Pivoting in the Financial Services Industry

“Pivot quickly” is not a directive that marketers in the financial services industry would call typical. In an old school industry, with no shortage of compliance guardrails and regulatory red tape, the directive is more like: “Turn this behemoth cargo ship 180° – slowly! – don’t let any containers fall off in the turning process”.

We’ve worked with many enterprise financial institutions on creating next-gen content strategies. Social media is the hardest distribution channel to re-strategize and implement for this category. The formats that served the financial industry well in the social media landscape of the 2010s (think: text graphics, infographics, long-format vertical video) simply do not have a chance of success with today’s social media algorithms.

Eliciting change on a full social media transformation is a marathon for the financial services industry, not a sprint. However, there are small changes that can give big results (quickly!), including shifting toward bite-sized financial content, a.k.a. “snackable content”. This type of social content has the ability to turn a complex topic into something that a social scroller can stop and watch for a mere couple of seconds and yet be more educated on the topic after watching.

Why Snackable Content is Effective for Financial Services

When we think of a big win for content marketing in financial services, this is it. Social media has an enormous opportunity to create impact for businesses in the financial services sector. A survey commissioned by Forbes Advisor and conducted by market research company Prolific found that 79% of members of the millennial and Gen Z generations have gotten financial advice from social media.

Beyond just advice, social media can help audiences understand and navigate their finances, as another 76% believe financial content on social media has made it less taboo to talk about money.

Best Practices for Snackable Content in Financial Services

In assessing the category leaders for financial services social media content, we find six learnings and best practices for you to implement in your strategy.

Learning #1: Make complex topics more digestible with a two-way conversation style.

A volley-style conversation helps to break up a lengthy monologue. Using a question and answer format to tell two sides of a story with the same creator makes it simple to script and shoot with only one personality. Text overlays are important here for both sound-off viewing as well as a secondary comprehension method for more difficult subject matters.

Learning #2: Use trending content types to get across one bite-sized message.

These are your light-lift additions to the social calendar that can be done day-of for increased outputs. Keeping watch on trending formats across platforms and having a creator (or multiple!) at the ready on your social team allows for quick and easy content for your audiences.

Learning #3: Use a “guide” in mini-campaigns.

Marketing thought leader Donald Miller made popular the idea of having a “guide” in your brand story. It’s a classic movie arch analysis: your customer is the hero, the hero has a problem, your product or service is the solution, and they need a guide that helps them get from start to finish. Bite-sized financial services content is served well by this simple framework.

Learning #4: Use familiar and friendly faces to build trust.

Research has repeatedly proven that people trust people more than people trust brands. It’s why influencer marketing has been a reliable marketing tactic for a decade. As the cost of influencers has steadily increased, brands have smartly begun building in-house creator teams. This is not only a better use of resources, but the expertise of the internal teams shines through the content.

Learning #5: Explain financial subjects in “best friend” language.

When creating snackable content, whether for an end-customer audience or even on a specialized sub-group account (like a Linkedin Showcase page for a specific type of investor audience), you want to use language that you would use conversationally.

Learning #6: Use visual aids and text to reinforce specialized language.

Whether mentioning a stat, reporting on a numerical value, or using hyper-specific financial lingo, using graphics or icons on the screen with your text overlay gives additional reference material for the viewer, and keeps the content engaging and fast-paced.

Bonus Insight: Shoot once, slice thrice

The Forbes study also found that Reddit and YouTube are the most trusted platforms…