Content marketing has proven time and time again to be an effective way to grow a business. The value of content spans industry, and the finance industry is no exception. But you may be struggling to develop a fintech content marketing strategy, simply because of the sheer amount of information available to you.
There’s a ton of digital noise on the internet about content marketing best practices, making it challenging to understand exactly how to leverage the right marketing tactics, and strategies to promote your brand in the right light. Add this to the fact that the fintech industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and you may feel overwhelmed creating a comprehensive content marketing strategy that puts you ahead of your competitors.
To get the highest ROI, you’ll need to create quality content that focuses on education and tangible benefits, above all else. Here’s how.
Fintech Content Marketing: A Definition
At its core, fintech content marketing is the process of using high-quality, educational pieces of financial content in order to engage audiences, pique interest and drive leads. Finance is a subject that pertains to nearly everyone, but financial material has gained a reputation of being boring, dense and unrelatable. This isn’t always the case; when presented efficiently, fintech content can be interesting and appealing to a broader audience.
A well-thought-out fintech content marketing strategy communicates a brand’s unique selling points to potential customers in all stages of the marketing funnel. This is done by using data-driven insights to form goals that are relevant to a company’s specific marketing needs.
Benefits of Fintech Content Marketing
Let’s dive deeper into why content marketing provides an exceptional benefit to companies of all sizes.
It Brings in New Audiences
The internet gives us access to a massive amount of information with a single click of a button. From a consumer perspective, all of this data can be exceptionally overwhelming, and it can be hard to find one trusted source to answer their questions.
This goes for industries of all kinds, but people are increasingly searching for answers related to finance and advice on smart investing. When it comes to something as personal as finances, consumers want to know that they are consuming relevant information they can trust and refer back to. So make it your goal to create high-quality, educational material, so you can appeal to new audiences and keep them coming back for more.
Consider leveraging licensed content to boost your own brand and credibility. By showcasing your brand name alongside a reputable publisher like The New York Times, you can improve your brand image and increase trust as you build this audience.
It Provides Tips and Advice
There is a stigma surrounding financial content — the idea that all things relating to finances are complicated and can be tedious. Because of this, many consumers are reluctant to take their education into their own hands. But when you provide easily digestible content in unique formats, like videos, infographics, listicles and blog posts, you will appeal to a wider variety of readers.
It’s important to attract readers with all types of educational backgrounds, from those just starting out on their financial journey to the more experienced.
Additionally, consider that not every piece of content needs to be focused on the stock market or a consumer’s portfolio allocation. AdvisorStream, an award-winning marketing platform for financial advisers, noticed that during the pandemic lifestyle and wellness content performed best in its content marketing initiatives. Additionally, people’s financial lives are more complex than just their retirement funds or emergency savings. By leveraging a range of different content options, fintech companies can understand what is important to clients, whether that be travel, planning for a wedding or saving for a house. These insights allow fintech companies to better serve their consumers and provide more thought-provoking content.
It Establishes Your Brand as a Thought Leader
The fintech industry is exceptionally competitive, and if you’re consistently producing high-quality content, you’ll be viewed as a trustworthy and credible thought leader over time. Again, you’ll want to create a trusted reputation as a place readers know they will consistently get accurate industry news in a timely manner. If you stay consistent with your content marketing, you’ll build your brand awareness and authority, which is an invaluable benefit to have.
It Drives New Leads
At the end of the day, your target audience is looking for your business to answer their questions before they can even ask them. Remember that conversions and leads start with education, and there’s no better way to promote education than comprehensive content marketing. Ideally, your fintech content will start readers down the customer journey and encourage conversions every step of the way.
5 Elements of Strong Fintech Content Strategy
Not all content marketing strategies are created equal. When brainstorming your next steps, incorporate these elements with every decision you make.
Your content marketing strategy should:
1. Understand Your Target Audience and Be Customer-Centric
A world of digital chaos requires personalization in order to reach your target audience. Before you even think about topic ideas, do your research: Who exactly is your customer, and what problems do they need to solve? You’ll be able to tailor your content messaging from there. Remember that you’ll want your content to speak directly to the needs and preferences of the person reading it.
Explore different digital channels and techniques in your messaging for the best results. Consider curating news explaining the latest trends or exploring financial content syndication. Experiment with different formats, as doing so will create a one-on-one relationship with your customers.
