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Cases 23 min read June 30, 2022

How to Create a Content Strategy in FinTech: Skyscraper Technique + Life Hacks from Serpstat

How to Create a Content Strategy in FinTech: Skyscraper Technique + Life-Hacks from Serpstat
Екатерина Гордиенко
Customer Support & Education Specialist at Serpstat
FinTech products for financial management (e-wallets, mobile banking, apps, chatbots, neobanks) are becoming increasingly popular, but given the specifics of the YMYL industry, their successful promotion requires not only engaging but also expert content.

We're going to share some tips on how to put together a content marketing strategy for a fintech company using the skyscraper technique.

What to consider when making a content strategy for fintech?

According to a marketing strategy study of 100 global fintech companies conducted by BackBay Communications, 96% create content on a regular basis, 66% of companies do it weekly, with 46% experimenting with different formats and types of content (including webinars and podcasts).

According to the research materials, fintech companies are mostly prone to analytical conclusions, comments and videos. Content plays a central role in attracting new audiences, developing loyalty to the site where the content is posted, as well as to the product, and shaping users' ideas about the product or service.
Content must strengthen the image of the product, the unique product offering, which is formed by Influencers and community management. A good example is the Starbucks corporate identity, which forms an emotional image of the company for consumers.
From the perspective of search engines, fintech companies belong to the YMYL-segment, so content within this industry must meet certain EAT-criteria (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness):

  • Informative author pages with biography, photos, and other articles, as well as a block about the author in the article. On the website pages, you can tell not only about the qualifications of the specialist and add photos, but also supplement the section with certificates and diplomas, conferences where the author spoke, tell about awards and grants received, and give comments.
An example of an informative author page that indicates the author's Fintech expertise
An example of an informative author page that indicates the author's Fintech expertise
  • The uniqueness and usefulness of the content that is relevant to the request, answers the audience's questions, and at the same time corresponds to the company's goals. The peculiarity of fintech content is data-based content – content based on data analysis that validates its credibility.
An example of an informative article structure from Binance
An example of an informative article structure from Binance
  • Relevance, which is indicated by the date the article was published and updated.
Date of publication on the Visa blog
Date of publication on the Visa blog
  • References to reliable and authoritative data sources.
Ссылки на источники в блоге Visa
References in Visa blog
A good example of effective promotion in brand creators' personal blogs and social networks is The Credit Thing, which grew out of the Fintech Band company. The bank is a living organism that is constantly changing, so the company's strategy often includes experiments that scale quite quickly. The Credit Thing frequently uses situational marketing and prepares content for both planned and spontaneous info trends.
A content strategy can include many aspects, but in this article, we'll look at the content plan, content rubrics and formats, and distribution and repackaging options.

How to create a content strategy for Fintech?

Careful analysis of content provides many ideas for content strategy, which can be implemented using the so-called Skyscraper Technique.
Its point is to find good ideas from competitors, improve and prepare content that is superior to the original. The basic principles of the technique are:

  1. Find popular competitor content that gets backlinks or traffic.
  2. Adapt competitors' ideas to your product, supplement formats, and rubrics, and create a content plan.
  3. Repackage and distribute content with tips that will extend the life of the content and attract a larger audience.
Skyscraper technique illustration
Skyscraper technique illustration

Step 1. Competitor's best pages analysis

To gather good examples of content strategies, it's worth looking at your competitors and their pillar pages (main pages used for the internal and external linking). So, to find these competitors, enter your website or the website of a competitor you know. The report will give you a list of sites to consider.
Then we move on to a detailed analysis of the best pages of selected competitors. The Top Pages tool, which will show you the best content in terms of search engines for each domain, will help.
Top pages by domain
Top pages by domain
If competitor analysis is not enough, or you are not sure which competitors you should analyze first, you can approach competitor analysis in a different way, using marker keywords. Simply type in the query and select the desired search region.
In this case, the report displays a list of the best pages that are relevant to the keyword and get the most organic SEO traffic.
Top pages by keywords
Top pages by keywords
Life hack from Serpstat. As mentioned earlier, in the skyscraper technique, creating content that will spread across social networks and generate numerous external links is crucial. So let's look at the Top Pages according to external link analysis. As we can see, ratings, articles about well-known personalities in the industry, investigations, interviews, expert opinions, and news from the business world get the most links, so we need to consider not only topics but also content formats.
Top pages by number of external links
Top pages by number of external links
Wondering how to analyze your competitors quickly?

