Fintech content is everywhere. It might as well be taped to your eyeballs.
Video is even more common. LinkedIn is awash with podcast clips and memes, all vying for attention.
But so much of this content isn’t worth the pixels it’s formed from! That’s because creating high-value video that delivers results is difficult.
Someone who understands that more than most is Laura Watkins, Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS.
As the person responsible for 11:FS’s unparalleled content machine - including series like 11:FS Explores and the popular Fintech Insider podcast - she knows first-hand the realities of fintech content in 2025.
The following 9 min read covers questions like:
- What makes a good fintech content strategy?
- How should fintech marketers approach video content?
- What’s the best approach to distribution?
If you’re curious about approaches to video marketing in general, or feel lost in an oversaturated content ocean, then this is the perfect read for your mid-morning digestive (milk chocolate, obvs).
Content Strategy: Less Roadmap, More Adaptability
When it comes to delivering a top-performing content strategy, Laura’s dual role is itself an asset.
Not only is she responsible for the content itself, but also for ensuring that this content gets seen.
As she points out, “there is no media without marketing. If you want an audience, people have got to be able to find it”.
No surprises there, but the real benefit of this joined up thinking is that the content is designed with distribution in mind (more on that later).
But is there such a thing as ‘too much’ planning when it comes to content?
Our conversation took place in the wake of DeepSeek hitting the market and catching many off-guard.
For Laura, this is a great example of when having a fixed content strategy would be a misstep. The best content teams understand that priorities shift and industry conversations evolve, and you need to be fast to react.
Her strategy involves having your ‘tent poles’ - markers for bigger bits of content - but to not fix what they’ll be about.
The Art of Launching Content
So where should you start when creating new content?
For Laura, it’s all about navigating the push and pull of two forces:
- What do your audience want to hear? And
- What opportunities are there based on industry developments?
Starting with the audience means you’re thinking about the engagement from the very outset, and not trying to shoehorn it in later.
But what happens if you read the room badly?
Well as with any creative endeavour, fortune favours the bold. And that means being bold enough to get it wrong.
But it doesn’t have to be all guesswork.
How Do You Know What Content is Going to Be Engaging?
Laura focuses again on the outcomes first.
Don’t just think about the content, think about what it’s going to do. What does success look like?
“If you really want it to increase downloads of your app, then it has to have a very clear audience that's very targeted with a clear takeaway”
It’s essential that the content is designed in a way that allows you to adapt it if it isn’t landing.
Try deploying it in a LinkedIn carousel, or a video clip, or a text-based post.
As Laura puts it, “create content which can then allow you to use different levers”.
Why Do 11:FS Focus On Videos Specifically?
Longevity is an idea we kept returning to. Videos can have an evergreen life cycle, especially on YouTube, where the content can resurface seemingly of its accord.
“Video is really fascinating because you can have a splash straight out of the gate, and then you might have a look at it in three months and the numbers have tripled in size”
Part of this power, Laura believes, is down to its searchability.
At 11:FS, they put a lot of time and energy into making sure their videos are as discoverable as possible. This involves extensive keyword research, using those keywords in the titles, and tagging the videos with searchable terms.
If you’d like to know more about using video for SEO purposes then you can see our handy guide here.
Making sure that your videos have a long shelf life is the key to maximising their ROI, and consistently generating leads from your content.
How Do You Make Great Video Content?
One word: engagement.
Without it, you might as well not bother with the information, style, substance, CTA, brand - any of it.
Laura describes the opening of a video like a tabloid headline - you need to tell them the whole story in those opening seconds, otherwise you’ve lost them.
“You can have the best studio in the world, the best cameras in the world, the best editors. [But] if the content is dry, it doesn't change anything.”
Content is king, and the engagement with that content is the key to success. So much so, that often you can make a virtue out of the other elements being rough and ready.
As Laura notes, “you can make the edit a bit more scrappy. And that's actually relatively fashionable at the moment with these stark jump cuts”.
“As long as what's happening is full of key takeaways and a little bit of animation to bring it to life, that makes all the difference.”
