The worldwide forex market is now worth $2.409 quadrillion, and $6.6 trillion on average every day is traded on foreign exchange markets. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. So if you’re considering launching a new forex brokerage, it’s essential your marketing is on point. Contentworks Agency is the leading marketing agency for the forex and finance space. Coffee ready? Let’s get into launching a New Forex Brokerage – The 2022 Marketing Essentials.
Kick-Off with an Epic Strategy
The FX sector is a competitive space due to technological advancements, higher internet coverage and the option to trade digital currencies like crypto. Plus, you don’t have the advantage of being first in the market with many long established brokers retaining traders. A whopping $6 billion worth of USD is traded daily around the world for example. This means that pre-launch, you must develop an epic strategy that’ll set you apart from the crowd. Benefits of a strategy include:
- The ability to maximise marketing spend. With KPIs of what you want to achieve, your efforts will become a lot more focused.
- Improved audience reach. Knowing who you’re targeting any why is a must. Therefore, creating your business model requires a thorough study of analytics. It’s also a good idea to create consumer personas of the people likely to use your services. This will help you delve into important information such as disposable incomes, potential periods of trading activity, preferred social media platforms, hours spent online and more. Armed with this knowledge, you can create targeted content that will be seen by the right people in the right places.
- Marketing to your region: As a new broker you need to get regulated in a particular region(s) and this will determine not only your audience but how you can market yourself. Some regulators are especially tough (ASIC we’re looking at you) so you need to be mindful of the rules.
- A strong and consistent brand. As an FX brokerage looking to stand out, it’s important to establish trust. And that can be done through consistent branding. One of the best ways to achieve this is to establish your tone of voice (TOV) from the very beginning. Create a TOV document detailing how you want your content to be produced and make sure it’s circulated to relevant staff members so that everyone communicates business messages in the same way.
- Know Your Resources: Building a marketing team for your new broker means understanding what resources you have available to you. Roles like Content Manager, Content Writer and Social Media Manager can’t be combined long term if you want to make a serious impact. Consider outsourcing to an external agency who can enhance your team and add value.
Book an expert strategy session with our team.
Let’s look at eToro’s content marketing strategy as an example of consistency in action. The language is positive, confident and establishes the brand’s authority across multiple channels. There’s the opening text on the homepage which lists several USPs and confirms that the company is the ‘world’s leading social trading platform.’ This level of confidence continues through to the Online Trading Academy which provides ‘all the resources you need to learn how to be successful in trading and investing.’ Strong language like this is reassuring and puts consumer minds at ease.
Even the CEO is willing to craft opinion pieces that can be easily shared on social media. This further establishes the brand as a go-to source of information while improving authenticity. Note the consistency of the branding, colours, language and style. this is key to building brand authority.
More On Strategy
We spend a lot of time on strategy for our new brokers. There are many more benefits to doing so including:
- Attracting more traffic. A clear strategy hits the sweet spot for SEO and helps to get eyes on your brand. If you know that people are making specific brand-related search queries or have pain points that need addressing, then this can form part of your content plan. Catering to the needs of your target audience while implementing SEO best practices such as focusing on a specific keyword term will help to make your content visible. FX brokers like Pepperstone form entire articles around FAQs. These are then more likely to be picked up by Google and presented by the SERPs as a direct search match. Try not to miss out on such excellent SEO opportunities. Read more about Google and Position Zero here.
- Hitting your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). A strategy will force you to sit down with marketing experts (like us) and map out things you want to achieve on a business level. By setting achievable goals and tracking them as you go, you’ll be able to see if your marketing is working – or not. If it’s not, you’ll be able to make changes quickly without wasting too much budget. KPIs also keep everyone focused, accountable and make essential tasks easier to navigate. If the social media KPI is to increase account registrations then a very clear process needs to be taken to ensure this happens, perhaps in the form of a social media competition. This is something that FXTM did well recently on Instagram. The company gave people the chance to win $10K trading credit every week if they signed up to the trading platform.
Forex Broker Startup Essentials
Ok so we talked about a strategy. But that’s only the beginning. Let’s look at some other factors you need to consider if you’re starting a new forex brokerage.
Creating a Mobile-Friendly Website
You need to create a user-friendly, readable website packed with FX insights and thought-leading articles that are easy to navigate. Sites with an ‘education hub’ tend to be popular as they provide up-to-date information and answer many user-related questions. Traders can learn all about trading platforms as well as the different ways to trade and more. Keyword opportunities are rich here and the brand stands out as a go-to source of knowledge.
But it’s important to go one step further by creating a mobile-friendly website that can be accessed on-the-go by your target audience. In today’s climate, the numbers favour mobile trading. According to data compiled by Finance Magnates Intelligence, 55% of trades were executed on mobile devices in the first quarter of 2021, while desktop platforms accounted for the remaining 45%. Though this is not a representation of the entire industry, it clearly shows a trend. Your mobile-friendly site should therefore:
- Be responsive and adapt to any size screen
- Include content that’s concise, informative and well-presented.
- Include short paragraphs and plenty of sub-headers that are easy to scroll
- Prioritise button size and placement so that calls-to-action aren’t missed
- Feature optimised images that guarantee quick download speeds
Top tip for brands: Google now considers Web Core Vitals as a ranking factor. This analyses the speed and stability of a website, so it’s essential that all elements of your website, including any forms and pop-ups, load quickly to avoid being penalised. You can check out your Web Core Vital stats via the Google Search Console.
Exploring Your Social Options
We’ve spoken a lot in the past about how important social media is for FX brokerages. Our 2021 social media guide covers this in great detail, but we wanted to reiterate a few points here too, with fresh statistics and options for 2022.
