content marketing

taming the content beast

32 | ARGENT The Journal of The Financial Services Forum content marketing

caspian woods SPEED READ is Chief Content Strategist of Editions • Content marketing can help rebuild trust Financial. • Not enough to simply have good content Contact: [email protected] • A strategy ensures co-ordinated approach • The Content Funnel maps a journey

Content marketing is hot. But in the rush to create content, what’s happened to marketing? CASPIAN WOODS reports on how a content marketing strategy is essential to bridge the gap.

t’s undeniable that a ‘So we must deliver the best information Does your organisation have a content tsunami is building. on the planet to get their attention.’ defined content strategy?* I The recent Financial Services He cites with approval the ‘thought Content Marketing survey, leadership’ material of companies such Yes

carried out by Editions Financial, found as IBM and Deloitte. No but that although 90% of brand marketers planning one expect content marketing to become more A STRATEGIC APPROACH No and not important over the next year, only 41% But even the best information on the planning one have a strategy. planet isn’t enough in itself. It needs to 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Done well, content marketing has have a purpose – allowing the brand to the power to add value, build thought occupy its niche with authority. Given the leadership and engage audiences. multitude of today’s content platforms – fed. Content is created and recreated, This is particularly relevant to those online, social media, mobile, video, racking up costs and resulting in mixed financial institutions which need to face-to-face, email and print – this has messages and missed campaign and brand rebuild relationships with customers. to be co-ordinated. strategy goals. Finance is the least trusted industry, Content approaches across these It’s hard to overstate the need for a according to the latest ‘trust barometer’ channels are often fragmented. Driven more strategic approach. The choice of published by Edelman, with just 29% of by departmental silos, there is no single channels grows exponentially as does the consumers in the UK saying they trust the ‘content plan’ or view. But without a volume of content, while attention spans banking industry. strategy, brands are simply creating a shrivel. Age or level of wealth are no Integrity and good products and content beast that needs to be constantly longer reliable predictors of channel ▶ services are seen by the public as crucial in re-establishing their trust, Edelman reveals, but the top factor is a readiness to engage. As one respondent to the Financial LLOYD’S of london: Raising the Titanic Services Content Marketing survey ‘We need to co-ordinate content across media, explains, ‘Investors need to understand focus on stories digital and other teams. what you’re doing and the rationale behind Lloyd’s has notched up 11,000 Twitter that will have followers and now sees 20,000 monthly it in order to build trust in what you are taming doing with their money. It helps to create a legs.’ visitors to its web news section. Its print relationship by giving a face to your brand.’ Solar flares are hot news. The potential of magazine, Market, offers deeper analysis. According to Kassy, there is almost too With this in mind, many major sun activity to wreak havoc on Earth recently much content: ‘It’s never difficult to find finance players are turning to content triggered wide interest – and gave Lloyd’s of stories, but we need to focus on stories that marketing. More and more brands are London an unusual hat-trick. Its expert pieces on the topic appeared in the Sunday Sport, the will have legs. And while we have lots of cottoning on to the diminishing returns Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. insurance specialists, one of our challenges offered by traditional advertising, in an Disaster and risk will always draw attention, is giving them the confidence to act as the age where consumers can get all the so in some senses Lloyd’s is guaranteed an spokespeople.’ ‘buying information’ they need through avid audience for its content. But its high While generating fresh material, Lloyd’s smartphones and other devices. Building profile is down to a careful strategy, and a long also aims to give existing content new life. Its a genuine connection through valuable, track record of producing compelling material. popular story on the 100th anniversary of the relevant content is the new holy grail ‘As a market rather than a company, our Titanic’s demise didn’t sink without trace when of marketing. product is the brand,’ explains Digital Content the centenary year ended. Instead, Lloyd’s ‘We need to realise that customers Manager Kassy Dignam. ‘So we’ve really been created a Titanic section in its website, which continues to attract lots of hits. don’t care about us, our products or our doing content marketing for a number of years, to sell our thought leadership and expertise.’ ‘We have a great body of content – we’re content services – they care about themselves,’ Recently, however, the function has grown in working quite hard this year on ways to keep it Joe Pulizzi, the founder of the Content importance, with Kassy taking on a new role to alive and relevant,’ says Kassy. Marketing Institute, tells Argent. ‘A significant benefit of plotting a journey is beast that marketing effectiveness is no longer judged solely in terms of activity levels.’

www.thefsforum.co.uk The Journal of The Financial Services Forum ARGENT | 33 content marketing

‘The choice lies between trying to stretch content thinly over every channel or only going for the same well-trodden routes with diminishing returns.’

