03 The business case for inbound content marketing

05 What is ‘inbound’ marketing?

06 Inbound marketing is key

06 Essential elements of an inbound strategy

10 Inbound marketing checklist

11 How Talisman can help

Are your traditional marketing strategies achieving the desired results? Is there another approach you could implement to boost sales?

Inbound marketing uses great content to attract prospects and then convert them into leads that you can nurture and eventually close as new customers.

In this guide, understand the basics of inbound marketing and how the process can generate more sales, at significantly less cost per lead than traditional marketing techniques.

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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The business case for inbound content marketingInbound content marketing – the process of drawing in your ideal

customers through engaging, informative and useful content – is cost

effective. It costs 61% less per lead than traditional techniques.

If that’s not business case enough, then read on: there’s more.

Filling the funnel: a top priorityFinding more (and better) qualified leads is more important than ever.

CEOs say reaching the right audience and converting them to customers

are their top marketing priorities. Of course, they’ve always been

priorities. What’s new is the use of words like ‘audience’, ‘content’ and

‘proving ROI’.

The most attractive audiences are the hardest to reach. They are blind to

conventional advertising and self-promotion. But content marketing cuts

through the noise and influences potential buyers in the right way, at the

right time, providing you do it right:

> Go to where people are already looking for answers: social media, search engines etc.

> Talk about things that matter to them

> Use their language, not yours

> Become a trusted adviser

> Introduce your products and services in this favourable context

Effective marketing has always been about being where your customers are; and nowadays that means on the internet.

The main goal of nearly 25% of CEOs is finding the right audience

25%Reaching the right audience

22%Converting leads to customers

20%Increasing total lead volume

19%Creating quality content

12%Proving the ROI of our marketing activities

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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Are your traditional marketing strategies achieving the desired results?Think about your own experience. Would you prefer a noisy intrusion into

your day or useful, relevant information when you want it? What would

you think of the companies that used these two alternative strategies?

Intrusion fails spectacularly. Again, the evidence supports the argument.

The majority of TV viewers (86%) skip adverts if they can.

Nearly half of all direct mail (44%) is never opened.

If you use online advertising, you already know the pain of keyword

competition, rising costs and falling conversion rates. Worse, you need

a PhD in Google AdWords to run a campaign. And you pay-per-click not

per advert. Unlike content marketing, it’s the gift that doesn’t keep giving.

Social media is on the up but it’s hard to measure. If you don’t have

something to contribute to the conversation, you’re just breaking eggs

without making an omelette. Content gives social media users a reason

to engage with you.

Inbound content marketing worksResearch shows that inbound content marketing helps at every stage

of the sales cycle:

> Attract: Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the funnel. Content such as eBooks are very effective. Call-to-actions promoting eBooks get almost twice the click through rate as emails promoting webinars. Blogs are also an essential element. B2B companies that blog, generate 67% more leads and B2C companies generate 88% more leads.

> Convert: Landing pages with persona-targeted copy are a smart way to convert leads into customers. The more, the better. Businesses with 31 to 40 landing pages got seven times more leads than those with only one to five landing pages.

> Close: Lead-nurturing emails and a drip feed of relevant content helps to convince leads to buy. In fact, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails.

> Delight: Social media monitoring and how-to guides can turn customers from ‘users’ into ‘champions’.

This means that the hard sell is out and that helpful, relevant content is in.

Inbound marketing means getting prospects to come to you rather than using traditional techniques like advertising or cold calling to go to them.

It is not intrusive, pushy or annoying. It focuses on the needs and interests of customers and positions you as a trusted advisor.

It uses the attract-convert-close-delight model of the sale funnel. As Morrissey once sang, ‘you should not go to them, let them come to you.’

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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What is ‘inbound’ marketing?Inbound marketing is a content-led approach to attracting your

dream customers, converting them into leads with whom you can

build a relationship and then nurturing those relationships, closing

sales and turning them into advocates and repeat customers.

By contrast, the traditional ‘always-be-closing’ approach doesn’t work:

half of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. If you focus too hard

on the sale, you’ll lose them.

Inbound marketing helps you interact with potential customers

much earlier in the sales cycle by engaging people with content that

is relevant for each stage of their buying journey. For example, in

the financial services sector there are always headline events and

legislation changes that you can write about to show your understanding

and engagement with the market, raise your profile and shape the

marketplace. The industry is also ripe for educational content, which

can nurture leads and help convert them into customers.

Similarly, inbound marketing helps you extend the sales cycle beyond

the actual purchase decision. If you delight customers, you can turn

them into advocates. Word of mouth endorsement is a very powerful

sales tool. The right content can empower your customers to get more

from your products. It also encourages repeat business.

