Everyone wants to build customer relationships that let clients see your company as a vital resource for their financial security.
But in order to do that, you need to know what mistakes to avoid in content marketing for finance.
Too often, finance blog posts and videos provide only general information that doesn’t address client pain points. This makes clients feel you don’t know or care about their needs, making it more likely they’ll turn to another company for help.
To avoid this, let’s examine six common mistakes in finance content marketing, and how to avoid them.
The Most Common Mistakes in Finance Content Marketing
1. Lack of a well-defined strategy
Before you begin creating finance content, you need to develop a focused financial content strategy that includes your:
- Overall objectives
- Audience segments
- Distribution plan
- Content mix
Not taking the time to build a well-defined strategy means you won’t know what topics to cover in your finance content. Nor what brand messaging you’re promoting or who you’re writing your content for. You also won’t know how to allocate staff resources, stick to a timeline, or spend your budget efficiently.
How to avoid
Developing a well-defined content strategy takes several steps, including:
- Defining your marketing goal(s)
- Conducting research
- Running an audit of existing content
- Choosing a content management system
- Deciding what type(s) of content you want to create
- Brainstorming content ideas
- Publishing and managing your content
For instance, financial services and SaaS company Stripe aimed to position itself as an industry expert in managing online payments. This led Stripe to publish educational guides related to online infrastructures. Visitors now provide Stripe with their emails in exchange for guides and updates. This allows Stripe sales reps to reach out to the leads and move them down the sales funnel.
2. Poor understanding of the target audience
According to Semrush Director of Organic Search Kyle Byers, “Understanding what your audience needs and values will be key to content marketing success.”
Other marketers agree. Indeed, the State of Marketing: Global Report finds that 47% of marketers feel researching their audience leads to success in content marketing.
Relevant finance content addresses your target audience’s pain points.
When you don’t write for a niche audience, you risk:
- Creating generalized content that won’t connect with your ideal clients.
- Wasting resources by reaching audiences with no interest in hiring your firm.
- Being overshadowed by competitors who do create content that addresses client needs.
How to avoid
Assess your current clients.
Are they the best customers for your firm? Or are there other populations you should focus on?
Research from the CFA Institute and FINRA Foundation reveals 82% of Gen Z investors begin investing using apps before they turn 21. But they lack formal financial education. This creates an opportunity to provide investment education content for this demographic, which will become more important in the future.
Once you decide on your target audience, fine-tune your understanding by:
- Using online tools like Google Analytics to research how visitors interact with your site. Note what content they interact with, how long they stay, and how they access the site.
- Assessing your customers’ pain points and asking how your company can solve your client’s problems.
- Creating buyer personas to understand your ideal customers.
- Analyzing your competitors’ strategies to see what content resonates best with your target audience. And determining what new content you can create to satisfy unmet needs.
3. Neglecting SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) increases your finance content’s online visibility by:
- Targeting keywords that users type in search engines in your headlines and main content.
- Making your content mobile-friendly.
- Regularly updating your content to reflect new industry trends and changes.
Not taking the time to optimize your content makes it hard for clients to find you online. This makes it easier for competitors to enjoy a higher online profile.
How to avoid
Google filters out low-quality content by evaluating financial pages on:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
To show that your finance content is high-quality, include all these features:
- Clearly answer the question your content sets out to answer
- Cite trustworthy sources
- Respond to any reader questions
- Build a trustworthy brand
- Display keywords clearly in headings, subheadings, and body content
Finance company Fiscal Tiger targeted high-ranking finance pages with poor content to optimize its site. They then created content that answered the same topics more clearly. Over time, their search rankings and organic traffic rose, leading to better online visibility.
4. Lack of originality
Keeping clients coming back to your website is essential to maintain positive relationships. However, offering generic finance content people can find anywhere online lowers the incentive to return to your site. This may cause clients to turn to your competitors and result in you losing business.
How to avoid
Find a unique angle to showcase the benefits of your financial services. Alternatively, offer stories and testimonials from satisfied customers to engage readers. The more relevant people find your content, the more likely they will interact with it. Usually, through likes, comments, and shares, that help increase your online visibility.
For instance, PayPal Stories offers many original stories that share how the platform is helping businesses worldwide, from refugee-owned small businesses to a restaurant owner’s new cooking school. The variety of topics keeps readers interested while also promoting PayPal’s services.
5. Failure to consider regulatory guidelines
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) monitors financial content to protect investors from false or misleading claims.
Violating their regulations can:
- Damage your credibility
- Require you to pay fines
- Expose you to legal liability.
How to avoid
To make sure you comply with regulatory guidelines:
- Include disclaimers to shield yourself from legal liability.
- Hire writers with excellent knowledge of financial services.
- Base your finance content on commonly known regulatory barriers.
- Employ a legal review process to ensure proper compliance.
- Update your website to reflect regional privacy laws.
For instance, Mint’s financial management website has a terms of services page. The page declares it is not a credit repair company, credit reporting agency, broker, or advisor. This helps shield it from legal liability related to the content it shares.
6. Underutilizing data
Analyzing data from finance content marketing:
- Shows what types of content your target audience engages with the most.
- Exposes gaps in your current marketing strategy.
- Identifies the content that drives conversions.
- Measures your financial content marketing success.
Underutilizing this data means you miss learning about market trends and consumer behaviors that help grow your customer base. In addition, you risk creating content that clients don’t engage with.
How to avoid
Take advantage of tools like Google Analytics and keyword tools to analyze data collected from client activity. They can help you identify your most popular finance content so you can concentrate your marketing efforts in that area. You should also produce new content based on search terms that reveal topics you aren’t already exploring in your content.
For instance, Stripe uses data analytics to deliver more targeted marketing messages to clients based on their spending behavior. They also create customized offers using information from the customer transaction history. Additionally, they increase the likelihood of conversions by offering promotions based on customer preferences.
Take Your Financial Content to the Next Level
Knowing what mistakes to avoid in content marketing for finance helps you attract and retain more clients. This requires researching your target audience’s needs and crafting original, SEO-finance content focused on their pain points. That can end up taking a lot of time and energy. Sometimes, the most cost-effective way to achieve success is by crafting a high-performing finance content marketing team through outsourcing.
Invest in expert finance writers able to handle complex issues and topics for your brand to make this a sustainable process.
Get started with ClearVoice today and find professionals to develop your ideal financial content marketing plan.
