Create Expert Financial Content That Positions You as a Thought Leader and Acquires Customers

Who we’ve worked with:

Stephen Allen, Head of Design at Confused.com: “Mint has been integral in helping us with translating product experience into content for our customers”

Our process

🏛 Content strategy based on customer research and aligned with business objectives.

🏛 Content for the level of your reader that can talk about your product.

🏛 Content based on interviews with internal experts.

🏛 Content written by specialists in financial services and fintech.

Learn more about our methodology:

You’ll get expert financial content that positions you as a thought leader

We know financial services and fintech inside out, which means:

• You can hit the ground running with high quality content

• You can create technical, expert content for an advanced audience

We’re familiar with financial services and fintech and have the processes in place to gather expertise from your internal experts.

You’ll be able to free up time to focus on other work

We’ll be an extension of your marketing team and act as your content partner.

We’ll do the strategy, writing, publishing, promotion and tracking every month, as well as setting up the interviews with internal experts.

We’ll do regular check-ins and you’ll get a report with the results every month.

We do content: you get new business.

You’ll get customers and revenue, not just blog posts and audits

If we work together in a strategic capacity, we’ll focus on what you’re accountable for: customers, revenue and SQLs.

We use our BOFU content methodology that involves customer research, expert-based content and SEO to acquire customers.

We’ll also set up Hubspot and GA4 dashboards that will allow you to track and prove how much content marketing contributes to company revenue.

A guide: How do you pick the right financial services content marketing agency for you?

If you’re doing research on financial services content marketing agencies for your financial brand, then you’re probably asking yourself: how do I pick the right agency for what I need?

If you’ve never worked with a content marketing agency, you might have quite a few questions:

• What type of content marketing agency should I work with? Should they specialise in my sector?

• How will we measure the success of engagement over time?

• When does it make sense to work with an agency vs hiring a freelance writer vs hiring someone in-house?

• How can I ensure the quality of the content will be good before working with them?

We’ve worked in this world for 5+ years on the client-side, as freelancers and now agency-side. We thought we’d take an honest look at this question and share our thoughts on how to go about selecting the right financial services content marketing agency for your company.

Our perspective: why you need to have clear content goals before choosing a content marketing agency

In order to pick the right content marketing agency for your company, it’s very important that you’re clear on what your ultimate objective is: is it lead generation? Or mainly to build your brand? 

Typically, we see financial services companies and financial institutions invest in content marketing primarily for thought leadership and brand awareness purposes, with the hopes that eventually it’ll help with customer acquisition. 

This is fine if your goal is mainly to position your company as an expert. But if your real business goal is getting leads, growing sales and acquiring customers, then know that thought leadership content doesn’t automatically translate into lead generation. 

That’s because thought leadership is typically targeting a wide range of people. Anyone could read your thought leadership: academics, reporters, professionals in the industry and students. Someone who’s reading thought leadership isn’t necessarily ready to buy your product – they’re likely at the beginning of their buyer journey, and it could be months, or even years, before they convert!

Good thought leadership is great for raising awareness, but won’t directly translate into new business opportunities.

This is why marketers who invest in content marketing often struggle to prove the impact of content. Your leadership is holding you accountable for leads, MQLs and SQLs, but the content you’re producing won’t influence those at all. This is where there’s a disconnect. 

Our perspective is that content can do more than create brand awareness and help position you as a thought leader. It can also generate business opportunities. 

And most importantly, you can track and prove MQLs and SQLs. With the right HubSpot and Google Analytics set-up and reporting, you can attribute revenue to a single specific article, if required. 

This is why it’s important to be clear about what your objective is before investing in content: do you want to primarily build your brand, or are you hoping to generate new contacts?

Yes, you can aim for both. But we still believe you’re more likely to succeed if one takes priority over the other. If thought leadership is your priority, then know that it won’t directly lead to new contacts and you may struggle to prove its contribution to the business (it’s especially important your leadership knows this).

If generating new leads is the bigger opportunity, make sure the content support you hire knows how to help you achieve your goals.

What are your options when looking for content support? And what are the pros and cons of each?

If you’re looking for external support for your content marketing, generally, your options are to hire:

1. A freelance writer

2. A sector-agnostic content marketing agency

3. Your current PR / SEO (Search Engine Optimization) / PPC agency that also does content

4. Someone in-house

We’ll explain the pros and cons of each and what to expect when working with each option. We set up our own content marketing agency because we felt there was a gap in the market and that the options were insufficient, so we’ll finish off explaining how Mint Studios, our content marketing agency, fits into the various options.