Leave a request for a free demonstration to get recommendations for performing your task.
Once we have a list of the best competitor pages by domain, keywords, or the number of external links (reports are easy to export and then work in Google Spreadsheets), we move on to the analysis of page content and the selection of ideas for your Fintech project. What is important to pay attention to:
1
Content rubrics and formats. Although content for fintech is often presented as dry texts containing statistics and figures and does not arouse the reader's interest in the article, the variety of rubrics and content formats in the field is impressive. As you study your competitors' pages, gather rubrics, topics for a series of materials, and interesting models. And don't limit yourself to articles, here are some examples of formats:
  • How-to articles
  • Research & Infographics
  • Industry cases
  • Interviews with opinion leaders
  • Readers polls
  • Glossaries
  • Knowledge Bases and Academies
  • Podcasts
  • Videos, Webinars, Streaming
  • Lead magnets (subscription content)
  • Product Updates
  • News in the field
  • Trends and situational content
  • Calculators
  • Quizzes and questionnaires
  • Reviews
  • Mindmaps
  • Comics
  • Checklists
  • Results of the Year
  • Templates
An example is the Glossary of Fintech Terms, compiled by the specialists of the Ukrainian Association of Fintech and Innovative Companies according to Serpstat data.
2
The target audience for the content. When analyzing competitors' materials, also note for whom the content was prepared and how the product is positioned for the audience. That is, what keywords and in what context the competitor uses to describe its benefits. For example, this article is written to summarize Forbes' presentation at IAB NewFronts on Delivering Communities at Scale:
Forbes' positioning in the text of the article
Forbes' positioning in the text of the article
3
Targeted actions on the page. What is expected of the reader during the study of the content and afterward? What CTAs (calls to action) are in the content: text links, text, and buttons (read, buy, learn more, try, start, subscribe, register, support, download, learn, get, check, continue, follow).
Call to action in Binance Academy
Call to action in Binance Academy
4
Headings and page structure. The presence of headings and a well-structured article is important not only from the point of view of search engines, but also help the reader to become familiar with the content, not to lose the target action, and find a solution to their problem. Pay attention when analyzing a competitor, what topics and subtopics are disclosed in the article, and how its structure is organized.
Headings and structure in Binance Blog article
Headings and structure in Binance Blog article
FAQ block in the Binance NFT section
FAQ block in the Binance NFT section
5
Additional resources and tools on the page. What else is in the article that gives added value to the reader? It can be free services, tools, checklists, or calculators.
Loan calculator on Bankrate to estimate the monthly payments on a loan
Loan calculator on Bankrate to estimate the monthly payments on a loan
6
Presence of internal linking. Look also which articles, videos, or lead magnets the article is linked with. This will help you evaluate the user journey and find additional material for analysis.
Dynamic internal linking in the research section of the Binance blog
Dynamic internal linking in the research section of the Binance blog
7
Author pages. Examine the author block in the article, note its differences from competitors, and analyze the content of the author page. A good example of an author page was given above, but here I'll just remind you that you can always go to competitors' authors and offer to write an article for you. You can read about how guest posting works in the articles:
8
Tone of voice. As you examine content, note which Tone of voice the competitor is using. For example, provocative, fun, emotional, rational, or expert tone.
Tone of Voice PayPal — friendly and rational
Tone of Voice PayPal — friendly and rational
9
Semantic keywords for which the page is optimized. From the point of view of search engines, every piece of content on your site – an article, a landing page, or a lead magnet – has to respond to some search intent for your content to find its readers. Therefore, when studying your competitors' content, pay attention to the queries for which the article ranks. This way, you can prepare specifications for a copywriter to write a new article or optimize an article already published, if you have such a topic on your site.
We enter the URL of the article and look at what keywords it ranks for. By the way, these queries are also an additional source for working out the structure of the article (remember the skyscraper technique, our goal is to make it better, not the same as the competitor's).
Keyword analysis by competitor's URL
Keyword analysis by competitor's URL
10
Optimization of meta tags and snippets. I suggest completing the analysis of the best competitor pages by studying the meta tags and special elements in the search results. Pay attention to what keywords are used in the title and description, whether there are additional “hooks” of attention, and CTA. For example, in the Fintech field, such phrases that increase CTR are often used:

  • Update
  • Interview
  • % discount
  • Large-scale research
  • Use case
  • New Guide
  • Checklist
  • ...with examples...
  • Video
  • We are trusted by ... customers
  • with charts and graphs
  • visual guide
  • No Fees
  • Business/content/marketing plan template
An example of CTA in SERP feature by a keyword
An example of CTA in SERP feature by a keyword
Check the page for ranking keywords that are accompanied by special elements (knowledge graphs, How-to algorithms, People Also Ask blocks, etc.) in SERP. For example, the Binance research section is shown in SERP with such special elements:

  • Sitelinks
  • Breadcrumbs
  • People also ask
Such snippets can be seen in the search results, but it's faster to gather ideas for advanced snippets with URL analysis:
SERP features by keyword and URL
SERP features by keyword and URL
You can track whether your SERP features for a particular URL are displayed in real-time with the Rank Tracker tool.
SERP features by keyword and URL
SERP features by keyword and URL
Life hack from Serpstat. Since your goal is not only to collect but also to create content better than your competitors, collect SERP features ideas separately and implement them on an ongoing basis. For example, to get a keyword that has a video, images, converter, or auto loan calculator in the search results, you can use this kind of filtering in the domain's keyword report:
SERP features of a competitor's domain
SERP features of a competitor's domain

Step 2. How to create a content plan based on competitors' content

Once we have collected ideas for content, formats, page structure, we create our own content plan based on the best examples of competitors with more detailed disclosure of topics and elaboration of the structure.

It is important to remember that content finds the reader at a particular stage of familiarity with a product or problem. Therefore, there are infinite options for adapting competitor content to the user’s path, a segment of the target audience, or content format.

Example: We found a competitor’s article on “How to save money”? What topics and formats can we incorporate into our content plan?
1
Adapting competitor topics to different stages of the user journey. At the stage when the user is not yet familiar with your product, the solution, and they have a problem they want to solve.

For the introduction or familiarization stage, we have to prepare content that solves this problem and responds to the pains and needs of the reader at this stage. These are articles of this type:

  • 10 saving tips for the home budget.
  • What should everyone know when planning a budget?
  • What items of expenditure does everyone forget about?
  • The secrets of budget planning from 10 experts.

When analyzing your competitors, pay attention to the target action of the content for this stage of the funnel. What exactly is expected from the reader: switching to another article on the topic, subscribing to the newsletter, or commenting on the article.

Then we move on to the user stage, where they may have heard something about your product or picks up a ready-made solution (review or evaluation stage). Here, the reader expects to see this kind of content:

  • Making a personal budget: the top 5 apps.
  • How to choose an app for planning expenses.
  • 5 differences between products 1 and 2: which is better?
  • What is leasing and how does it differ from credit?
  • What are the books about finance that are worth reading?
CTAs can be directed to a whitepaper request, registration, etc.

The third stage of our simplified funnel: content that “helps” you make a decision after reading the article (decision stage, conversion). Suitable for warmed-up readers who are already familiar with your product, with a clearly formed need and they are in the process of considering alternatives.

  • How to use the product for expense planning?
  • Top 10 product features you can’t do without
  • Use case: How a member of the target audience did something with the help of a product and achieved results
It’s essential to make sure that every piece of content you create in some way facilitates the site visitor’s tasks and nudges them toward the decision-making stage. The target actions of such content are always “close” to use and purchase. For example, registering, subscribing, etc.
2
Adapting competitors' ideas to other content formats. For example, a competitor has an article in How-to format, but you can make a pillar page, an interview with experts, a reader survey with research, a newsletter, a post on social networks, an infographic, or a lead magnet. There are many options for repackaging into another format.

