The FinTech Content Journey
- What is the importance of content in a customer journey?
- How is the financial services content journey different?
- The five stages of the financial services content journey
- Top-, middle- and bottom-of-funnel marketing tactics
- Conclusion
What is the Importance of Content in a Customer Journey?
Today’s customers are savvier. They do thorough research to understand financial solutions before signing up. Most of that research is being done digitally.
By using content marketing to inform and educate, financial institutions can provide a good customer experience in the process of educating and building trust.
How is Financial Services Content Journey Different?
Financial products and services are complex. Unlike the retail sector which sells something tangible, marketing in financial services sells ideas, aspirations and solutions to problems.
This involves a high degree of customer trust and commitment. To earn trust, it’s crucial for financial institutions to know their target audiences. This knowledge needs to be carried across through thoughtful, informative content.
These factors create an environment in which content marketing excels. Given the importance of trust, the financial services content journey is much longer than a typical consumer purchase. The journey also has multiple touchpoints.
The Five Stages of the Financial Services Content Journey
A customer-centric financial services content marketing strategy involves all phases of the customer journey. And the content should be spread across various marketing channels:
- Awareness
This is the first point of contact with your prospects. The goal is to create brand awareness and interest through relevant, user-friendly information. Interactive visual content and tools are effective in drawing in the user. it can also achieve high audience engagement. If the user is impressed by the digital content provided, chances are good they will be willing to leave their contact details. This will enable you to nurture them further down the sales funnel.
- Interest
Also known as the consideration phase. This is where prospects weigh the pros and cons of using your product or service. Content that provides unique informational value performs well in this phase.
- Desire
This is where your prospects evaluate your product or service in more detail. Therefore, an appropriate time to provide more in-depth, problem-specific information and communicate your competitive advantages.
- Purchase
This is where your leads are ready to take action. To facilitate a decision, you can present sales offers.
- Loyalty
After-sales service and ongoing communication are just as important as marketing. It’s key to building long-term relationships with your clients.
Top-, Middle- and Bottom-of-Funnel Marketing Tactics
Customers are no longer responding to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Creating content within the financial services industry needs to be tactical.
This means that you have to be mindful of the stages within the digital marketing funnel. If not, you run the risk of overloading users with too much information in the early stages of research. Or, addressing a topic that users regard as complex, too simplistically.
In short: The customer journey should dictate your content marketing.
Here are a number of marketing strategies for each phase of your customer journey:
Top-of-funnel marketing tactics may include:
- e-books
- White papers
- Videos
- Infographics
- Social Media
- Podcasts
- Interactive content such as cost calculators
If users are impressed by the digital content provided, it’s more likely that they’ll be willing to leave their contact details.
For middle-of-funnel marketing tactics you can publish:
- Original research
- How-to articles
- Instructional blog content
- Product comparisons
- A relevant case study
- Customer testimonials
Bottom-of-funnel marketing tactics may include:
- Web conference Q&As (to address specific pain points)
- Promotional offers
- Phone calls from sales and marketing teams
Conclusion
It’s key to use content and tactics that are tailored to each customer journey stage. This will establish your institution as a thought leader, strengthen the corporate brand, and boost conversion rates.
If your goal is to implement tactics to position your financial institution as a trusted advisor of choice, get in touch. Our content marketing for financial services will allow you to win more high-value customers.