Content marketing can be a great way to connect with potential and current customers, but it can be challenging to stand out in such a crowded field.
There is much content out there that will supposedly help customers save for retirement, get out of debt, or invest their money.
So how can you make content that stands outs and converts?
You must focus on building trust and providing value if you want to be successful with content marketing in the financial services industry.
It doesn’t matter what type of content you decide to create. However, we are going to share insights that will help you develop a content strategy that will make your content marketing more effective.
What is Content Marketing in Financial Services?
Content marketing in financial services is creating and sharing content that educates, informs, or entertains potential and current customers.
The goal is to attract customers to your brand and build trust, making them more likely to do business with you.
It’s important to remember that content marketing is not about selling. It’s about providing value and building relationships.
Why Should Financial Services Firms Embrace Content?
There are a number of reasons why financial services firms should embrace content marketing.
It gives you a non-promotional and organic way to reach customers
It’s an effective way to reach potential customers. There are more people online than ever before, and they are consuming content at an alarming rate.
Position your firm as the source that prospective customers turn to when they have questions or concerns related to their finances.
Relationships matter
Another reason why content marketing is so essential for financial services firms is that it allows you to build relationships with potential and current customers.
People do business with companies they know, like, and trust. Content marketing is the perfect way to build those relationships.
Increases brand awareness
Content marketing can also help increase brand awareness for your financial services firm.
If you produce high-quality content, people will start to associate your company with being a thought leader in the industry.
This goes far beyond publishing the latest industry news that is found on many other sites. Instead, create relevant content that is valuable to your audience and watch your brand awareness increase.
Content Marketing Tips for Financial Services Companies
The financial services sector still has tons of opportunities if you know how to correctly execute a content marketing strategy. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Find Your Target Audience
The first step is to find your target audience. Whom are you trying to reach with your content?
Once you know your target audience, you can start creating content that appeals to them.
Using the best financial services marketers in the world will not help your business if they are creating content for the wrong audience.
Build Detailed Buyer Personas
Understanding specifics about the things your audience is interested in beyond general information like their age, income, and occupation will allow the creation of content that truly resonates with them.
Creating detailed buyer personas will help you do this. They are essentially fictional representations of your ideal customer based on market research and actual data about your current customers.
Developing buyer personas will allow you to create content relevant to the specific needs and interests of your target audience.
Focus on each stage of the buyer’s journey
Financial services brands are wired to think of the close. But there are many touch points along the way that need to be considered.
Awareness stage: During the awareness stage, people are just becoming aware that they have a problem or need that needs to be addressed.
Your goal at this stage is to produce content that educates them about the problem and how your financial services company can help solve it.
Consideration stage: People are starting to compare different solutions to their problems during the consideration stage.
Your goal at this stage is to produce content that showcases the advantages of your financial services company over the competition.
Decision stage: People are ready to make a purchase during the decision stage.
Your goal at this stage is to produce content that helps them make their final decision and choose your financial services company.
Make your content SEO-friendly
Making your content SEO-friendly will help you reach a larger audience. It will also help you rank higher, which will make it more likely for people to find your content with organic search.
Think about it this way; If you write a title like “Actionable Finance Tips” and somebody’s searching for “Finance Tips” in Google, your title has a good chance of coming up.
On the other hand, If you write a title like “3 Tips For Getting Your Finances In Order”, while it’s still relevant, it’s not as likely to come up in search engine results.
Your goal should be to create content that is both relevant for potential clients and SEO-friendly.
Leverage Data
As you create content, you will get valuable insights into your audience’s behavior. Then, leverage this data to improve your content marketing strategy over time.
You can use data to better understand what topics are resonating with your audience, what type of content they are engaging with the most, and what times/days they are most active.
This information will help you create more targeted and effective content in the future.
Target specific keywords
Use keyword research to identify the specific keywords your target audience is searching for and make sure to incorporate them into your content.
Including relevant keywords will help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). This will make it more likely for people to find your content.
It’s important to note that you should never sacrifice quality for keyword placement. First and foremost, write for your audience, and the keywords will naturally fall into place.
Use conversational language
When you implement content marketing into your strategy, you’re essentially having a conversation with your audience.
It’s essential to use relatable and easy-to-understand language. You want to avoid coming across as too “salesy” or too technical.
The goal is to build trust and establish relationships with your audience so that they will eventually do business with you.
Be consistent
Content marketing is not a one-time effort. In order to be successful, you need to be consistent with your output.
That means, at a minimum, you should be creating and publishing new content on a regular basis. But, ideally, you should also be promoting your content across multiple channels.
The more places your target audience can find your content, the better. But, again, consistency is key. You need to make sure you’re putting out high-quality content on a regular basis if you want to see results.