1. Freelance writer: great if you know someone very talented with a strong process

Freelance writers are one-person bands who write for multiple clients part or full time. We work with freelance writers and they can be a great solution if you know someone very talented who has a very clear content production process.

However, based on our experience, your success with freelance writers depends highly on the person you choose. When it comes to working with freelancers, there are a few shortfalls we’ve found. 

Freelance writers are great at doing one thing: writing. That means they work best with you when you already have a topic in mind, an outline, and you know what you want to write about.

In our experience, however, financial services companies looking for content support want more than “just writing”. If you’re investing in content marketing to acquire customers, you likely want someone who can help you come up with topics, edit the content, publish it and perhaps even track and report certain marketing campaign metrics. One person can’t do all of that – especially not a freelance writer. Really, you need a marketing team that can take care of all the whole content marketing plan, not just writing. 

The other issue is that freelance writers are good if you want to write very high level thought leadership blog posts or white papers. But if you want in-depth content that talks about your product, customers and pain points – like Bottom of the Funnel content – it’s unlikely they’ll be able to support you. That’s because they typically aren’t embedded in your organisation, or don’t have the processes to write in detail about your product. A few freelancers will have processes and actively make sure they understand and can write about your product. In our experience, though, they are very rare. You can learn more about our thoughts here: Why We Believe Hiring Freelance Writers Doesn't Work for Most Companies.

And finally, if your goal is to get business results (leads, sales, customers) with content marketing, a freelance writer won’t be able to help you. That’s because they specialise in one key skill: writing. Generating leads with content marketing is likely not within their remit. 

Hiring a freelance writer makes sense when:

• You have someone in-house who will set the content strategy, decide on topics, do the editing and be accountable for metrics, and just want someone else to do the writing.

• You don’t need a lot of content (like 1 article per month).

• You have a lower budget and are happy to do a lot of editing in-house.

2. Sector-agnostic content marketing agency: best for non-technical topics and if they have proven processes to become experts on your product 

A sector-agnostic content marketing agency is what it says on the tin: a marketing company that specialises in content marketing and works with a lot of different industries and sectors.

Working with a sector-agnostic content marketing agency can work very well when the content they are creating is in a non-technical industry. But in our experience, this backfires when working with financial services clients in more technical industries like payments, identity verification or open banking.

One of the key reasons prospects come to us is because they’ve had a bad experience with a freelancer or agency that doesn’t understand financial services and have had to spend too much time editing, rewriting and redoing the content. In the end, they spend more time and energy, not less, on content marketing.

The issue with a sector-agnostic content marketing agency is that they will likely be learning about financial topics on the go, and so your content will naturally target beginners, or provide surface level topics like “ultimate guides” and “payments 101”. If you want to use content for sales enablement or to get the attention of decision-makers like Heads of Payments, product managers, etc, then you need to create more advanced content.

Some agencies will have a process to learn about a new topic fast and well, and can write about more technical topics. If you think the agency you’re talking to has that, ask to check previous technical content they’ve written before working with them.

Finally, in our experience, content marketing agencies act more like outsourced writing companies. In other words, they specialise in creating the content, but not in setting the digital marketing strategy in a way that will bring in leads, sales and business metrics. That’s fine if your goal is to focus on just creating content to help with brand awareness or thought leadership. But if your goal is leads and sales, make sure they know how to do that. 

Working with a sector-agnostic content marketing agency makes sense if:

• Your company’s product isn’t too technical or complex.

• They have their own custom process to understand a new sector or complex topic that is proven (which you can check by reading their samples).

• You know them personally and are certain they will take the time to properly understand your product, market and can write to the technical level of your target audience.

• Your focus is on generating leads and sales and you know they have a process to help you achieve your goals.

3. Your current PR / SEO / PPC agency that also does content: best for thought leadership content

This is one of the most common ways we've seen fintech startups and financial services companies start with content: their current PR or technical SEO agency offers to do content marketing as an additional digital marketing service. 

We’ve found that this rarely works well, simply because PR and technical SEO require fundamentally different skills than content marketing.

A lot of agencies (but not all) will say they do content, when really they are simply outsourcing the content to a freelance writer. This means that you get the same problems as hiring a freelance writer, but at a higher cost: you won’t get an in-depth content strategy, the writer will unlikely be able to write about your product in detail and since the digital marketing agency specialises in PR or technical SEO rather than content, it’s unlikely they can write advanced technical content as well.

Doing content well requires having a thorough process to find and train writers, interview subject matter experts, set up your inbound marketing analytics correctly, put together a content strategy, and so much more. It’s not something that can be set up quickly and hiring a freelance writer is not really “doing content marketing”.

