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.”
