Seven Content Marketing Challenges For Financial Services Brands
A new article on Search Engine Journal says that creating content for financial service brands comes with anxiety-inducing challenges.
In the original article, the author shares the challenges marketers face when creating content for financial services brands - with a sharp focus on written content. If you click the link above, you can also find the solutions to those challenges.
In the original article, the author shares the challenges marketers face when creating content for financial services brands - with a sharp focus on written content. If you click the link above, you can also find the solutions to those challenges.
- Competing In Organic Search: Due to the strict measures of Google's EAT and YMYL guidelines, a financial blog or website will never be able to compete with a Turbotax or Nerdwallet. The most obvious solution is to generate thought leadership for their brand. Of course, this presents a proverbial catch-22. To build authority, you need exposure, but Google makes that very difficult for broad topics that provide the most exposure.
- Complying With Regulations: Like medical businesses, false information can quickly get your client into trouble with authorities. And of course, this will ruin your image, something that's hard to build when you've been the focus of much negative criticism. Unfortunately, financial services, especially, have some of the most intense regulatory scrutinies when it comes to producing online content, sharing it over social media, and advertising your brand. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is a well-known regulatory agency that monitors everything over social media from influencers to financial services content. FINRA's rules intend to "protect investors from false, misleading claims, exaggerated statements, and material omissions."
- Finding Knowledgeable Writers: The largest problem is finding those that are subject matter experts. Once you do find an expert, two other issues surface - the writer is either too expensive for your budget, or they simply can't write well.
- Time Is Of The Essence: Financial news and current events move fast, as government and independent financial reports are generated daily. The last thing you want is a post on a major story stuck in a week-long review. These frustrations are further amplified when working with the extended review process of enterprise companies. If your client offers any sort of financial advice or reporting, it's essential to optimize review processes to pump out content in real-time.
- Targeting The Right Readers: You will come across a wide variety of people with different levels of expertise in the finance world. It's easy for readers to become inundated by jargon and complicated financial procedures, especially when dealing with topics like taxes, cryptocurrency, retirement accounts, and portfolio investing. Simplifying content so it's understandable by most readers is important, but so is making the optimal content for those readers most likely to go further with you or your client's brand. You'll need to create a strategy that caters to people looking for general financial advice to increase your client's authority and create targeted content for people specifically interested in employing their company.
- Update Stale Content: Generally, stale content can be a waste on any site, but it could leave websites with outdated or uncompliant content in a world of legal trouble. The solutions are simple but time-consuming.
- Finding The Resources: As you know by now, financial content is complicated. If you write on behalf of other companies or for yourself, it can be difficult to justify a budget for a single blog post that costs $750+ between research and labor.
