Overcoming the unique challenges of finance marketing

Content marketing for finance brands isn’t the same as content marketing for other brands - it comes with its own unique challenges that need to be overcome.

The first of these is the popular perception of finance topics as dry, dull and technical. The second is the regulatory environment, which requires finance brands to ensure content is legally compliant, yet compelling and shareable.

To financial marketers, these challenges might look like mountains, but the trick is to turn them into advantages. 

Anyone with a smartphone can create engaging, original travel content. But it takes a skilled finance content marketer to turn home loans into viral memes or pen blog posts that Gen Z can’t get enough of.

Finance content marketing: dry and dull — or compelling and shareable? 

“Finance topics are considered inherently boring and complex,” says Josh Frith, managing director at The Dubs. “There’s a perception that it’s hard to get people to give them the air time they deserve.”

But is it the topic or the perception that’s the problem? 

“It comes down to how the topic is presented. If you craft content that’s boring and difficult to understand, then people will see it for what it is, and it will perform poorly.

“But work out how the topic relates to people — where it sits in their life or working process — and craft the content accordingly, then you’ll get their eyeballs,” says Frith.

One bank that’s demonstrated this to be true is fast-growing Melbourne-based neobank Up, which, believe it or not, has transformed the release notes for its app into popular blog posts.

Finance content marketing: stifled by regulations — or creative as the rest? 

“Finance brands live in a compliance-driven environment,” says Frith. “This can result in people making assumptions about what can and can’t be done — without a deep understanding of the regulations.”

Get to know the regulations well, and you might find that you have much more freedom than you thought. How else would UK-based pension fund Aviva have gone viral with videos of young people aging themselves artificially with prosthetics, or US-based insurance company MetLife be running holistic financial wellness programs in collaboration with EY?

The trick, Frith says, is to get in early. “Compliance should be part of finance content marketing planning from the beginning,” he says. “Everyone involved needs to feel comfortable and informed.”