Finance content marketing: How to create awesome content for the finance sector

What’s the secret to a successful finance content marketing strategy? Find out with 5 foolproof tips.

The finance world can be a tough place for a marketer. Creating inspiring finance content marketing that communicates your brand's messages, engages customers and keeps the compliance team happy is a tough nut to crack.

But fear not - there is a way to tick each of those boxes, and it’s all about taking a planned content-led approach.

Finance content marketing for brands

We’ve found that telling stories delivers particularly brilliant results for finance brands. Combining crucial strategic vision with user-friendly design opens up big possibilities for creative, shareable and high-impact finance content marketing.

Want to know how you can achieve this too? Take a look at our eight best-practice guiding principles when creating any kind of content marketing for a finance brand.

1. Directly answer customers’ financial questions

Using search insight and research data to find out which finance topics customers are struggling to understand is arguably the most powerful starting point when planning finance content.

Breaking down detailed financial information in a creative way means you can directly answer these queries in truly consumer-friendly ways – which is great for users and search engines alike.

Example: Interest Rates Explained infographic

Research carried out by the Money Advice Service (MAS) revealed that 75% of homeowners hadn’t considered how an interest rate rise would affect their mortgage repayments. We worked with the MAS team to create a question-based infographic that worked to fill a wide range of customer knowledge gaps to create a static infographic, which was also used by RBS.

2. Make complex financial information accessible

There’s no way around it – quite often, financial data or messaging can sometimes be mind-meltingly complex.

The big opportunity with visual content is to present a distillation of the technical, complicated or, dare we say it, sometimes boring in a way that’s instantly accessible. The best finance content marketing pairs clean, bright design with a clear editorial flow, visually guiding the user through the key points quickly and accurately.

Example: Remortgage Your Home infographic

With remortgages on the rise, the need for clear information about the processes involved is greater than ever. This linear left-to-right infographic for Google and the MAS succinctly presents the main steps to the complex process of remortgaging in a way that is intuitive and easy to digest.

3. Create interactive financial content

According to the Content Marketing Institute, interactive content provides ongoing support and ensures long-term satisfaction for existing customers, supporting retention goals. This highlights how effective interactive financial content can be for finance companies in communicating their key messages to customers.

We’ve found that interactive content marketing and tools can deliver impressive results in terms of finance marketing engagement. By its nature, the format draws the user into a branded online space in a personal way. For finance brands, this is an invaluable opportunity to positively connect and offer value to the customer, as well as an effective way to improve sentiment.

Example: Protecting Your World interactive microsite

This interactive visual tool helps people understand what insurance they need depending on their lifestyle and circumstances. After working through a series of scenarios, they’re then offered highly tailored advice on the policies that best suit them.

4. Use print in creative ways

To achieve impact in the physical world whilst also reaching less digitally-savvy customers, printed content offers a solution. But that doesn’t mean it has to be dull finance information presented in endless pages of text. Using original print formats that are attractive to look at – and even interact with – can really achieve cut-through. 

Example:  What's your Money Goal? physical (printed) interactive content

Research by Asda, the Tinder Foundation and MAS showed that some of the UK’s least digitally confident consumers live in the North East. They asked us to create an interactive printed wheel that Asda shoppers could use in-store to help them plan their money goal.

8. Establish clear visual content guidelines

Last but by no means least, it’s essential to work to content guidelines. This applies to all sectors, but especially for finance companies, where brand control and consistency is crucial in maintaining customer trust.

Having a set of content guidelines is also helpful for internal brand teams and agencies alike, making the content creation process simpler, faster and more likely to comply with brand and legal standards. Plus, it ensures that all of your content hangs together effectively, wherever it’s published.

Example: Money Advice Service infographic guidelines

Content guidelines should include advice on typography, responsive grids, hybrid content and the style and labeling of data. All these ensure designers have the flexibility to visualize information on a wide range of topics, while keeping the same look and feel.

Key takeaways for your finance content marketing strategy

Ultimately, all content marketers put the customer right at the centre of their decision-making process. This frame of mind applies equally, if not more so, to content marketers in the finance industry, due to the high level of trust needed to form relationships. With these tips, you can create awesome content marketing for your business and convert and retain more customers, efficiently.

Thanks to Richard Silvester for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Richard Silvester is one of the emerging leaders behind the visual content movement having founded infogr8 one of UK’s most successful data led content agencies in London.