One of the best ways to communicate your company values and increase brand awareness is through engaging, inspiring and unique content – so why does the finance sector keep getting it wrong? Let’s take a look at some of the biggest content marketing mistakes in the finance sector and find out how to rectify a strategy that’s gone wrong.
Mistake #1: Being As Dull As Dishwater
One of the biggest content marketing mistakes in the finance sector is boring content. Like when you talk with someone who has a monotone voice, you may quickly start to plan your escape strategy – or nod politely as your stifle a yawn and run through dinner recipes in your head.
[bctt tweet=”No-one wants to listen to boring conversations – so why would they be interested in boring content?” username=”_Contentworks”]
The online world is completely unforgiving. Your target audience can ditch you on a whim – and if they go, there’s a slim chance they’ll be back for more. So, it’s essential to be captivating, enticing, energetic, enthusiastic and (drum roll please) – different. Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Be unique, be quirky and whatever happens, don’t be as dull as dishwater.
Sure, you might be scared of compliance – and that’s completely justified – but that doesn’t mean you can’t find your own style and have a bit of fun. No-one wants to read a CySEC manual on your blog now do they? And if you do want to reiterate compliance rules, do so in an easy-to-relate to way – after all, you’re talking to human beings, not robots.
Top tip: Know your brand as this will help your tone of voice to become clear. If you’re fun and lively, your content can perhaps take on a relaxed and charismatic tone. If you’d rather remain more corporate, that’s fine, but your content still needs to be interesting to read.
Mistake #2: Forgetting To Humanise Your Brand
Traders are human beings with real life interests, so don’t fall into the trap of only providing charts and serious analysis – especially on social media. Of course, anything that will help traders to understand the markets can be useful, but if you’re using platforms such as Twitter it’s necessary to lighten up and produce industry-related content that’s informative and easy-to-share. The more shares and likes your tweets receive, the more attention your brand will get and this could have a positive effect on your business as a whole.
There’s a wealth of content out there that you can share. Or, you can do your own research and link back to an original video or blog created by (you guessed it) – you! Don’t have the staff in-house to get as creative as you want to be? Speak to the Contentworks team about fully managed content and social media marketing solutions.
Top tip: Always keep your target audience in mind as this is likely to affect the type of content you produce. If people respond to content that you’ve shared, don’t forget to reply as this will humanise your brand and encourage future engagement.
Mistake #3: Copying Other People’s Ideas
If you don’t have any unique ideas of your own – hold fire. Copying content is not only bad for SEO resulting in poor page rankings but it could have a negative effect on your reputation. Traders (as well as search engines) do not like duplicate content. People within the industry do a lot of research and if they come across identical information they’re unlikely to be impressed – and they won’t care who wrote the content first.
[bctt tweet=”So, with this in mind, always work on your own branding and create content that’s unique to you as a company.” username=”_Contentworks”]
It’s amazing the sense of pride you can get from producing something from scratch and that’s what you need to aim for with every marketing campaign. From ideas to images – be different, edgy and approach things from a new angle.
Top tip: Know what your competitors are doing and understand all of the latest trends – but never ever copy content marketing strategies. Come up with your own ideas and set KPIs that will help you to track the success of your marketing efforts.
Mistake #4: Thinking Video Doesn’t Matter
Video content’s not important right? Wrong! 81% of companies are reportedly using video as a marketing tool, so if you want to stand up and get noticed it’s essential to keep up with modern techniques. With an impressive 71% of consumers saying they’d rather watch video than read text to learn about a new product or service, video content should undoubtedly play a key part in your marketing strategy, so don’t push it to the side.
Top tip: If you don’t have a studio or a videographer – fear not! Content marketing agencies such as Contentworks can help you create a video series to be proud of, so it’s well-worth collaborating or outsourcing in order to produce high-quality content.
Mistake #5: Thinking PR Has To Be Promotional
In general, consumers are bored of ads that are overly promotional. Ads that are too sales-orientated all end up sounding the same and therefore it’s hard to believe who actually has the better service/product. So what can you do to attract your target audience without putting them off from the start? Well, be informative and give people a reason to view your content. Providing news is a great idea and it certainly helps to be educational as people within the finance sector are always looking to learn.
Don’t be afraid to break the mould when it comes to ideas either. If you know the sector inside out and have your own views on market trends – go ahead and voice them, making sure your opinions are backed up by solid and relevant research. LinkedIn is the perfect place to post thought-leading articles which can then perhaps link to a more detailed article elsewhere.
Top tip: Avoid overly promotional rhetoric particularly on social media as the recent ad bans regarding many financial products including cryptocurrencies could lead to a site ban. Instead, promote your company by being at the forefront of breaking news or by telling interesting stories.
Content marketing mistakes in the forex sector are common but easily rectified. Speak to Contentworks today about your future marketing strategy.