6 Content Marketing Tips for Financial Services Companies

Money affects Everyone. What we do, how we live, where we live, just about everything is dictated by finances. A broad umbrella, finance seems to cover consumer banking, fintech, investments, insurance etc. It is, therefore, no wonder that many feel that financial service content is rather complicated. However, what many still do not really understand is that creating content for such companies is not that challenging.

 On the other hand, one can make use of this complicated scenario and attract numerous prospects, all with the help of the right content marketing strategy. And that is what most successful finserv companies are doing. They are putting more money than ever in content and are helping their companies in becoming brand-bigger than ever. 

Here are 6 keys that can greatly help you to create attractive content:

Target Your Audience
The content that you generate has to target the specific audience in the most irresistible, and helpful way. Your firm should be able to build its position in giving helpful and correct advice through the content.

1. Demographics:
   Narrow down on demographics as to who exactly will buy/consume the product/services 
2. Create content EXACTLY for your target:
   An unclear or vague content that broadly covers content, would not be able to strike a chord. For example, if your target is young millennial women, then try to focus on urban, earning women. By creating a buyer persona, you would not only be able to reach your audience but also interest and support them.
3. Create a Brand Soul Essence:
   Brand persona is your firm or company’s core values. It represents your ideal customer. Through the right brand voice you combine all kinds of data and build archetypes of the target audience.
4. Determine the User Journey:
   You may even want to consider working on different stages of a buyer’s journey, for example – Awareness, Consideration, Decision and then After Sales/Review/Upsell
   The content topics/strategy as well as tonality changes according to the user journey.

For example: If you are creating content about Insurance or a Loan or Credit Card, you need to talk about:

Your Website is Your Best Sales Representative
The website that you set up for your financial services is going to be your 24×7 marketing asset, everything begins and ends with it. You need to ensure that the design, the usability and the user experience must be excellent. Unless it is WOW, it may as well be obsolete.

Over 80% of consumers believe that when it comes to choosing a financial service, the user experience is most important.

How is a financial website different from a regular blog/website?

1. Breadcrumbs = logical interlinking so that people can understand the flow/context
2. Responsible writing as people make money decisions, 
3. Stringent regulators, Insurtech (IRDA), Fintech (RBI/SEBI)

Image by suksao on Freepik

Share Data-Driven Content
When it comes to marketing a financial service, data helps in creating trust among the consumer. It not only removes subjectivity but also allows the use of analytical tools to satisfy the need for information. Get creative and present the data in any of the following ways:

1. Blogs
2. Articles
3. Infographics
4. Videos
5. Newsletters 
6. FAQs
7. Social Media Updates
8. White Papers

Search Engines Must Notice You
To feed your website traffic you must ensure that the digital content that you put up on your website is SEO-friendly. Keep in mind that every piece that is created has to be optimized for a certain keyword that is linked with your financial service. 

1. Target low hanging keywords instead of highly competitive ones such as “best car insurance in India” instead of “car insurance”. Chances of ranking would increase
2. You can use the Moz tool https://moz.com/help/keyword-explorer/keyword-research/ranking-keywords
3. Refine the content to meet SEO needs to create high-quality, relevant content that directly answers their questions
4. Be consistent with your SEO writing. Do not upload all articles on the same day. Be consistent as Google crawling would be better and your pages would rank better

Remember: You must be cautious as over-stuffing can lead to penalization by Google.

Avoiding Jargon is Essential
Most financial companies cannot avoid using typical and complicated financial jargon in their content. It must be understood that difficult and technical words do not make your content impressive, rather they make it too complicated for people to understand. Keeping things and concepts simple will not only improve comprehension but also the traffic

Follow these 5 tips

1. Make the content very easy for the end-user (TG)
2. Make them action-oriented (so that the end-user can make a decision based on the content) with a CTA (Call to Action) tab
3. Make the content interactive
   91% of consumers love working with brands that provide relevant recommendations and engaging content with personalized offers.
4. Give personalized content, with a human touch that caters to the different needs of different audiences
5. Make the content relevant and updated (with recent tax changes, norms, rate of interest updates, etc.)

Create Strategic Content Calendars
A content calendar helps you in planning the content, the keywords, the audience as well as deadlines. The calendar works as an efficient mapping tool and further promotes the content that you wish to share across multiple channels.

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Follow these steps

1. Plan the entire year’s content outline
2. Then create a theme or idea on a quarterly/monthly basis
3. Target the platform which you wish to leverage such as website/social media/backlinking, etc.
4. Plan the content at least 1 week before
5. Schedule the content ahead of time so that there is CONSISTENCY!

We surely hope that these tips could offer you some insight into the efforts that you put in when you craft your content marketing strategy. When done right, content marketing can really help in boosting your brand and in driving organic leads to your company.