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Last Updated on August 3, 2023 by admin
Content marketing is more than just pulling together creatives to publish content. If you want to be successful in publishing content in a way that adds value for your audience and compels them to take action, you need to follow a recipe.
That recipe may differ for each organization, depending on your goals and the resources you have available. But the behind-the-scenes work that takes place can be substantial to keep your fintech content marketing program thriving.
Having a plan is critical. The Content Marketing Institute’s 2021 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report points out that well over half (60%) of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. A great strategy will hone in on three key areas:
- Why – your reason for creating a content marketing program. What do you hope to achieve with content specifically?
- Who – the audience you’re trying to reach. Who are you trying to provide value for and what do they need?
- How – the differentiated content and value you provide your audience over your competitors? Why should your audience pay attention?
Establishing Your “Why?”
Establishing your purpose is ground zero for an effective B2B fintech content marketing strategy. You need to understand why you’re executing content marketing – and how you plan to measure success. Without this critical step, you’ll lack a driving force as well as any way to measure how well you’re doing and what needs to improve or change to increase results.
Start by identifying, prioritizing, and documenting your goals, which might include:
Increasing revenue: Ultimately, most of your efforts will be geared toward this, even if not directly to start.
- KPI: sales
Boosting awareness: Content marketing is an excellent tool for increasing brand awareness and facilitating differentiation between your brand and your competitors.
- KPIs: website traffic, views, followers/fans on social channels, page views
Upping engagement: Audience engagement is another popular goal as both web content and social media can act as catalysts for increased audience interaction. Done well, content marketing can spur meaningful conversations between you and your audience, which can help position your brand as a trusted resource.
- KPIs: comments on content, engagement on social channels
Generate leads: This is another popular goal for content marketing. Creating strong lead magnets and assets can help you reach your target audience and earn more information about who might be ready to convert.
- KPIs: content downloads, completed forms, newsletter subscriptions, other web conversions
Customer retention and loyalty: This is sometimes an overlooked benefit of a well-functioning content marketing strategy. Informative, genuinely useful content can keep your customers engaged and in awe of your brand for years to come.
- KPIs: bounce rate, time on page, email list subscriber activity
Reaching Your “Who?”
Another integral part of creating an effective fintech content marketing strategy is understanding who your target audience is. We’ve talked in detail about what a great audience persona looks like and how to put one together.
In the fintech industry, you may have more than one persona, so it can also be helpful to start by classifying your target audiences into overarching buckets. Chances are, you’ll have at least one or two of the following persona segments.
Self-Service Researcher
This may actually envelope most of your audience as research says B2B buyers as a whole complete between half and nearly three-quarters (57-70%) of their research before they ever talk to sales. More importantly, the bulk (90%) report that online content has a moderate to major impact on their purchasing decisions.
Your B2B fintech content marketing strategy for Self-Service Researchers should cater to an audience that is well-informed about what their organization needs and that is ready to be decisive and proactive in getting it. This segment has a thorough understanding of its company’s weak spots and is ready to take the helm on finding solutions that strengthen them.
This type of audience requires direct messaging that speaks clearly on how your solution solves its problems. Content should be shaped around this audience’s mindset and clearly illustrate how your solution fits into the audience’s world.
Purchasing Committee Member
This persona is one of several decision-makers at an organization. The Purchasing Committee Member is one of several that are calling the shots, and they will be conditioned to collect information to bring back to their purchasing committee. They enjoy collaboration and being part of a group that makes well-thought-out decisions.
Purchasing Committee Members require help with consensus building and buy-in. As such, it is important to understand who else may be a part of this persona’s circle – and influencing purchasing decisions. The key with this persona is to answer potential questions as thoroughly as possible and provide content and context that can aid them in making their case to a group.
Feature Finder
Another persona segment is the “Feature Finder.” This is another persona that will be well-informed and likely tech-savvy. They likely hold a leadership role in their organization and have a thorough understanding of technology.
This persona requires attention to detail, especially the technical ones. They will have a better understanding of technical features and functionality than the average persona and will be quick to eye differentiators – or lack thereof – in your solution.
This is where it can be helpful to partner with product marketing on content. Your product team will know the ins and outs of your product better than nearly anyone else while content marketing teams will be able to translate that information into compelling content that sparks the interest of the Feature Finder.
The key is to highlight important features and functionality in a way that illustrates how they impact the big picture at the prospective buyer’s organization. Case studies and other storytelling techniques can be great assets for this persona segment.
The Future-Proofer
This persona will be a pie-in-the-sky thinker. Their sole focus will be on innovation and future-proofing the organization. They love thinking outside of the box and brainstorming new ways to lead the market and break out from the status quo.
Unlike the Feature Finder, the Future-Proofer will be less focused on the granular details and more interested in the big picture. They have big goals and want to understand how your products or services can help them achieve their objectives.
This persona will require content that dreams big and unlocks new narratives about common topics. The more creatively you can look at common fintech problems and themes, the more intrigued they will be.
Perfecting Your “How?”
How you go about reaching your goals and resonating with your audiences will depend on many different factors, including your timeline, the size of your team, and how many resources you have access to.
Big content marketing teams may be able to crank out content at record-speed and publish multiple times per week while smaller teams may rely heavily on outsourced talent and publish less frequently.
No matter if you’re publishing five times a week or once per month, your focus should be on quality and differentiation. Anyone can publish a blog post, but your target audience will rely on you to add unique value to their lives and solve their most pressing problems. If you find a way to do that well, you’ll position yourself as an authority in your market and gain a loyal audience.
A Winning B2B Fintech Content Marketing Strategy
With the “why”, “who”, and “how” figured out, you are well on your way to launching a successful B2B fintech content marketing program. These key factors are not static, so be sure to review your goals, audience personas, and execution regularly. Evaluating quarterly can be a good cadence to measure effectiveness and make any necessary tweaks to your strategy. So long as you remember to add value and be authentic, you’ll be well on your way to B2B fintech content marketing success.
For more information about creating an effective fintech content marketing strategy, download our Fintech Customer Acquisition Playbook.
