The Financial services industry is the least trusted in the world, according to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer — a global study of trust that involved 33,000 respondents, 27 markets and 15 industries.
Several well-known events have contributed, from the Global Financial Crisis, which wiped $8 trillion off the US stock market between 2007 and 2009, to Australia’s Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. In the 12 months leading up to May 2019, 33% of Australians lost trust in their banks, according to Accenture’s 2019 Financial Services Consumer Study. For countless financial services brands across the globe, the trust of customers is their coveted white whale, with finance content marketing the way to rewrite the story’s ending.
Like Beyonce and Lady Gaga say, ‘Trust is like a mirror. You can fix it if it’s broken, but you can still see the crack in the reflection.’
So, what can finance brands do about that crack? ‘It’s a long road to rebuilding the levels of trust the organisations need to be taken credibly around customers financial wellbeing and around the advice on products and to do the right thing,’ Alex Trott, Finance Services Partner (Australia), Accenture, told Business Insider.
One way of boosting your credibility is finance content marketing. Rather than simply advertising your trustworthiness, show it — through blogs, videos, podcasts, webinars and social media posts that demonstrate your expertise, authority and values. In a 2016 whitepaper, NewsCred wrote that 55% of adults would ‘trust a bank more if it produced helpful content’.
55% of adults would ‘trust a bank more if it produced helpful content’.
Here, we take a look at a couple of finance content marketing case studies that have actually built trust.
Finance content marketing case study 1 – Uniting for a common cause: #TogetheragainstHate
One way of inspiring trust is demonstrating your values. In 2018, UK bank Nationwide teamed up with MARS (Maltesers), McCain, VCCP agency and Channel 4 to create #TogetheragainstHate, a finance content marketing campaign against online bullying.
In this daring initiative, Nationwide published real examples of online abuse received in response to previous ads. For example, overlain on a video of a young man reciting a poem about loneliness, we see, ‘Can’t believe no one has killed that douche’, ‘Everyone of them snide poets needs kicking to death’ and ‘smug talentless amoeba’.
Accompanying this are shocking stats, like ’41% of young adults have seen racist abuse, bullying or harassment online.’ There’s also a link to a hub, nested on Channel 4, where victims of abuse can get help.
The finance content marketing campaign was executed over multiple channels and in multiple forms — from an ad break takeover during popular Channel 4 TV show Gogglebox, to social media where 50 micro-influencers shared experiences of hate, to a week’s worth of discussions on LBC Talk Radio.
#TogetheragainstHate reached 42% of adults in the UK within a week, trended at #1 on X and, most importantly, improved perception. Scores for ‘brand I can trust’ and ‘care more about meeting customers need than maximising profit’ hit their highest since Nationwide began tracking in 2014.
Finance content marketing case study 2 – Building trust through education: USAA Bank
In 2018, USAA Bank, a Fortune 500 financial services group based in San Antonio, Texas, was rated as the most reputable bank in the US, according to the Reputation Institute’s annual RepTrak survey.
It’s not only the bank’s governance and citizenship that inspire trust; it’s also its finance content marketing. USAA Bank knows it’s difficult for people to trust what they can’t understand. So, the bank’s content strategy is dedicated to simple stories that answer common questions.
Topics range from ‘How to save on home energy costs’ to ‘Can I get a credit card if I have bad credit?’ to ‘Surviving your teen’s introduction to driving’. There’s also an entire learning centre devoted to buying a home.
Like USAA Bank’s relationships with its clients, this finance content marketing isn’t about creating a flash in the pan. It’s about providing useful, meaningful, educational information — over a long period. And it’s also ensured USAA dominates search engines. ‘USAA is the only company to appear in the top 10 for banking, insurance, and the overall finance search market in Q4 2019,’ reports Adthena.
Are you ready to make fairytales a reality and take your trust scores to the next level through strategic finance content marketing? Get in touch.
