Looking at the unfamiliar world of content marketing from the outside, you can easily get the idea that half of it is child’s play. The rest, it seems, is an inscrutable mish-mash of theory, jargon, and outright gobbledygook.

You may end up concluding that any outside trading platform content agency will basically do and leave the matter at that. Indeed, when you don’t know exactly what to look for, there’s a definite temptation to more or less just pick a name out of a hat, or at least go with whichever agency offers the slickest self-promotion and the most audacious promises.

In the long term, though – and a trading platform’s content marketing efforts normally only start showing substantial results after 6 months or so – you want a digital marketing agency you can build a relationship with.

Key takeaways:

• Any outside digital marketing or content creation agency has to be in sync with your goals – relying on a cookie-cutter approach is no good.
  
• A content solutions provider that can’t explain why they’re taking certain steps and how well past efforts have worked probably doesn’t have good answers to either question.
  
• For a trading platform, content tips that apply to other industries aren’t always valid, as you’re not talking to a mass audience.
  
• This means that an agile and even somewhat unconventional approach to content marketing often yields the best results.
  

Remember that size matters for finance content agencies

With trading platform content planning as with many other things, larger, more established companies can count on certain economies of scale. On the other hand, these are also subject to a certain kind of inertia and carry more overhead, both financially and in terms of layers of management.

This means that you may find, once it’s too late, that a heavyweight digital marketing agency has to some extent been coasting on its reputation and entrenched systems. The situation is somewhat analogous to management consultants who, it is rumoured, present the same reports to one company after another, only changing the headings and updating the graphs.

Smaller, less flashy agencies are more nimble and more likely to think outside the box. You can assume that they and their employees have a certain amount of experience at their game, but they aren’t institutionally hidebound and don’t reuse the same, one-size-fits-all trading platform content solution time and again. These kinds of customised strategies are crucial, as every campaign is unique and an approach that others have relied on may just not applicable to your situation.

Your chosen digital marketing partner must take your brand image, current and prospective customer base, budget, and emerging online opportunities into account when designing a strategy that’s likely to yield results. Sure, there are plenty of trading platform content agencies with stellar success stories and case studies on their website…but that doesn’t mean that they can emulate these accomplishments whenever they choose!

Choose a broker agency that starts from first principles

There’s a profound cultural difference between marketing companies that can clearly explain what they’re up to and those that retreat into jargon and platitudes when asked: “Why?” The latter presumably know their job, but the former understand the wider context.

Every trading platform’s content solution should be different and even, in a sense, unique if it’s going to reap the greatest possible rewards. Naturally, since there are plenty of points of commonality between different trading platforms, content tips that have worked for one may well work for another. If some content agency tries to apply these directly and without examining their underlying assumptions, though, things are likely to go awry.

There is plenty to be said for conventional wisdom and tried-and-trusted methods. It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel every single time you get on a bicycle. Nevertheless, it makes sense to ensure that every content campaign is built, from the ground up, to support defined goals instead of being based on a generic template.

Choose a performance-driven approach

For a trading platform, content agencies that offer to do all the right things but don’t mention the intentions behind them are waving flags that are a deep shade of merlot if not actually red.

Maybe we should ask “Why?” before we get to “What?”

Online marketing campaigns’ effectiveness can be measured very accurately. There’s a big practical difference between agencies that tell you what services they provide and those that focus on what they aim to achieve: the latter can course-correct if the initial results fall short. This leads to better outcomes than shooting in the dark and just hoping something hits, even if finding the right strategy requires multiple iterations and tweaks.

Now, all decent trading platform content companies will caution you that success is never guaranteed. Still, there are two things you need to make sure of before you hand them any money. The first of these is that your trading platform content strategy’s performance will be reviewed regularly and transparently.

Just as importantly, you have to be convinced that content creation and strategy are being driven by a genuine desire to see your business thrive. Otherwise, you may end up with a digital marketing partner that’s more interested in ticking boxes than driving customer acquisitions.

Prioritise industry focus

Now, more than ever, no content marketing campaign can hope to succeed by simply slapping together a few insipid blog posts.

Google and other search engines as well as AI search in Chat GPT and Gemini are increasingly penalising web pages that aren’t informative, interesting, and trustworthy. This means that you can’t rely on generalist copywriters – or, heaven forbid, ChatGPT – to generate content for you.

