Through innovation and technology, fintech businesses are finding new ways to make personal banking easy. Moreover, affiliate marketing is becoming an increasingly impactful channel within this sector because of the role it plays in the customer buying journey. Unlike buying a pair of jeans, choosing the right bank or credit card is a more complex process with many more variables involved to understand. Affiliates have a powerful role to playing in helping educate users through this process and direct them to the products right for them.

As more and more publishers enter this market, merchants will be looking to partner with individuals that stand out. As such, it’s more important than ever to provide quality leads, because lower quality players are struggling to survive. With so much competition out there, it’s important to develop a strategy for finding the highest quality leads. If you’re looking to start generating commission in the education affiliate marketing industry, here’s how.

First, build your own unique website.

While it’s fantastic if you have a nice design and layout, lead aggregators are looking for something more important: unique content. Don’t scrape content generated from others! Merchants see this as a major turnoff. Create your own content by taking time to do your own research on the schools and programs that you’re trying to promote. Misleading information is extremely frowned upon in the financial services industry, and it may result in being removed from the program, before you have even had the chance to get your feet wet. For our partners that are successful, a critical part of their strategy is creating targeted content. Some affiliates publish general information about personal banking, while others have sites geared towards particular areas of personal banking such as specific categories of credit cards, rewards programs, life insurance etc. The bottom line is that you will need to continuously produce relevant content in order to constantly generate new, first-time unique customers.

Target the right audience.

In order for your marketing strategy to be successful you need to target the proper audience. Because financial wellness is universally applicable, no matter your age, gender or demographic, targeting the right audience significantly depends on the type of product you’re promoting. You need to ask yourself: What is their current priority and how can it be catered to? College students are beginning to build their credit to pay off their student debt more easily. Businessmen that travel often look for frequent flier credit cards because it earns them miles with certain airlines. Large families may look for cashback credit cards for groceries and gas as it allows them to earn redeemable points with purchases. Remember to do your research and acknowledge that different financial products (credit cards, life insurance, mortgages etc.) provide different incentives.

Avoid using controversial terms.

There are careful laws around how financial products can be marketed to help protect consumers. They cannot be misleading or provide factually incorrect information.  Terms like “free money”, “guaranteed financing” and “make your first $1k in one week” are not encouraged to be used in content.  Attractive as the terms may be, posting misleading information in your content only devalues your standing as a source of information and risks regulatory consequences.

Fintel Connect recognizes the importance of keeping marketing compliant, which is why we developed Fintel Check, a tool used to proactively manage and monitor content and product references on publisher sites.  It helps keep both brands, publishers and end consumers safe and takes away the heavy lifting of ensuring content accuracy.

Finally, analyze your stats.

You always have to be aware of what works well for you and what doesn’t, regardless of whether or not you’re promoting in the financial services industry or in some other vertical of affiliate marketing. Make sure you’re aware what marketing tools are generating the most ROI for you. Being aware of this information is especially important for those leveraging pay-per-click as a traffic source.

Want to learn more about generating quality leads and increasing your ROI? Post you questions and comments below!