Content Marketing for Financial Institutions: 7 Strategies That Pay Off

Skepticism about the financial industry is at a fever pitch. In fact, a recent survey found that just 10% of the population trusts financial institutions.

Against this backdrop of eroding trust, how do financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, and mortgage companies successfully connect with potential customers? The answer lies in strategic content marketing for financial institutions.

By consistently delivering useful, informative, and compelling content, financial institutions can build trust, create authority, and ultimately create valuable relationships that generate revenue.

Understanding Content Marketing for Financial Institutions

Financial content marketing is a strategic approach that involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a target audience—i.e., financial services clients.

Unlike marketing practices for other sectors that might rely on glitzy promotions or emotional appeals, content marketing for financial institutions is inherently built on trust and demonstration of expertise. It’s focused on delivering ideas, advice, and information that addresses the interests and issues of potential as well as existing customers.

Content Marketing Delivers Solid Returns for Financial Institutions—Here’s How

Content marketing offers a number of amazing benefits. Here are four of them: 

Engagement with Younger Audiences

Traditional marketing approaches find it difficult to reach younger generations like Gen Z, who are increasingly searching via digital channels for financial information.

Financial organizations need to recognize the motivations, values, and changing digital expectations of this age group in order to gain access to the quickly growing market, as almost half of Gen Z invests in the stock market, and a sizable percentage own cryptocurrency.

Surveys show that Gen Z has greater confidence in traditional banks over technology giants to securely hold their information. It’s a good idea to use a “phygital” strategy of combining the reassurance of brick and mortar branches with a compelling and interactive online experience; content marketing can definitely help with this approach. 

Builds Trust and Credibility

By regularly providing accurate, informative, and helpful content, financial institutions can position themselves as trusted advisers and reassure customers that their interests are safeguarded. This content must inform, be transparent, and respond to questions directly.

Stackla’s consumer survey discovers that 86% of consumers place value on authenticity as a primary consideration when determining which brands they enjoy and support.

Content marketing provides a means for financial institutions to prove their authenticity and expertise, ultimately forming more lasting relationships with their target market and countering the pervasive cynicism pinpointed in the recent survey.

Drives Customer Acquisition and Retention

Financial institution content marketing is used to drive leads and guide visitors through the sales funnel.

Through providing valuable content at every step of the customer lifecycle—from awareness, through consideration, to decision—financial institutions are able to build relationships, address questions, and eventually convert leads into repeat customers.

Furthermore, ongoing content delivery is also able to retain customers by providing them with ongoing value and support.

Grows Visibility and Reach

A successful content marketing campaign increases a company’s reputation by providing greater visibility.

Through search engine-optimized content and publishing on multiple platforms, financial institutions like banks are able to increase their visibility online. Optimization enables customers looking for similar financial information to find it more easily.

7 Content Marketing Strategies That Work for Financial Institutions

Content marketing for banks and other financial institutions requires robust strategies tailored to meet the particular needs and expectations of their target customers. A number of tried-and-tested approaches have proven effective:

1. Focus on Educating Audiences

Most people view financial content as too complex and intimidating. By creating educational FAQs, guides, and explainer videos that answer common financial questions, institutions can educate clients and prospects alike.

For example, a bank can create a series of educational videos explaining diverse types of mortgages, while an insurance company can create an in-depth guide to help potential buyers learn about different insurance policies.

2. Demonstrate Thought Leadership

In order to grow your financial institution, it’s important to establish it as a thought leader in the industry. This can be achieved by sharing valuable knowledge and expertise. For instance, publishing thoughtful articles and reports on industry trends, policy shifts, and economic predictions builds credibility and attracts clients in search of advice.

It’s easy to do this with Clearview Social’s Discover Content feature. This feature eliminates the need to develop all content in-house by allowing employees to find and share new, high-quality articles from across the web. The Chrome extension makes content acquisition easy, while RSS feeds allow industry blogs to be plugged directly into Clearview Social.