With content marketing, the traditional AIDA model of the sales

funnel gives way to the Attract-Convert-Close-Delight model.

Attract Convert Close Delight

BlogKeywordsSocial media

FormsCalls-to-actionLanding pages

EmailSignalsWorkflows

EventsSocial inboxSmart content

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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Inbound marketing is keyInbound marketing requires you to think about all your marketing

activities as connected. You might have individual campaigns for specific

products, but your inbound strategy is bigger than that. It involves

figuring out what your customers want and need to know at different

points of the sales cycle, creating content that gives them just that and

ensuring they can find it. And this means blogs, websites, emails and

social media.

As James Robert Lay, president of PTP New Media and adviser to the

credit union industry says, ‘moving to digital channels requires banks

and credit unions to stop thinking about digital as a tool that works

independently of other channels and processes, but instead works

together as part of a system or process’.

Getting each piece of the inbound puzzle right, and slotting it into the

right place, is vital. An inbound strategy builds a potential customer’s

impression of your brand: it’s an education and the development of

a relationship; and as Scott Liewehr from the Digital Clarity Group

says, ‘the failure of a single interaction threatens a customer’s entire

perception of a brand’.

Essential elements of an inbound strategyThere are a lot of pieces that make up a great inbound strategy,

from keywords to personas, eBooks to email. There are a few, however,

that are really essential:

> Buyer personas: You have to understand whom you are talking to, what their pain points are and how they normally gather information.

> A website with a purpose: Inbound requires more than nice images and a logical menu. You have to have a purpose behind each page on your site, with relevant calls-to-action, moving your visitors through the sales funnel.

> Remarkable content: Inbound only works if you have something useful, insightful and original to say. And you say it well.

> Enticing emails: Once you have an inbound lead on the hook, you have to be able to reel them in, and that’s where email comes in. You need a well-structured workflow that keeps in contact with the lead, slowly drip feeds them more of your remarkable content and nudges them towards the bottom of the funnel.

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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Buyer personasFocused writing is effective writing. A buyer persona is a fictitious

character the company can use to represent a real customer. Identify a

specific person who your product or service helps. Ask yourself questions

about that person to create a detailed, effective persona.

Background:

> What is their name and job title?

> What does their role include?

> What information should I know about their company or workplace?

> What is their educational background?

Demographics:

> What is their level of income?

> Where do they live?

> How big is their family?

> What age bracket do they fall into?

Identifiers:

> What is important to them?

> How do they act around others or on their own?

> What do they do in their free time?

Goals:

> What is the number one goal for their role?

> What other goals do they have?

Challenges:

> What is keeping them from reaching those goals?

> What prevents them from overcoming those challenges?

How we help:

> What does my company do that can overcome obstacles?

> How can my company help them reach their goals?

Get specific about who your customers or resellers are, where they

work and how they live and then introduce them to your team. The more

you know about your personas, the easier it will be to speak directly to

your customers.

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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A website with a purposeCustomers start their search for financial services online. That means

their first impression of you, comes from your website. First and foremost

you need a website that’s fit for purpose. That’s means credibility, speed,

responsiveness and more. You also need to know what you want visitors

to do once they land on your website and how you’re going to gather their

information to convert them into a lead. This means:

> Calls-to-action on every page

> Less about you, more about them

> A helpful and insightful blog

> Social media buttons

> Landing pages where visitors can give you their details in exchange for more valuable, long-form content

Remarkable content‘Do your content right and your content will be the little piggy that

goes to market for you,’ as Bill Belew put it rather wonderfully.

> Great copy provides a solid foundation of knowledge, authority and advice around which to build a PR campaign.

> Regular and relevant blog posts increase a website’s SEO footprint and help to encourage organic traffic generation.

> Precise and persuasive web copy encourages conversions.

> Great content and the wonderful words used to talk about it is how you join in or start social media conversations. Social media marketing doesn’t work without anything to say.

In a recent study by the Custom Content Council, more than three-

quarters of consumers say they understand that companies producing

custom content are selling something, but feel it is okay since the

information provided is valuable. Examples of content include:

> Thought-leadership articles, eg white papers and ebooks

> Well-researched advice, such as blog posts

> Clear and concise web copy, including landing pages

> Memorable case studies

> Emails that people find useful, relevant and engaging

> Product literature that talks to customers’ real-world problems

Content marketing is the heart of the whole inbound methodology. It means using relevant blog posts, articles, white papers, case studies, web pages, social media messages and more to engage with your ideal customers, as defined by detailed personas, about their issues in their terms.

In this context, you can position your company and your products or services in a positive light and nurture relationships with customers, which accelerate the sales cycle.

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A simple guide to inbound marketing in the financial services sector

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The concept behind remarkable content is copy that is not sales focused

or feature focused. Instead, it means original, well-researched and

well-constructed content, which speaks the customer’s language.

