Hubspot provides the backbone for the inbound marketing strategies of numerous finance brands, and with that comes first-hand insight into where content strategies commonly go wrong. We asked Hubspot content specialist, Anthony Hayde to share the three biggest mistakes financial content marketers make with inbound marketing.
What are the top 3 mistakes financial content marketers make with inbound marketing and how can we avoid them?
1. A quantity over quality approach to inbound marketing
The misstep here is thinking: ‘we need lots of content’ instead of: ‘we need the right content’. When content planning, ensure you are mixing science with creativity – analyse key metrics to gauge the quality of your existing content and use these learnings to inform future content. Before producing any piece of content, ask yourself:
– Does it solve a problem or answer a key question for your audience?
– Are you writing for your audience or search engines?
– Is there a good mix of content types? Is there enough evergreen content within the mix? – Avoid focusing only on breaking news, consider content that can be repurposed and updated regularly. This will give each piece of content a much longer shelf life.
Ultimately, the relevancy of your content is what will help you rank highest in Google’s eyes.
2. Lack of content strategy or end goal
Understanding what content you are creating and why is an often overlooked step in a content marketing strategy. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily production of content and lose sight of why you are actually creating it. Stop and review. Ask yourself:
– Are you looking at the right metrics to determine whether your content actually appeals to your audience? Some key examples could include:
Pageviews
Time on page
Leads and MQLs (e.g. downloads, consultation requests etc.)
Clicks or conversion goals
Social shares
– While customer acquisition may be your main motivation to create content, have you considered using content to achieve alternative or dual goals? – You could focus your attention on increasing visibility of your brand by targeting customers higher up the funnel. Consider changing your metrics accordingly. e.g your goal could change from a conversion metric to an increase in the percentage of repeat visitors, seeing this as the start of a long-term customer relationship. The great thing is that content marketing can help you target customers at any stage of the funnel – provided you have a clear plan for what you’re trying to achieve.
– Is the content you’re producing worth the investment? – Use the above metrics to keep track of whether or not you’re meeting your goals and achieving ROI. You can also find some helpful tips on how to do this in our article on ROI and the case for content marketing.
3. Finance brands’ fear of trying something new
Financial content may be bound by strict regulations and focus predominantly on technical subjects, but that doesn’t discount the need for creativity. Don’t be afraid to test and learn, failure is as valuable as success. Ask yourself:
– Are you writing the same old type of content because ‘this content has always worked so why would we change it’?
– Can you trial something new without burning through too much time and resource to test your hypothesis?
– Can you build an ‘MVP’ (Minimum Viable Product) into your content marketing strategy?
Examples of how the Hubspot software can be implemented within a company are shown in their financial services case studies.
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