Google friendly, compliance happy marketing

When implementing a content marketing strategy, credit unions often ask: “If our content strategy must follow compliance rules, will our content still make an impact?” In short, the answer is “Yes it can!” Here are a few tips for making content a successful driver of your business success:

1. Set clear standards for content

Whether you are creating content for your blog or website or curated messages for social media platforms, set clear standards of what content is acceptable to post. Then, make sure every employee is aware of these rules.  Social media is important to any marketing strategy, so there should also be clear standards detailing how your team can respond to customer feedback. We recommend utilizing and empowering your customer service team to help respond.

2. Create a compliance path

Which content needs to be approved before it is posted? Is there content that does not need to be approved before it is published? Set up guidelines and create a compliance path that includes the following steps:

Create -> Review -> Schedule -> Publish

To streamline the process, and to ensure that your content remains fresh and authentic, work on creating content that does not need to be approved before it is published. Categorizing your content can help with this process.

3. Categorize your content

As you start creating content for your website, blog and social media, we recommend categorizing your content. This can help clarify what content is acceptable and what content is not acceptable to post, as well making sure your content is meeting all the different needs and interests of your customers. To ensure that your content is adding value to your marketing strategy, refer to what I would call “Google approved” content that fits Google’s latest search algorithm – Hummingbird – including educational content, in-depth articles, videos, etc.

One example of Hummingbird friendly content is the posting of pictures related to sponsored events. This is an example of content that is quick to create and quick to publish. Keep the copy short and let the pictures speak for themselves. Hopefully these photos can be fast tracked through the approval process or will not need to be approved at all.  Pictures can help keep your content fresh and customers engaged.  In addition, educational articles, like ‘how to save for your child’s college future’, provide high value content to your customers without challenging any of your compliance rules. Both your customers and Google will approve because you are providing a solution to a problem.

And once content is approved, consider how you can extend the life cycle of the content. Can you reuse it? What are the different ways you can promote it?  Once content is approved, take that content and use it to automate new blog posts and social media messages. Also, if there are frequently asked questions, provide your team with a collection of approved responses, which can include, “please call this phone number for more information” or “to learn more about xyz, visit our website (with link):…”).

4. Put a system in place to save all content and remove if needed

Put a system in place to ensure that all content posted is saved, as well a system to remove content if needed and guidelines on how to remove it.

Responding quickly to all customer feedback, both positive and negative, is key to sustaining a successful social media strategy. Customers will appreciate your credit union more if you acknowledge and respond to negative comments, but don’t hesitate to let your customers know that you have a no tolerance rule. Put standards in place to handle all situations so you can control the direction of the conversation.

Jeff Mesnik

Jeff Mesnik

Jeff Mesnik is the President of ContentMX and has worked in content marketing and with financial firms for over 10 years, helping everyone from MassMutual to Arizona Federal Credit Union ... Web: www.Contentmx.com Details