Researchers refer to this as user-centric versus maker-centric.

Simply put, your content can be focused on your customers or focused

on your company. You’re not selling to yourself, so talk to and about them.

While this may seem an indirect approach – ‘if we don’t tell them

how great we are, how will they know’ – remember that most people

are not ready to buy your product most of the time. So the purpose

of the content is to build a relationship that goes beyond the purely

transactional. Once you have that trusted connection, you’ll be in prime

position when they are ready to buy. And, what’s more, content-driven

lead nurturing is the most effective way to nudge them through the

sales funnel.

Enticing emailsEmail campaigns are what nurture your leads into qualified leads.

They are about regular contact and targeted information. Because they

involve repeat contact, it’s important to keep the content fresh and of

interest. Email campaigns can include:

> Newsletters

> Thought pieces

> Blog posts

> Event invitations

> Industry spotlights

You also have to consider the design and timing of emails. You want

consistency, but you don’t want people feeling like they’re getting the

same email every few days. You also want to maintain awareness and

interest but without becoming a pest.

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Inbound marketing checklist‘Plans are irrelevant,’ said General Eisenhower, ‘but planning is essential.’

Checklists are a lifesaver in marketing: this particular checklist breaks

down the various stages of an inbound content marketing plan and

itemises the actions required for each stage and the technology you

can use to support them.

It’s not necessary to do everything before you start – don’t let perfect be

the enemy of good enough – but you can iterate through this checklist

repeatedly, expanding and deepening your marketing strategy in the light

of results and your overall business strategy.

Our experience is that the initial planning and implementation stage can

be done in as relatively few weeks, possibility depending on how much

your website needs to be adapted to make it effective.

Inbound content marketing works best when it is well planned and integrated and when results can be measured.

Stage Actions Technology

Plan > Align content strategy with business strategy

> Set SMART goals

> Create buyer personas

> Create tone of voice and style guidelines

> Create document templates

> Project management and collaboration

> Reporting dashboard

Attract > Create editorial calendar

> Create regular blog posts

> Create engaging content, such as ebooks and white papers

> Share and engage on social media platforms

> Conduct keyword analysis

> Use keywords to improve SEO on web pages and blog

> Blog

> Social media monitoring

> Social media publishing

Engage > Create calls-to-action

> Create landing pages

> Create resource pages for top content

> A/B testing

> Site metrics

Convert > Create workflows for different personas

> Create multi-stage email campaigns

> Link lead nurturing to CRM

> Emailer

> CRM software

Delight > Create content that empowers customers

> Create FAQ and support desk content

> Create newsletters

> Engage users on social media

> Create customer case studies

> Blog

> Social media monitoring

> Social media publishing

> Support desk tools

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How HubSpot helpsHubSpot is an integrated marketing automation tool that takes care

of almost all the technology elements required to implement content-

driven inbound marketing.

It frees up your time to focus on creating great content and building

a great business. It is a cloud-based SaaS platform that includes:

> Blogging

> SEO

> Social media

> Site builder (it also works well with WordPress websites)

> Lead management

> Landing pages

> Calls-to-action

> Lead nurturing and marketing automation

> Email

> Analytics

> Integration with Salesforce and other CRM tools

More than 11,500 companies use HubSpot software to grow their business. It integrates blogging, website pages, social and SEO marketing, email, landing pages and analytics.

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How Talisman can helpSo, content-driven inbound marketing looks like an attractive strategy for

growing companies, but how are you going to get all those emails written

and designed? And what about getting your website up to scratch?

This is where Talisman comes in. We make financial marketing simpler.

We’re a UK-based financial services marketing agency, with 25 years’

experience working with clients including Deutsche Bank, Investec and

J.P. Morgan.

We can help you implement inbound marketing. We also accelerate

the sales cycle by helping you attract, convert, close and delight your

customers at every stage of the process. Our services include:

> Design and branding

> Digital

> Literature production

> Mailing

> Inbound and Content Marketing

> Presentations

> Print

> Project management

We save our clients time and money using well-honed processes.

By bringing all your marketing needs under one roof we can streamline

projects and avoid the frustration of dealing with multiple suppliers.

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Contact TalismanTelephone: +44 (0)20 3735 5530Email: info@talismansolutions.co.ukDownload our whitepapers at: www.talismansolutions.co.uk/white-papers

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Hayley graduated from University in 2013 with a BA (Hons) Business and Marketing degree. As an Account Manager she works closely with Partnership Assurance, Thomas Miller and Investec Private Bank. Her focus sits with inbound and content marketing, managing and implementing integrated campaigns and optimising the online presence for clients and Talisman.

Whitepaper by Hayley DawsonAccount Manager at Talisman