We all recognise the importance of traffic sources like SEO or social media, but many finance brands are missing a key engagement opportunity by not including content syndication in their content marketing mix.
What is content syndication?
Content syndication is the process of republishing your site’s content on another third-party website or app. It can greatly increase eyeballs to your content and open your brand up to an audience you wouldn’t normally have access to. Syndication, like social media, can be both free or paid. Popular third-parties include: Flipboard, Taboola which has now merged with Outbrain, Medium, financial services specific Dianomi, or even Slideshare to share research-backed presentations rather than articles.
Why should finance brands consider content syndication?
In industries like financial services that have complex products, good content is needed to build understanding, arming consumers with the knowledge and confidence needed to take action and convert to a customer. Wise to this fact, many finance brands are increasingly acting like publishers, producing large amounts of high quality content as part of their marketing mix. Usually, this content is restricted to the brand’s natural ecosystem but by diversifying into syndication it allows finance brands to target a completely new audience.
Usually content is restricted to the brand’s natural ecosystem but by diversifying into syndication it allows finance brands to target a completely new audience.
According to Flipboard, there is huge potential for the financial services sector to stand out from the crowd on their content aggregation platform. When reviewing paid content syndication, engagement rates for branded finance content on Flipboard were higher than the engagement rates of standard publisher content. This suggests that the Flipboard audience is interested and open to finance brands, and their message.
Where to start with content syndication
There are a few key questions finance brands should consider before taking the leap into syndication:
- Does your brand produce enough content on a regular basis to support publisher-style syndication?
- Who is your target audience? Will the existing content you’re sharing appeal to that audience if seen on a third-party platform?
- Know your syndication platform – who is the audience, is your tone right for the platform and does it require new imagery?
- Would it be more effective to consider syndication as a paid marketing channel, with branded content specifically targeted to the third-party’s audience?
A great first step into the world of free syndication is to consider submitting a feed of your content and creating a magazine on Flipboard. The news and content aggregation platform suggests ‘creating magazines for each of the major sections on your website and adding RSS feeds to these to create a constant flow of traffic. Magazines can be hand-curated as well, featuring seasonal stories, event coverage and industry editorial packages’. Keep in mind however that platforms like Flipboard require optimisation in their own right, with keyword-rich headlines, hashtags and regular ‘flipping’ all boosting potential followers and readers. Alternatively, you could consider trialling paid syndication with a brand like Taboola, driving traffic to key content from relevant publishers to boost both brand awareness and potential leads.
If your brand is already investing in content marketing, a trial of content syndication could be a worthwhile addition. With minimal resources and budget required, perhaps it’s time to give it a try? We can help identify the content syndication opportunities that are the right fit for your brand, get in touch.
