Category: News

Andrew Goldman, TIAA: How to measure effectiveness in financial marketing

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Measuring the success of content marketing is a hot topic in the industry and can be tricky for brands.

“There’s no silver bullet to measuring the effectiveness of a content marketing effort,” said Andrew Goldman, senior director for B2B content marketing at TIAA. But he added that there are several ways to check short-term performance metrics.

He cited engagement, virality, amplification, all “media terms to think about how well was this content moved around amongst the consumer audience”. Research and surveys also constitute “ways to find out how a small subsegment of your target audience reacts to concepts and ideas”.

In addition, social media platforms that have become publishers such as Facebook and LinkedIn are offering tools that are turning out to be useful for content marketers to measure the efficacy of their campaigns.

For example, Goldman explained that LinkedIn teams up with Nielsen regularly to do ad effectiveness tests. “If you’re running social advertisement on LinkedIn, which is leveraging your content marketing dialogue, your core concepts, you can look at how your audience responds to that vis-a-vis a selection of competitors.”

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Content marketing in a “do-it-yourself” culture

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The perfect recipe for successful content marketing in financial services is still unknown, but there are some key ingredients that are must haves.

“There are so many ingredients that would go into that recipe,” said Andrew Goldman, senior director for B2B content marketing at TIAA. “You need to be a thought leader as a content marketer, you need to publish in a way that people will come and seek out your advice.” He pointed to three specific ingredients at the top his list.

“Number one is a healthy respect for the attention economy in a do-it-yourself culture,” he said. “Number two an absolute commitment to positive disruption. Not showing up the way everyone else does, but when you do show up and gain people’s attention, you’re right. And the third ingredient in that recipe I would say would be absolute solid grounding in relationship marketing principles, building relationships with consumers, understanding that audience.”

For content marketing in financial services in particular, it’s also important to recognize there’s not just one decision maker, but rather a committee of decision makers who need to be convinced over a long sales cycle.

Goldman added that measuring the impact of a content marketing campaign can be challenging. “It’s the hot topic,” he said. “There’s no silver bullet to measuring a content marketing effort but there is a number of ways to look out for what I would call short-term performance metrics.”

He mentioned engagement, virality, amplification, as well as research surveys. “I think there’s also a mix of digital and even non-digital analytics, event subscriptions, desk discussions at an event, that you would use,” he said.

Looking forward, Goldman sees interactive formats and video as the tools of the future in content marketing, with a particular focus on video episodic content, written episodic content, short blogs and articles.

“The large publishing platforms have made video a central experience for consumers, a cultural experience at this point, so I think it’s a natural evolution,” he said. “I’m not sure how fast and furious it’s going to go with B2B. It already is at a pretty interesting tipping point, but I think a lot of people in our industry are asking that ROI question now.”

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For Horizons ETFs, All Marketing is Content

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Amid a rapidly changing landscape where internet users have become more cynical and attention spans are shrinking, content marketing is finding itself into the limelight.

“Building out content that really resonates, that is organic within the platform that it is served on and that adds real value is something many marketers are focused on at this point in time,” said Tammy Cash, head of marketing at Toronto-based Horizons ETF, which manages 90 exchange traded funds and has more than $10 billion in assets under management.

Cash points to the key ingredients to a successful content marketing campaign, which include data, technology and personality. On data, she explains the importance of “understanding it, mining it and using it appropriately for the specific audience segment”, while personality entails “ensuring you can provide a level of education around an asset class or a type of product and doing so in a way that can resonate humor as well and to a broader audience.”

Cash also emphasizes the need to have the right team members to create content marketing campaigns at financial services firms. “I’ve built the marketing team with a publishing concept, which I think is happening more and more in the world of marketing,” she said. “Hiring increasingly from the worlds of journalism has been a real opportunity to get people on board who are used to work in a deadline-driven world, used to think about marketing from an organized, strategic, calendar perspective.”

It entails building core requirements as it relates to publishing and production, including videos, podcasts and infographics. “It’s experts in the world of content production and distribution in every aspect of marketing, from social media, from videos, you name it,” she said.

What does the future of content marketing world look like in Cash’s view?

More shorter-form videos such as 15-second clips that lead into longer content, and a greater emphasis on artificial intelligence and marketing automation. Videos will not only be shorter, they will also be more personalized.

Ultimately, Cash believes that all marketing will be content marketing. “It is all content,” she said. “It’s about serving the right message to the right audience at the right time.”

