NewsCred's “Trends + Trendsetters” guides aim to educate marketers on trends, opportunities and content strategies that best-in-class brands are utilizing to engage their audiences. In this guide, we’ll take a look at content marketing in the financial services industry -- specifically American Express's OPEN Forum and First Round Capital's The Review.

1. Trends + Trendsetters
THE BEST IN FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT MARKETING

2. NewsCred Trends + Trendsetters
NewsCred’s Strategy Team helps brands build and hone their content
strategies, taking into consideration marketing goals, brand positioning and
the competitive landscape.
Our “Trends + Trendsetters” guides aim to educate marketers on trends,
opportunities and content strategies that best-in-class brands are utilizing to
engage their audiences. In this guide, we’ll take a look at content marketing
in the financial services industry.
Interested in learning more? We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach
out at strategy@newscred.com.
- Caitlin Domke, Director of Brand Strategy, NewsCred

3. Issues with trust and loyalty are
pervasive across the financial services industry.

4. Source: Harris Poll, 2014
Levels of Consumer Trust in US Financial Institutions
Consumers Trust in
Financial Institutions
Great deal of trust Some trust Very little trust No trust at all
Credit Union 37% 40% 7% 5%
Community Bank 29% 47% 11% 4%
Regional Bank 19% 51% 14% 7%
National Bank 13% 48% 20% 10%
Online Bank 7% 32% 27% 20%

5. NewsCred set out to find if content can help
financial services companies gain the
trust of consumers.

6. NewsCred conducted a survey among 1,001 adults with Redshift Research in August 2014.
The sample was selected from Redshift’s Crowdology and Crowdology partner panels,
which are balanced across regional, age, and gender demographic factors.
Each respondent completed 120 profiling questions before being accepted to join the
panel. Panel quality management is carried out frequently to ensure reliable surveys.

7. The Results?

8. 55% of respondents said that they
trust a bank more when it offers them
helpful, useful content.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

9. 50% would likely stay loyal to a bank
that provided high quality content.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

10. 31% of respondents said they have signed
up for new products and services based on
useful content from their bank.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

11. What does high-quality content look
like for financial services brands?

12. Contentshouldbeinterestingandhelpful

13. More than a 1/3 of respondents said they
would spend longer on their bank’s website
if they provided interesting articles.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

14. 57% of respondents said communication
from a bank can help them understand
which products are most beneficial.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

15. Contentshouldbeproduced
byanun-biasedexpert

16. Of respondents trust articles on
finance written by journalists who
are experts in finance
Of respondents would trust
content written by
representatives of their bank
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014
20% 53%

17. Contentshouldn’tbetoosales-oriented

18. 19% of respondents said they simply
“switch off”when presented with content
that is too sales-oriented.
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

19. Where and when do people turn for
financial content from brands?

20. 42% 32% 28%
What current channels do people find useful when
receiving communications from their bank?
think emails sent by their
bank are useful
of people find texts from
their bank useful
of people find apps
useful
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014

21. How often are people looking for
personal finance content?
Source: NewsCred/Redshift Research study, 2014
AT LEAST ONCE A DAY 7%
A COUPLE OF TIMES A WEEK 28%
MONTHLY 20%
ONLY A FEW TIMES A YEAR 19%
ONCE A YEAR OR LESS 8%
NEVER 18%

22. Brands Doing It Right

23. Now let’s look at examples of top content
marketers in the financial services industry.

24. First Round Capital
Bringing together a community of entrepreneurs
American Express
Driving Leads through Thought Leadership

25. OPEN Forum
American Express

26. American Express OPEN Forum
WE ALREADY HAVE A LARGE PART OF THE PIE,
SO OUR BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY IS WITH SMALL
BUSINESS GROWTH – IF THEY GROW, WE GROW.
Insights and resources dedicated exclusively
to the success of small business owners
“
”Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly
SVP of Partnership & Business Development

