Content Marketing Basics for Financial Services Companies
June 21, 2019
Content Marketing is Changing How Financial Services Companies Communicate with Clients and Investors
There's a revolution going on. It comes in the form of a website, micro-site, video, Linked-in or Facebook post, a tweet, or custom emails targeting niche market audiences. It's the content marketing revolution. For financial services companies, content marketing is meeting clients, investors and prospects where they are, and providing them with what they want to know. While it has been slowly advancing for years, the content marketing tide has turned. Progressive financial services companies are applying some form of content marketing now, and their investment in content marketing continues to rise. According to the Content Marketing Institute, leading companies invest 28% of their annual marketing budgets in content, on average.
Here are Five Steps Financial Services Companies Should Take to Transform Their Marketing:
1. Know Your Audience. This sounds obvious enough, but most financial services companies don't know enough about who they want/need to reach. Companies are conditioned to tell audiences what they want them to know. Times have changed, and people are empowered to find answers to their questions. It's critical to know what information your target audiences are looking for and how they want to receive it.
2. Know Your Company. It's not only about what you offer, but where you offer it, how you offer it, and how you work with clients and investors to meet their expectations and solve their problems. Every financial services company needs to understand the niche it owns, what differentiates it in the marketplace, and what works (and doesn't work) in the business development process. In short, financial services companies need to understand their unique value proposition to clients, investors and prospects.
3. Establish Your Company Brand Story. Once the audience DNA and the brand identity of the company are understood, the company's value and story can be communicated to the marketplace. The best approach to marketing is through compelling "storytelling". People remember stories. To be most memorable, stories need to highlight the differentiating factors of the company brand in a context that is relevant and engaging.
4. Share Your Story. Technological innovations give financial companies more and better ways to reach audiences than ever before. In the process, financial services companies have been transformed into savvy communicators, publishers and broadcasters. But like anything else, for every effective outcome, there needs to be a plan. A content calendar is a good place to start.
5. Know The Metrics. To be effective, storytelling needs to align with business goals. The best way to understand if the message is being heard is to measure the results. Knowing the metrics helps financial services companies pinpoint where their efforts are working and where they are not, so that the company knows when to increase the investment, or when to move on.
In this content marketing age, every financial services company is a media company. Following these five steps will help financial services companies embrace this new role and leverage new communication channels to build and strengthen relationships with investors, clients and prospects.
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