According to some, ‘influencers’ are out and ‘creators’ are in, heralding a shift from glitz and glamour to craft and artisanship. At the same time, regulators are ratcheting pressure on creators. So what does this moment really mean for online creators – and how can brands and conent-makers adapt to the shifting landscape? Coegi VP of Marketing and Innovation, Ryan Green, joins other industry experts in answering this question.
Tag: Blogs
The Drum – What I learned… as a professional poker player, with Coegi’s Ryan Green
Ryan Green is vice-president of marketing and innovation at Coegi. What you won’t necessarily see on his CV is that he spent most of his twenties as a professional (and successful) poker player. The Drum sat down with him to find out what it’s like swapping chips for pitches.
Marketing Insider – Navigating Digital Advertising’s Gray Areas
Advertising has always been riddled with challenges on what’s ethical and what isn’t. This is even more relevant with digital advertising, as powerful data and a complex ecosphere become available to more and more marketers.
Here are three key ethical gray areas to be aware of in digital advertising – and tips for how marketers can navigate them.
The Drum – Keeping the Underdog Mentality: How Brands Can Sustain Success
Challenger brands often succeed thanks to a scrappy, nimble ‘underdog mentality’ – but they can lose that edge as they grow. Coegi’s director of marketing and business strategy, Elise Stieferman, argues that as brands grow into household names, it’s important to keep thinking like an underdog.
The Drum – New Year’s Resolutions for the Marketing Industry
The last few years have each been uniquely transformative for the advertising industry. Many agencies might be hoping for a slightly stabler 2022 – so while individuals are making commitments for the year ahead, what should the industry commit to?
Are there technologies, beliefs or ways of working we should be giving up? Difficult changes we need to make in service of long-term good health? Or any other bitter pills to swallow? The Drum Network caught up with some of its members to find out what they’re planning to prioritize in 2022.
Marketing Insider – 4 Ways To Create An Effective Media Strategy
The martech and data ecosystem is anything but straightforward. A constant influx of new technology, platforms, regulations and trends make it overwhelming for marketing practitioners to choose the right strategies, let alone for non-practitioners to fully understand. This confusion can cause marketers to throw up their hands and say “well, this is how we’ve always done it,” creating a dangerous confirmation bias. And then executives are frustrated when this same marketing strategy doesn’t offer a crystal clear ROI.
However, with a sound strategy based in data and curating continual insights, you will not only be driving success for your marketing team, but also winning over the brand executives.
So here are four ways marketers can build an effective marketing strategy that leading executives can get behind.
The Drum – Three Ways to Build Brand Success in the Metaverse
Not sure how to incorporate your brand into the metaverse? To help get started, Coegi shares three strategies to drive brand success in the virtual world.
The Drum – ‘20% of media spend will move to social’: Creators’ New Place in Marketing
With ad spend continuing to rise and digital taking a bigger slice of that pie year-on-year, social too is growing its share. At a recent roundtable with experts from The Drum Network – from a global head of social to a founder of a leading social agency and a TikTok creator – The Drum asked: how is the role of influencers shifting in the modern marketing ecosystem?
The Drum – Debunking Influencer Marketing Myths
Influencer marketing – a nice-to-have tactic to boost brand recognition and favorability, but not impact your bottom line. Right?
Wrong.
Influencer marketing has been a popular technique for gaining eyeballs on campaigns. But Natalie Carson, senior account manager at Coegi, questions whether it has passed its sell-by date.
Gain Finance Consumer Trust with Thought Leadership
You’re often asking your finance consumers to make major decisions – getting a mortgage, opening a child’s college fund, investing in their future… the list goes on. While the majority of financial consumer touchpoints have moved to digital formats to create convenience, it can also create more confusion. Less human interaction with financial advisors and customer representatives means the online content has to work even harder to gain finance consumer trust and influence decision making.
That’s where thought leadership comes in.
Thought leadership is any form of content shared by a subject expert with their audience to build credibility, trust, and loyalty. Some of the core benefits of thought leadership for finance brands are:
- Greater online visibility – For example, SEO ranking for long form content addressing top consumer banking questions and concerns
- Competitive differentiation – Providing new insights, opinions, or research to stand out from other finance brands
- Increased customer lifetime value – High value content establishes relationship building that keeps your brand top of mind
Build a reputation
Having a well-crafted and regularly updated blog on your website is a fantastic place to start building an organic reputation. To further increase your thought leadership efforts, establish publisher content partnerships to create a name for yourself in the industry. Look at high value placements your audience over indexes for, such as Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, etc.
Then, use these three factors to evaluate publishers:
- Audience: Does the demographic match your core audience? Will your content be relevant to these readers?
- Content Quality: Is this a highly reputable and trusted source?
- Distribution: Does the readership number align with your target reach as well as budget?
Find a sweet spot of high reach and high composition to drive the best results.
Think outside the box
Premium placements do come with price tags for the brand value and readership volume. However, there are other lesser utilized channels brands can find success in. Some great examples are Reddit and Quora. Both of these channels are informal, but trusted resources for people searching for answers to specific questions. You can show up in a more casual way on these channels, but still provide high quality information and build rapport with niche finance audiences.
To really hone in on thought leadership at your financial organization, consider video and audio. Visual and audio content formats are supreme when it comes to engagement, recall, and retention. Consider alternative forms of content such as:
- Podcasts – starting your own, or appearing on others
- Informational videos on YouTube
- Live-streamed videos on LinkedIn
Humanize your finance brand
Thought leadership content humanizes brands in an industry that can seem cold and impersonal. Through content, you can guide your customers through their finance journey.
That said, you must not lose focus of what’s most important: the customer, not highlighting your brand. Relay empathy – show an authentic understanding of your customer. Let them know you understand the topics they need more information on and the hurdles they are facing when it comes to financial decision making and planning.
Walk in your customer’s shoes
Before you start touting what you think are the most important benefits your brand offers, stop to listen and learn about what your customer really desires. Is it financial freedom? Business success? Peace of mind? Security in their child’s future?
Think about where your customer is now and where they want to be. Then, use your thought leadership and creative messaging to facilitate that transformation.
Support your customers’ needs and concerns
As a financial brand, you undoubtedly have a large range of consumers with an even larger range of needs. From commercial and retail banking to financial services and advising to retirement planning and investing – there are ample opportunities to share information and gain finance consumer trust, ultimately growing your business.
To understand these needs, make sure you stay on top of trends. Understand what is likely top of mind for your core consumers:
- Is there an impending recession making older adults rethink retirement?
- Is there a housing market boom driving a demand for mortgages?
- Are there global crises affecting the stock market and investment decisions?
Whatever is going on externally, use challenges as a way to serve as a trusted resource and help them navigate what can be overwhelming financial decisions.
This is not a sales pitch
Wherever you are posting thought leadership, share your knowledge and expertise, not your sales sheet. The content you create should be relevant to a specific consumer issue that is tangential to the solutions or services you provide. Once you’ve established credibility and authority, you no longer have to sell yourself. The consumer will be convinced already – and if not, they were unlikely to ever convert.
So whether your goal is to improve industry recognition, differentiate from competitors, or enhance customer lifetime value, give thought leadership a try. And remember these keys to gain finance consumer trust through your content:
- Use publishers with the right reach and audience composition
- Be creative with your content formats
- Keep your content authentic and readable
- Understand customer needs and concerns
- Avoid giving a sales pitch
For more strategic insights to improve your financial marketing strategy, view our Ultimate Guide to Financial Marketing.