Over the next 12 months, do you expect your content BREWIN DOLPHIN: marketing budget to:*

Three-tier content Increase significantly management strategy foresees splitting its ‘We don’t want Increase to alienate the audience three ways and providing tailored slightly content to each. Stay the new entrant In the meantime, stakeholders are divided same with the jargon along more conventional lines. For clients, Decrease slightly that so often pervades there’s Brewin Dolphin’s flagship magazine, Decrease our industry.’ Perspective, issued twice a year in print significantly and app formats. Then there’s a quarterly 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% How much knowledge can we assume? That’s version with entirely different content for the the challenge currently preoccupying the company’s intermediary community, chiefly marketing team at investment specialists targeted at IFAs. ▶ Brewin Dolphin. ‘A lot of what we do is generated in-house, preference. Meanwhile, there are more calls ‘Our clients and prospects have different by our research teams and investment on limited marketing budgets. The choice levels of expertise – from what you might managers,’ says Philip. ‘We also have an lies between trying to stretch content investment writer on the marketing team call the beginner or new entrant, through to thinly over every channel or only going those who are market professionals,’ explains who curates a lot of content to ensure it’s for the same well-trodden routes with Marketing Director Philip Browne. consistent and appropriate. ‘It’s important that we can engage with ‘We use Google Analytics to understand diminishing returns. each of them at the right level. We don’t what people engage with on our website. By contrast, a content marketing want to alienate the new entrant with the And we analyse the types of leads and strategy defines a clear proposition jargon and acronyms that so often pervade enquiries we get, to help us see what we’re for different audiences, maps this across our industry.’ explaining well and where there might be the customer journey and then focuses To that end, the firm’s content gaps in our content.’ on the most cost-effective channels, with an efficient re-use of tightly focused content assets. At Editions Financial, we have designed COUTTS: Know your strengths an aid to strategy formulation: a ‘content engagement funnel’, which allows brands to ‘You’ve got to fence to protect your credibility.’ map out the ideal journey of their customers And it’s not just quality that counts. Coutts across each channel (see below). ring-fence to recently commissioned a six-part TV series The journey moves from the initial protect your with BBC World News on the changing credibility.’ patterns of wealth. Sarah explains: ‘We knew hooking of consumers’ attention – perhaps people would spend half an hour watching through thought leadership pieces – to Effective content marketing is a powerful a TV programme where they’re unlikely to engagement in richer media channels tool in protecting a brand’s credibility. But spend half an hour reading a piece of material.’ such as ezines and video. Customers then only if you get it right. That BBC content was also used in outbound Sarah Wyse, Head of UK Marketing at newsletters to clients – they were sent links to Coutts & Co, explains: ‘Coutts is a wealth where they could view it online. ‘It’s not just management business so we feel we have TV content; it’s also video content that can be Content Engagement Funnel the right to talk comprehensively about accessed in different ways,’ she adds. wealth management. But if we want to ‘The adage that people need to see, Hook produce other content that’s just genuinely hear, feel or touch your brand six or seven 1 Content proposition interesting to our clients, we produce it with times before they become engaged 1 to many 2 Thought leadership other experts who have editorial integrity remains absolutely true. It’s become more 3 Lead generation wareness around that subject area. For example, we complex, and yet in some ways it has more produced a style guide two years ago on the straightforward to engage. There are so Engage etiquette of dress code. But rather than doing many different ways to touch people and 1 Qualify: website it ourselves, we worked with Net-a-porter. you’ve got to make sure you get it right.’ 1 to few 2 Relationship sustain: This year, in association with Condé Nast, we And as for measuring the success of Magazine/ezine produced The Experts – a little black book of content they’ve produced? ‘Nothing is more 3 Convert: Videos all the people you need to know in travel.’ of an affirmation of what we’re doing than It’s important to understand where your key clients telling me what they’ve seen and interact competencies lie, and know where they don’t. how they’ve felt about it. I really do value 1 to 1 1 ‘Some brands make the mistake of trying to that, rather than me telling them what we Community building 2 Events commission lifestyle content and pretend that did. That’s the greatest measure of success,’ A < engagement < revenue 3 it’s theirs,’ Sarah adds, ‘but you’ve got to ring- she concludes. Front-line support > content feedback loop >

