who Really Aren't Experts Hot
The only answer is educating yourself. Advisors don't need to become experts in content marketing and search engine optimization, but they need to know the basics. You need to know that if your content marketing consultant is not asking you for your keywords and meta tags, they probably don't know what's they're doing. If they do not focus on your niches and local search terms, they probably don't know what they're doing. Advisors need to know enough to make that determination or else you will get ripped off.
Writing optimized content boosting an RIA's visbility in social media and search engines requires expertise in wealth management, search engnes, and writing. Few professionals possess all three skills.
Here's a webinar I posted some months back that explains how advisors are getting ripped off and the basics needed to succeed content marketing.
On a related topic, here's a great post from searchengineland about how to keep away from crappy SEO services.