Recently, the market has been full of noise, volatility, and competition for most companies within the consumer and B2B finance space. With banks acquiring fintech organizations, fintech organizations acquiring banks, and GDPR continuing to be the curse-word of most boardroom conversations, marketers face unique challenges in their sectors.
Why is finance marketing a challenge?
2018 was the year GDPR and PSD2 kicked in, after months, if not years of warnings. Legislations slammed the marketing brakes, stunted growth for new customer acquisition, and forced organizations to rethink the marketing funnel, customer journey, and business as a whole.
Not to mention, certain areas of finance, in particular, fintech, insurance, and banking had several new market entrants which have deep pockets to acquire customers. This certainly led to an inflation of CPC ad spend.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic presented a unique set of challenges. With many individuals losing their jobs, their houses, and their loved ones, opportunistic marketing, especially from the finance sector, can be seen in poor taste.
With all of this in mind, what should finance marketers be thinking about as they plan for the coming year? Here are 5 considerations for developing your marketing strategy.
Partnerships are key for growth.
We’ve certainly seen the snowball effect of many larger banks, financial institutions, and other brands partnering with smaller more agile companies to benefit both parties.
For larger, well-established brands, offering their customers something cutting edge without having to deal with legacy in-house systems and technical complexity is hard, so partnering up with fintech, software, and technology providers was a trend that we don’t see slowing down anytime soon.
It’s also important to remember, in a year of volatility and uncertainty, many companies have held back on spending, so as soon as there is certainty in the economy and growth starts up again, companies will have deep pockets to spend on growth and partnerships, so whatever side of the boat you’re on partnerships = opportunities.
Native content will rule.
We were going to suggest that ‘content is king’, but when wasn’t that the case? It’s thought that around 4.4 million blog posts are created every day, so it’s no surprise that content from most major brands is drowned out.
Furthermore, we’ve heard for years that Google loves long-form content, but have you considered the customer? With Generation-Netflix consuming the internet in small bitesize doses, surely writing a 5-point guide with a few charts is better than uploading a finance trends thesis onto your blog.
In reality, the pandemic has shifted the way many of us consume media. Some are looking to get off their devices as soon as possible now that they have to spend all day online for work, while others are consuming more media online to pass the time.
It’s important to consider your audience and what they care about, then develop content to fulfill their needs. Always focus on providing value over selling and utilize a mix of platforms to promote your content. It can also help to establish a cohesive blog strategy that trickles down across your other platforms.
Investing in your brand is worth its weight in gold.
Disney, Nike, and Coca-Cola...what do they all have in common? They’re all recognizable household brands.
For some, brand consideration is a low priority, but during times of turmoil, uncertainty, and cutting back in costs, brand advocacy can act as a stable rock in a volatile environment. Many finance companies have invested in film, webinars, podcasts, and real events to connect to potential customers and showcase their thought leadership and industry specialism.
How can small finance brands with limited marketing budgets invest in their brand? Well, brand and brand recognition are primarily human associations and spreading messages through word of mouth, phone calls, emails and events are key, which don’t cost the earth, and can be very effective.
Social media can be another effective way to establish brand awareness when you use the right hashtags and engage thoughtfully with your audience.
Content is nothing without amplification.
It’s always embarrassing for a marketer to report a meager handful of pageviews for a blog post or page that their team spent a significant amount of time and resources building.
Unfortunately, many marketers forget about the step after hitting the publish button. If the content is something you’re proud of, why wouldn’t you showcase it, shout and scream about it, and get it in front of as many relevant readers as possible?
We used to focus on producing reams of content, at the expense of low quality, and admittedly, low-value articles. By scrapping that strategy for intent-driven content that our readers loved, we were happy to share amongst our social feeds, other blogging platforms (e.g. Medium), and through email.
Missinglettr has been a significant time-saver and effective way of syndicating content without spending hours scheduling posts. The results were better than the high-volume low-quality post strategy, and we’re confident that this strategy will cut through the noise in 2021 and beyond.
Have a voice and react fast.
Most breaking news from world leaders now comes via Twitter. The idea of dynamic, fast-moving news is now the norm.
Finance companies tended to either shy away from big topics (e.g., Brexit, or the US-China Trade War) and not cover them at all, or be at the forefront. People ask questions, Google and search for news, and many are looking for industry leaders to have a voice, suggest tips, and be the voices of reassurance or calm.
When you ignore significant industry or market events, you miss out on the opportunity to establish yourself as a trusted, knowledgeable advisor individuals can turn to when they need help.
It’s not all about reactivity though. Many organizations have seen success by developing assigned templates ready to go for different scenarios (e.g. a ‘Breaking News, US Congress Releases XYZ News… What Does This Mean for Trade?) or even having a list of journalists ready to contact and answer questions or give advice to in the case of certain scenarios such as political war, interest rate changes, currency fluctuations or data breaches.
After a rollercoaster of a year, many consumers are still grappling with everything that has changed. Over anything else, focus on being trustworthy and supportive of your audience. You’ll reap the benefits of brand awareness, audience trust, and warm prospects.
Missinglettr makes it easy for marketers to take their efforts to the next level. Our scheduling tool makes it easy to distribute your stellar blog posts across your social media channels and our distribution platform helps further the reach of your content by getting it in front of relevant audiences. Give it a spin for free today!
