Simple Strategies to Help Fintech Brands Build a Better Reputation – Guest Editorial

By Charlotte Day, Contentworks

Within the fintech world, competition is fierce. Companies are continually battling to stand and become thought leaders in their field. That said, the reputation of a business is fragile. It takes a lot of hard work to form a loyal bond with consumers and develop an unshakable industry image. Here’s 5 ways to help improve your reputation and keep consumers engaged.

Fintech Marketing- The Stats

• 90% of fintech start-ups fail to get off the ground
• 2 billion people predicted to use a fintech app by 2020
• 63% of customers expect fintech companies to offer customer service via social media
• 45% of millennials want financial products and services that help them handle their finances, but 37% said they couldn’t find resources online to educate them on vital financial topics.

• Have a social media strategy

Social media has become the most powerful tool in the world for brands. Indeed, it has been blamed for swaying the US election and the Brexit vote. With millennials being the heaviest users of social media platforms, there is no better place for you to start. This is particularly true considering these Digital Natives have grown up with technology and therefore feel comfortable exploring new fintech ideas.

The aim of your social media strategy is to grow your audience, create an active community, communicate with customers, make announcements and keep your followers engaged. To do this, you must:

• Monitor and respond to reviews from social media users
• Be active on the most popular social media sites as well as emerging ones
• Share relevant content that is unique
• Organise regular giveaways
• Have a live session where users can ask questions
• Introduce key team members to add authenticity to your company
• Offer original content such as video snippets hinting at a product reveal/update

• Embrace influencer partnerships

Influencers are changing the world. Just recently, Kylie Jenner became the youngest self-made billionaire for the work she does on social media. There are thousands of influencers around the world who have been embraced by corporations. This is because they are effective in delivering the content the companies want and they have a large audience.

While macro influencers like Kylie can help you reach out to millions of fans daily, they are often more expensive to work with and their personalised engagement is low. Often, micro influencers with a smaller yet niche and highly dedicated following are able to interact with your business on a more personal level and catapult your company to new heights without costing the earth. Check out this guide to affordable influencer marketing.

• Focus on good content

To build a good reputation, quality content is key. This is an approach even the biggest financial companies have mastered. For example, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and PIMCO all dedicate their time to engaging their audience through well-placed site content which includes regular market outlooks and ongoing financial developments.  Content marketing is essential for all fintech companies looking to explain new and innovative concepts to the masses. Here are a few tips:

• Focus on producing quality content that adds value to readers
• Make the content relevant, up-to-date and engaging
• Include social media sharing tools to make it easy for readers to redistribute material
• Avoid keyword stuffing, which will make your content unreadable
• Partner with popular bloggers with a wide readership
• Partner with a quality content company that will develop the content and monitor success

Important tip: You should also produce long-form content such as white papers and e-books, offering them as free downloads. In addition, you should partner with top websites that are popular with traders so that you can publish your insights there.

• Monitor reviews and ratings

With a rising awareness of online scams, investors and traders often read reviews before they become customers. These reviews help consumers to understand the experiences of others and make an informed decision. As an organisation, it is important that you monitor these platforms regularly and respond to any queries as soon as possible.

Some of the most common sites that people leave reviews on are Google, TrustPilot, Facebook, PowerReviews and TrustSpot. In the forex and investment world there are specific sites to check. These websites are very influential because they help people learn more about your company. Some of the best-known sites are Forex Brokers Reviews, Forex Peace Army, and Top Ten Reviews among others.

As a forex, or fintech company, you may have a mobile app that your customers use to trade and transact. App stores provided by Google and Apple allow users to rate such apps. It is therefore critical that you monitor the ratings offered by your customers.

If their reviews are good, you should reply with a message of appreciation. If the response is critical, you should address any tech issues. Doing this is important because the two app stores usually rank the apps based on ratings and reviews. Check out this guide to forex reputation management for more information.

• Think about authenticity

People value accurate and authentic content so it’s a good idea to provide links to any significant facts or sources that you mention. The same applies to the claims you make on your site. For example, if you mention that you have won an award, always provide a link to content celebrating that award.

Similarly, if you state that you are regulated by a certain regulator, you should ensure that it is true and verifiable. If you place an image on the site, it should be authentic, for example, never use stock images pretending to be happy customers.

Scammers have mastered the art of deceit forcing companies to justify their presence. Thankfully, consumers are not as easily conned as they used to be and have become masters in verification by using tools like Google’s reverse image search and forum discussions.

Potential investors will often check your management team on Linkedin to be sure you’re who you say you are. If you’re staying above board, you won’t need to overly worry about anything.

That said; authentic content can help develop a bond with consumers and set your company apart from competitors – after all, no one wants to see copy and pasted information. For this reason, try to:

• Be unique in your approach producing fresh content and regular updates
• Be transparent and take people on a behind the scenes journey of your company
• Put a face to your brand by embedding photos and videos of your team
• Go live so people can meet key players on a more personal level

Keen to improve your online reputation? Talk to the Contentworks crew today. We work with leading finance and fintech brands to provide content, social media, PR and reputation management.

The subject matter and the content of this article are solely the views of the author. FinanceFeeds does not bear any legal responsibility for the content of this article and they do not reflect the viewpoint of FinanceFeeds or its editorial staff.