1. Tell us about your role
My role is quite varied, even as an SEO consultant. I spend my time consulting with clients on their knowledge panels on Google search. SEO, within the fintech vertical, is very much the ‘unknown, unknown’. Knowledge panels, and knowledge graphs in general, are niche areas in SEO. As such, there is a need to improve awareness.
The majority of business owners in fintech tend to lean towards the marketing channels they’re more familiar with. The way a business appears in search is an afterthought – if considered at all.
One of the great pleasures of being a consultant is influencing businesses to consider their knowledge panels for their entities. I love providing that ‘aha moment’ where a business sees the value in owning HOW they appear in search. When they see the importance of a panel, beyond its visual appeal, there is this epitome where their digital strategy is a lot clearer.
2. How did your business adapt and evolve in this new normal world?
In recent times, the SEO industry has seen a huge push for online visibility. There was a time when SEOs had to convince businesses to have an online presence. The change in recent years became the ‘ultimate reason’ to have an online presence.
The awareness of SEO is becoming more mainstream, akin to social media. Search is central to online discoverability, so the push online has led to more demand for website optimisation. As a consultant, I’ve been able to niche into a specific area of SEO. The discipline is wonderfully broad and continues to expand. In the years to come, I believe we’ll see more professionals focusing on specific areas of SEO.
3. What top tips would you give to fellow B2B marketers?
People will search for your brand – either business or personal. How you appear will determine whether or not they do business with you.
As B2B marketers, branding is important. You only have to look at your Google Search Console (GSC) to see how much branded searches dominate generic ones. Branded terms are what converts. Your brands (both business and personal) are your online entities. You’ll want to build and manage the authority and credibility of your entities online.
4. What future digital marketing and media opportunities can marketers leverage over the next year to drive business growth?
As online activity continues to grow, we’ll see an increase in searches, and more importantly, the way people search as this will evolve from well-known search platforms to a variety of platforms that have search capabilities. This includes all social media platforms, more commonly known as social networks. However, they all have a search function in their platforms, and they are ALL working to influence their users to search on THEIR platforms.
Let’s also keep chatbots in mind as their use for search is going to increase. The way users access information is going to change. As marketers, this opens up the traffic we can receive from search. However, it means we’ll need to adjust the way we’re found via search. Our focus will need to shift to entities (not keywords). The discoverability of our entities and the way they are presented is what matters in this AI-infused online world.
5. What are the top 5 Fintech Marketing trends to watch out for in 2024?
Discoverability by Search
As marketers in fintech become more familiar with SEO, they’ll increase their spend in the channel. Your audience will search for you and/or your business. When you’re aware of this, the goal will be to have a presence in search and improve (optimise) it from there. We’ll see more fintech businesses have this vision to build their search presence.
Share of Search (SoS) Metric
Currently, this is a lesser-known marketing metric, yet an important one. Have you ever asked yourself what your share of search is for your entities?
Think of any big brand – Apple, Amazon, etc – they all compete in organic search for their brand. Affiliates (GoCompare, MSN) are known for competing with brands for the search of their names. If you aren’t consistently working on your search presence, it’s an opportunity for other brands to own the demand you create with other (above-the-line) marketing you’re spending on. Again, your audience will search for you. The share of this search is something you’ll want to consider. In B2B, SoS is one of the most valuable metrics you can track.
Your Brand SERPs
Your brand SERP takes into account your appearance in search, which is aligned with your online reputation. Negative reviews, slander, and hit pieces are all content that appears when someone searches for you/your business. Brands that are conscious of their online reputation are incorporating search into the ‘always-on’ monitoring of their appearance to their audience. Reputation management was focused on social media. As search is central to the web, there’s an increased focus on search platforms, which is where owning your brand SERP comes in.
Video Format for Content
There was a time when text (copy) was the ideal format for content. This was before multimedia content and prior to when search algorithms were sophisticated enough to understand content in any format outside of text.
They can now. Algorithms are engineered with more focus on video format. In fintech, it is still a challenge to convince businesses to spend on video content. Well, as video (as the default format) becomes mainstream, businesses within fintech will have to adapt. Users online expect content to be in video form. As businesses online, we really need to meet this expectation. The alternative is we have (significantly) less online visibility.
The Currency of Attention
It’s widespread knowledge that attention is the new currency.
Whether you have a product or a service, the audience you want demands that you earn their attention. When you have your marketing activities geared towards this goal, you’ll be better engaged with your audience.
It’s going to be a fascinating year for fintech B2B marketing. As search continues to expand and become more comprehensive, I’m going to remain dedicated to staying updated to the way big tech is shaping the web.
Austine Esezobor, SEO Consultant, Google Knowledge Panel Specialist