In our experience, these types of agencies are best at what they specialise in, which is PR and technical SEO. Knowing how to get business results from content is such a specialised skill that is very hard to find. We don’t know any PR or technical SEO agency that can do this.

Working with a generalist agency can make sense if:

• You want thought leadership content only.

• They have a content person on their team that you know is excellent and will do a good job with content.

4. Hire someone in house: best if you have the budget and know someone skilled

Finally, the last option is to hire a new person who will join you in-house. The main benefit of hiring someone in-house is that they will work closely with your product team, will get to know your customers and their pain points and will work according to your marketing strategy. This means they can create a wider range of content types, including case studies, marketing material, internal content and more. Just be aware that it will take a few months to get them up to speed, especially if they are new to financial services. 

There are a few options about who to hire here: 

• Content writer

• Marketing manager (that does content)

• Content marketing manager

• Head of Content

It’s hard to give guidance on “hiring someone in-house” because ultimately it depends on the level of talent. If you find the most talented content marketing person who also knows a lot about financial services, then yes, you should hire them. But based on our experience, that type of talent is very hard to find. Especially if you don’t know what a “great” content marketing person looks like and are not sure how to assess them.

You may start by looking for a full-time content writer. Even if they are great, do you know if they do everything else content requires? Do they know about SEO, how to interview experts, how to set a content strategy and track and report on the right metrics? 

Or you may decide to first find an amazing content marketing manager who will do all that. If that’s the case, however, they probably won’t do the actual writing since that takes up a lot of time and effort, which means you’ll probably also have to hire a content writer (in house or freelance).

And then, there's the cost. A great content marketing person is not cheap. According to Superpath’s annual salary report, the average salary for a content marketer in 2023 is $111,352. That’s not including the technology and martech (e.g. SEO tools like Ahrefs) you’ll have to pay, which could amount to over $1k per month. 

Finally, as we’ve said earlier, not many content marketers know how to get business results from content and most focus on the writing side of things. If your goal is to get business results with content marketing, make sure you hire someone in-house who has experience doing this and can set the strategy. That’s why ultimately, it all depends on the talent you can find.

So, it makes sense to hire someone in-house if:

• You have a $100k+ annual budget to hire them (and probably more for the writer and martech tools).

• You already know someone who is skilled in getting results and would be a good fit.

At Mint Studios, we looked at all these options and we decided to set up our own agency because we felt there was a gap in the market. We saw that freelance writers didn't have the industry expertise, or strategy and reporting abilities to help financial services companies succeed with content. We also saw that agencies were too focused on writing and not business results, and that there weren’t enough full-time content marketers to fill positions at financial services companies.

So now that you understand your alternatives, this is how our agency can provide content tailored to financial services companies that want clear results.

Mint Studios: a content marketing agency for the financial services industry that focuses on business results

We set up Mint Studios because we believe content is an important part of financial services, and that you can create content that brings in leads, MQLs and SQLs in a proven way. We adhere to the philosophy of using content marketing to educate prospects and build trust, and in turn attract, rather than chase customers.

Considering the alternatives mentioned above, Mint Studios adds value to your content and helps you reach your business goals in three key ways:

1. You work with fintech and financial services specialists to create in-depth content in weeks, not months

Working with a freelancer or agency without financial expertise means they'll take longer to understand your product, customer pain points and position in the market. This leads to producing surface-level content, which won't attract B2C leads looking for a specific product or B2B leads looking for more advanced material. You'll only wind up wasting time and resources to fix these content issues (and write at the appropriate level).

At Mint Studios, we only work with financial services companies. Not only does this mean we can get up to speed about how your product works a lot more quickly, but it also means we can write about in-depth, more technical and advanced topics. 

In other words, content that your target market will actually read and that you can confidently distribute and give to your sales team (who can share with leads to save time in providing in-depth knowledge on your product and your position in the market). 

We have our own process for creating advanced content, which involves interviewing a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on your team (either a product or salesperson), working closely with our own writers using questionnaires rather than content briefs, and having a thorough editing process involving the strategist and writer.

Some examples of more advanced technical content we’ve created are:

• Direct Debit API: How to set one up (and when to use one)

• EMI accounts for companies: How to open them with Modulr

• How to add the right age verification system to your business

See how the content below is not your typical “Ultimate guide to direct debits” content. These are advanced, more technical pieces of content that require having in-depth knowledge of the product, your customer pain points and wider market.

We also have on-staff, already vetted, great writers who work with us long term. That way, you don’t have to spend weeks or even months searching for a writer who’s a good fit. We train every writer on our team to write Bottom of the Funnel content that covers more complex topics. 