Measure your results
Last but not least, it’s essential to measure your results. This will help you understand what’s working and what’s not so you can adjust your strategy as needed.
Some metrics you may want to track include:
- website traffic
- number of leads generated
- conversion rate
- social media engagement
- email subscribers
This is just a small sample of what you can track. The important thing is to focus on the most relevant metrics to your business goals.
By regularly measuring your results, you can fine-tune your content marketing strategy over time and eventually achieve the results you’re looking for.
Types of Content That Financial Services Companies Can Create
The opportunities are there for whatever medium or platform you want to use for your marketing efforts.
Social Media Posts
This is one of the most common types of content that financial services companies create. And for a good reason – social media is a great way to reach your target audience.
You can use social media to share your blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, etc. Just make sure you’re tailoring your content to each platform.
E-books White Papers
This is an old strategy that still works today when executed correctly. For example, creating an e-book or white paper and offering it free in exchange for an email address is a great way to generate leads.
Your e-book or white paper doesn’t have to be lengthy – around ten pages should do the trick. Make sure it’s packed with valuable information that your target audience will find helpful.
If you discuss complex topics in the financial industry, these can be great ways to show your target audience that you’re an expert in your field.
Finally, this can be used as opt-in incentives for your newsletter.
Blog posts
A blog post is a great way to share timely information with your audience in an easily digestible format.
The financial institutions underutilized blogs to reach their target audiences.
You can use your blog to establish thought leadership, highlight key stakeholders in your company, break down complex topics, show personality, and showcase interviews.
Repurpose Your Content
Skilled content creators never let the content they spent so much time and energy on go to waste.
You can repurpose your content in a number of ways:
- Create an infographic from a blog post
- Turn a series of blog posts into an e-book or white paper
- Create a video from a blog post or article utilizing a video text maker
- Create social media posts from your blog
Let’s look at a popular repurposing strategy used by YouTubers. First, they will create an excellent one-hour interview.
Then they pull 20 two-minute clips from the interview and share them on social or create a Clips page for their channel to help boost the discoverability of their channels.
Weeks worth of content from one video!
Video Marketing
The popularity of video marketing is only increasing, so it’s time for financial services companies to get on board.
Videos are a great way to show personality, build trust, and establish thought leadership while providing valuable information to your audience.
There are a number of different types of videos you can create, such as:
- How-to videos
- Explainer videos
- Interviews
- Customer testimonials
- Demo videos
The opportunity is now for the financial brands to establish their businesses using video since it is still relatively new for the industry.
SEO Optimized Articles
There’s no doubt that ranking in Google is essential for any business. Still, it can be especially important for financial services companies.
The reason is that people tend to trust the brands that appear at the top of the search results.
Creating SEO-optimized articles can help you rank higher on Google and get in front of new customers.
Here’s a simple hack: Find as many pain points as possible that your ideal client is facing and write content relevant to those pain points.
A tool like SurferSEO will help you optimize this content for search.
Local SEO
This may seem like an obvious solution to get in front of new leads, but it’s often overlooked.
Ensure your financial services company appears in local search results by claiming your Google Business Profile and optimizing it for relevant keywords.
You can also list your business in other directories such as Yelp and Foursquare.
And don’t forget about optimizing your website for local keywords as well!
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a great way to nurture leads and keep your financial services company top of mind.
You can use email to send helpful information, such as blog posts or white papers, to people who have signed up for your newsletter.
You can also use email to stay in touch with past clients and customers.
The key is to make sure your subscribers are segmented, so you’re sending relevant information to the right people.
You are competing with a lot of other emails, so sending 401K information to someone interested in starting a 529 plan probably won’t result in many clicks.
Testimonials
Now that financial services companies can use testimonials, you should use them to your advantage.
Testimonials can be a powerful way to build trust and show potential clients that you’re an expert in your field.
Make sure to include testimonials on your website and in your sales materials.
Financial services content marketing FAQ
What are examples of content marketing?
Content marketing can take many forms, such as blog posts, infographics, e-books, white papers, videos, etc.
Any helpful content that is created with the intention of providing valuable information to the right audience can be considered content marketing.
How do you make financial content?
The best way to create content on financial topics is to discover specific pain points of your ideal customers and create content that addresses those pain points.
You can also create helpful how-to guides, infographics, and other types of content that help them.
What is included in a content strategy?
A content strategy should include a plan for what type of content you will create, who will create it, how it will be distributed, and how you measure success.
It’s also important to consider your overall business goals when creating a content strategy.
For example, suppose you want to increase brand awareness. In that case, you’ll want to create content that is shareable and promotes your financial services company.
If you want to generate leads, you’ll want to create digital content that is helpful and relevant to your target audience.
