Innovation creates shockwaves in any industry.  It can augment how services are provided, or completely rewire the infrastructure of your business. In the midst of these industry changes,  it’s important that your target audience views you as an expert. If they can trust your viewpoints, they can easily trust your solution.

Exemplifying your knowledge goes deeper than saying so, of course. You don’t necessarily need to know everything to be viewed as an expert, but you do need a strategy to effectively share what you do know. Here’s how.

1. Make it a Key Part of Your Story

It’s hard to overstate the importance of your company’s story. It’s the foundation of your authentic voice, the why behind your business, and the core of your overall brand.  With this in mind, your story is also a major component of how your expertise is presented. Here are some questions to answer in your origin story:

• What industry did you or other founders come from?  
• How does this experience or any other unique experience express your firm’s approach to your industry? 
• How many years of collective experience does your company’s leadership have? 
• Why did you choose this problem as the one to solve?

The answers to all of these questions heavily influence your story, and provide color to your viewpoints and intellectual capital. Your company’s story touches every aspect of your business, including your expertise.

2. Provide a Solid User Experience Through Good Web Design

A great website  helps generate trust from the audience, too. There are a number of important UX elements that visitors expect for guidance.

Easy Website Navigation

Financial services and fintech are massive and complex, for both B2B and B2C audiences. The layout of your website needs to be functional and easy-to-read. Font size, menu locations, and button or text CTAs (call-to-action) can all impact how long a visitor stays on your site and whether they choose to buy your product.

Organize your services with easy-to-understand names that directly address the pain points of  your potential customer. Which brings us to another helpful tip.

Clear Solutions to Pain Points

Financial services coined the know your customer (KYC)  rule as a reminder to fiduciaries to always act in a client’s best interest when making investment decisions. It’s also important to know your customer to ensure that marketing efforts are effective. What are your customer’s barriers? What are their fears? Why haven’t they addressed the problem sooner? Developing a buyer persona can help build empathy to better serve your customer. 

3. Speak Your Customer’s Language 

It’s important to use accessible language and not speak down to your customer. For example, suppose you offer loans to small and medium sized businesses. It’s important to know that small business owners are less likely to be familiar with the term SMB loan, and won’t type it into Google. They are more likely to search for ‘small business loans with fast approval.’ This is called a long-tail keyword.

SEO (search engine optimization) trends change often according to search engine algorithms. It might be helpful to enlist the help of an SEO expert or agency to ensure your website aligns with best practices . Take a look at how we created an acquisition strategy and boosted conversions for Nav, a business credit platform.

4. Exhibit Business Expertise With Great Content

Next, is your intel. You might know that your solution is the ultimate answer to the customer’s problem but  they don’t know unless you show them.

Share Your Fintech Research

What have you learned about the value your product or service provides for customers? What proof do you have? Is there an easy way to show your research? Charts, diagrams, animations and other methods of data visualization can help a visitor see why your solution is the answer.

Publish Financial Services Whitepapers and Let Your Expertise Shine

Would your audience appreciate a deep-dive on a particular topic in your industry? Do you have any dedicated research or a  unique perspective to share? If you have the bandwidth, consider putting together your own internal whitepaper. Making a complicated subject easy to understand speaks volumes to your audience, and can crystallize your brand’s industry expertise.

Whitepapers can be a great way to avoid database decay, and grow your customer database. Prospects will happily exchange their contact information for the right deep-dive content.

Schedule and Create Your Blog Posts

Blogs can be a simple, and an effective way to build your brand awareness and become known for your expertise. But, before you start hammering away at new articles, conduct a little SEO research, so you know exactly what kind of questions and terms your audience is typing in search engines.

First, compile 50-200 keywords that have a high number of monthly search queries and low to moderate competition, then you can pick blog topics more precisely, strategically creating content with  confidence. The more SEO drives your content, the more likely your target audience will find you.

Social Media

Social media is a wonderful tool for sharing your insights and your brand’s personality at the same time. Share bite-sized bits of information, equipped with your own images to grow and generate high brand engagement. Unsure of what to post? We can help you generate Social Media Content Ideas for Fintech and financial services.

5. Offer Test Drives or a Guided Tour

Engage your audience by offering a taste of your  solution directly. A short-term trial offer can be an excellent way for leads to get their feet wet, and a chance to even give them a guided tour specific to their needs. 

Consider the Buyer’s Journey

The process your user goes through from the time they click on your content to the time they buy a service is called the Buyer’s Journey. It’s important to nurture every stage.  HubSpot, a leading CRM platform, describes the three stages like this:

• Awareness Stage: The buyer becomes aware that they have a problem.
• Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and considers options to solve it.
• Decision Stage: The buyer evaluates and decides on the right provider to administer the solution.

Product demos and trials are best suited for prospects that are in the consideration stage. They have already defined their problem, and have an idea of what a potential solution looks like. Test driving your solution can build the confidence they need to make a decision.

You’ll be an Expert in No Time

Demystifying industry complexity is the key to proving your expertise. Your solution achieves this, of course, but today’s B2C and B2B consumers need more.

  Viewing your company as a trustworthy resource comes down to these key elements: 

• Authentic and effective storytelling 
• Visualising key research and viewpoints 
• Creating an appealing and consistent web presence

Rather than trying to catch the waves in fintech and financial services, you’ll soon be making them.

What’s next for your fintech brand? 

Schedule a free consultation to see how CSTMR can help your fintech brand establish expertise and ignite growth into 2022.