2. You get business results from your content marketing efforts with our proven content marketing process using BOFU content 

As we’ve mentioned above, freelance writers and most agencies will focus mainly on content writing. That’s fine if your focus is only thought leadership, but if you’re internally held accountable for business results, then it’s up to you to figure out the strategy. 
We have our own methodology to help financial brands create a content strategy that brings in business results. We start creating Bottom of the Funnel articles (content targeting people who are already close to converting), use Google Ads to test keywords and then work on ranking on Google for what your best customers are searching for. You can learn more about our methodology here: Mint Studios Method.

We do not typically create Top of the Funnel content like “What is a direct debit” or “Top payment methods” because we want to target people who are actively looking for solutions to their problems (and not general or Wikipedia-style information). We specialise in helping you get business results with content marketing that is very specific to your ideal customer.  

This is how we’ve helped companies like Zai, Jeeves and Parpera generate over millions in business opportunities with content.

3. You’ll just need to manage one relationship for all your content, freeing up your time to focus on other channels

To get content marketing to work, you need a team that can set the strategy, pick the topic, edit the content, publish and track and report on the right metrics. Content marketing is more than just writing, and so getting the most out of it requires a small team. It also requires having the right processes in place to write in-depth about your product, customers and pain points.

That’s why we take care of everything required for content marketing to work: setting the strategy, choosing the topics and keywords, setting up the interviews with the right people, the writing, editing, publishing and reporting on metrics. We have excellent writers on our team who go through a rigorous hiring and training process, to ensure the financial content is high quality and adheres to the content strategy.

This means you won’t have to hire an additional person or agency to help with content, saving you money in the long term. Whereas a full content hire plus all the martech can cost upwards of $100k, our pricing typically starts at $60k per year. And with that, you’ll get an entire team, a proven process, and a lot of experience doing content for financial services. 

How do we make sure we can get up to speed on your product, customer pain points and market? We spend the first few weeks interviewing members of your team to get a deep understanding of your product, target audience, key pain points and the overall market, and we have our own process to make sure we can write for the right knowledge level of your audience. Once we have a good understanding of your company, you can then focus on other marketing activities, while we focus on generating business results with content. 

What should you consider when picking a content partner?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you decide on your options:

What stage is your content marketing at?

If you have never worked with anyone before, a freelance writer is a good way to start. This helps you understand what it’s like to work with a third-party provider on content.

If you’ve done a bit of content, and know it’s hard to find people who understand your product, then choose someone with more advanced and proven skills (e.g., can they show you samples of technical writing). 

What’s your budget?

If your budget is on the lower end – say, under $2,000 per month – then a freelancer may be a better fit. If you have a larger budget and want to seriously invest in content, then an agency or full-time employee may be a better fit.

How technical or advanced do you want your content to be?

If you’re hoping to create sales enablement or product content for an advanced buyer, then you need to make sure the partner you work with has a process to understand your product, your target audience and the wider market. If you can’t find one, hiring someone in-house might be a better fit.

How will you get your content in front of your target audience?

Distributing your content correctly is just as important as creating it. How will you make sure your content gets in front of your audience? Evaluate all your options, including:

• SEO content via your site's blog

• Email

• Social media / LinkedIn

• Events

Make sure you have a plan for how you’ll distribute it, and who will be in charge of it, whether it's someone in-house or the content partner you work with.

What is the primary purpose of your content marketing? And how will you measure success?

Do you want your content to help primarily position yourself as an expert? Or to help with lead generation? Or mainly to educate prospects? It can be all three at once, but we find it helps that one of them is the main priority and you have key metrics to track. That makes it a lot easier to prove success and make sure you’re not wasting your budget on content that won’t help you reach your goals.

Hiring a financial services content marketing agency: be very clear on what you need

We hope this guide helps you understand better what the content marketing landscape is like for financial services and what to consider when looking for external content marketing support.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the financial services marketing agency or external provider you hire won’t be a silver bullet that’ll solve your content marketing problems. This applies to all types of marketing agencies: your relationship with your agency will be a success if you’re very clear on what you need and the results you hope to get with it.

We’ve tried to put all the information as honestly as possible on paper and ultimately let you make a decision. If you want to learn more about why we set up Mint Studios and our methodology to get business results with content, you can read the following articles: 

• What is BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel) Content and Why Is it Important?

• The Huge Opportunity for Content Marketing in the Payments Industry

• Why You Should Create Content Based on Interviews With Experts

• Low Volume, High ROI Keywords: Why You Should Include Them in Your Content Strategy

And if you’re not sure how to proceed, you’re welcome to book a call with our Managing Director, Araminta, who will always give honest feedback and thoughts.