The Best in Financial Services Content Marketing

Trends + Trendsetters THE BEST IN FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT MARKETING

NewsCred Trends + Trendsetters

NewsCred’s Strategy Team helps brands build and hone their content strategies, taking into consideration marketing goals, brand positioning and

the competitive landscape.

Our “Trends + Trendsetters” guides aim to educate marketers on trends,

opportunities and content strategies that best-in-class brands are utilizing to

engage their audiences. In this guide, we’ll take a look at content marketing

in the financial services industry.

Interested in learning more? We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach

out at [email protected].

- Caitlin Domke, Director of Brand Strategy, NewsCred

Issues with trust and loyalty are pervasive across the financial services industry.

Source: Harris Poll, 2014

Levels of Consumer Trust in US Financial Institutions

Consumers Trust in Financial Institutions

Great deal of trust Some trust Very little trust No trust at all

Credit Union 37% 40% 7% 5%

Community Bank 29% 47% 11% 4%

Regional Bank 19% 51% 14% 7%

National Bank 13% 48% 20% 10%

Online Bank 7% 32% 27% 20%

NewsCred set out to find if content can help financial services companies gain the

trust of consumers.

NewsCred conducted a survey among 1,001 adults with Redshift Research in August 2014.

The sample was selected from Redshift’s Crowdology and Crowdology partner panels,

which are balanced across regional, age, and gender demographic factors.

Each respondent completed 120 profiling questions before being accepted to join the

panel. Panel quality management is carried out frequently to ensure reliable surveys.

The Results?

55% of respondents said that they trust a bank more when it offers them

helpful, useful content.

Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

50% would likely stay loyal to a bank that provided high quality content.


31% of respondents said they have signed up for new products and services based on

useful content from their bank.


What does high-quality content look like for financial services brands?

Content should be interesting and helpful

More than a 1/3 of respondents said they would spend longer on their bank’s website

if they provided interesting articles.


57% of respondents said communication from a bank can help them understand which products are most beneficial.


Content should be produced by an un-biased expert

Of respondents trust articles on finance written by journalists who

are experts in finance

Of respondents would trust content written by

representatives of their bank


20% 53%

Content shouldn’t be too sales-oriented

19% of respondents said they simply “switch off” when presented with content

that is too sales-oriented.


Where and when do people turn for financial content from brands?

42% 32% 28%

What current channels do people find useful when receiving communications from their bank?

think emails sent by their bank are useful

of people find texts from their bank useful

of people find apps useful


How often are people looking for personal finance content?


AT LEAST ONCE A DAY 7%

A COUPLE OF TIMES A WEEK 28%

MONTHLY 20%

ONLY A FEW TIMES A YEAR 19%

ONCE A YEAR OR LESS 8%

NEVER 18%

Brands Doing It Right

Now let’s look at examples of top content marketers in the financial services industry.

First Round Capital Bringing together a community of entrepreneurs

American Express Driving Leads through Thought Leadership

OPEN Forum American Express

American Express OPEN Forum

WE ALREADY HAVE A LARGE PART OF THE PIE,

SO OUR BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY IS WITH SMALL

BUSINESS GROWTH – IF THEY GROW, WE GROW.

Insights and resources dedicated exclusively to the success of small business owners

“

” Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly SVP of Partnership & Business Development

OPENForum.com

•  Launched in 2007 •  Helping small business owners with high-quality

content on business advice, trends, and profiles

•  Hard pressed to find a sales pitch within content

•  Membership fosters a sense of community and

personalization of content (+ leads for AMEX!)

•  Facilitates networking events to allow users to

connect both online and offline

American Express’s Goals + KPIs: Primary: Lead generation

Secondary: Engagement, Time on Site,

Return Visits, Social Shares

Primary: Lead generation

Secondary: Engagement, Time on Site,

Return Visits, Social Shares

OPEN Forum is the #1 source for new OPEN

cardholders

American Express’s Goals + KPIs:

Clear mission statement as soon as you arrive at the site

Content Pillars are clear, direct, and compelling

“Getting Customers” (specific) vs. “Business Tips” (generic)

Sub-topics: Planning for Growth

Sub-topics: Managing Money

Sub-topics: Getting Customers

Sub-topics: Building Your Team

OPEN Voice = AMEX specific content

SPARINGLY SCATTERED THROUGHOUT SUB-SECTIONS OF SITE

Some content is for members only, encouraging readers to sign up

Quick LinkedIn sign up option (also gathering data)

Signing Up

Reasons to join (concise)

Minimal links driving AWAY from this

page

Pre-populated Social Share Option

Email Welcome

Personalized Experience

Gated Content (members only)

Community

200K MEMBERS

Distribution Strategy

•  Newsletter distribution •  Very little paid distribution (some paid

social)

•  Work with influencers to garner earned

media

•  Mostly social

•  Twitter: @OpenForum (201K followers)

•  Facebook: American Express OPEN

(365K likes)

Weekly email updates to members

Emails with information on the OPEN card •  Product messaging is used sparingly and

intentionally to align with product

developments, announcements and

enhancements

•  Sent to members no more than once a

month

Social Strategy + Tips for Highly-Regulated Industry •  Real time tweets are nearly impossible •  All tweets go through legal team, PR team and

compliance team

•  Predict what conversations are going to

happen and pre-populate tweets so they can

be approved

•  Have a system in place where OPEN Forum

has to quickly respond (has an “emergency

team” in place”)

Advice from OPEN team

•  Re-engagement is key. Figuring out how to get people to come back is most important. OPEN Forum gets a lot of first time visitors but works to drive up return visits.

