How to use video to improve financial wellness

Introduction

A couple sits across from each other. With a cup of tea in hand, and their household cat purring peacefully in the corner, they open up their budget spreadsheet. Over the next sixty seconds, they discuss, resolve, and calculate their household budgets and expenses in short, quippy, educational dialogue.

No, this isn’t a home economics video released by a school. It’s a video on TikTok, and videos like this are one of the keys to providing your audience - especially the younger generation - with the tools they need to achieve financial wellness, because many are already utilizing these channels to search for information. People are searching for education around financial topics and answers to their questions. Getting in the conversation where people already are at will help you provide them with answers - and will also help you get your own name and branding out there.

Four ways you can start using video to promote financial wellness

Video is a great way to promote financial wellness, here are just some of the ways you can leverage it.

Channels: To reach the most people, distributing your content on multiple channels is the way to go. The two top channels to distribute content are YouTube and TikTok.

• TikTok: TikTok is at the top of the list, especially for the younger generations. Financial wellness trends are taking TikTok by storm and provide a great opportunity for banks and credit unions to market to new users.
• YouTube: With over a billion hours of content watched around the world every day and a range of available video formats for you to upload, YouTube would reach the largest and most diverse age ranges when it comes to sharing financial wellness guidance.
• Instagram: This social site has prioritized video content, so it is a great channel to leverage when posting content.
• Facebook, Twitter and other social sites: Posting content on all the channels you have a presence will help you reach the widest audience.
• Your website: Posting content on a section of your website, whether directly or as an embedded YouTube video, helps bring in potential new users to your website, and can also increase loyalty.

Content creation: Before you distribute content, you need to create it. There are multiple approaches you could take:

• Short videos: Most people are searching for short content - as an answer to a question, or just to begin their education process. You could easily create animated videos, casually film employees providing advice, or take a more formal video approach. Naming them “what is…” or “how to…” videos can further guide your viewers to find the content they are looking for.
• Workshops: Workshops can now take place anywhere, anytime, on demand. By recording and uploading your workshops digitally, you can bring financial wellness programs to an even wider range of viewers. These would give you the opportunity to go more in depth to a subject.
• Podcasts: Podcasts are a great way to teach financial wellness can be hosted on your website or to a digital platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Podcasts can easily be made by recording sessions on a video tool like Zoom, then using a streaming tool like Anchor.fm to publish your podcasts online. One easy-to-create podcast format includes interviewing experts. By making experts the center of your podcast, you easily keep content fresh and new.

Real-life stories of banks winning at financial wellness

Banks and credit unions across America are working hard to improve the financial wellness of their members and customers. Here are two examples.

Navy Federal Credit Union

Navy Federal Credit Union is one credit union successfully using social media videos to encourage and promote financial wellness.

• MakingCents podcast: Navy Federal Credit Union has produced a podcast available on Apple and YouTube, in it, they ask internal team members to share their best financial tips, stories, and experiences. Using collective wisdom in this way can also help you create even more content.
• #FinancialAdviceFriday: Using “shorts” on YouTube, Navy Federal Credit Union provides financial guidance as part of their “Financial Advice Friday”. An example of the advice they provide to encourage financial wellness among their users includes highlighting share certificates, explaining them in an easy-to-digest, enjoyable, short-form way, and sharing some of the ways share certificates can fit in with household finances long-term, for example, they can be used to help pay for a wedding down the line. They include a voiceover, captions, and fun graphics to help people who might learn in different ways absorb the message.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank, one of the largest in the nation, provides a great example of a financial wellness program to aspire to. They say they are on a mission to help their customers invest, budget, plan and grow, and they’re using financial wellness tools to get there.

• Short-form social media videos: Using a similar format to TikTok, U.S. Bank has leveraged “shorts” on YouTube and “reels” on Instagram to share financial wellness information with their customers and the wider market. Along with guidance and advice, they also share relevant notifications. For example, around this last tax season, they posted a “red flag” video notifying followers of scams that mimic the IRS and provided advice on how to avoid being caught out.
• Budgeting tool explainer videos: U.S. Bank provides a helpful bank cash flow forecast budgeting tool through their online banking dashboard. To help users understand how to use it, their YouTube channel publicizes the tool and provides guidance and instructions.
• Stories: Across all their video distribution platforms, they share inspiring, heart-warming videos of people from a range of backgrounds who through hard work and smart financial decisions were able to achieve their goals, helping motivate and encourage their audiences.
• Real good podcast: Real Good is a podcast hosted by U.S. Bank, it’s available on Stitcher and discusses topics like inequality in entrepreneurial opportunities, how housing provides the basis for wealth, and how one guest is helping create generational wealth for Communities of Color.

Improve customer loyalty with video-driven financial wellness

It’s no secret customers are expecting more from their banks and credit unions. Producing easy-to-understand videos encouraging and embracing financial wellness is an effortless way to bring your users the support and guidance they crave.

At Backbase, we support banks and credit unions by providing a single, streamlined platform designed to democratize banking, improve customer engagement, and enhance financial wellness. Schedule a chat to find out how we do it.