Wells Fargo Stories: Bank’s New Content Marketing Strategy is Both Responsive and Social
A helping hand when home repairs become daunting. A clothing drive without borders. A ‘green’ home for a Purple Heart. Those are some recent headlines at Wells Fargo Stories, a new website aimed at adding another facet to the financial institution’s content marketing effort.
Wells Fargo already does a great deal of content marketing and, in our opinion, is ahead of most financial institutions in this area. While much of the bank’s existing content has focused on financial advice, products and news, the new site allows Wells Fargo to round out its content marketing strategy in a creative way with stories about employees, communities and brand values.
Wells Fargo calls its new distribution channel “an online journal of working together,” and according to a recent post from Chairman and CEO John Stumpf, the site will help the bank express its vision (see “Wells Fargo Stories website brings our vision and values to life”). Stumpf says, “You can read about or watch team members working with small businesses, helping people achieve the dream of homeownership or volunteering with their local Habitat for Humanity chapter. We are committed to living our vision and values. To serve customers and help them succeed financially. To make our communities stronger and more vibrant. To help each other and those around us.”
“Wells Fargo Stories” is the good stuff of old-fashioned public relations in a very modern package: a microsite with frequent, sharable content. Posts are brief and accompanied by quality visuals. In this story, a Wells Fargo mortgage consultant in Iowa pushed an elderly couple’s stalled car off the tracks ahead of an approaching train:
The bank won’t always have feats of heroism to cover on its site, of course, but a financial institution of its size is unlikely to run out of content. And with three categories for stories – “helping our customers succeed,” “helping our communities thrive” and “living our values” – the strategy is a great way to showcase employees, customers and corporate initiatives. In addition, the site includes a feature that allows it to highlight posts from the company’s blog, as well as selected company tweets:
Adam O’Daniel with the Charlotte Business Journal (“Wells Fargo launching into brand journalism with ‘Wells Fargo Stories’”) refers to the publication as a “self-published online magazine” and points out that its responsive design facilitates both tablet and mobile viewing. Indicating that “Stories” will be integrated with Wells Fargo’s social media strategy, O’Daniel also says, “The initiative is not common in financial services. However, other brands have adopted self-published journalism in growing numbers as they seek to connect with a changing U.S. demographic and a younger generation that has embraced social media over traditional news outlets.”
