7-15
7–15 minutes average engagement on Coast Capital's financial literacy hub during the pandemic.
minutes average engagement
increased production from 20 to over 400 assets
Contently-vetted freelance creatives in network
Overview
Coast Capital is a Canadian-based, member-owned financial cooperative. With over 80 years of experience helping their community unlock financial opportunities, Coast Capital aims to help its 600,000 members create financial freedom and impact positive change in their communities. With its emphasis on social responsibility and community building, Coast Capital was looking for a way to reach its audience and educate them on the benefits of good personal finance habits.
When Jill Canty, Senior Manager, Content Marketing, joined Coast Capital in March 2020, consumers were looking for information about how to keep their finances in check amidst the global health crisis. "There were a couple of budgeting articles on our site, but there wasn't strong financial literacy advice we could send to our consumers," she states.
Challenge
The early days of the pandemic were chaotic. No one knew what to expect. The economy was shifting rapidly and consumers were concerned. Coast Capital wanted to share content that could help its members prepare their personal finances for whatever came next.
"I needed to produce a huge volume of content for our members. Especially during this uncertain time frame, it was imperative that we produced accurate and well-written content. I had two large boxes to check, and there weren't enough internal resources to accomplish those goals," shares Canty. "In addition to creating content, I also needed to build a content strategy for distribution and promotion. I had to find help to build the plane while I was trying to fly it."
Canty needed a solution to help her scale content production and she needed access to talented writers who could produce quality work the first time. "It's a heavily regulated industry, so I needed to be able to trust the work I got back. It's not only a reflection of Coast Capital but a reflection of my contribution to our goals as well."
Solution
Canty knew of Contently and was aware that the solution was a widely used platform for content marketers in financial services. Colleagues from other financial institutions recommended Contently as a platform with a wealth of talented financial writers.
She researched a couple of other companies to make sure this was the right fit for Coast Capital. "Everyone has been desperate enough at some point to use a talent-sourcing platform to find freelancers, but the quality of their freelancers just does not compare to the talent on a content marketing platform like Contently," she affirms.
Canty signed on with Contently in 2020 to start the partnership and has been using the tool and its talent network ever since. Contently gives Canty and her internal teammates the ability to focus on more strategic tasks for Coast Capital, especially with Lynne Schur as their Managing Editor (ME). Coast Capital partners with Contently's ME to manage editorial topics from brief to execution.
In addition, Canty's team is starting to focus on multimedia content. Partnering with Apollonia Productions, one of Contently's highly sought-after video production agencies, Coast Capital has begun to create valuable videos that speak to their members in personal ways.
Results
Using Contently, Coast Capital was able to scale significantly, expanding the number of assets from 20 to over 400 in just two years. Around 80% of those pieces were contributed by Contently writers. Canty now has an entire library to choose from when she's crafting a marketing campaign. The volume of assets has even enabled her to create a successful newsletter program.
"We've had insane time-on-page ranging anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes on our articles. We're seeing a huge uptick in direct traffic, so that indicates that people are bookmarking articles and using them as references to go back to time and time again," shares Canty.
"Not only are our members and readers engaging; they see us as thought leaders in the industry. My team tracks click-throughs on the articles as well, and we're seeing that our readers are actually binge-reading our content. Contently has improved our SEO, reduced our bounce and exit rates, and helped us reach page 1 rankings on SERP," exclaims Canty. "We've even achieved a few Featured Snippets, which is the holy grail when it comes to SEO goals."
"Our consumers were looking for a lifeline during the pandemic. They not only needed budgeting help, but they wanted to prepare their savings for an impending financial crisis. Our members were looking to us to help them navigate the unknown."
Jill Canty · Senior Manager, Content Marketing · Coast Capital
Library expansion in two years — with 80% contributed by Contently writers.