Finding a digital marketing agency with experience in promoting trading platforms (or at least companies in the financial services sector) has an additional advantage: engaging with the customer at the right level. There’s a big difference between selling bespoke solutions to complex problems and advertising to the mass market.

A short sales funnel is like a highway, while trading platform content strategies are more like winding mountain roads. If you’re selling something like a breakfast cereal, you can bring potential customers from here to there quite quickly, but investment products require a more thoughtful approach. Good content agencies are very aware of this difference.

You may, of course, be concerned about sharing confidential information with a marketing partner that already provides content to other trading platforms. Don’t worry, though: all such agencies have a kind of Chinese wall between clients, for example assigning different creatives to each account in order to maintain a unique and consistent brand voice.

Think beyond basic capabilities

Any digital marketer worth the name will possess some elementary level of competence in dealing with things like SEO, paid ads, and digital analytics. Them making a point of telling you they can handle such fundamentals is, at best, redundant.

All useful skills, but nothing more than you’d expect

This is why you can skip right past questions about the basic mechanics of content marketing when interviewing agencies. Instead, search out companies that offer something dynamic and special.

Some agencies, for example, craft their content according to principles, tools, and theories like data-driven market research, neuro-linguistic programming, latent semantic indexing and entity-based SEO, prudent use of AI, and automatic content personalisation. They also make a point of keeping up with the latest developments in digital analytics and large-scale CRM automation software. Not every content campaign needs all of these skills, but it’s certainly helpful to have such capabilities available just in case.

Aim for experience in using multiple channels

Have you ever tried to record a professional, polished video to embed on your website or post online? Unless you know something about scriptwriting, lighting, editing, and several other skills, you’ll soon learn that it’s unbelievably hard to make good use of this style of trading platform content marketing.

The difficulties of multi-channel marketing – a term you’ve almost certainly encountered while researching trading platform content tips – aren’t just technical, either. A trading platform’s content plan often includes elements like investor education, email outreach, and more technical white papers, but each of these avenues has a different goal and demands a distinct focus.

For example, a post crafted for a Pinterest audience hoping to learn about basic investing just isn’t going to fly on Facebook, where the idea is usually to spark initial interest in prospective clients and maintain a digital relationship with existing ones.

Exness, for instance, does a good job of keeping its 2.4 million Facebook followers engaged with thoughtful, informative content:

For a trading platform, being able to bridge the gaps between different communication channels while using each to its full potential can by itself be worth the cost of a digital marketing agency’s retainer. Likewise, you’re probably going to need help curating user-generated content (if this forms part of your trading platform’s content plan), not to mention navigating the chaotic free-for-all that is social media marketing.

Look for greater reach

Done correctly, social marketing is the gift that keeps on giving (assuming it’s well-integrated into a trading platform’s overall content strategy). Social can also turn out to be a total dud and waste of resources if you fail to connect with the right people. It’s easy, for instance, to end up preaching mainly to the choir of already-converted clients and only rarely funnel new prospects towards the crux of your trading platform’s content marketing.

Speaking of expanding your brand’s online horizons, most brokers are understandably wary of “meme stocks”, but it’s also a fact that investing and personal finance influencers get in touch with (literally) millions of prospective clients on a daily or weekly basis. Engaging the help of a credible YouTube personality who resonates with your brand can multiply the effectiveness of a trading platform’s content plan.

The right kind of financial content agency can also provide you with access to contacts in conventional media. Honestly, the chances of you reaching the front page of the New York Times (without words like “fraud” or “scandal” being mentioned) are slight, but any kind of positive exposure on trustworthy platforms works to your advantage. Depending on your needs, you’ll also be able to count on your digital marketing agency’s expertise in areas like podcast scripting and recording, online event planning, and several other opportunities that can mutually reinforce your trading platform’s message.

Final thoughts: Outsourcing trading platform content solutions

When you need to hire a caterer, travel agent, or plumber, you probably have a pretty firm grasp of what you need and what each can provide. In these cases, the results you’re looking for are tangible and easy to quantify.

However, when you don’t truly know what an outside company can do to support your revenue, it’s difficult to tell exactly how one stacks up against another. This is often the case with many business functions that don’t have much to do with the core activities of a trading platform: content solutions and related dark arts, physical security, and IT are all good examples.

Knowing what questions you should ask is half the battle, though. Once you understand just how a digital marketing agency will get you from A to B, the real conversation starts.