About the Client

Bajaj Finserv Limited is the holding company for the businesses dealing with financial services of the Bajaj Group. It independently runs the core businesses of Lending, Insurance and Wealth Advisory. Bajaj Finance Limited is the consumer finance lending arm of Bajaj Finserv Limited.

It is the most diversified retail-focused NBFC in the country and the largest financier of consumer durables. Bajaj Finance Limited prides itself for holding the highest credit rating of FAAA/Stable for any NBFC in the country today.

The Challenge

Driven by its mission to consistently provide innovative finance solutions across lending, protection and savings domains; Bajaj Finserv wanted help to increase their online visibility of its major products – loan, investment and durable finance such as Home Loan, Personal Loan, Business Loan, Fixed Deposit and EMI finance.

The campaign designed aimed to publish content related to loan products on Quora – a popular QnA platform that regularly features in Google search results. The idea was to “influence” customers for loan products who were in the research phase and asking related questions on Quora. It would help the Brand not only get in front of an audience that is “in-market” but build trust and credibility by offering them the right information for informed decision-making.

1. Changing mindset – Our biggest challenge was changing the mindset of the team to start looking at Quora as an influencer marketing platform [as opposed to a mere link building opportunity] and relook at the way we were approaching content creation. It took time to convince the team to create brand neutral content because that was the only way to sound genuine and win the customer’s trust.

2. Building trust and credibility – The next challenge was to rechristen the existing profiles to make them look like genuine, independent contributors in their respective topics of interest.

3. Scaling the campaign – The final challenge was to quickly scale the content marketing campaign so that it would have any measurable impact on business metrics. Otherwise the teams would lose faith in the new strategy and slip back to the old ways of creating content.

The Solution

Strategy & Execution

We devised and executed a well-researched strategy to identify and answer queries on Quora related to finance domain:

The project was kick-started with the creation of a new Quora profile named Arwind Sharma in October of 2015 and a second one named Anamika Verma in October of 2016. Originally, these profiles were created purely for acquiring backlinks for the SEO campaign, but starting August 2017 we changed our approach.

The following steps were undertaken to create a stronger presence & authority on Quora:

• Rebranding the profiles – we rebranded the profiles to make Arwind Sharma an “independent” expert in Personal Loans and Anamika Verma an “independent” expert in Home Loans & Mortgages, not directly associated with the brand. We thought this approach would work better than both profiles talking about all finance topics. And it did!
• Building trust and credibility – used experience-based storytelling and in many cases, brand-neutral content, to win the trust of users. And referred to external resources for finance-related informative tutorials such as Wikipedia links, Wikihow, etc. to build credibility for the profiles.
• Multiple Content Formats – made full use of Quora platform to create and embed content in multiple formats to engage users in the most effective way. For example, we created an apt explanation of loan application process via a combination of videos, images, step-by-step process.
• Identifying “more” questions to answer to drive scale – we researched all possible topics where we could create content and “influence” users. In addition to obvious topics like home renovation, home purchase, personal finance etc., we got into popular conversations about vacation, weddings, education wherever expenses were being discussed. The increased frequency of content sharing helped us get more views, build more engagement and increase followers.
• Facilitating quick resolution – we tried to be the first to react to user’s queries (both product-based and generic) and win their confidence before the competition had the opportunity to influence them in their favor. We used Quora’s profile notifications to help facilitate this.
• To-the-point Answers – created to-the-point answers that quickly solved user’s queries. Further, channelized efforts to improve user experience by reducing hops and direct them to the right query to make informed decisions. This strategy also helped get up-votes for answers and increase visibility.

Creativity & Innovation

Experience-based Storytelling – The most creative part of the campaign was using techniques of experience-based storytelling to “influence” the audiences’ decision-making process.

We created answers and subtly promoted the brand using the first-hand experience of our contributors, making them look genuine and trustworthy. We made it look like our two contributors had already been in that situation before and therefore in a position to answer the user’s query.

Immersive content experience – Our biggest innovation was we created content in multiple formats like infographic, video, image, and footnotes to reach the target audience. That too at a time when the competition was not doing it. As a result, our answers got maximum views and upvotes which further fueled views.

• Infographics – designed interactive infographics serving as quick product guides. For instance, infographic on online form filling for loan application in 4 simple steps, etc. Integrating them into answers to generate increased viewership.
• Videos – created several videos around products and ‘how to’ keywords. For example, how to apply for a personal loan, etc. Again, using them in answers to increase views and engagement.
• Images – using optimized images to provide refined answers to user queries.
• Footnotes – inserting footnotes in informative tutorials to clarify information and provide details the user is unfamiliar with.

This approach helped us garner the ‘trust’ and ‘engagement’ from Quora users. We were able to get Bajaj Finserv into their consideration set and move them along the sales cycle.

The Results

Both contributor profiles became “influencers” in their respective domains. The profiles, via the content created, attracted massive views via authentic and high-quality knowledge-sharing. Their answers impacted purchase decisions of users on the platform and prompted them to click through to the Brand’s website.

Arwind Sharma
Total profile views of 5,00,826 accumulated in 12 months from August 2017 until July 2018.

Starting from 28,781 in Aug 2017 to 68,457 in July 2018 the profile witnessed a 138% growth in monthly organic views.

2nd Rank in Personal Loans category

4th Rank in Loans category

Anamika Verma
The total number of views 1,64,108 accumulated in 12 months from August 2017 until July 2018.

Starting from 14,244 in Aug 2017 to 31,400 in July 2018 i.e. the profile witnessed a 120% growth in monthly organic views.

Influence and Referral Traffic

By publishing strong, opinionated and thoroughly researched content we helped get Bajaj Finserv in the consideration set when users with purchase intent were researching on Quora. The trust resulted in increased referral traffic. Hence, driving “in-market” audiences to product pages on the brand website.

The Recognition

Our new approach and content strategies bagged us multiple recognitions on Quora:

• 1st position in ‘Home Mortgage’ for ‘Most Viewed Writers’ for Anamika Verma profile
• 2nd position in ‘Personal Loan’ for ‘Most Viewed Writers’ for Arwind Sharma profile
• 4th position in ‘Loans’ for ‘Most Viewed Writers’ for Arwind Sharma profile