In the current competitive landscape, making your brand’s voice heard above the noise is a challenging endeavor. As companies shift their strategies towards digital platforms, content Marketing emerges as a critical element to establish brand visibility, credibility, and engagement. Hiring a content marketing agency for financial services may be the best strategic path forward.

But what about content marketing cost?

While developing and managing a successful content marketing strategy in-house is an option, it’s not always the most efficient or cost-effective one. Engaging a specialized content marketing agency provides a robust solution, enabling organizations to streamline their content marketing efforts, drive ROI, and save money. Here are eight ways you can leverage a content marketing agency for financial services to your advantage.

1. Industry-Specific Expertise

When you engage a content marketing agency for financial services, you tap into a team of experts with deep industry knowledge. This team understands the nuances of the financial services sector, including the complex jargon, regulatory environment, and current market trends. 

This ensures your content is not only accurate but also relevant and engaging for your target audience. In contrast, hiring individual freelancers without this industry-specific knowledge can lead to a disjointed and ineffective content marketing strategy.

What to think about when considering a content marketing agency for financial services: 

• How can an agency augment your in-house experts?
• How can you segment work so that appropriate people and teams are working on content that suits their skill set?

2. Scalability

Content needs can fluctuate based on various factors, such as business growth, market trends, or specific campaign requirements. A content marketing agency for financial services can scale its services to match your needs, ensuring you only pay for what you require. This flexibility is often not available when hiring in-house staff or freelancers, leading to potential cost inefficiencies. 

By partnering with such an agency, fintechs can leverage their expertise in crafting compelling and compliant content tailored to the financial industry. The agency’s specialized knowledge and experience in finance-related topics enable them to produce high-quality content that resonates with the target audience. 

What’s more, working with an agency allows fintechs to access a team of skilled professionals who can handle various aspects of content marketing, including content creation, SEO optimization, social media management, and analytics. This relieves the fintechs from the burden of recruiting, training, and managing an in-house marketing team, ultimately saving them significant costs in terms of salaries, benefits, and overhead expenses. 

By outsourcing their content marketing to an agency, fintechs can benefit from the agency’s existing network of industry influencers, publishers, and media outlets, which can further enhance their brand exposure and reach.

What to think about: 

• Is your current content marketing team set up to scale efficiently?
• How might you balance internal teams with an agency and potentially freelancers to get the best mix for your business?

3. Time and Resource Efficiency

Developing high-quality, engaging content requires significant time and effort. Outsourcing content creation to a content marketing agency for financial services allows your internal team to focus on core business functions. This approach not only improves overall productivity but also optimizes the use of internal resources, contributing to cost savings in the long term.

A hybrid approach that leverages both internal resources and an external agency can save the time and resources required to build an in-house team. Instead, fintechs can leverage the agency’s existing expertise and infrastructure to streamline their content marketing efforts. The agency’s team can handle various tasks, such as content creation, distribution, social media management, and analytics, allowing fintechs to focus on their core business activities. 

Agencies often have access to cutting-edge marketing tools and technologies that can expedite processes and enhance efficiency. By outsourcing their content marketing needs, fintechs can save valuable time, effort, and resources, enabling them to concentrate on their core competencies and accelerate their growth in the competitive fintech landscape.

What to think about: 

• What internal processes and flows are hampering efficiency?
• Would working with an agency help or hurt efficiency based on our business model and current marketing team setup?
• Are there areas where it may make more financial sense to outsource to an agency?

4. Access to a Diverse Skill Set

A content marketing agency for financial services typically comprises a team with a wide range of skills, from content creation and SEO optimization to analytics and strategy development. Accessing such a diverse skill set through hiring individual freelancers or in-house staff alone could be a costly endeavor. So, an agency arrangement can offer more value for your money.

Partnering with an agency allows fintechs to leverage this diverse skill set to their advantage. The agency’s team members bring a wealth of experience and knowledge from working with various clients across the financial industry, allowing them to provide fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. Fintechs can tap into this collective expertise to enhance their content marketing strategies and stand out in a crowded market. 

Additionally, agencies that specialize in financial services understand how to navigate the nuances of compliance requirements. These agencies are up to date with the latest industry trends and best practices, ensuring that the content produced is both compelling and compliant. By collaborating with a content marketing agency, fintechs can access a diverse skill set that expands their marketing capabilities and helps them achieve their business objectives more effectively.

What to think about: 

• What gaps exist in our current team’s skill set?
• Should we consider working with a highly-specialized agency in one or more content marketing-related areas (SEO, promotion, creation, etc.)?

5. Consistent Brand Messaging

Fintech brands are built on the trust and credibility they inspire in customers. This requires consistency in brand messaging across all content platforms and channels – no easy feat. A content marketing agency for financial services can ensure this consistency, developing a unified voice and style that resonates with your audience. 

