Content marketing for financial services

Most Essential Content Marketing Tips for Financial Services

Content marketing is an indispensable tool for all financial service brands such as money lenders, commercial capital brokers, loan officers and line of credit issuers. It helps foster organic relationships with the target audience, boosts customer acquisition and retention, and increases brand credibility.
Did you know that an increasing number of customers are going online to find financial advice and make sound decisions on financial products? As per Google, mobile searches related to ‘finance management and planning’ and ‘best credit cards’ have increased by 70% over the last two years.
That said, creating content, especially web content, for financial services is not without challenges. Because this content deals with necessary legalities, Google refers to it as Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) content and carefully evaluates it based on expertise, trustworthiness, and authoritativeness.
In this article, we will look at the top challenges associated with web content marketing for financial service brands and discuss some helpful tips to get started.
Here are the top challenges in content marketing for financial service brands that primarily arise due to legalities and bureaucracy.

 

1. Obtaining high rankings in Google SERPs
The strict measures of Google’s YMYL guidelines have made it difficult for a financial website or blog to rank high in the SERPs. And this, in turn, limits your brand’s exposure and authority.
Solution: The only solution is to generate thought leadership for your financial brand. You can do that by writing an eBook related to the finance industry or developing content on unique topics that target long-tail keywords. Additionally, you can partner with financial experts or analytics companies to research trends and offer highly relevant information on a broader topic.
2. Conforming to legal guidelines
When it comes to financial information, incorrect data can quickly escalate and land your clients in trouble. And that will also negatively impact your business reputation.
Several regulatory bodies, such as FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), carefully monitor all data related to financial services. These bodies seek to protect investors from false claims and statements. And this makes producing content for financial brands slightly more difficult.
Solution: To solve this issue, hire writers with complete knowledge of financial services. Also, ensure your website includes disclaimers and regional privacy laws to avoid legal liability.
3. Targeting the right readers
Financial businesses have different types of readers. While some are looking for general financial advice, others are looking for highly targeted content. Thus, content marketing for financial brands means catering to the needs of all these readers.
Solution: It is best to simplify top-of-the-funnel content that attracts a broader audience. Use a Content Management System to categorize customers and provide them highly targeted content based on their position in the sales funnel. Lastly, you can also nurture intent by following up with pertinent advice based on the engagement history of the customers.

Essential Content Marketing Tips for Financial Services

Content marketing for financial brands takes time, effort, and resources. And it is for this reason that almost 30% of businesses outsource their web content writing needs to professionals.
If you want to handle your content marketing strategy, here are some tips to help you get started.
1. Identify the target audience
The first step to launching a robust content marketing strategy is identifying your ideal customers. Businesses often market their products or services to everyone, hoping their prospects will find them on their own. However, that strategy is no longer effective. In today’s competitive era, it is important to tailor your content marketing efforts to your target audience. And for that, you can begin by creating buyer personas.
Essentially, buyer personas are fictional profiles of your ideal customers that outline their interests, needs, and challenges. This will help you understand your target customers and their pain points and tailor content that meets their requirements.
2. Focus on each stage of the buyer’s journey
A content marketing plan must focus on different stages of the buyer’s journey. These stages include awareness, consideration, and decision. It is important to tailor your content to meet the requirements of each stage and offer the most relevant content to further push the prospects down the funnel.
Here are some of the best content formats that work well for different stages of the buyer’s journey:
Awareness stage: Blogs, videos, checklists, eBooks.
Consideration stage: Webinars, white papers, case studies, and product specifications.
Decision stage: Demos, free product trials, product or vendor comparisons, proof of concepts, and pricing details.
3. Develop SEO-friendly content
Developing SEO-friendly is the only way to make sure that your content gets the needed visibility. Several factors boost SEO and ensure your content is visible to your target audience. This includes keyword research and strategy, on-page optimization, meta titles and descriptions, page loading speed, image optimization, etc.
Targeting long-tail keywords with low search volumes is also a good idea. You can use several tools, such as Semrush, BuzzSumo, Moz, Ahrefs, etc., to conduct exhaustive keyword research.
Leverage cross-Channel marketing
Creating content that addresses the needs of your ideal customers can be challenging, especially when these customers are in different stages of their buyer’s journey. This is where cross-channel marketing comes into the picture.
Essentially, cross-channel marketing means using different mediums to reach your potential customers. These channels include blogs, podcasts, email marketing, social media posts, video content, etc. You can research what content works for each platform and develop it to engage your prospects.

Wrapping Up

Content marketing for financial brands can often get overwhelming. With so many guidelines and changing trends, it is easy to fall behind with your content marketing efforts. And to avoid such a scenario, it is best to leverage a team of content marketing experts to help you with a reliable content marketing strategy.
From website content writing services to developing a smart content strategy for financial brands, website content writing services can help you take care of everything. They work with knowledgeable financial business experts who can serve as an extension of your team and help to grow your business.