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The Sunday Times Recognizes Dianomi’s Fast Growth

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The Sunday Times has again recognized Dianomi’s hard work in building a native ad platform designed specifically for financial and business marketers.
Dianomi is ranked 24th in the 5th Annual Sunday Times WorldFirst SME Export Track 100 list that ranks Britain’s 100 small and medium-sized (SME) companies with the fastest-growing international sales over the last two years. This recognition follows Dianomi’s ranking last year as #82 in the 18th annual “The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.”

Dianomi, and other SME companies on the list, will be feted at a September awards dinner at The London Hilton Bankside.

“It’s gratifying to see The Sunday Times recognize our accomplishment, along with the other fast-growing British SME companies,” said Rupert Hodson, CEO of Dianomi. “Our entire team has worked tirelessly to build a native ad platform that satisfies the specific needs of business and financial marketers, and this recognition from The Sunday Times spotlights the demand for our products.”

Over the past year, Dianomi has grown the number of publishers on our platform to over 350 and the company now works with more than 600 advertisers globally.

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Gramercy Institute Names Dianomi a “20 Most Valuable Partner” in Financial Marketing

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On May 14, Dianomi was honored by the Gramercy Institute as a “20 Most Valuable Partner” in Financial Marketing. Dianomi was recognized for its partnership with over 600 financial marketers and for its native ad platform, developed specifically for financial marketers.

“As the only native ad platform focused exclusively on business and finance, we have made it our mission to provide these customers with ad products specifically made to help marketers in this space succeed,” said Rupert Hodson, CEO of Dianomi. “We thank Gramercy Institute and its members for continually recognizing the hard work and emphasis on great products and campaign performance.”

Earlier this year, Dianomi was awarded a Gramercy Institute Content Marketing Award, for its work with the Financial Times. Dianomi partnered with the FT to distribute content developed by the FT’s Alpha Grid, outside of FT’s network.

For one campaign, Dianomi drove the highest rate of all platforms in terms of total clicks: 7% of all external clicks from the content came from Dianomi traffic; and 4% of Dianomi traffic clicked through to the advertiser’s site. Due to the success of the campaign, the companies have gone on to work together on several other campaigns for clients including: Zurich, PWC, Google, Dell, Chubb and UBS.

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Dianomi Wins Big at Gramercy Institute Content Marketing Awards

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Dianomi has been awarded two Gramercy Institute Content Marketing Awards for its work with Global Atlantic Financial Group and the Financial Times.


For Global Atlantic Financial Group, Gramercy recognized its Downturn Defense campaign as the best Retirement Services campaign. Downturn Defense targeted financial advisors, across Dianomi’s network, with ads directing them to a white paper and series of videos about protecting clients retirement from market volatility.


For the Financial Times, the two companies were recognized for the publisher’s use of Dianomi’s Automated Ad technology to help grow the FT subscriber base. Using Automated Ads, the FT increased the frequency of ad creation by enabling a robot to do this work and to make the ads customized to each region: Dianomi automatically identified which stories were more likely to be of interest in each country. By reaching users at peak interest in world financial events, Dianomi delivered more qualified traffic that resulted in an increase in the number of subscribers to the Financial Times.


Congratulations to Global Atlantic and Financial Times for this achievement.

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Dianomi Moves up 13 spots in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100

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We are excited to announce that Dianomi is ranked #82 in the 18th annual “The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100,” up thirteen spots from #95 in 2017. The Sunday Times made the announcement in yesterday’s weekend Business section.
It has been an exciting year for all of us at Dianomi. We have grown the team, customers and products. Earlier this year, we welcomed strategic investment from British Growth Fund (BGF). We also launched an Automated Ad Creation product, expanded into Germany and Canada (the latter through our partnership with The Globe and Mail), grew our publisher network to more than 350, and nabbed two Gramercy Financial Content Marketing Awards.
We’d like to thank everyone: clients, publishing partners, team and friends who helps make Dianomi a success. You can read more about the The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 here.

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Dianomi Data Report: Five Tips to Understanding the Millennial Investor

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It has been estimated that millennials will inherit $30 trillion from their baby boomer parents, in a phenomenon being called: “the great wealth transfer.” However, how millennials will handle this takeover is the unanswered question that this industry is asking. Millennials have been slower than boomers to embrace investment products, have been said to have a weaker grasp of what financial advisors do, and lack trust in banks and financial institutions.


