the results The project delivered
A Look behind the strategy that led to the results
The work
The Client: An Online Brokerage Looking To Become Content-Relevant
TradeStation was looking to become a “social and content-first” brand to propel them ahead of competing brokerages. Despite repositioning efforts which included major changes to their brand and pricing, trade station had no edge.
The Audience: The “Trader-Investor”
TradeStation's ask was simple, but also incredibly broad. Our plan had to position the brand and its content to the incredibly complex and nuanced world of “traders.” The audience spanned from novices to pros who had very strong and unforgiving expectations for trading content — namely, they wanted to know what, when and how to trade different opportunities.
The Main Playing Field: Twitter
The most critical element of any content strategy is to publish content that's in sync with the target audience's expectation on the right platform. TradeStation was nonexistent on Twitter—the leading platform for trader and investor interaction.
The financial side of Twitter (fintwit) chews through content with blinding speed, loyal only to what’s relevant, helpful and timely. In order for TradeStation to distinguish itself from its competitors in this dog-eat-dog community, we had to push TradeStation’s presence and content to compete with the likes of a financial publisher.
The Strategy That Changed The Game:
The strategy was to enhance TradeStation's overall brand experience by offering trading ideas and education in a way that not only engaged this multi-faceted audience, but also showcased TradeStation’s differentiator as an incredibly powerful and insightful analytical platform.
To create the right content, we developed content buckets that allowed TradeStation to maintain a rigorous publishing schedule with less than a week of lead time. Our content focused on trade-able trends, evergreen education, platform tutorials and community connection—all completely in rhythm with what traders were paying attention to, now.
And The Results? They Look Like This:
The strategy's performance was outstanding. Engagement went through the roof. Organic reach (reminder: brands should only expect reach to be 2-5% of their total audience) routinely doubled or tripled our total followers. Competitors, E*TRADE and TD Ameritrade, shifted their social strategy seven months into our campaign to mirror our timely content approach.
The biggest result was recognition from independent reviews from influential publishers:
Investor Business Daily—Top Online Brokers:
TradeStation goes from honorable mention in 2016 to top platform in 2017, largely due to trading ideas and improved customer experience