Content for Female Clients: Why Most Financial Planning Marketing Still Talks Past Half the Household
Open most financial planning websites and read the content as if you're a woman managing your own money, solo or as the primary decision-maker in your household. 💖 A surprising amount of it doesn't quite land — the imagery shows a couple with him looking at the documents, the topics assume a shared account and a shared decision, and the tone occasionally overcorrects into "empowerment" language that's really just the same generic content with a different colour palette on top.
What most financial planning content gets wrong
It defaults to a household structure that isn't actually stated anywhere. A lot of accumulation and investment content is written for "you and your partner" even when the reader might have no partner, be the primary earner, or be managing things entirely solo. Topics also skew toward strategy in isolation from the life events that disproportionately affect women's financial position — career breaks, part-time work, divorce, widowhood, becoming a carer — rather than addressing them directly. And when practices do try to speak to women specifically, it can tip into "pink it and shrink it": the same generic content, softer colours, no real change underneath.
Topics worth adding (not replacing what you have):
- Managing money solo after divorce or widowhood
- Superannuation gaps from career breaks or part-time work, and how to catch up
- How pay negotiation decisions compound into long-term retirement balances
- Managing finances jointly without losing visibility or decision-making control
- Planning around parental leave, not just the "before baby" checklist
- Aged care and support planning, given women are more likely to take on caring roles
- Insurance considerations for income that's variable due to part-time or casual work
Tone checklist — run this over a sample of your content:
- ☐ Would this piece read the same if the reader has no partner, one partner, or is the primary earner?
- ☐ Are we assuming a specific household structure that isn't actually stated?
- ☐ Have we used "empowerment" language without genuinely different content underneath it?
- ☐ Does our imagery show women actively engaged — reading, discussing, deciding — not just present next to a partner?
- ☐ Would a solo, financially confident woman reading this feel respected rather than spoken down to?
How to actually shift your content without turning it into a gimmick
Audit existing content for household assumptions — search your own site for phrases like "you and your partner" or generic "he/his" language and either generalise or diversify them. Add genuinely new topics rather than just rewriting existing investment content in a softer tone. Diversify imagery without defaulting to pastel colours as the only signal that content is "for women." And ask current female clients, informally, in review conversations, what content they'd actually find useful — don't assume.
Mistakes to avoid
- "Pink it and shrink it" — same content, softer colours, no actual topic change
- Assuming every female client is either single or the non-primary earner
- Using empowerment language as decoration without content to back it up
- Only addressing women's finances in the context of a partner or family, never solo
- Treating this as a one-off campaign rather than an ongoing shift in how content gets written
Frequently asked questions
Should we create separate "for women" content, or broaden what we already have?
For most practices, broadening existing content and imagery works better than a separate campaign — a parallel "for women" offering can read as an afterthought unless it's genuinely resourced and kept up over time.
Is this about targeting women as a marketing segment?
It's more about not unintentionally excluding half your client base, or half of most households, through assumptions in tone, topic and imagery. Content that works for a solo, financially engaged reader tends to work well for couples too.
Will this require different compliance sign-off?
No different process — the same general-information, no-specific-advice rules apply regardless of who the content is aimed at, so run new topics past your compliance team the same way you would any other content.
How do we know if our current content has this problem?
Run the tone checklist over a sample of recent posts, or search your own site for phrases like "you and your partner" used generically. It's usually obvious once you actually look, even if it wasn't intentional.
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