It sounds straightforward.
So you’re probably wondering why so much content doesn’t meet this basic need to engage before it informs?
I put this to Laura who is all too familiar with this dynamic, especially in fintech.
For her, video can often be at odds with regulation and the idea of covering your back to make sure you haven’t said the wrong thing.
Corporate comms strikes again!
There is often a fear that in distilling a message down to its key features, and making it engaging, that some piece of information is missed.
"I've worked on a lot of videos where the tendency is to go, ‘and another thing and another thing’, and then your video is really swollen.”
But that’s not how Laura approaches things.
11:FS’s Standouts from 2024
It’s no surprise that some of 11:FS’s best performing content from the past year has been designed specifically for engagement.
“Explainer content always works really well for us because it’s surgical and evergreen, i.e. addressing an industry question concern like, what do I need to know about PSD3? (Payment Services Directive 3)”
One such example is an interview clip with Mark Mullan (Atom Bank) speaking about his departure from HSBC.
Apart from featuring a household brand, Laura puts the success of this down to it featuring a very human story.
Another way to guarantee engagement is to break out of fintech and into the general zeitgeist.
A successful 11:FS video from last year did just that, when an After Dark clip discussing Nationwide’s acquisition of Virgin Money took off, after name dropping Richard Branson in the process.
By bringing in outside audiences, Laura notes, you can create more virality for your content.
Use Socials as a Testing Ground
As we discussed at the start, it’s not enough just to create great videos.
If you don’t have a good distribution plan for that content, then it won’t go anywhere.
11:FS have always been social first above all other channels.
This means LinkedIn, but also increasingly platforms specifically designed for video content like TikTok and Instagram.
Laura sees these platforms as the testing ground for the material. A place to try out ideas quickly, to see what works, and then to double down i.e. in a paid or email campaign.
Another crucial step is “tapping into the networks of the people involved in the content”.
Laura points out that content coming from an individual is always better than content coming from a brand, and 11:FS will always provide their interviewees with clips of themselves and get them to shout about the content.
What Does Success Look Like?
This is a tricky question for any marketer to answer once you get into the details.
Yes it’s about driving revenue and growth, but what factors are going to drive that along the way?
A content machine is only as good as the lead attribution system it's a part of.
Laura is all too aware of this, and at 11:FS all of their content is tied to their CRM so that sales can tie leads directly to a specific bit of content.
“It's always worth sitting down with either the finance team or the biz dev team to look at the deals that you made and see what was the key originator”
This is crucial as it allows them to use the information to direct their content strategy going forward.
A perfect example of sales and marketing working as one.
Laura is keen to highlight the flow of information the other way too.
She’ll frequently discuss with sales how they’re using a specific piece of content in their conversations to close a lead, and then walk the process back from there to see what they can learn going forward.
Favourite Fintech Video Content
It wouldn’t be a Fintech Video Essentials if we didn’t ask Laura to highlight some of her favourite fintech video content from the past year.
“The one I landed on was Square’s TV Ads. They're very human and they showed real people running real businesses”.
What stood out was the almost “negative message”. Other business things go wrong, but the key was that your point of sale was fine.
It didn't make the POS the hero, but rather the everyday product that just works.
They’re very human stories, and ones that rely on emotional resonance above all else.
Wrap Up
Fintech video content is everywhere, but let’s be real - not all of it hits the mark.
As Laura points out, the secret sauce isn’t just making more videos; it’s about making the right videos that actually grab attention and drive results.
Here are the biggest takeaways from our chat:
- Have a plan, but stay flexible: If you’re too rigid with your content strategy, you’ll miss opportunities to react to what’s happening in the industry.
- Hook people fast: If your video doesn’t grab attention in the first few seconds, most people won’t stick around.
- Make it more than just fintech: The best content pulls in personal stories, trending topics, and broader cultural moments.
- Use social platforms as a test lab: Try different formats on LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram to see what sticks before committing to bigger campaigns.
Track what works: Tie your videos to actual business outcomes - use data to see what’s driving engagement and conversions, and do more of that.