Some things are easy to sell. Ice cream at a crowded playground on a hot day. Rain ponchos during a sudden downpour. Toilet paper during a global pandemic.
Other things are not so easy to sell. And if you’re in the financial services game, you know your offerings are near the peak of the “hard to sell” pyramid.
That’s why content marketing is so important for financial services firms. Your clientele expects more from you than an advertisement on a billboard or on the side of a city bus. Just telling people that you exist isn’t enough — you need to educate them, explain who you are and why they should care, and position yourself as a leader in your industry.
Content marketing helps you do all of this. Here’s why it matters.
3 Ways Financial Services Firms Can Succeed With Content Marketing
1. Educate Your Consumers
Finance can be complicated for a lot of people, and stressful for a lot more. After all, there’s a lot on the line, and your audience isn’t going to feel comfortable moving forward with something they don’t understand.
The secret? Education. When you teach people everything they need to know about your products and services, the veil of mystery is lifted, and they begin to see how all the pieces fit together.
And since you took the time to teach them, they automatically have faith that you have their best interests in mind.
Webinars, onboarding emails, consumer education portals, video demonstrations and a stellar customer support department can all help you make sure your audience knows everything they need to know to feel comfortable doing business with you.
Tell Your Story
Your firm exists to make a profit, but success is about more than just making a sale. You need to tell your story, too.
In business marketing, storytelling helps you up your audience engagement, forge an emotional connection and differentiate yourself from the competition. When you get people invested in your story, they want to stick around to see the ending.
To tell a good story, you need to know your brand inside and out. Who are you? Why do you do what you do?
You also need to tell your story in a way that resonates with your target audience. You need to develop a compelling narrative that explains why your firm is the best fit for their financial requirements. And you need to use a variety of mediums to connect with people in multiple ways.
Is it difficult? Yes.
Is it worth it? Also, yes.
3. Position Yourself as a Leader
Thought leadership is the process of developing and/or sharing valuable content that goes above and beyond to prove to your audience that you are an expert in your field. And when you have a financial services firm, proving that you’re an expert is more important than ever.
To succeed with thought leadership, you need to be constantly innovating, keeping all of your fingers on the pulse of the financial industry, and creating content that has value for your audience.
You need to regularly show up in social media groups and forums, providing advice and answering questions so people begin to see you as an authority.
And you need to seek out external placement opportunities on other business’s platforms to connect with different audiences and build trust.
Thought leadership isn’t about hard-pressure sales or getting your customers to make a transaction right this minute. It’s about making sure that your firm is top of mind when they are ready.
Content Marketing Is a Must for Financial Services Firms!
Finance is arguably one of the most difficult industries to market, because so much is at stake. You’re held to a higher standard than most. And because of that, your clientele is going to take more convincing. Content marketing helps you prove to your audience that you’re up to the task!
Content creation isn’t for everyone. Fortunately, it’s something that can be easily outsourced — and your clients will never have the slightest idea that it didn’t come straight from you! Ready to learn more?