27. OPENForum.com
• Launched in 2007
• Helping small business owners with high-quality
content on business advice, trends, and profiles
• Hard pressed to find a sales pitch within content
• Membership fosters a sense of community and
personalization of content (+ leads for AMEX!)
• Facilitates networking events to allow users to
connect both online and offline

28. American Express’s Goals + KPIs:
Primary: Lead generation
Secondary: Engagement, Time on Site,
Return Visits, Social Shares

29. Primary: Lead generation
Secondary: Engagement, Time on Site,
Return Visits, Social Shares
OPEN Forum is the #1
source for new OPEN
cardholders
American Express’s Goals + KPIs:

30. Clear mission statement as soon as you arrive at the site

31. Content Pillars are clear, direct, and compelling
“Getting Customers” (specific) vs. “Business Tips” (generic)

32. Sub-topics: Planning for Growth

33. Sub-topics: Managing Money

34. Sub-topics: Getting Customers

35. Sub-topics: Building Your Team

36. OPEN Voice = AMEX
specific content
SPARINGLY SCATTERED
THROUGHOUT SUB-SECTIONS
OF SITE

37. Some content is for members only,
encouraging readers to sign up

38. Quick LinkedIn sign up option
(also gathering data)
Signing Up
Reasons to join
(concise)
Minimal links driving
AWAY from this
page

39. Pre-populated
Social Share Option

40. Email Welcome

41. Personalized Experience

42. Gated Content(members only)

43. Community
200K
MEMBERS

44. Distribution Strategy
• Newsletter distribution
• Very little paid distribution (some paid
social)
• Work with influencers to garner earned
media
• Mostly social
• Twitter: @OpenForum (201K followers)
• Facebook: American Express OPEN
(365K likes)

45. Weekly email
updates to members

46. Emails with
information on the
OPEN card
• Product messaging is used sparingly and
intentionally to align with product
developments, announcements and
enhancements
• Sent to members no more than once a
month

47. Social Strategy + Tips for
Highly-Regulated Industry
• Real time tweets are nearly impossible
• All tweets go through legal team, PR team and
compliance team
• Predict what conversations are going to
happen and pre-populate tweets so they can
be approved
• Have a system in place where OPEN Forum
has to quickly respond (has an “emergency
team” in place”)

48. Advice from OPEN team
• Re-engagement is key. Figuring out how to get people to come back is most important.
OPEN Forum gets a lot of first time visitors but works to drive up return visits.
• Show the value of what you are producing. Tie it back to business goals and give them a
reason to think this is essential.
• Nail down who your target is. You can't be everything to everyone, so try to be as specific
as possible.

49. Takeaways
• Clear, actionable content pillars that are at once clear for the
reader and aligned with American Express business goals
• Products/services integrated in a thoughtful way
• Clear distribution + social plan
• Focus on its specific audience

50. The Review
FIRST ROUND CAPITAL

51. “First Round has an opportunity: to create an entirely new kind of online
publication, built for technology entrepreneurs, where they can learn how
to build better companies. And they can learn directly from the people
actually doing it. Much of this knowledge is still stuck inside the heads of
the Valley’s best operators, product managers, engineers, and marketers.
Our goal with First Round Review is to curate this knowledge to make
great things happen.
JOSH KOPELMAN
Partner, First Round Capital
”

52. First Round Review
High-quality, actionable content that
helps entrepreneurs with challenges
that arise while building a startup.

53. Content
Marketing
BRAND
PURPOSE
WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
FIRST ROUND CAPITAL
BRAND PURPOSE
Building the strongest
generation of
entrepreneurs

54. Content
Marketing
BRAND
PURPOSE
WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
FIRST ROUND CAPITAL
BRAND PURPOSE
Building the strongest
generation of
entrepreneurs
TARGET AUDIENCE:
ENTREPRENEURS
Audience Analysis:
Seeking help and inside
advice on building their
business – from
everything from hiring to
company culture

