Key strategies for commercial payments content marketing

Commercial payments are not just a banking function, they can be a differentiating growth driver. But it takes a creative, agile content marketing strategy for banks to stand out amid increasing competitive pressure.

All too often, financial institutions (FIs) struggle with delivering engaging content for commercial payments marketing that resonates with target audiences to close deals faster.

Regional banks may feel the squeeze more than most. As large national banks and aggressive fintech companies are disrupting the payments landscape, regional FIs face a new imperative to deliver compelling content across channels. Yet it can be hard to execute with limited resources and bogged down processes. Or the organization may be well versed in the complexities of commercial payment products, but grapple with how to articulate the business value in clear, concise ways.

At Beyond the Arc, we’ve seen the challenges from within the trenches, helping bank clients for nearly 20 years. Whether it’s a top 5 bank or a large national or regional FI, sometimes the biggest hurdle is delivering a strategic program of integrated and highly tailored content. But that’s what you need for commercial payments marketing in order to spark interest with business buyers and drive sales conversations forward.

How can banks optimize efforts to achieve better results? While your organization may have unique considerations, we’ve found that there are some fundamentals for effective content marketing strategy that can serve as a blueprint for success.

Why the right content matters in a crowded market

The commercial payments space is booming with opportunities for banks – if they can deliver timely, relevant content and a differentiating story. And that varies across payment products. For instance, in helping a leading bank revitalize their corporate card business, it became clear that FIs can no longer just talk about rewards and higher limits. You need to speak to the operational reality companies face, and how robust card capabilities help solve their biggest problems.

Sophisticated and complex solutions like embedded payments require even more nuanced content. Strategies for commercial payments content marketing should focus on deliverables tailored for the use cases and industry verticals of your target client segments.

Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc, explains it well:

Key components of a content marketing strategy

Think of your content strategy as a blueprint to guide your efforts. Beyond clarifying objectives, it can outline important tasks and map out a channel strategy and content framework that makes it easier to roll out the actual work.

Here are some fundamentals to include:

• First, define goals. Make sure everyone involved is on the same page about what you need to achieve and why. Is the content strategy for commercial payments marketing focused on building brand awareness? Educating audiences about specific solutions? Boosting lead generation?  Clarifying your objectives helps you identify and prioritize which channels you’ll use and the types of content you’ll create.
• Identify and personify your ideal clients. Describe your target audiences including buyer roles, verticals, business size, etc. Whenever possible, dive into research to better understand buyer needs, attitudes and purchase drivers. Then translate those insights into customer personas, which give you a strategic way to encapsulate critical findings to inform your marketing messaging.As an example, for one bank client, we developed data-driven personas for different client segments based on the maturity of their business. This breakout was valuable as their needs, challenges, and attitudes about certain products varied at different stages of growth.
• Investigate your competitors. Look at how your competition is trying to engage the same B2B audiences. Consider how they convey their value proposition for commercial payment products, key messages, and thought leadership articles. You’ll want to be prepared with content that stands apart, covers new ground, and addresses issues that others overlook.
• Create high-impact content. Leverage your personas and competitive analysis to plan a channel strategy and content calendar tailored to attract your audiences. Align topics and messaging around payment lifecycle stages or meeting complex needs as businesses scale up.You might start with refreshing web copy or adding new landing pages. To increase engagement, develop a variety of content types such as blogs, client success stories, whitepapers, even infographics. Consider video interviews with your commercial payments experts and maybe host a webinar.
• Distribute and promote your content. Be where your buyers are by delivering content across multiple channels. That will likely include your website and gated landing pages, blog, email newsletters and ABM outreach, as well as LinkedIn for both organic and paid social media campaigns.
• Measure success. In your blueprint, include KPIs for what you aim to achieve and how you’ll monitor effectiveness. Then as you execute the content marketing deliverables, take advantage of tools to track engagement in terms of visits and clicks, leads generated, and conversion rate.

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