A survey of over 100 financial services companies shows that fewer than half of them (41 per cent) have a content marketing strategy in place, even though this is a key step in rebuilding client trust and relationships.

The research, conducted by Editions Financial, a content marketing agency, in conjunction with the Financial Services Forum, an organisation created by financial firms to improve marketing impact, questioned marketing professionals from major UK financial services brands including Coutts, Aberdeen Asset Management and Lloyd’s of London.

Marketing budgets have sometimes been slashed in recent months amid the austerity conditions in some nations; however, a long-term strategy towards marketing and branding is important for sustained business growth, as was argued, for example, by ClearView Financial Media, publisher of this website, in a major report on marketing and branding in conjunction with Coutts. (To see this report, click here.)

The survey, published yesterday, found that 53 per cent of organisations plan to increase their content marketing budget, and 81 per cent said it is going to become more important in the next 12 months. Some 58 per cent of respondents said they believed it was more effective than other approaches in helping to rebuild trust in financial services.

“Many financial sectors still suffer from a lack of customer engagement. Content marketing offers a way to rebuild relationships by rewarding end customers, as the compelling figures on its increasing importance among marketers show,” Caspian Woods, chief content strategist at Editions Financial, said.

“However, with the multitude of channels now available, and the amount of competing noise, financial brands need to be highly strategic about how content marketing is used to ensure it delivers return on the increase in spend,” Woods said.