55. Content
Marketing
BRAND
PURPOSE
WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
The Review: High-quality, actionable content that helps
entrepreneurs with challenges that arise while building a startup.
FIRST ROUND CAPITAL
BRAND PURPOSE
Building the strongest
generation of
entrepreneurs
TARGET AUDIENCE:
ENTREPRENEURS
Audience Analysis:
Seeking help and inside
advice on building their
business – from
everything from hiring to
company culture

56. The Review: Goals + KPIs
• Primary: Time on Site + Repeat Visitors
• Secondary: Page Views, Social Shares, and the # of Subscribers

57. Developed with consideration of two items:
• Paid attention to consumer behavior
• Took a survey of existing site content and mapped to categories
The Review: Content Pillars(“Magazines”)

58. Tags indicate content pillars

59. Featured prominently on homepage of First Round Capital

60. Content Cadence & Format
1 Publish twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Selected these days after testing/paying attention to when their readers were most engaged
with the content
2 Mostly long-form articles
• On average stories are 3,000 words each
• They found that when they started producing longer-form articles they saw an uptick in
engagement
3 Concentrate on actionable insights
• Makes sure each piece includes actionable insights for their audience
• Stresses quality over quantity

61. First Round Capital’s influencer strategy
1 Feature influencers within their content,
encouraging them to share the content
2 Pay attention to influencers who are
engaging with their content, and then
show them some love back

62. Compelling Imagery
• Images are fresh and authentic.
No bad stock photos here.
• They add context to the content.
Photos aren’t just there for the sake
of being there.
• Beautiful portraits bring to life the
interview subjects.

64. Optimizing for Conversions
• They experiment with different tactics to see what’s working
• They think about the customer journey – FRC places the subscribe “ask” at different parts of the
page to reach readers when they’re ready (i.e. halfway through an article, also at end)
• Experimenting with pop-ups. Trying to find a balance between bothering readers with
interruption and engaging them.

65. Clear CTA at the top of every page

66. As well as half-way through the article

67. …And at the end of the article/ bottom of the page

68. Distribution Strategy
• No paid distribution or social –
all organic
• Newsletter is key pillar to
distribution strategy
• Utilize the company Twitter and
Facebook -- not a specific
“Review” handle

69. Social Media Tips from First Round Capital
• “I cannot overemphasize how important it is to remarket your content”
– Camille Ricketts, Head of Content & Marketing, First Round Capital
• One “hack:” Take different quotes from within one piece of content and share that as the
Tweet/Facebook post.
• Utilize the “curiosity gap” in both Tweets and headline writing
• Give your audience enough information to understand the topic, but leave them wanting more.
(“This is the way to be successful at X” This is how to do Y”)
• Utilize good social media etiquette/practice.
• Tag people/brands
• Use images as much as possible
• Engage with followers

70. Learnings from the Review team
Three sample content wins – and the recipe for success for each:
1 Interview with Stewart Butterfield, entrepreneur – shared over 15,000 times
• Recipe for success: Take a person who is extremely magnetic; pay attention to what the
industry is talking about; deliver a story that gives readers a “behind-the-scenes” look
2 Interview with Caryn Marooney, head of technology communications at Facebook
– shared over 5,000 times
• Recipe for success: Think about a common pain point your audience has. Find someone to
answer that question.
3 A piece on productivity – shared over 10,000 times
• Recipe for success: Take a popular topic and aggregate advice from many different people

71. Takeaways
• FRC puts the customer at the center of their strategy
• Content pillars are clear and related to their customer
• Imagery is compelling, puts the content in context, and is authentic
• Social media is utilized in smart ways to increase engagement
• Understand the value of testing every aspect of its content marketing – cadence, CTAs, website
design, and more

72. Want to learn more?
Our team of strategists can help your brand build a marketing
growth engine. From ongoing support and program management,
to customized strategy sessions and workshops,
we’ll set your brand up for success.

73. Introducing NewsCred.
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT MARKETING SOLUTION.
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74. Get in touch!
STRATEGY@NEWSCRED.COM