How to differentiate in the highly regulated, increasingly commoditised world of investment management? By showing, not telling, your values. Here's a look at six finance companies who've used content marketing to do exactly that.

1. How Can Content Marketing
Differentiate Your Brand?
January 2016
Niels Footman I Senior Writer Find out more at copylab.co.uk
@CopylabUK

2. Received Wisdom in Marketing… @CopylabUK
 Commoditised products can’t be differentiated
 Heavy regulation = impossible to be distinctive

3. @CopylabUKBut How True Is It?
Despite being a $500bn company operating in
increasingly commoditised markets – PCs and
smartphones – Apple manages to embody an
utterly distinct identity: innovative, design-
obsessed and even slightly counter-cultural.
You may not like him (you may hate him!) but
one look and you immediately know who he is
and who he represents – despite Compare the
Market operating in a sector that is both
commoditised and highly regulated.

4. @CopylabUK
 Real differentiation comes not through its products
 Or even through its design
 Real differentiation comes through…
VALUE
For Apple…

5. @CopylabUK
 It’s very difficult to differentiate on products
 It’s tough to differentiate on values (as most finance companies
would espouse similar values)
 Real differentiation comes through…
How you show your VALUES
For Finance Companies…

6. @CopylabUK
For obvious reasons, every finance company wants to place trust at
the heart of its identity. In content marketing, a highly effective way
to show this value is with consistent use of that trusted staple, tone
of voice.
Value 1:

7. @CopylabUK
 Open
 Bold
 Distinctive
 Authentic
For tone-of-voice to work, it HAS to be authentic, the kind of tone
people believe you’d use, to paraphrase Jeff Bezos, even when your
customers aren’t in the room.
A Trusted Voice Would Be…

8. @CopylabUK
Outspoken
Through its blog and insights section,
Woodford provides a series of timely and
candid takes on current economic
developments. Woodford’s writers
frequently come from the most senior levels
of the company, write in an accessible
manner, and encourage and respond to
questions. This allows each fund manager
(frequently Neil Woodford himself) to
become a real, fully rounded character with a
distinct voice, lending credence to the idea
that these are people you can trust.
Authentic Voice: Woodford

9. @CopylabUK
To see how engaging Woodford aims to
be, look at its Christmas quiz. Of course,
having a quiz at Christmas is no huge
innovation, but Woodford’s team clearly
goes to great lengths with theirs. It is
fiendishly difficult, with pictorial
questions that are both clever and
practically Google-proof. It encourages
(indeed, requires!) group effort, and
Woodford releases teasers before and
during the event, engaging with its
25,000 followers via Twitter.
Authentic Voice: Woodford
Engaging

10. @CopylabUK
Woodford’s profile is based on the fact that
Neil Woodford is well known for his success
as a fund manager. But rather than rest on
this reputation, airily dispensing wisdom via
viewpoints every quarter, Neil Woodford
makes himself a visible and accessible
presence, even appearing as a guest on Jazz
FM. Not only does this demonstrate
Woodford’s adherence to openness, it also
– crucially – sends a clear message to the
entire company to embody these values,
not just profess them.
Authentic Voice: Woodford
Personable

11. @CopylabUK
In its tone-of-voice document, M&G
adopted the idea of being an
“Independent Spirit”:
We are not bound by a single ‘house’ fund
management style which means we can
afford to be bold in our statements.
With its Bond Vigilantes blog, M&G
embodies this aim. Written by top
managers on M&G’s fixed income team,
each writer has a distinct, outspoken
voice, which can sometimes lead to
differences of opinion. It is the
“independent spirit” writ large.
Authentic Voice: Bond Vigilantes
Independent Spirit

12. @CopylabUK
Finance firms love to say they’re customer-centric but their content –
heavy on corporate-speak, product push and self-promotion – often
suggests otherwise. Content marketing provides the perfect tool to
show it, with personalised, helpful, invaluable content.
Value 2:

13. @CopylabUK
Directly addressing one of the single biggest
issues families will ever have to face, Wells
Fargo’s Student LoanDown offers reams of
practical advice for students – and their
parents – on the pitfalls and choices around
going to university. Combining such useful
information with a very human face, Student
LoanDown shows that Wells Fargo is a
customer-centric company more effectively
than any slogan could.
Customer-Centric: Wells Fargo
Student Loandown

14. @CopylabUK
OPEN Forum offers a huge range of useful
advice for small-business owners. With much
of its content written not by American
Express staffers, but by independent experts,
OPEN Forum has genuine credibility and a
distinctive voice. American Express clearly
wants to bring these small businesses on-
board as customers, and figures that a good
way to do that would be to help them make
money. And what could be more customer-
centric than that?
Customer-Centric: American Express
OPEN Forum

15. @CopylabUK
Whether it’s called expertise or thought leadership, insight is a value that
all financial firms want to convey. Despite that, they will often produce
content that is too dense, or insufficiently distinctive. Showing insight can
require a bit of punch and innovation – whether in tone or format.
Value 3:

16. @CopylabUK
Recognising the need to create highly
insightful content, BNY changed its
writing team into a “newsroom”,
employing experienced financial
journalists to ensure output is timely,
newsworthy, and keenly focused on what
will interest readers. In close
collaboration with fund managers, BNY
has also created a blog based entirely on
infographics, providing an accessible and
shareable platform to disseminate its
managers’ rich expertise.
Insight: BNY Mellon
BNY Newsroom

17. @CopylabUK
In a clear example of the insight that
investment firms can generate, Toby
Nangle, a multi-asset fund manager at
Columbia Threadneedle Investments,
discovered that by calling and refinancing a
“War Loan” dating from World War I, the
government could save the taxpayer £300m.
Toby wrote a blog on the issue that was
picked up by the FT, among others. By
working closely with the corporate
communications team, Toby’s research did
much to distinguish him and Columbia
Threadneedle Investments as genuine
thought leaders in their field.
Insight: Columbia Threadneedle
War Bond

18. @CopylabUK
1. In a highly commoditised market, values can be an enormously
powerful way to differentiate a financial brand – IF they are shown, not
just told. Produce content that shows your company is trustworthy,
customer-centric and insightful – and not just looking to sell – and
customers are more likely to believe you.
2. In crystallising these values, a tone-of-voice document can be a very
persuasive tool. In order for it to work, however, it must be embraced
and endorsed by the highest levels of the company.
Takeaways:

19. @CopylabUK
Niels Footman
niels@copylab.co.uk