If you’re a marketer in financial services, that $30 trillion figure is certainly quite alluring. But, to win a share of it, financial marketers must first address the behaviors and sentiment changes in their marketing or risk their messaging falling upon deaf ears. Here’s what you need to know about targeting this group:

Not as unusual as you may think: Millennials may seem very unique to financial services companies, but their behaviors are actually closely aligned with middle-aged investors (Gen X). Neither group is as prolific as boomers, who are much more engaged in financial services products and news, across the board, and more likely to interact with an ad or financial content. According to our data, boomers generally expressed more interest (usually 40% or more) in financial services product than any other investor group.


Millennials are interested in the basics: Our data found that millennials are not actually disengaged in finance. Rather, in some cases, millennials are more engaged than Gen Xers or almost as engaged with them. For example, millennials demonstrated intent in basic financial products, such as bank accounts and credit cards. Specifically with regard to bank accounts, millennials are about 14% more interested than Gen Xers. Millennials are also almost equally interested in credit cards as Gen Xers.


Not thinking too far ahead: Some millennials are thinking about their future in terms of mortgages and IRAs but demonstrate product interest that is far behind baby boomers and slightly behind GenXers. Our data shows that millennials are half as interested in IRAs and mortgages compared to boomers.


Financial services need to build trust: Millennials are half as interested in financial advice products than baby boomers and less interested generally in financial planning products, validating a recent Deloitte study that found that: “Millennials have a negative perception of financial planners,” and the need to overcome this with pricing transparency.


Socially Aware: Millennials are known for prioritizing happiness and work-life balance. Although they may earn less money, or have higher debt related to student loans, millennials are almost equally interested in charity than Boomers and Gen Xers. They also demonstrate a higher interest in newer types of investments such as marijuana and crypto than they do with many more traditional investments.

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3 Key Strategies to Content Marketing in Financial Services

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With two out of three consumers trusting branded content more than traditional advertising (Time Inc), content marketing should be part of every financial marketers advertising “mix.” But, with the increase in utilization of content marketing also comes the risk of become part of the advertising noise. Fortunately, the content marketing of today has come a long way over the past few years: marketers now have greater access to data and insights that, when used correctly, can increase campaign performance and cultivate a positive relationship with customers of all kinds, from the millennial consumer to the professional investor.
Here are some tips on how to get content marketing, in financial services, right:

 

Know your audience.
Chances are that your audience is a mix of job functions, ages and financial demographic. For example, for one customer whose ads run on our platform, we were able to identify four very specific job functions for their customers, with one generating the most traffic to our client’s ads. By analyzing your site’s traffic and data from your DMP, you will have a very specific understanding of who your audience is and greater ability to target your content based on who you are actually reaching. As you may know, content that appeals to one group (or even job function) does not necessarily interest another. Narrowing in on your audience should be the first step in developing your content strategy.

 

Use data to make content even more relevant or risk becoming “noise.”
Once you know who you are reaching, you need to understand what types of content interests that audience the most and in what depth and frequency your target customer is engaged with it. Your web site analytics data will only get you so far in developing a full picture. Financial content marketers should look to augment their data with publishers’ audience data to understand the topics surging with audiences so that they can reach them with the content that is most timely and relevant. For example, our data pinpointed an article in Seeking Alpha that was trending the highest with the ETF audience. The broader and less relevant the data, the more marketers risk their content and brand become part of the “noise.” Consumers will filter out their messages that doesn’t relate to them.

 

Don’t underestimate context.
Now that you’ve done the hard work of pinpointing your audience, backing your content strategy with data, and drafting your content, don’t mess up the implementation by running your ad on a Web site or other piece of content that undermines its value. Our data shows that conversions rate drop dramatically for content when it’s out of context. Finance is a category in which advertisers sell sophisticated products to narrow audiences, so it’s better to reach those audiences while they’re reading about finance and business than say retargeted on a gossip site.

 

 

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Dianomi’s 2018 Robot Traffic Report

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With digital ad fraud costing advertisers an estimated $7 billion a year, and that figure expected to rise to $10+ billion by 2020, advertisers need to understand their exposure to bots.

Robots can sometimes account for a whopping 90 percent of clicks generated in an ad campaign. While robot traffic is down so far in 2018, at 32 percent on average, robots are getting smarter and more sophisticated at looking human.

The good news is that there are steps that advertisers can take to avoid paying for non-human clicks, like employing a third-party platform to analyze traffic for robots.

To find out more about robot traffic and what you can do, check out Dianomi’s 2018 Robot Traffic Report.

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