Do webinars belong in your financial services content mix?

Weighing up webinars

Podcasts. Voice search. Featured snippets. Print magazines. Breaking news. With so many options to choose from when producing financial services content, how do you know what to go for — and what to skip over?

Ask the folks at Santander Bank. They’ll tell you blog posts are king. Meanwhile, Prudential will spruik interactive surveys. And Lemonade will argue that honesty (negative reviews included) is key.

Another element of financial services content that deserves deliberation is the webinar. On one hand, it’s a time-consuming exercise that people might ignore. On the other, it’s a chance to interact with customers, find out what they’re thinking and give them the info they need to make a purchase.

Here’s what to consider before adding webinars to your financial services content strategy.

Narrowing down the subject

Like a blog post, a webinar shouldn’t please everybody — or discuss everything. The narrower the subject, the better. A small yet engaged audience is preferable to a big one that’s half-listening.

A small yet engaged audience is preferable to a big one that’s half-listening.

Take the webinar series of CommSec, Australia’s biggest online stockbroking company. Each webinar spends 30 to 40 minutes on a specific topic, like ‘Investing in ESGs’, ’Investing in fixed interest’ and ‘How gearing works in the share market’.

Not sure what your audience wants to know? Find out! You could research frequently asked questions or conduct a survey.

Getting the timing right

For 47% of marketers, webinars are effective in the middle (consideration) stage of the sales funnel, according to the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs.

Meanwhile, 36% rate them as effective at the early (awareness and interest) stage.

Backing these stats are those of CenterState, a community bank based in Florida, US. It ranks the webinar as the second most effective form of commercial content, with a 71% conversion rate and a 67% lead generation rate.

Whichever stage you go for, target your webinar accordingly. Inviting newbies? Try a 101 approach, like this introductory session by investment educator Kanwal Sarai which has racked up more than 28,000 views on YouTube.

Ready to move along a sale or deepen a relationship? Focus on more detailed advice, as in UK bank Barclays’ webinar series on cyber security awareness.

Planning ahead

One of the big benefits of the webinar for you and your customers is that it allows live interaction. But, as with any event, planning is vital.

This is especially true of Q&As. Free-form questioning sounds like fun, but, when things veer off track, you risk boring your audience.

The solution? Ask for questions in advance or accept real-time questions in writing only. If you decide to include other elements in your webinar, like an interview with an expert, be sure to outline the program from the get-go — so your audience knows what to expect.

That’s the approach UK fintech Revolut took in this Business Webinar, an example of effective financial services content that attracted more than 6,000 views on YouTube.

Ready to add a webinar to your financial services content strategy? We can help you get started. Get in touch.

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Jasmine Crittenden

Jasmine Crittenden has written extensively for major finance brands including Westpac, BT Financial Group, Suncorp and Aberdeen Standard Investments – across both digital and print. She’s an expert in content that puts the human element in finance marketing, be it connecting with local communities, inspiring millennials to care about super or clarifying the complexities of personal loans.