The following is a guest editorial by Charlotte Day, Creative Director at Contentworks Agency.


Marketing your brokerage is becoming more and more challenging thanks to constant changes to the Google algorithm, tighter budgets, rapidly increasing competitors, and complex regulations. As a financial services marketing company, we’ve experienced first-hand the many pitfalls you can encounter. And, over the past two decades in the industry, we’ve seen (and potentially made) some blunders.

We asked our team to share some of their scariest stories that have left behind the biggest lessons. Here are some of the biggest mistakes brokers make so you don’t have to!

Strategy… Which Strategy?

Niki Nikolaou, Director, Contentworks Agency

On the first day of my first job at FX in 2006, I reached out to HR for my orientation and asked for the department’s marketing plan. I got the “what planet are you from” look. What amazes me is that after all these years, I still come across brokers who don’t have a marketing plan. No one. Nothing. Nanda! I think it’s like getting into your car without knowing where you’re going, why you’re going, the route to get there, and what you expect to find at the end.

A solid marketing strategy for a broker sets goals and objectives, identifies and segments target markets, determines the marketing mix and measures success. Creating a marketing strategy is vital to ensure everyone is on the same page. It should be accessible and refined throughout the year. I have seen so many resources wasted due to lack of strategy or not being consistent with the strategy that was created and then filed in the bottom drawer.

Expand into new markets before you’re ready

Charlotte Day, Director, Contentworks Agency

As a broker you are always on the lookout for new trends and emerging markets. We worked with a successful international broker a few years ago who decided to enter the African market (like everyone else now!). They did a lot of things right. They hired a local team, segmented the continent into regions and created targeted campaigns based on each country’s profile, worked closely with IB and hit the road meeting their audience in person. Their marketing was spot on, understanding the messages to deliver, in what format and channel.

Where did they fail? The company had not built robust payment systems in order to collect deposits and allow efficient withdrawals. And if a merchant or partner can’t withdraw their money quickly, you’ll hear about it, and so will everyone else on social media.

It seemed like such a small detail that I hadn’t cleared up before embarking on a massive campaign to enter the region. But once you lose trust, it’s hard to get it back. Trying to recover a tarnished online reputation is also difficult. My takeaway is simple. Get all your systems in place, from your techstack to your banking, legal and compliance. Once you’ve done that, you can start rolling.

Do you want to enter new markets? Download our guide to emerging areas for forex brokers.

Throwing money at advertising

Milton George, Head of PPC, Growth-onomics

In my experience, the most common mistake brokers make in performance marketing/media buying is failing to target specific markets and not allocating enough funds for initial testing. Successfully entering a new market requires a significant budget to effectively test your creatives and offerings. Spending only 2-3 thousand dollars is insufficient to draw meaningful conclusions. As a result, brokers often spend a small budget, fail to see tangible results, and incorrectly conclude that either their ads or promotions are ineffective.

Another mistake some brokers make is to start with paid advertising before their site is performing optimally. This means having quality, engaging content that is branded and drives the traffic received to the desired next action – like signing up for a demo, opening a live account, making a deposit, etc.

Big beautiful site that doesn’t do it’s job

Nikos Malekos, Head of SEO, Growth-onomics

The biggest mistake in SEO is overusing Javascript to create heavy-load websites with poor user-friendliness that are difficult for search engines to read. These are custom, beautiful websites with very low usability that often need to be redesigned from the ground up to work for SEO.

The best solution is to work with an SEO expert early in the process or redesign or relaunch a new website to ensure it’s built right, rather than trying to fix it at the end.

Thinking AI can do all your content

Kate Palmer, Senior Content Manager, Contentworks Agency

There are many AI tools out there that you’ve probably been using for years. For content creation, AI can be great for research and brainstorming. But if you rely on it to create all of your content, you’ll soon see generic, non-compliant content that can be incorrect and harmful to your brand. I mean, how often have you read emails that will “upgrade your trades”? And this is just an innocent example.

I was editing an article on how to use Candlesticks for a broker that clearly used artificial intelligence to generate the text, my job was just to check spelling and grammar. However, as I understand the details of the transactions, I have come across some misinformation. It was telling traders that the MACD is a leading indicator. I can understand why this mistake was made, as you might assume that “abbot” means top. However, in the world of technical analysis, a “leading indicator” is data that helps predict prices. MACD is clearly a lagging indicator as any trader worth their salt will tell you.

So yes, AI is a great tool to help you research, but final drafts should be reviewed by a human to ensure correctness, compliance, SEO, brand tone, and uniqueness. Google isn’t overly clear about how it ranks AI-generated content, but it is clear about its EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) score.

If you’re looking for fresh, relevant content that’s vital to maintaining visibility and authority, book a 15-minute Zoom with our team.

Assuming your Forex marketing strategy will work for Prop Trading

Johan Visser, Financial Analyst, Contentworks Agency

We are seeing more and more brokers offering leveraged trading, either under their own brand or as a separate brand. The most common mistake we see is assuming that what you know about your forex trading audience can be communicated to your trading audience. A typical FX trader is looking for leverage, fast trading, high volatility, risk management. An item dealer is usually younger, less experienced and seeks training and support from the community. Prop trading requires less capital up front and takes some of the mental pressure out of trading. This means a completely different psychographic profile than what you may be used to.

As with all your target markets, segment them, research them and get to know them. Here are some quick facts to better understand decoy traders:

  • Being community-driven, prop marketers are centered around YouTube, Discord, Instagram, and other community-driven networks and influencers
  • 95.7% of product traders are male with an average age in the US of 43 years
  • Again in the US, the ethnicity of product traders is Anglo 66.1%, Asian 12.5%, Hispanic 11.6%, African American 5.5%
  • Languages ​​spoken in order – English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese
  • The support space was valued at $6.7 billion globally in 2020 at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2021-2028
  • Regulators, including the CFTC, crack down on prop trading, so make sure your communication is transparent and above all else.

Support from agency 360

Overworked marketing departments are ripe for mistakes to happen. Using the support of a 360-degree marketing agency allows you to support different areas of your integrated marketing plan. It’s a scalable solution that can work independently or as part of your overall team.

Talk to Contentworks about marketing for your forex trading company or prop.

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