•  Show the value of what you are producing. Tie it back to business goals and give them a

reason to think this is essential.

•  Nail down who your target is. You can't be everything to everyone, so try to be as specific

as possible.

Takeaways

•  Clear, actionable content pillars that are at once clear for the reader and aligned with American Express business goals

•  Products/services integrated in a thoughtful way

•  Clear distribution + social plan

•  Focus on its specific audience

The Review FIRST ROUND CAPITAL

“

First Round has an opportunity: to create an entirely new kind of online

publication, built for technology entrepreneurs, where they can learn how

to build better companies. And they can learn directly from the people

actually doing it. Much of this knowledge is still stuck inside the heads of

the Valley’s best operators, product managers, engineers, and marketers.

Our goal with First Round Review is to curate this knowledge to make

great things happen.

JOSH KOPELMAN Partner, First Round Capital

”

First Round Review

High-quality, actionable content that helps entrepreneurs with challenges

that arise while building a startup.

Content Marketing

BRAND PURPOSE

WHAT CUSTOMERS

WANT

FIRST ROUND CAPITAL BRAND PURPOSE

Building the strongest generation of entrepreneurs

Content Marketing

BRAND PURPOSE

WHAT CUSTOMERS

WANT



TARGET AUDIENCE: ENTREPRENEURS

Audience Analysis: Seeking help and inside advice on building their

business – from everything from hiring to

company culture

Content Marketing

BRAND PURPOSE

WHAT CUSTOMERS

WANT

The Review: High-quality, actionable content that helps entrepreneurs with challenges that arise while building a startup.



TARGET AUDIENCE: ENTREPRENEURS

Audience Analysis: Seeking help and inside advice on building their

business – from everything from hiring to

company culture

The Review: Goals + KPIs

•  Primary: Time on Site + Repeat Visitors

•  Secondary: Page Views, Social Shares, and the # of Subscribers

Developed with consideration of two items: •  Paid attention to consumer behavior

•  Took a survey of existing site content and mapped to categories

The Review: Content Pillars (“Magazines”)

Tags indicate content pillars

Featured prominently on homepage of First Round Capital

Content Cadence & Format 1  Publish twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays

•  Selected these days after testing/paying attention to when their readers were most engaged

with the content

2  Mostly long-form articles •  On average stories are 3,000 words each

•  They found that when they started producing longer-form articles they saw an uptick in

engagement

3  Concentrate on actionable insights •  Makes sure each piece includes actionable insights for their audience

•  Stresses quality over quantity

First Round Capital’s influencer strategy 1  Feature influencers within their content,

encouraging them to share the content

2  Pay attention to influencers who are

engaging with their content, and then

show them some love back

Compelling Imagery •  Images are fresh and authentic.

No bad stock photos here.

•  They add context to the content. Photos aren’t just there for the sake

of being there.

•  Beautiful portraits bring to life the

interview subjects.

Optimizing for Conversions

•  They experiment with different tactics to see what’s working

•  They think about the customer journey – FRC places the subscribe “ask” at different parts of the

page to reach readers when they’re ready (i.e. halfway through an article, also at end)

•  Experimenting with pop-ups. Trying to find a balance between bothering readers with

interruption and engaging them.

Clear CTA at the top of every page

As well as half-way through the article

…And at the end of the article/ bottom of the page

Distribution Strategy

•  No paid distribution or social – all organic

•  Newsletter is key pillar to

distribution strategy

•  Utilize the company Twitter and

Facebook -- not a specific

“Review” handle

Social Media Tips from First Round Capital

•  “I cannot overemphasize how important it is to remarket your content” – Camille Ricketts, Head of Content & Marketing, First Round Capital

•  One “hack:” Take different quotes from within one piece of content and share that as the

Tweet/Facebook post.

•  Utilize the “curiosity gap” in both Tweets and headline writing •  Give your audience enough information to understand the topic, but leave them wanting more.

(“This is the way to be successful at X” This is how to do Y”)

•  Utilize good social media etiquette/practice. •  Tag people/brands

•  Use images as much as possible •  Engage with followers

Learnings from the Review team

Three sample content wins – and the recipe for success for each:

1  Interview with Stewart Butterfield, entrepreneur – shared over 15,000 times

•  Recipe for success: Take a person who is extremely magnetic; pay attention to what the

industry is talking about; deliver a story that gives readers a “behind-the-scenes” look

2  Interview with Caryn Marooney, head of technology communications at Facebook

– shared over 5,000 times

•  Recipe for success: Think about a common pain point your audience has. Find someone to

answer that question.

3  A piece on productivity – shared over 10,000 times •  Recipe for success: Take a popular topic and aggregate advice from many different people

Takeaways

•  FRC puts the customer at the center of their strategy

•  Content pillars are clear and related to their customer

•  Imagery is compelling, puts the content in context, and is authentic

•  Social media is utilized in smart ways to increase engagement

•  Understand the value of testing every aspect of its content marketing – cadence, CTAs, website

design, and more

Want to learn more?

Our team of strategists can help your brand build a marketing growth engine. From ongoing support and program management,

to customized strategy sessions and workshops,

we’ll set your brand up for success.

Introducing NewsCred. THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT MARKETING SOLUTION.

SOFTWARE SERVICES CONTENT

Social Content Production

Workflows & Social Governance

Global Asset Management

Social Publishing & Distribution

Performance Measurement

Global Implementation

24/7 Support & Training

Strategy Workshops

Editorial Consulting

5,000 Licensed Publishers

Original Content Network

Rights-cleared UGC

Get in touch! [email protected]

Economy & Finance

The Best in Financial Services Content Marketing