They say that content is king. But content marketing in financial services is also leads. And sales. And engaged customers. And sometimes even free advertising. That is especially true in financial services.
A study of financing content marketers by Brandpoint in 2021 found that reaching a targeted audience and building a brand’s relationship with its customer is one of the biggest benefits of content marketing.
That makes content marketing in financial services an extremely cost-effective way to get in front of hard-to-reach decision makers at institutions and businesses — and to build relationships with their existing customers in order to cross-sell to them.
All financial services companies currently have some kind of a content strategy. But given the impact content can have on the sector’s results, companies should be asking if their current strategy is the right one. Are they doing enough?
We’ll break down why financial services marketing departments should be investing much more in content and what can be done to ensure that content marketing strategies in financial services firms are optimized for the increasing importance of content in the future.
The Future of Content Marketing in the Financial Sector
Enterprise technology company Pega recently released their Future of Marketing report titled 7 Trends Changing the Status Quo. Based off a survey of 750 global marketing executives, the report found that content is expected to drive business results in the future.
Companies are shifting from short-term and transactional marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) like immediate revenue and website visits to more long-term term relationship based KPIs like customer lifetime value and customer cross-sell.
The catalyst for this radical shift is martech applications that can finally optimize for and track these important metrics. This presents a great opportunity for financial services since the sector’s greatest revenue potential comes from long-term relationships with customers and serving them across multiple lines of business.
Pega found that content played a key role in delivering lifetime customer value. Companies who create quality content that connects with readers across their buying lifecycle will be more likely to see a financial services firm as a trusted partner and return to them for their next capital or investment related need.
Content marketing in financial services should therefore play a crucial part in the sector’s future marketing strategy. Firms that aren’t working now to refocus their marketing investments towards content are likely to fall behind as customers come to expect more from financial services.
Why Your Financial Services Content Strategy Needs an Upgrade
On average, B2B buyers are now reading eight pieces of content before they reach out to a company. That’s a shift from the relationship-based banking practices that have made many financial services firms successful.
With this new digital buyer’s journey, companies might be missing out on business opportunities because of substandard content and not even know it. That’s why a financial services firm needs to be overperforming when it comes to content.
A great financial services content strategy is focused on these key pillars:
- Engaging Content
Dry bank brand voices aren’t cutting it anymore. Both B2B and B2C readers will put down content or navigate away if it isn’t engaging right from the opening sentence. There is no room for filler.
Financial service content strategies should include updated brand voice guidelines with a more approachable and even potentially humorous voice.
- Intelligent Content
Do you quote your subject matter experts in your articles and white papers? If you don’t, you should be. You want to be providing a unique perspective on the issues that matter to your customers.
Both B2B and B2C also like data-driven content. Leverage your company’s data to tell a unique story about how people or businesses like them are dealing with common financial issues. Entry-level explainer content is good to have but high-level thought leadership is often what closes a sale or builds a deeper relationship.
- Personalized Content
Personalization is the future of marketing. But how do you do that with content? Don’t be afraid to include industry specific content in your B2B financial content marketing strategy. For B2C, feel free to create content aimed specifically at certain demographics.
Both types of content can tell key demographics that you understand their specific business and financial challenges. That builds trust and presents your firm as the perfect partner.
- Frequent Content
You can’t skimp on either content quality or frequency these days. Having a stream of content coming out consistently is key. Create industry specific or life cycle specific newsletters to remain in weekly or monthly contact with core groups.
One best practice is to create series of articles that are all focused on various customer pain points but speak to different points of the buyer’s journey. You can then use that content to create a digital journey that pulls readers further through the sales funnel.
Financial Content Marketing Done Right
So, just what does financial content marketing done right look like? A comprehensive financial services content marketing strategy could include things like
- SEO evergreen content for searches with buyer intent
- SEO evergreen content for searches connected to your product offerings
- Short form thought leadership
- Long form thought leadership
- Time-sensitive content
- Industry specific content
- Content for specific demographics
- Annual research reports
- Infographics for complex financial data
- Videos
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Case studies or customer profiles
- Content for major campaigns
- Newsletter content for demographic specific segments
- And more
Which deliverables are right for your financial services content marketing strategy will depend on a company’s target customers. But a key part of the strategy has to be how all those things work together and are deployed via omnichannel or personalized interactions with customers.
For example, you can automate event-based actions that include content. Did a customer read an article on your site about small business loans? Retarget them on LinkedIn with ads for a research report you published last month on the state of business lending. Content has the potential to be a core driver of conversion, if deployed right.
How Do I Create a Winning Strategy for Financial Services?
Creating a winning content marketing strategy for financial services requires significant strategic thought and research. Here are just a few of the steps:
- Start with your personas. What do you know about them from internal or external research? Create a guide for what kind of content each persona would be most likely to respond to. What distribution method is most likely to reach them? Create a guide for how to create optimized content for each persona.
- Do more research. How are other financial services firms doing content marketing? Do a research report on their content production to better understand their best practices and missed opportunities.
- Create a content strategy for each persona in line with customer persona pain points and your business objectives. Make sure to plan out content for each part of the buyer’s journey for each pain point.
- Optimize your content distribution. How does your content strategy fit in with your martech capabilities, other marketing spend, and current distribution method? Plan around with strategies to get the optimal results from
- Get external help, if needed. A financial services focused content marketing agency can help you quickly develop a winning strategy with much less work for your team. They’ll also be more plugged into emerging best practices.
How Do You Choose the Right Content Marketing Agency?
Hiring the right financial services content marketing agency is important. Reach out to a number of agencies who specialize in financial services and ask for an initial consultation. Make sure they understand where the future of content and financial services are headed. You want to make sure you’re getting a content strategy that will work now, not one that worked two years ago. Ask for references from past clients to ensure that you choose the right partner.
