Content marketing has become an essential tool for businesses of all kinds, and the banking industry is no exception.
In today's digital world, consumers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from various sources, making it difficult for any single message to stand out. Effective content marketing, however, can help place your bank at the forefront and gain trust with personalized and valuable content focused on your target audience’s needs and interests.
Whether it involves blog posts, email newsletters, social media campaigns or other formats, content marketing gives banks the chance to connect with customers personally and build lasting relationships over time.
Not sure where to begin? In this guide, we will discuss what content marketing is, why it matters for banks and how you can get started today!
How Is Marketing Used in Banking?
Every day, banks are inundated with new products, services and strategies to promote. But with so much noise in the market, how can you ensure that your bank’s message is being heard?
The answer lies in content marketing.
Marketing has always been an essential part of banking. After all, banks rely on customers to stay in business.
In recent years, however, marketing has become even more critical in the banking industry. With the advent of online banking and the rise of new competitors, banks have had to find new ways to reach and engage customers.
The key is creating content that is interesting and valuable to your target audience.
When it comes to banking, customers want reliable information that they can trust. By creating helpful and informative content, you can position your bank as a trusted expert in the industry, and build relationships with potential and current customers.
What Is Content Marketing for Banks?
There's no doubt that content marketing is on the rise, as many institutions are expanding their content marketing budgets more than ever before. In fact, an impressive 82% of marketers invest in marketing their content.
But what exactly is content marketing, and how is it relevant for your bank?
Simply put, content marketing for banks is creating and distributing high-quality, relevant and valuable content to attract and engage potential and current customers. There are many different types of content that your bank can use in its content marketing efforts. For example, you can create blog posts, infographics, e-books and even video. By creating and sharing valuable content, banks can build trust and credibility with potential and current customers. Additionally, content marketing can help banks to differentiate themselves from the competition.
The key to successful content marketing?
Producing content that is truly valuable to your target audience. This means addressing their needs, pain points and questions in a helpful and informative way. If you can do this, you'll be well on your way to building trust and establishing yourself as a go-to source of information in the financial industry.
Benefits of Content Marketing for Banks
Content marketing is an essential tool for banks, as it offers a range of benefits that can help improve brand visibility and strengthen customer relationships.
How?
Effective content marketing strategies empower you to:
Reach a broader range of audiences:
By creating high-quality content that speaks directly to your target audience, you can reach a wider range of people and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
Add authenticity to your brand:
Engaging content helps to add an element of “realness” to your brand that is all your own and allows it to stand out.
Share brand values:
Content also allows you to share your brand’s unique values. By sharing these values, you can build trust and credibility among your readers.
Tell a story about your bank:
Effective content empowers you to tell a compelling story about what your brand stands for.
Educate audiences on current issues:
Useful content, such as blog posts, infographics and videos, can help to educate audiences on current trends and issues in the finance industry.
Establish trust with your readers:
Effective content positions your bank as a thought leader and trusted source of information.
The bottom line?
Content marketing provides a full range of powerful benefits for banks, making it an indispensable tool for anyone looking to build a strong brand and lasting relationships with their customers. Whether you are sharing the latest trends in the finance industry, educating readers on essential issues related to finance, or simply establishing trust with potential customers, content marketing is a valuable way for you to engage with your audience and build meaningful relationships.
What Kind of Content Marketing Can You Create for Banks?
As a content marketer, you’re always looking for ways to serve your customers better and grow your business. But did you know that content marketing can help you do both? By creating engaging and educational content, you can build trust and loyalty with your customers, while attracting new leads.
If you are wondering where to start, below are some of the top content marketing ideas for banks:
Educational Content & Articles
Educational content and articles make it easy to provide answers to commonly asked questions your customers have. This will not only help them better understand your products and services, but it will also show that you’re a trusted resource they can rely on.
Financial Podcasts
Marketers sometimes see better results with multimedia presentations, such as podcasts. Instead of writing hundreds of words about financial planning and related topics, you can create podcasts that have you narrating advice to listeners.
Downloadable Worksheets
Businesses tend to create a larger audience when they offer free resources to potential customers. A financial institution or bank can do this by offering downloadable assets, including financial management investment guides, or even free worksheets for planning and goal setting.
Interactive Financial Calculators
Text and video can engage users, but interactive website tools like calculators, can motivate action more aggressively. Consider building one of these interactive financial calculators for users if they want to make projections about buying homes, investing, retirement, college funds or something else.
Infographics & Guides
Infographics can visually break down information that may be perceived as “boring” or confusing. This makes them an ideal format for explaining complex financial concepts in an easily digestible way.
Video
Video is increasingly becoming the popular medium of choice and is a great way to engage audiences about your bank services. Whether you create how-to videos, customer testimonials or product overviews, make sure your video content marketing strategy is informative and entertaining.
Trending News
Consumers are often thinking about how the news impacts their finances. By creating content covering the latest banking news and trends, you can show that you’re on top of the latest industry changes and help your customers make informed decisions. But creating these trending articles and fact-checking them can be a time-consuming and expensive endeavor.
