• by Ray Schultz , May 16, 2019

BackBay Communications urges banks and other financial entities to create email drip campaigns to communicate with key constituencies in a measured way.  

That takes content. Fortunately, 96% of the top 100 companies in this space regularly share thought leadership -- 66% on a monthly basic and 42% weekly, according to Fintech Study: Firs The Content, then World Domination, a study by BackBay. 

How do they distribute content (other than by the recommended email?)

Almost 75% are active in five or more social channels, and 20% are active in three to four, while only 1% have no presence. 

The preferred social networks are LinkedIn (98%), Twitter (90%), Facebook (89%), YouTube (80%) and Instagram (64%). 

The most popular types of content among brands is insights (88%), followed by videos (80%), podcasts (45%) and research (28%). And 48% cite other. 

In addition to those that publish weekly and monthly, 25% do so annually and 10% quarterly. The latter firms cannot expect great returns on their efforts. 

In addition to sending email blasts and posting in social media, BackBay says banks should conduct PR pitches, drive SEO, create webinars and run conferences and panels.

Financial brands should avoid promotion in content — that should be done through press releases, product announcements or advertisements.

And, despite the seeming lack of enthusiasm for research, companies should invest in that.

The study argues that proprietary research “can add weight to traditional public relations efforts, making it easier to pitch stories or sources to reporters or achieve pickup through widely distributed press releases.”