Financial services companies sometimes fall short with content creation due to handling a mountain of other issues. This doesn’t change the fact that the businesses that stay ahead of the pack continuously create impactful financial content marketing.
That’s because consumers across the financial spectrum usually start with an online search and review content long before engaging with a sales rep.
Source: LSA
The key to success in this domain is consistently delivering value, and creating a process (with the right tools) that enables that consistency. Doing so earns the kind of trust that leads to customer engagement and conversion.
With that, let’s dig into six ways you and your team can create remarkable brand value with successful financial content marketing.
1. Seek To Educate With Financial Content Marketing, Not Persuade
True, the end game of digital marketing is about driving results, but overly salesy content will not get you there. Today’s consumers might see hundreds of ads in a day and tune out a lot of them.
People do, however, respond to the adage “teach, not sell.” Unsurprisingly, many of the most popular online searches begin with “how to.” The financial brands that customers reward with their loyalty are the ones that teach something useful.
Create easy-to-understand financial content marketing that goes in-depth on particular topics that people care about. For inspiration, check out examples like Ally Bank’s Conversationally or H&R Block’s Tax Center. Then, work with your team to find and schedule beneficial topics in your content plan.
2. Get Visual and Interactive
Financial content is notorious for being boring, vexing, and long because of its inherent subject-matter complexity. Take cues from other industries by producing scannable “eye candy” that grabs attention.
A “show-don’t-tell” format also makes in-depth and advanced topics easier to understand because the human brain values visual material. It functions best as an image processor that more easily remembers experiences through pictures.
Even better is when you create items that your audience can directly engage with. Calculators are a no-brainer in finance, and interactive maps are a way for readers to make it personal by seeing how data applies specifically to them.
How can you figure out which visuals create impactful financial content marketing? Do an image search of the topics you want to present to your audience and see what’s ranking. You’ll quickly find out which types of charts and visualizations attract people most.
Explainer videos, video case studies, and podcast snippets are another great way to break down complex topics and make them more engaging, particularly for people who are on the go. Here’s a practical example from Edelman Financial Engines:
If you can’t yet create video financial content marketing, break up the copy of a content asset with an image or chart every 300 words or so. Another easy way to get visual is to tell more stories in your content. That way you paint a picture in your audience’s mind.
3. Put Your Audience First
Maintaining an audience’s focus is a testament to advanced content marketing. Still, most of us fall into the trap of not creating content that readers actually need, so they don’t stick around.
Resolve that by learning your audience’s pain points. Decode the challenges they’re facing by gathering feedback directly from the sales team. Then, engage in conversations with actual customers.
You should also segment your audience into distinct personas. These profiles help personify your reader and customer archetype for more personal content creation. That’s why 90% of companies that exceed their lead and revenue goals are using them.
In this example, E*Trade organizes its financial content marketing by investment goals, making it easy for readers to scan and select an investment path that aligns with their desires and motivations:
4. Test Different Content Formats
Some content formats are inherently readable, interesting, and absorbing. The key thing is to figure out which of these engages your audience most. A few showstopping winners include:
- Listicles: Countdowns, “count-ups”, curated “best of” or “worst of” content — just check out Buzzfeed, and you will get the gist of listicles. They are enduringly popular because everyone appreciates their organized and easy-to-digest nature.
- Step-by-step guides: Nothing shows expertise and value like putting out a long-form post that breaks down how to do something. Just make sure to break up this “heady” content with frequent visuals.
- FAQ pages: These are another great way to present information in a clear and concise configuration. If your customer-facing teams find that people are asking the same questions over and again on a topic, an FAQ page is sure to rank with your target audience.
- Call-to-action-centered content: Financial content marketing professionals should also create materials that support a pillar content piece like an e-book or whitepaper. Go in-depth on a specific subject so readers can make informed decisions before they act.
Remember to review the data to understand which of these performs best. The ideal way to do that is with a content operations platform that keeps your content calendar and metrics all in one place.
That also means you can repurpose the same content in different channels. Again, your content operations platform is a godsend here, helping you easily compare performance so you can lean into the most effective methods.
Source: Hootsuite
5. Exhibit Authority in Financial Content Marketing
People remove their uncertainty about decisions by looking to someone else or a brand with specialized knowledge, credentials, or even an air of confidence to guide them. For this reason, incorporate authority into your financial content marketing to persuade readers.
Reviews and testimonials from legitimate and recognized people of power in the financial world are effective social proof. Collaborate with your company’s leadership team to pen content periodically for additional impact. You could also create a co-branded content asset with another prolific financial company or create a rock-solid About Us page.
(Of course, be sure to stay compliant with the SEC’s marketing rule.)
6. Update Content Regularly
As markets change and new financial products become available, you don’t want your audience unintentionally finding old information on your site and relying on that. Outdated financial content marketing can wreck your authority and credibility.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to toss all of your old articles. While every site benefits from pruning now and then, you should schedule audits and reviews of your content and bring old blogs up to date, especially the ones that once performed well.
Optimize pages with fresh links and images to get them back up to snuff. Tighten up the writing where it could use it. All of this is easier to stay on top of with a content calendar that doesn’t let anything slip by the wayside.
Enhance Your Financial Content Marketing With Top Tools
Developing meaningful relationships with your audiences is key in this highly competitive day and age. Forge this bond with consistent, informative, and relevant content that your customers can relate to, engage with, and find value from.
Luckily, DivvyHQ can help with the process. This content operations platform is the wrecking ball that’s ready to knock down barriers to create remarkable financial content marketing for your brand.
Take us for a spin with a free demo to experience all the features that will improve your content workflow.
