The problem of saturation in financial services content marketing
In our first post of this year, we explained how the right strategy is key to successful financial services content marketing. And how this can be one of the most effective ways for financial services organizations to drive growth in today’s market.
This remains an objective truth, but one emerging difficulty is that of ‘content saturation’.
Leading voices in digital marketing like The Drum have even cited ‘content burnout’ as one of the main trends for businesses to be wary of in 2021.
This means that if you want to generate leads and reap the ROI that successful inbound marketing has to offer, you must create content that stands out from the crowd.
So how can you hope to do this?
Simple: channel those great ideas that underpin your content strategy into some fresher formats.
Read on to discover 4 types of content you can try and generate some significant leads in the process.
1. Video
If you are currently researching the highest-performing types of content in financial services marketing, you’ve probably seen numerous mentions of video already. And with good reason.
The results garnered by video content really are head and shoulders above other, more traditional forms of marketing content.
A research report by Aberdeen Group found marketers who use video get 66% more leads a year than those who don’t, while according to Wzowl:-
- People are twice as likely to share video content with their peers than any other type of content
- 69% of of people prefer to learn about a product or service via video (only 18% would read an article)
- While 84% of those same people have been persuaded to buy a product or service by a brand video.
Not sure how you could use video content? Here are a couple of ideas to get you started…
- Film an interview where one of your team breaks down a common misconception within financial services.
- Create an explainer video clarifying the need-to-knows about an upcoming or existing regulatory change.
- Edit videos combining footage from team events and get-togethers to showcase your company culture.
2. Infographics
Infographics may not be new to most digital marketers, but they are still undeniably effective at grabbing people’s attention, and therefore generating leads.
In this Demand Gen Report on content preferences, 76% of B2B respondents cited infographics as their most valuable content format, making it the highest ranked in the report overall.
One big advantage of infographics is that the copywriting requirement is far lower than that of longer pieces which requires a more constructed narrative.
This means demand can be spread more evenly between your copywriting and design resources.
Combined with the fact that infographics and other media-rich content receive around 85% more clicks and 25x more reads than longform content (according to LeadGenera), the bang-per-buck benefits of this medium are abundantly clear.
3. Podcasts
Infographics may have been the most valuable content format in the Demand Gen Report, but podcasts came in at a respectable second.
What marketers like us at The Realization Group find fascinating about the podcast format is how dedicated the average listener is.
Financial services content marketing usually involves fighting tooth and nail to secure as little as two to three minutes of attention (the average on-page time achieved by marketing content across most industries according to Google’s 2018 benchmarks).
Meanwhile, according to this blog by Top Rank, 52% of monthly podcast listeners will listen to the entirety of each episode every time they listen.
That can range from 30 minutes to several hours!
Overall, this gives you far more space and time within which to communicate with your audience, cement your brand identity in their subconscious, deliver value to them…essentially, win their trust, respect, and hopefully, their business.
4. Live streams
Webinars have long been the cornerstone of countless B2B marketing strategies, but in very recent months this format has begun to be eclipsed by live video.
For context, in April 2020, LinkedIn reported a colossal 158% increase in live streams compared to that of February.
LinkedIn has also stated that live streaming attracts 24x more comments and 7x more interaction than standard video, which can equate to a dramatic extension of reach for you and your content strategy as a whole.
Live streaming bears a similar power to that of the podcast—ie it connects you with an audience of willing listeners for an extended period—but it also comes with several additional advantages.
Its two-way dynamic can be a powerful tool for building a community with those around you, while the scope for spontaneity can encourage interaction from prospects on a much more casual and interpersonal level.
Essentially, it allows you to achieve the desired outcomes of sales outreach, without the risks of rejection that they bring in today’s marketing landscape, where an inbound focus is best.
******
Find out more about what we can do to turbocharge your content marketing.