Is your fintech blog boring and not engaging your readers?
If your blog posts look a lot like these:
- “Great news! [Company name] closes Series B funding”
- “[Company name ] featured on [publication name]”
- “[New product feature] is here!”
It may be time to shake things up.
Fintechs, like many tech companies, use blogs as a PR channel, publishing content focused on them and their products without speaking to topics that potential customers are looking for.
A fintech’s blog could be so much more than a PR or news channel. For example, it could act as a content hub to help educate rather than market or sell, drawing readers back to consume more and share with their own community.
But how do you determine what your audience wants to read or learn about? To start, check out trending relevant topics on social media. Or study the agenda at industry events and even ask current customers. There’s no drawback to learning more about readers. It will only help you engage better with them so they’ll take notice of every post, blog series, and short video you publish.
Whether you’re a stand-alone fintech like Better.com or a financial institution partner like Plaid, almost every fintech could benefit from this switch in thinking. A successful fintech blog can be a resource library that increases brand awareness, educates readers on your products and the challenges faced by the industry, and more.
We’ve noticed a few that stand out in how they successfully engage their readers and offer good examples to follow.
The brand that calls out competitors: Wise
Wise Payments Canada is an international bank that has implemented a marketing tactic other fintechs may be hesitant to try: publishing articles that explain how to open and close accounts with their competitors, like How to Close your Bank of America Account: Options and Tips.
But why does Wise publish these kinds of posts? Because they know their prospects are already searching for information on how to close an account with a competitor. So, they target these prospects by creating posts on their own blog. And a good keyword strategy ensures their post appears before the competitors in search engine results.
Plus, Wise is controlling the conversation by writing a post that directly answers the reader’s intent. They can mention their own products without being overly sales-y. By publishing it on the Wise website, it’s just a quick couple of clicks to get them to sign up for a new Wise account.
The brand that provides the info customers want: Betterment
As a fintech, Betterment knows people are looking for financial information and tools. So, instead of creating content that covers topics related to their products, they’ve created a massive resource hub.
Betterment has content for both personal finance beginners and advanced investors to help better manage their money. Topics range from how to use their products to helping readers plan retirement and investing in real estate to understanding the latest developments in the financial world.
Betterment does a stellar job in aligning customer intent with their content strategy, making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
The brand that makes finding information easy: Lightspeed POS
Lightspeed POS offers products and services that target three specific audiences: retailers, restaurants, and golf courses. These businesses have unique needs for point-of-sale solutions, so Lightspeed publishes content just for them. But how is that different from other POS vendors or fintechs?
Well, Lightspeed makes good use of the “featured post” and “most read articles” capabilities of their blog platform. Many fintechs relegate this info to the sidebar, but Lightspeed knows their target audiences want to learn about how others in their industry are approaching certain challenges. They also don’t have as much time as other corporate audiences do to scroll through the Lightspeed blog. So having the “most read articles” at the top of the page cuts down the time they spend searching.
Each post offers tips, advice, and relevant how-tos their audience can consume and implement quickly. Plus, each post has a reading time at the top, so readers can decide for themselves whether they want to continue or not.
The brand that creates unique customer solutions: Blueleaf
Blueleaf publishes a variety of helpful content (think explainers, behind-the-scenes posts, and podcasts) centered around specific problems or challenges wealth management advisors face. Each post discusses in-depth insights about a problem and offers several solutions, including how Blueleaf can help, like in this post.
The Blueleaf team always adds a clear CTA so readers know what’s next in the reading journey, like:
- “An Experience Your Clients Will Love. Clients will love the service you deliver with Blueleaf’s superior client experience. [Button] Get a FREE Demo”
- “Look for more on this topic in the upcoming weeks, including the release of our next eBook, titled ‘Remote First,’ which will show you how to grow and manage a virtual advisory practice. Subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss any updates.”
The brand that over delivers on helpful information: SoFi
The SoFi blog is actually part of their “SoFi Learn” content library and is found at the bottom of the page. They’ve created so much content that the actual blog is one of the final places readers might go. At first glance, the SoFi blog looks like the typical “bad” blog in that it publishes a lot of press releases and product updates.
Where they differentiate it is by also publishing relevant industry news like this post, investment strategies from SoFi experts like this one, and company updates that are benefit-driven, like this one.
Each post feels like a mini deep-dive as they dig deep into the why of their own products and services as well as what’s happening in the industry. They take the very technical and financial details and put them into language their readers can quickly understand.
Are these the only great examples?
And these are just some of the great fintech blogs out there. Many companies are leaning into content marketing and publishing helpful resources on their blogs. These companies know they’ve got to publish information that’s relevant and sought after by their readers. They’re looking at interesting ways to capture readers’ attention, like Wise, that publishes posts targeting their competitors. They’re being relentlessly helpful, like Lightspeed, so people know exactly where to go for help.
Use one of these fintechs as a model to improve your company blog, and you’ll create an engaging and useful resource for your audience.
The post The Problem with the Fintech Blog (and How to Fix It) appeared first on Contently.