34 | ARGENT The Journal of The Financial Services Forum content marketing

Do you believe content marketing is more effective than other ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT: approaches to help rebuild trust in Simple yet effective financial services?* ‘The site top-end retail prospects. And we use email Yes marketing of white papers to US advisers explores and through intermediary media partners. These No celebrates are followed up with geo-targeted nurturing

some other emails,’ Piers explains. Don’t know things in life.’ It also focuses on promoting content and 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% ideas from its Simply Aberdeen microsite at Content marketing has become Aberdeen www.simplyaberdeen.com. ‘Asset Asset Management’s primary route for all management to the side, the site explores and What are the greatest fresh lead generation activity for end investors celebrates some other things in life – including hurdles in developing and intermediary audiences, be that targeting people, design and ideas – that we feel content marketing?* retail investors or financial advisers in the embodies our “simple” philosophy, values and wholesale channel. attitude,’ he adds. Lack of clarity ‘It’s all about engaging users while they Piers has found that, at its best, content Lack of are in-market or, an awkward phrase this, marketing is much more measurable and measurable ROI fertile. Once you have established the tangible than many other forms of Competing internal engagement and communication, we then advertising and communications. He campaigns need to nurture that relationship and build explains: ‘It leaves an audit trail. As a result, Lack of internal responsibilities trust,’ says Piers Currie, Group Head of Brand. we’ve found that it offers a more transparent And to achieve that, you need to get in Amount of return on investment for marketing spend. competing content front of the right people, in the right place and ‘But you need to get the content right,’ he Lack of skills channel, at the right time. Aberdeen uses a cautions. ‘We aim to be consistent. In practice, variety of channels to target its audiences. Lack of this normally means we look for plain English co-ordinated ‘In the UK, Europe and the US, we promote where we can. But it’s a constant process of strategy online events for existing intermediary self-improvement. We’re in a sector bedevilled 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% audiences, typically at fund level, usually by jargon and we need to root out through BrightTalk. We use Dianomi’s unnecessary complexity of explanation. That Marketviews for Investment Trusts and closed can be harder than it looks. Keeping it simple move on to interact through social media, end funds in the UK as a recruiting sergeant to is hard, but it’s the right goal.’ events or one-to-one contact. A significant benefit of plotting a journey is that marketing effectiveness if that’s the objective.’ is no longer judged solely in terms Piers Currie, Group Head of Brand at ‘Even the best of activity levels, such as ‘likes’ or Aberdeen Asset Management, agrees: information on ‘click-throughs’, but the extent to which ‘Good content marketing leaves an they drive action and revenue to the audit trail. As a result, we’ve found that the planet isn’t bottom line. it offers a more transparent return on Clare Hill, Managing Director of the investment for marketing spend.’ enough in itself.’ Content Marketing Association, explains: * Results from the Financial Services Content Marketing survey ‘The key differential between traditional marketing disciplines and content Full results of the Financial Services Content Marketing survey are available online. marketing is that measurement is quite Visit www.editionsfinancial.co.uk to download a copy of the report. easy in our world. In many cases it enables you to identify sales conversions, THE KNOWLEDGE CENTRE Additional articles and event presentations are available online via www.thefsforum.co.uk/knowledge including: Do you expect content marketing to become more The Power of Video: Content is king, and there is no more powerful or engaging content than or less important for your video. Brand messages are now less about top-down advertising, and more about content organisation over the next 12 months?* distribution via social media. Alwyn Gosford takes us through a few examples and statistics of More online videos. important At Last, Quality Content Drives SEO Performance: In 2012, Google launched a multitude of The same technical refinements to its search results algorithm. The competition for higher rankings is Less now driven by the value of content, according to its relevance, the extent to which it is regularly important updated and whether it links into social communities who engage with it. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

www.thefsforum.co.uk The Journal of The Financial Services Forum ARGENT | 35