2. Seek to Solve a Problem and Appeal to All Customers
There is often a gap between what organizations think they know about their clients and what they actually do know. To fully understand your clients, we recommend the following steps:
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Develop Personas
Personas can help organizations better empathize with users, so their needs can be better met. Education, job title, job seniority, age and other important characteristics should be included here. The more specific these personas are, the better. Be sure to also develop personas for each person involved in the buying process to better understand which pieces of content will need to be developed.
The marketing team at Skytap, a self-service provider of cloud automation solutions, leveraged personas to improve their overall marketing efforts. When comparing year-over-year data, they had improved their traffic from North America by 210% and achieved a nearly 100% increase in leads from digital marketing efforts.
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Brainstorm With Other Departments
Sales and product teams will have different insights than marketing since these departments engage with consumers in a different way. Sales teams are in constant discussions with prospects and can identify areas that may be of interest to these consumers. Product, on the other hand, is communicating regularly with clients to address issues or make improvements to the overall product or service. By combining these insights, your team can deliver superior content.
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Use Data to Make Decisions
Marketing teams need to continuously gather information on content performance to evaluate which pieces work well and what topics users are interested in. Leverage email open rates, white paper downloads, website visits and content syndication campaigns to revamp your editorial calendar with topics that are pertinent to your customer database.
3. Have an Educational Component
Remember that readers are consuming fintech content because they ultimately want to make better financial decisions. As we mentioned before, this begins with an educational content strategy, from beginner articles to very detailed and thorough content aimed at professionals and experts.
4. Demonstrate Thought Leadership
To get those customers coming back, you’ll need to prove yourself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable figure in your space. Demonstrating thought leadership is something that is invaluable and requires incredible commitment and consistency. Becoming a thought leader doesn’t happen overnight, so keep at it. Once you have established your footing in the space, you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.
5. Leverage Outside Resources
It can take a lot of time and materials to create your own content marketing strategy. If you don’t have the resources available internally, consider using outside resources to amp up your service offerings. Consider leveraging licensed content from experts and leaders in the fintech world by slotting in thought leadership pieces from renowned publications like The Finance Times to further build credibility. Doing so will enhance your content offerings while utilizing the power of well-respected brands to appeal to consumers of all kinds.
Examples of Fintech Content Marketing
Below are some great examples of fintech content marketing in use.
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AdvisorStream
AdvisorStream is an award-winning digital marketing platform that uses licensed content from reputable publications to help financial advisers turn their clicks into conversions. As a way to build trust and credibility with their consumers, they decided to harness the power of licensed content within their content marketing strategy.
AdvisorStream was looking to expand its content offerings and chose to license content from NYTLicensing. Their goal was to deliver high-quality, licensed content, aimed specifically at their consumer’s business needs, while boosting their brand awareness and overall conversions.
Since creating and writing content can be a costly expense, working with NYTLicensing was the best option for AdvisorStream. They curated content from both The New York Times and the Harvard Business Review to build out their editorial calendar.
As a result, this content approach allowed AdvisorStream to stand out as an authoritative thought leader among the clutter and noise of other brands in the industry. From January 2020 to June 2020, AdvisorStream experienced a 200% increase in views from its licensed content and a 260% increase in lead capture from its platform.
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Chime
Chime is a financial technology company that was founded on the premise of making online banking helpful, easy and free. To do this, Chime partners with regional banks to design financial products that are member-first, with the goal of creating a more competitive market with better, low-cost banking options for everyday Americans.
As a way to make financial information educational and accessible, Chime has created a blog and resources page that breaks down complex financial concepts into digestible chunks. Each topic is broken down into easy-to-understand language in how-to guides, listicles and infographics. By producing content around sometimes confusing concepts, Chime has created an incredible online resource. Now, everyday Americans can reference this page whenever they have questions about credit scores, budgets, credit cards and more.
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Varo
Varo is an online banking platform meant to be accessible to all. Joining Varo is easy and free, and a bank account with Varo boasts no credit check, no minimum balance, no monthly fees and no overdraft fees. The goal of Varo is to give Americans the freedom to take more control of their money.
Like Chime, Varo has created a comprehensive blog and resource page with tons of content around saving money, opening a bank account, investing and more. Making financial information easily accessible like this works wonders in bolstering brand awareness and brand authority for Varo.
Final Thoughts
Fintech content may sound intimidating, but when it is created in bite-size, digestible chunks, consumers gain the education they need. There are multiple ways fintech content can boost your brand awareness, authority and engagement. Investing in licensed content from NYTLicensing can help you meet these goals.
Explore NYTLicensing’s fintech content offerings today.
