Retail investment is a rapidly growing and increasingly competitive marketplace, with these investors accounting for over 50% of global assets under management. By providing the modern retail investor with the knowledge they need to make better investments, fintechs can distinguish themselves and grow their customer base by becoming a go-to app for important financial decisions.

They can do this by offering thoughtful, timely and engaging content that not only educates, but builds trust and customer loyalty. According to EY, for example, 56% of consumers equipped with financial education become relationship customers, while those with financial education are two times less likely to switch service. 

In an increasingly competitive environment – with the majority of wealth managers finding it harder to win and retain customers than a year ago – doing this well is not easy.

Digital advertising – paid social, paid search – is increasingly ineffective. Google estimated that more than half (56%) of all ad impressions never reach the consumer, while eBay found that the effectiveness of brand ad search to be overestimated by over 4,000%. 

Introductory offers like free cash or shares to trade may drive initial sign-ups to investing platforms. But given their substantial drop off rates - just 4.6% of users still use finance apps 30 days after installation – onboarding is only the start. 

Building the trust and loyalty needed for an app to become an investor’s platform of choice takes a continuous flow of value. Educational content gives users a reason to log on several times a week, even if they are not trading. 

From finding finance experts and building up a library of content to fostering community engagement and leveraging data-driven insights, creating great content requires a great strategy. Here are some of the common challenges, guidance on how to stand out, and how Finimize can help.

1. Overly complex, inaccessible and boring content

The financial services industry has a tendency to over-complicate investing - to use jargon and present concepts as intricate and complex. This overcomplication makes content difficult to understand and inaccessible, and therefore excludes modern retail investors, who account for almost 20% of trading volumes in the US. 

Investing content should strike a balance between educating its audience and keeping them engaged. It's not just about presenting information; it's about telling a compelling story that resonates with the audience's needs, concerns and aspirations. However, navigating compliance requirements can limit the freedom to experiment with content and often pushes creators to a more cautious, conservative approach.

How to stand out: create easy-to-digest, engaging content

Learning about finance doesn't have to be hard or boring. Financial content can break things down into digestible, insightful and engaging chunks that tell a compelling story all while educating an audience and remaining compliant.

This might look like a dedicated educational hub or A-Zs of financial terminology. For example, the saving and investment app Moneybox has its “Moneybox Academy”, AI money assistant Cleo has its “Grow Your Wealth” education section and US stocks investment platform Public has pages and pages dedicated to investing insights. 

At Finimize, we specialize in producing snappy breakdowns of financial news, expert-informed, actionable digests of timely investing topics and clear how-to guides that can be read or listened to in minutes. 

2. Requiring specialist knowledge from finance and content production experts

Developing this type of educational content requires a collaborative effort between financial experts who understand the nuances of the subject and content experts who know how to package information in an engaging and accessible way. 

To maximize engagement and ensure its relevance, content creation also requires a sustained commitment. This involves staying on top of industry trends, adjusting content strategies when required and continuously seeking ways to captivate the audience's attention in a highly competitive environment.

How to stand out: build a team of experts or pull from a library of ready-to-go content 

Find a team of experts who not only understand finance like the back of their hand, but can also communicate it effectively. You can work directly with our team of expert analysts, editors, and audio producers to help you craft tailored content for your audience. Having access to their knowledge and skills will ensure you can create quality and relevant content at scale. 

We also have a library of ready to publish content that you can cherry-pick from with Finimize Select, or plug our content directly into your own channels with Finimize Automate.

3. Building trust is hard

It’s hard to produce content that engenders trust from your audience, especially if you aren’t already an established brand name. Investors are particularly suspicious of content from new players, as it’s (usually) clear the incentive is to get the reader to transact. 

How to stand out: build community and source trusted third-party content 

Build an empowered user-led community 

Foster a sense of community around your content. Encourage discussions, respond to comments and create a space where your members feel heard and valued. A thriving community can become a brand's strongest advocate and help build lasting customer relationships, especially for emerging providers like robo-advisers, fintechs and neobanks.

User-generated content and user-led communities can also help build trust. At eToro, users have the opportunity to follow and copy each other's investment profiles and receive recognition as an investor by showcasing their established portfolio, sharing tips and documenting their investment journey.

At Finimize, we have over 400,000 followers across social media, over 850,00 subscribers to our daily newsletter, member-hosted community events attended by over 100,000 people in 2022 and a podcast that has been listened to more than 250,000 times this year. We know what it takes to build a dedicated modern investor community and can help you do the same.

Source third party content

Source independent third-party content that's high-quality and relevant can help solve trustworthiness, as it reduces prospective customers’ suspicions of biased content in aid of a sales pitch. This is where Finimize’s licensed content or our team of expert content producers could offer support.

4. Tailoring content to different investors

Retail investors have a lot in common with one another when it comes to how they want businesses to engage with them through content. But their platforms of choice for content consumption, their areas of interest and their investment portfolios differ – and so a one-size-fits-all content strategy might not work.

At the same time, to become the provider of choice, investors want personalization. Consultancy Oliver Wyman found that 70% of customers want personalization and that it is one of the most important factors when choosing a wealth manager.

How to stand out: meet people where they are and use technology to personalize 

Use multiple channels and formats

Meet your audience where they are, by creating touch points across various channels. Don't limit your content to a single platform; explore alternative ways of getting your message out there across social media, newsletters and your website. 

Finimize Connect helps you automatically deliver relevant content from our library through your channels using our API. We also offer text and audio options, so customers can engage through their preferred medium. Audio content, for example, generates up to 2.6 times higher engagement than text.

Curate and personalize

Personalized content is crucial for engagement. This approach builds trust, empowers customers with information that is aligned to their goals, while also contributing to higher satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Our comprehensive tagging framework allows you to build ultra-relevant content experiences for your customers and allows you to sort your content by asset classes, geography, sectors, and highlight individual securities through FIGI codes.

Leverage data-driven insights

Don't navigate blindly; use data to understand your customer's journey. Analyze their interactions with your content, track their preferences and adapt your strategies accordingly. 

We track over 5 billion data points each year on how each piece of content we publish is consumed. This includes tracking how our members engage with and evaluate its insightfulness as well as its commercial impact. This meticulous data tracking enables us to continuously refine our processes and understand audiences better.