Additionally, valuable insights from major news organizations are increasingly being placed behind a paywall. However, companies can license news from reputable publications like The New York Times and The Harvard Business Review to showcase on their blog or curate via newsletters. According to a recent report done by Reuters, only 21% of Americans are currently paying for a subscription for digital news. Even fewer have more than one subscription. With a copyright license, your team can showcase this content to your audience, while providing new, credible and interesting articles.
Lifestyle and Health & Wellness Content
AdvisorStream, a marketing platform for financial advisers, notes in a recent webinar that despite being geared toward financial professionals, it regularly showcases lifestyle content. Kareem Rashwan, product partnership director at AdvisorStream, said, “We actually completely stay away from curating content that speaks specifically about products or very specific financial planning strategies. It's more about personal finance, financial wellness, that type of thing. That's about 80% of our library. The remaining 20% is really what we would label as lifestyle.” Rashwan defines lifestyle as travel, health and wellness, food and economics.
In the wake of the pandemic, credible health and wellness content has been sought after. This is especially important to note if you are a bank that offers health savings accounts or other products related to health and wellness. Virtual content, for example, tends to do exceptionally well, according to the 12th Annual Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends: Insights for 2022 report survey, in which a core audience of healthcare professionals, respondents agreed that such online content produced desirable results, particularly over 12 months (58%).
Health content licensing and travel content licensing packages can help companies showcase reputable articles from HealthDay, The New York Times Well section and Travel Times.
5 Examples of Content Marketing for Banking
Banks have been using content marketing strategies for years. In fact, banks were some of the first companies to realize the power of financial content marketing. By creating helpful and informative content, banks can build trust and credibility with their customers. Below are a few B2C and B2B content marketing examples of how banks are using content to engage their customers:
1. TDECU
TDECU provides an example of how a financial institution can use blogs for content marketing by categorizing posts, including social media icons and visuals.
2. First Service Credit Union
First Service Credit Union provides an FAQ page with answers to common questions about banking, including questions about credit and debit cards.
3. Bank of South Texas
Bank of South Texas leverages interactive tools, like calculators, that work well for content marketing because users get to read and interact with your content.
4. American Express
Through their Trends & Insights section, American Express provides their entrepreneurial clients with long-form articles as inspiration to help them run, grow and expand their businesses, as well as look out for what’s coming next.
5. Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments licenses stories from trusted news sources like The New York Times to engage their customers and establish thought leadership.
Getting Started With Content Marketing for Banks
When it comes to content marketing, there are a couple of unique challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, potential customers may be sensitive about trusting a financial institution with their personal information. But on the other hand, banks have a wealth of experience and expertise to share with consumers looking for advice on how to manage their money. How do you leverage those challenges to maximize your potential?
Below are just a few ways you can make the most of your content marketing to ensure that your audience feels safe, engaged and educated:
1. Determine Your Target Audience
The first step is to determine the target audience. Next, consider what type of customer you’re trying to attract and what pain points they are trying to address. Personas are a great tool to better understand target audiences. Be sure to collect client interviews and work with sales, business development and product to develop these.
2. Leverage High-Quality Journalists for Engaging Content
Storytelling is a crucial element of a content marketing strategy, but especially for banks. Financial information can sometimes seem a bit boring. If you put out generic financial marketing content, consumers will usually leave without converting.
Journalists are experts at crafting a narrative, making journalism a great addition to your content strategy. Additionally, by leveraging insights from credible sources, you can showcase content that will build trust with your audience without having to expend valuable resources.
Approximately 71% of thought leaders agree that less than half of the thought leadership they read delivers value. By adding high-quality articles from reputable publications to your editorial calendar, you can ensure your team is showcasing insightful information on trending topics to your target audience.
3. Choose Content Mediums
Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, you can decide which content formats are most appropriate. For example, will blog posts, infographics or video tutorials most effectively reach your target customers?
4. Use Promotion Platforms
Next, you’ll want to promote your content through social media, email marketing and other promotional channels. Consider licensing options that would allow other websites or blogs to feature your content, as this can be an effective way to reach a wider audience and generate more leads.
5. Measure Results
Finally, measure and analyze the results of your content marketing efforts. Keep track of web traffic, leads generated and conversion rates. By regularly measuring your progress, you’ll understand where you’ve been, where you are and where you need to go for your desired results!
Final Thoughts
Now that you know the basics of content marketing for banks, it’s time to put your newly found knowledge to work and kickstart your marketing campaign.
But what if you need a little help?
When it comes to engaging content, there is perhaps no better platform than NYTLicensing. With decades of experience in the industry and a deep understanding of audience needs, this platform offers businesses of all sizes the ability to create high-quality, customized content that truly speaks to their target demographic.
Whether you need blog posts, imagery, video or something different, NYTLicensing can provide the tools and expertise you need to take your marketing strategy to the next level.
