Today, bank marketing is all about delivering great content to your clients and prospects.

With client mistrust and defections at an all-time high*, it is critical to partner with clients to provide the marketplace intelligence they need.

At the same time, developing great content is not easy, particularly when trying to do it on your own. But whether you outsource the business intelligence gathering process, or develop such content on your own, the process will require an investment of time and money.

As financial marketers, you know that you need to consider not only the size of your time and monetary investments, but also the return on those investments. Fortunately, with today's technology you are able to precisely measure return in terms of read rates, click-throughs and numbers of "hot prospects" generated by your online communications campaigns.

With that in mind, let's take a look at ways you can lower your content investment, with repurposing strategies that enable you to maximize your ROI on developed content.

Get clever with repurposing

While today there are numerous content distribution channels, you don't have to "break the bank" to keep your content pipeline full. One reason is that you don't have to develop original content for each channel. If you develop great content that is consultative and solutions oriented, you can deliver that same content through many of your distribution channels.

If you, like most financial institutions, distribute a newsletter to your clients, articles published over several editions discussing various aspects of a particular topic can later be aggregated into white papers, which can be posted to your Web site. These, in turn, can be converted into online multi-media presentations.

Video presentations are particularly effective when demonstrating complex products or services, like Online Bill Pay, for example. Or, you may use video presentations to increase the comprehension of the features and benefits of using a particular service. For an example, check out this Remote Deposit video.

You can use today's technology to easily track reader engagement with specific content, as illustrated by this tracking and reporting demo. You also can leverage popular topics into client and prospect webinars.

And while social media can be a slippery slope for many, due to legal and compliance issues, already approved content can often be repurposed to optimize its ability to reach your hidden market. For instance, by posting newsletter articles, white papers and video on niche social media groups, you can demonstrate your thought leadership, as well as substantially increase opt-ins by social media users who find your content useful. The key is providing content that demonstrates your thought leadership without aggressively promoting your organization's products and services.

For example, by simply sharing relevant marketing content with members of the LinkedIn B2B Financial Services Marketing Group, at Financial Publishing Services we have significantly grown the number of e-mail subscribers to our monthly MarketScope e-newsletter.

Delivering content through a variety of channels is also an efficient way to drive prospects to relevant landing pages on your Web site, to invite them to view archived or recorded webinars, or to enable them to listen to podcasts of prior speaking engagements.

Pulling it all together: the resource library

One of the most important yet underutilized resting spots for your content is an online resource library. When information is organized in a user-friendly fashion, say by industry or job function, your resource center can become known as the "go to" place for quick and easy business intelligence because its organization allows visitors to quickly find content relevant to their needs. Here’s an example of how a resource library might look. Aside from the obvious economies of scale, when you deliver your content in multiple formats and through a variety of distribution channels, you achieve critical mass for your prospect base. You make it easy for readers to find you and then opt in to receive more of the kinds of content that helps them compete in their respective marketplaces.

Finally, if you'd like to hear more on this topic, please check out our recorded webinar, Why Publishing is the Future of Bank Marketing.

* From "Making the Most of Your Money" commentary in The New York Times, "The Least-Trusted Banks in America," Feb. 3, 2010, by Jennifer Saranow Schultz.

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FPS regularly works with financial services companies to maximize the impact of their client communications, including e-mail and online communications. To find out how we can help you develop effective strategies for communicating with corporate financial executives, contact FPS President Vince DiPaolo at 847-501-4120 or [email protected].

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