5 CONTENT MARKETING TIPS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES BRANDS
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing generates three times more leads than traditional outbound marketing methods, such as paid advertising and direct mailers. This type of marketing focuses on producing valuable, relevant content that drives prospective customers towards your brand and generates leads, sales and customer loyalty. Read on to learn how financial services brands can use the following five tips to create an effective content marketing strategy that drives results, builds awareness and generates leads for their business.
TIP 1: Create Real Pay Stubs
Real pay stubs can be a great way to further engage customers, whether you’re trying to sell more life insurance or investments. Pay stubs show exactly how much money your client makes in a month, adding clarity and transparency that other financial services firms don’t provide. And given that millennials are just starting out with their careers—and may not yet have their own pay stubs—using them as marketing materials will help keep you on top of mind. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to connect directly with clients by writing personalized notes on pay stubs. This is a unique (and inexpensive) way to show clients that they matter. Just make sure they know why they should care about seeing their real pay stub! If your company doesn’t already offer these handy little documents, start offering them today. It won’t take long for word to spread throughout your community.
A custom pay stub generator online tool where users can create customized pay stubs for themselves and share them with friends on social media. Include some sort of tie-in/incentive for sharing/liking/retweeting created paystubs via social media? (This could be a good viral marketing campaign.)
A site that allows you to enter your salary, number of dependents, etc., and it will tell you how much you would receive in government assistance if you were to lose your job or how much money would be taken out of your paycheck if you were to become disabled. It should include a calculator that lets people know how much they would receive in disability payments per month based on their income, number of dependents, etc.
TIP 2: Use Infographics
An infographic is worth a thousand words. If you don’t have time to write an entire, in-depth post about your topic, creating an infographic that showcases it is another great option. Using infographics can help you quickly break down large topics and communicate them visually; moreover, they’re also an engaging way to draw readers into your content and encourage them to share it with others. Infographics are particularly useful for financial services brands because they provide a visual representation of complex ideas. The best part? You can easily create infographics using tools like Canva or Piktochart, which makes it easier than ever to create high-quality visuals without any design experience at all.
We highly recommend checking out their respective guides on how to use these resources if you’re looking for step-by-step instructions on how to get started. Another tool we recommend trying is Easel.ly, which offers several templates for creating charts and graphs (including bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, etc.) as well as easy ways to customize those templates so that they fit your brand image perfectly. No matter what tool you choose, remember that infographics should be used to complement your written content—not replace it. They should be kept short and sweet—no more than 1,000 words or two minutes long—and include links back to relevant posts on your website.
TIP 3: Inspire with Quotes from Entrepreneurs
Quotes from successful entrepreneurs are a great way to inspire readers. Share quotes from them about their entrepreneurial mindset, such as “If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs” – Tony Hsieh and “Some of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison. Use real pay stubs to show employees how much money they could be making if they worked for themselves. You can also include statistics on self-employment in your industry or in general. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 15 million Americans worked for themselves in 2014, which is an increase of more than 400,000 from 2013.
The growth rate is expected to continue increasing steadily through 2024 with more than 17 million Americans working for themselves by 2024. In addition, there are many examples of high profile business owners throughout history who started out broke but went on to become millionaires or billionaires. Just look at these examples: Bill Gates: dropped out of Harvard after two years and started Microsoft. Today he is worth $79 billion. Michael Dell: dropped out of University of Texas in his freshman year and started Dell Computers. Today he is worth $20 billion Richard Branson: left school at 16 to start Virgin Records.
TIP 4: Write Guest Posts for Entrepreneurial Mindset Blogs
Writing for entrepreneurial mindset blogs is a great way to reach an entrepreneurial audience and build brand awareness. By writing guest posts for these blogs, you can introduce yourself to new readers and/or reach out to new influencers in your industry. This is a particularly good idea if you have a business idea that’s different from what most people are doing. Writing a post on personal finance? Guest blogging at finance-focused blogs can be helpful in establishing yourself as an authority in your niche! Plus, it’s a low-cost marketing strategy; all you need to do is draft up some content (usually around 1,000 words) and submit it to relevant sites. If accepted, they may ask you for minor edits or ask you to answer questions via email or phone before publishing it.
The key here is simply putting yourself out there: getting your name in front of potential customers (and possible future employers) with content that reflects well on your skills and expertise. Here are two ways to find entrepreneurial mindset blogs to pitch ideas to: Check out HARO : Help A Reporter Out is a free service that connects journalists looking for expert sources with sources like you. They list opportunities from various outlets daily and allow you to sign up so that when a journalist requests sources related to your area of expertise, you get an email alert.
TIP 5: Make your case studies count
Build a platform of thought leaders and industry experts whose real-life stories can paint a vivid picture of what your solution looks like in practice. Be as specific as possible—invite your readers to pull out their real pay stubs, for example, and show you how much money they’re saving by making a change to their retirement plan. People want solutions, not vague advice or high-level concepts; make sure your case studies give them just that.