For example, a How-to article “Trading Cryptocurrency on Leverage for Beginners” or any content on industry trading can be packaged into an entire academy or series of video tutorials.
3
Diving deep into the product. In addition to educating readers, content meets a company's business goals, so break down your product into separate parts and cover such components with separate pieces of content. For example, Binance has a section with NFT, backed up by blog articles on the topic:

  • 7 reasons to sell your NFT on the Binance NFT Marketplace
  • Easy and detailed POAP NFT guide
  • All about NFT whitelists and how to get on them in 3 easy steps
  • How fractional NFTs are changing the NFT space
  • How to sell gaming NFTs and convert the resulting cryptocurrency into fiat

Step 3. Distribution and repackaging of content

After the content is published, its journey only begins, because it is obvious that you will not reach your goals if no one sees the content. Distribution is the promotion of content through channels that help you communicate with your target audience.
Channels for content distribution in fintech
Channels for content distribution in fintech
Creating new content is a time-consuming process, and in order to constantly be in the info field of your target audience, you have to generate it continuously. But there is a solution that helps you spend fewer resources on content production: repackaging (recycling or resizing).

Repackaging is the process of minimally altering content to produce new content. Repackaging saves time because it is easier to process already collected content than to create content from scratch.

Repackaging content for social networks and newsletters allows for different approaches and formats, so the interaction with the audience will be of higher quality. Not everyone likes to read long-form content; some prefer “outlines” of articles, infographics, or videos.

The main ways of repackaging:
  • Site adaptation;
  • Repackaging into a new format;
  • Subdivision of a large format into smaller ones;
  • Combining small formats into large formats.
Content repackaging in fintech
Content repackaging in fintech
1
Adaptation. A blog post adapts perfectly into content for social networks and newsletters. If you've created original content for newsletters or social networks, publish it on the blog in article format.

Example. Based on the How-to article “What is NFT and how to build your collection of Internet art?” a series of posts on social networks or newsletters can be made:

  • post 1: NFT – the essence and attractiveness for the novice crypto-businessman
  • post 2: NFT platform that will help you invest now
  • post 3: Where and how to earn a beginner NFT investor?
2
Repackage into a new format. A blog post can be presented as an infographic, a commentary video, or a podcast on the topic.

Adding use cases can also turn a how-to article into a case study. And if you invite several experts to comment on the topic, you get a roundup.

Conduct a webinar – repackage it into an article and a series of posts for social media. Record of the webinar can be submitted as a lead magnet or in text format in a series of newsletters. Questions and answers from experts on Twitter or Telegram are excellent material for articles.

Repackaging the article “What is NFT and How to Build Your Internet Art Collection?” further into other formats:
  • Webinar: Investing in NFT: rules and principles
  • Lead magnet: Step-by-step instructions for the novice NFT investor + checklist
  • Newsletter: NFT-event: Webinar with crypto-investor, open your first NFT Box
3
Large formats are divided into smaller ones. For example, for social networks or mailing lists, we create the following series of materials:

  • a brief announcement of the article;
  • an abstract of the article in the “problem-solution” format;
  • a quote from an expert with a comment from the author as an announcement of the article;
  • cards with the main ideas from the article;
  • a selection of useful materials on the same topic.
4
Small formats can be combined into larger ones. For example, if you have a series of blog posts on the same topic, combine them into one digest, comment on each article, and link previously published material.

The main thing is to select only relevant material and work out the structure. The same principle can be used to make digests of checklists, instructions, whitepapers, lists of useful tools, case studies, etc. Find a common attribute and generate new content with almost no effort.

Conclusions

With the right approach, content marketing in fintech raises awareness, stimulates engagement, and helps with decision-making. The key is to find out what your target customers need and provide it to them in an interesting and understandable way.
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