I spoke to a real human being the other day who said that they could only pay so much for free content marketing for financial companies because it doesn’t bring in any money.
I still can’t believe this really happened.
It blew my mind to learn that not everyone understands the most very basic essence of content marketing, which involves giving away great content in a way that provides value, is useful to people, and makes them trust your brand and eventually want to do business with you.
I don’t mean to be demeaning. I’m just truly and honestly in awe of the fact that those people exist – people who need content marketing and have already been using it in some capacity for some time, yet actually go so far as to argue that they should pay less for free content because it’s “free” and doesn’t generate any revenue.
If that were true, it wouldn’t be the case that the largest companies in the world provide writers and other creative professionals with substantial compensation to create so-called free content.
Such companies understand that content has the most profitable ROI of any other type of marketing today. That’s a big part of what makes them successful.
The Power of Content
Imagine you’re a bank, fintech company, or financial firm of any kind, for example.
Think of the value that would come from showing up on the first page of search results for almost any question that your target audience might be asking.
[Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash]
E.g., someone searches for “what is a mutual fund,” “what is the easiest way to get started investing,” or “bull market strategies.” On page one of Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, or whatever search engine being used, a curious searcher stumbles upon an article answering their question.
After reading, the searcher feels informed, has a sense of trust with the author, and has become curious about the organization that published this free piece.
Now a lone internet user has become a potential customer – just like that.
We all know how this works. We’ve all done it.
In searching for answers to our questions, we come across the massive amount of free content that has been published. We use that content to help us make informed decisions about almost everything.
Just check out this content marketing ROI analysis by FirstPageSage:
When executed at the highest level—following the principles of thought leadership as described below—the average yearly ROI for a content marketing campaign is $984,000. This is due to the inexpensiveness of content marketing compared with the impact of high search rankings for dozens of valuable keywords over a multi-year period.
FirstPage Sage
Sometimes that content comes in visual or audio format rather than keyword-oriented writing.
But even then, there have to be words written for search engines to index the page. At the very least, a headline, introduction, and meta description are always necessary (it’s a common misconception that visual/audio content has somehow made written content obsolete, although video and podcasts have grown in popularity).
This is the value of content. It’s all out there for free.
And smart, competitive companies will pay for it because they know that their ROI will be substantial.
Bring Value Consistently With Content Marketing for Financial Companies
The moral of the story is this: if you only focus on the value that you receive from your clients or customers, you won’t get very far, and any success you do have will likely be limited and short-lived.
Instead, focus on the value that you bring your customers. If you’re not giving value, how can you expect to keep receiving any?
[Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash]
Giving content away for free brings value to everyone. An unlimited number of people can engage with that content. All it takes is a small percentage of them to find so much value that they decide to reciprocate and return value to your business.
In some cases, companies even give away their real services for a period of time, e.g. Spotify giving users a 1-month free trial of Spotify Premium (that’s how I got hooked, and now I’m a Spotify subscriber for life!).
This is how things work now, and probably how they will continue to work from this point forward.
Content marketing for financial companies is the not-so-new normal. No matter who you are or what you do, content is the way.
Figure out where your skills lie – podcasting, blogging, video creation, graphic design, memes, other social media content. etc.
Then get to work crafting and sharing content that speaks to the needs of your target audience. Don’t forget to engage with others who are also creating content in your niche.
Whether you’re an individual looking for a job, a new business, a hustling entrepreneur, or a multinational corporation, some variation of this strategy is how you can grow, expand, and reach heights that go beyond what has ever before been possible in history.
Now is the time. Get started building your business today, and go create something!
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