Multiple challenges surface when creating content for a finance company.
Dealing with legalities tops the list, but there’s more. Much more.
In working with multiple companies in the financial sector and ghostwriting for top investors/financial CEOs in the pages of Forbes and other business magazines, I’ve had my share of difficulties.
Below, I share challenges marketers face when creating content for financial services brands – with a sharp focus on written content – and solutions to those challenges.
But first, let’s discuss what should guide your focus when creating content within the financial industry: Google’s YMYL and E-A-T concepts.
In the wake of the censorship uproar, Google took precedent to create special algorithmic considerations for information it deemed important relating to fields, such as financial advice, current events, politics, legal advice, etc.
The rationale was easy – bad financial advice leads to potentially devastating financial consequences for innocent people.
The last thing Google wants for its brand is to present bad financial information that negatively impacts your money and life.
That’s why Google refers to important content, like financial advice, as Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) content.
Google provides an explanation of how they evaluate and rank YMYL content from their report titled How Google Fights Disinformation:
“Where our algorithms detect that a user’s query relates to a ‘YMYL’ topic, we will give more weight in our ranking systems to factors like our understanding of the authoritativeness, expertise, or trustworthiness of the pages we present in response.”
With that statement said, I want you to keep in mind three relevant keywords: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
These characteristics would later comprise Google’s infamous E-A-T, part of Google’s algorithm and baked into Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
Let’s explain from a content creator’s perspective:
Unfortunately, Google’s algorithm isn’t smart enough yet to understand how viable financial advice is, so they have to consider signals such as author expertise and authority in ranking content.
It’s why the first four results for the search [how to do my taxes] are all brands and top-level domains we recognize or trust:
However, this presents a significant challenge for smaller brands and businesses looking to tap into the finance sector through organic search.
In addition, there are legal and other financial concerns that arrive with financial content creation.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Implementing the strategy arrives with additional challenges that are typically more annoying than the creative thinking stage.
This is due to multiple legalities and bureaucracy behind the doors of most financial service brands.
Following are some content marketing tips for financial services brands that I’ve learned along the way.
Due to the strict measures of Google’s EAT and YMYL guidelines, a financial blog or website will never be able to compete with a Turbotax or Nerdwallet.
The most obvious solution is to generate thought leadership for their brand.
Of course, this presents a proverbial catch-22.
To build authority, you need exposure, but Google makes that very difficult for broad topics that provide the most exposure.
Here are some solutions to up our content game and present unique ideas.
Solutions
Like medical businesses, false information can quickly get your client into trouble with authorities.
And of course, this will ruin your image, something that’s hard to build when you’ve been the focus of much negative criticism.
Unfortunately, financial services, especially, have some of the most intense regulatory scrutinies when it comes to producing online content, sharing it over social media, and advertising your brand.
FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is a well-known regulatory agency that monitors everything over social media from influencers to financial services content.
FINRA’s rules intend to “protect investors from false, misleading claims, exaggerated statements, and material omissions.”
In addition to FINRA, there are a number of additional regulations that tap into every niche of financial services content.
For example, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency has strict rules in place regulating the accuracy, clarity, and compliance of content specifically related to banking services.
Solutions
In the solutions above, I outlined the need to find writers that have expertise in financial and regulatory matters.
However, as someone who’s managed a team of freelancers for years now, that’s certainly easier said than done.
The largest problem is finding those that are subject matter experts. Once you do find an expert, two other issues surface – the writer is either too expensive for your budget, or they simply can’t write well.
Solutions
Financial news and current events move fast, as government and independent financial reports are generated daily.
The last thing you want is a post on a major story stuck in a week-long review. These frustrations are further amplified when working with the extended review process of enterprise companies.
If your client offers any sort of financial advice or reporting, it’s essential to optimize review processes to pump out content in real-time.
Solutions
You will come across a wide variety of people with different levels of expertise in the finance world.
It’s easy for readers to become inundated by jargon and complicated financial procedures, especially when dealing with topics like taxes, cryptocurrency, retirement accounts, and portfolio investing.
Simplifying content so it’s understandable by most readers is important, but so is making the optimal content for those readers most likely to go further with you or your client’s brand.
You’ll need to create a strategy that caters to people looking for general financial advice to increase your client’s authority and create targeted content for people specifically interested in employing their company.
Solutions
Generally, stale content can be a waste on any site, but it could leave websites with outdated or uncompliant content in a world of legal trouble.
The solutions are simple but time-consuming.
Solutions
As you know by now, financial content is complicated.
If you write on behalf of other companies or for yourself, it can be difficult to justify a budget for a single blog post that costs $750+ between research and labor.
Solutions
Although the barriers to financial services and all YMYL content are higher than in other niche fields, the rewards of investing in content marketing are equally as high.
Target a blend of evergreen and trending content, and follow the advice above to speak to every target client and satisfy the tough regulations and legalities of finance content.
More resources:
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
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