Did you know that forex trading increased 300% during the pandemic, with a younger audience taking more of an interest? A survey of 1005 Australians by foreign exchange broker Global Prime in October 2021 revealed that respondents in the 18-24 age bracket have become “interested in trading and investing since the coronavirus pandemic began”.
But what’s the significance of this? Well, this younger audience are also heavy social media users, with 75% of 18-24 year-olds in the US having a presence on Instagram. Similarly, the 18-25 year age category makes up the largest visitor base on YouTube with 81%, followed by 26-35 year olds with 71%. Therefore, it’s important that you’re getting social on the right channels. And this all comes down to knowing where your audience hangs out.
Armed with this information, you can start to get creative. Instagram is a great way to close that B2C gap and create a loyal consumer following. Remember how FXTM used competitions for increased engagement? Well, they also follow up the results to create fresh new content. This is a quick and easy way draw people closer to your brand. Instagram Stories can also be used for promoting live events, breaking company news and sharing insights. By popping your CEO into some of the social videos like Pepperstone, you can also help to build trust in an industry where consumers are still very sceptical.
As for other channels, 37% of Millennials binge-watch YouTube daily. So a presence here could be well worth your time. You could create your own Trading Podcast like CMC Markets which includes discussions with trading experts and a focus on the educational elements. The choice is yours but base your videos on research and your target audience. A beginner audience will prefer shorter videos with fast learning lessons and memorable information. An advanced trader will be searching for expert insights that they cannot get elsewhere. If you have both in your sights, you can separate videos into different playlists so everyone can find their level.
Social media, content marketing and digital advertising move at a fast pace. It’s not just new platforms, it’s new tools, rule changes and fresh insights. It’s important to keep up with the latest on your platforms, or, sign up with a marketing agency like Contentworks that can do it for you!
Embracing AI From the Beginning
When it comes to the communication side of your business, don’t forget about AI-enhanced interactions such as chatbots on platforms such as Facebook and Facebook Messenger. These show that you care about the user-experience and want to help in any way possible. Chatbots can reduce the pressure on your call centre, help with complaints and best of all, suggest content that your fans might like. Our director Charlotte recently authored an article on this if you want to brush up on your chatbot knowledge. Check it out here:
AI Case Study
Investment bank HSBC recently launched a pricing chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to give clients instant pricing and analytics for foreign exchange options. Named Sympricot, the chatbot uses natural language processing (NLP) to gather and analyse information on market colour, pricing and liquidity, including sources of information otherwise difficult to obtain such as event weightings, relative value analytics and volatility time-series charting. HSBC said the system would reduce operational risk and eliminate repetitive and unnecessary manual tasks previously associated with gathering complex trading information for clients. The new technology solution is the latest in a long list of an industry-wide effort to roll-out artificial intelligence in their markets businesses.
Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
As a forex brokerage newbie, it can be easy to fall into certain marketing traps that’ll cost you a lot of money. So here are some common mistakes that can be easily avoided. Thank us later. We like cake.
#1 Don’t Be Too Self-Absorbed
Did you know that 75% of consumers today are demanding that companies give back to society in some way? This means you’re more likely to get attention (especially from a younger audience) if you’ve a strong corporate responsibility strategy in place. So, avoid being too self-absorbed and instead show how you’re doing your bit for a specific cause. This non indulgent marketing is something Morgan Stanley does well on Instagram where they show their team regularly engaging in community projects.
#2 You Don’t Have To Be Everywhere!
Go where your audience is! There’s absolutely no point in trying to make a marketing strategy work on a platform that’s not frequented by your target market. If you rush into adding yourself on every platform, you will need a lot of budget and resources to pump out original content on each one. Use analytics to work out where everyone hangs out and analyse the content they want to see. There are also tools such as AgoraPulse which are used by Contentworks. These allow us to monitor social media interactions and discover which content and platform encourages the best engagement.
#3 Don’t Overspend on PPC
We’re not telling you to side-line your paid marketing strategy. But if you do go for this option, make sure you’re monitoring the keywords you bid on to ensure they’re bringing back the results you expect. You shouldn’t be bidding on broad keywords, for example, as these are far too competitive. Remember those all-important KPIs we mentioned earlier and how important it is to track progress. Use these as a reminder to turn off non-converting keywords. It might also be worth making bid adjustments based on location, device, day of the week and time of day as well as age, gender and household income. This will allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when and how people search. Remember, if your organic content isn’t killing it, your paid won’t either.
#4 Don’t Neglect the Basics
We often come across established brokers who skipped the basics completely and suffer for it later. Basic marketing tasks include getting your broker listed on popular trading sites, creating PRs in known forex spaces to establish a footprint and monitoring competitors. By tracking your listings and links from PR, you can check in to see what kind of traders you got from them. This may justify any marketing spend you make on the site later on. Your online reputation is key to your success and this involves spending the time to create and craft it.
#5 Don’t Forget Compliance
Don’t forget to be compliant when it comes to FX marketing. Even the smallest slip-up can land you in hot water, so it’s really important to remember the rules at all times. For instance, trading warnings must be placed on all marketing material including social media posts. You must also be fair, clear and not misleading in your communication. Giving an unbiased view of your services in a way that shows someone earning a lot of money would be considered breaking the rules.
Our content marketing agency boasts an impressive history at senior management level in the FX sector combined with an impressive track record of success stories. Our team of financial services content marketers can provide technical analysis, financial blogging and finance-focused social media. Compliance are not our enemies and we follow regulatory news and updates from ASIC, CySEC, MFSA, FCA, FSA, FRB, SEC, MiFID II and more.
Launching a new forex broker is far from easy. There’s loads to consider. So contact us today for a content marketing strategy tailored to the needs of your business. We’ll help you work out your goals and power forward to create winning content and social media marketing. Contact our team to get started.
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