“But aren’t in-house teams better equipped to create brand messaging for their products and services?” Yes and no. Internal marketers will absolutely have a firm grasp on offerings and may even lead the charge when it comes to the messaging strategy. However (and it’s a big “however”), there is such a thing as being too close to your own products and services. 

Sometimes, internal teams can become deeply involved in the intricacies of their fintech offerings, making it challenging to maintain an objective perspective when crafting brand messaging. Being too “in the weeds” can muddle the message, making it more difficult to connect with prospective buyers. 

A specialized content marketing agency may offer a unique, third-party perspective that avails new insights and creative ideas. The agency’s team of experts can analyze the fintech’s brand, target audience, and competitive landscape with a fresh set of eyes, helping to identify key brand differentiators and develop a consistent messaging strategy that resonates with the intended audience. 

This can yield a more balanced (and extraordinary) perspective, ensuring that their brand messaging remains consistent, engaging, and impactful across all channels.

What to think about: 

• What are our messaging blind spots?
• When was the last time we had an outside perspective on our products/services and how we talk about them?
• Have we recently surveyed current customers to get feedback on how we talk about our products and services?

6. Access to Advanced Tools

Content marketing agencies typically utilize advanced tools for content creation, management, and analytics. These tools enhance content quality, streamline processes, and provide valuable insights into content performance, all without breaking the bank. 

A content marketing agency specializing in financial services offers fintech companies an avenue to access advanced tools that enhance content quality, streamline processes, and provide valuable insights into content performance, all without breaking the bank. These agencies often have subscriptions to industry-leading software, analytics platforms, and content management systems that can be costly for fintechs to acquire individually. 

With an agency partner, fintechs can leverage these tools and technologies to optimize their content creation, distribution, and analysis. The agency’s expertise in utilizing these tools efficiently ensures that fintechs get the most value out of their investment without the burden of purchasing, maintaining, and training in-house teams on expensive software. Individually subscribing to these tools can be expensive for businesses, but their cost is generally incorporated into the agency’s service fees, offering cost-efficiency.

What to think about: 

• Have we run a cost analysis on all the tools it takes for our content marketing team to be successful?
• Are we using current content marketing tools efficiently? Is everyone trained on how to use them properly?
• What other tools might we benefit from implementing and how much do they cost?

7. Data-Driven Strategy

A content marketing agency for financial services doesn’t just create content; they develop data-driven content strategies. They track and analyze content performance, using these insights to continually refine your strategy and improve ROI. 

Better yet, they have ample experience doing this in the financial services industry. Pro tip: when vetting agencies, ask them what some of their biggest takeaways have been given their experience in the field. These teams have worked in the trenches with financial services organizations of all sizes – each with their own marketing challenges. That is a benefit you can leverage as agencies have seen a lot of what works – and a lot of what doesn’t. 

Freelancers are a lot less likely to have the skill set or resources to build a large-scale data-driven strategy. Some will, no doubt. But this is a big area where agencies stand apart. And while in-house teams can certainly generate a data-driven strategy, this approach requires both expertise and resources which could potentially incur additional costs. 

What to think about: 

• Can we access the data we need to make strategic content marketing plans and decisions?
• Are we continuing to meet and iterate quarterly to adjust plans based on results?

8. Future-Proofing

The financial services landscape is dynamic, with new technologies and consumer behaviors constantly influencing market trends. A content marketing agency for financial services stays ahead of these trends, ensuring your content strategy remains relevant and effective. This forward-thinking approach can save you from costly strategy overhauls down the line.

Beyond that, it makes a lot of financial sense to augment your in-house team with outside help. This is something that is easily scalable up or down and doesn’t carry the burden of training additional in-house resources or layoffs when things get tight. 

While freelancers offer some future-proofing benefit, these scenarios are often much more delicate. Freelancers are working solo, so they can only do so much. Circumstances and priorities may change on their end, which can lead to problems if there isn’t a clear agreement or if expectations are not adequately set upfront. 

What to think about: 

• What do the next 6-18 months look like for our content marketing strategy? Do we have the resources, tools, and time we need to meet and exceed expectations?
• What challenges will our in-house team face in the near term and how can we ensure that content marketing operations remain efficient and effective?
• How does our current team setup impact ROI? Are there better alternatives?

No-Brainer: Hire a Content Marketing Agency for Financial Services

While hiring a content marketing agency for financial services involves an upfront cost, the potential benefits in terms of cost-efficiency, time savings, and improved ROI make it a worthwhile investment. By leveraging their industry-specific expertise, scalability, and diverse skill set, financial services organizations can not only streamline their content marketing but also ensure it is aligned with their strategic goals.

The post Don’t Break the Bank: Hiring a Content Marketing Agency for Financial Services first appeared on Content Rewired.

---

Don’t Break the Bank: Hiring a Content Marketing Agency for Financial Services was first posted on August 2, 2023 at 7:50 am.
©2018 "Content Marketing For Payments | Content Rewired". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at [email protected]