Marketing your services on social media is a great way to reach a highly targeted audience outside the scope of your average reach. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all mainstays in financial services marketing, but what about the newer upstart platforms? Take TikTok, for example. It might be a relative newcomer, but the platform is massively popular with the younger demographic, making it a great way to reach young investors.
TikTok is well-known for its viral dance and music trends. During the pandemic, TikTok saw a tsunami-like surge as people lapped up millions of highly entertaining 60-second videos, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there’s much more to TikTok than getting your dance on.
In the financial realm, TikTok has risen to fame as a platform friendly to cryptocurrency and related investing. Since Facebook and Instagram have so many restrictions on crypto advertising and content, TikTok is where it’s all shifted. And while not all TikTok’s financial content is viable or trustworthy, there are many strong influencers who trade in concise, easy-to-digest investing advice—and the world is eating it up.
And if that sounds dubious, check the numbers. As of this writing, a whopping 5.2 billion people have viewed the hashtag #personalfinance on TikTok, and #financialtips has 37.4 million views. It’s clear that a growing audience is ravenous for advice on managing and growing their money—and that’s where the opportunity lies.
Young financial influencers (known on the platform as “fin-fluencers”) are finding it easy to build strong, engaged followings from the largely gen-z denizens that populate the platform. Many of these individuals watched their parents struggle through the recession and are hungry for easy tips to help them build strong foundations. You’ll find some common threads running through the most popular financial accounts; the advice is geared towards younger investors (often women), it’s non-judgmental and easy to digest.
Their followers are paying attention, too, which opens up exciting opportunities for financial firms just entering the space. Take robo-investment app Betterment, for example. A popular TikTok finfluencer posted about how you could retire using the platform, and they received 10,000 signups in a single day.
Wealthfront is yet another example, having partnered with no less than 15 TikTok fin-fluencers.
And of course, there are plenty more success stories with a similar tone, often from established fintech companies that have leveraged TikTok influencers to tell their story and spread the word.
And yes, there’s still plenty of junk financial advice to be found. What would the world be without that delicate yin-yang balance? The overnight wealth pipedream will always hold some allure for inexperienced investors, and the internet is only too quick to capitalize on that.
Reputable financial services companies have an opportunity to capture a chunk of the gen-z and millennial market they might have been so far challenged to penetrate.
Many global financial and fintech firms are finding success on TikTok. Beyond the examples outlined above…
If you’re keen to dive into the financial services niche on TikTok, there are a couple of ways to make it happen. You could choose to work with TikTok financial influencers, as many of the above-noted companies have done, or you could create your own content and build an audience by posting educational financial content.
If you choose to go the fin-fluencer route, it’s a great way to gain some traction quickly. These TikTokkers are well-versed with what the audience wants to see, and you’re more likely to get some high-quality content as they’ve already cracked the code, so to speak.
If you choose to create your own content, let your expertise inform the direction. Depending on your niche and the products you have that are suitable for the TikTok generation (think younger millennials and gen-z’s), there are plenty of ways you can offer value:
And those are just a handful of ideas. Think micro-learning, and you’ll be on the right track.
Keep in mind, TikTok content is different from what you’d post on Instagram or Facebook. TikTok videos are short, concise, often humorous, and always helpful. It’s also a good idea to get to know a few TikTok editing techniques so you’ll fit in with other top-performing content.
Be sure to use top hashtags like #personalfinance, #investing, #financialtips so your content can be found.
If you’re still wondering whether TikTok is a good channel for your financial firm, drop us a line or give us a call. We’d love to show you how a TikTok strategy can help you grow—and of course, it never hurts if you can throw down a few good dance moves.
Book a call today, and let’s talk about it.
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