Finances are personal in a way that many things aren't. With more than 94% of online users across all age groups using financial services, it's no surprise that the sector accounts for nearly 20% of global media spend. However, the cost per customer acquisition in this sector is high, along with the difficulties of acquiring loyalty from younger digitally-savvy consumers and competition from more agile challenger financial service providers like neobanks.
Financial service providers looking to advertise their offerings must effectively navigate a complex marketing landscape filled with regulatory and compliance obstacles while relying mainly on outdated traditional marketing methods.
This article aims to explore four marketing strategies financial services providers can look into to improve the performance of their marketing efforts.
Intro to Financial Services Marketing
Financial services marketing can be defined as the use of various marketing techniques and tools to create and drive awareness for financial products. The aim of the process is to convert leads into loyal customers through ongoing marketing activities.
Being one of the oldest and most essential industries globally, the financial services industry enjoyed the luxury of sitting back and having clients come to them. However, the situation has drastically changed in recent years:
Financial services have become standardised, making it hard for individual firms to stand out from the competition.
Aggressive FinTechs challenge the status quo
With recent economic collapses and revelations, the financial service industry has suffered a loss of trust from customers.
Tighter regulations are making it harder to market aggressively.
Advances such as marketing automation are rendering traditional marketing methods ineffective.
Financial service providers need to implement innovative financial service marketing strategies that will create new business opportunities with these barriers to success.
Financial Services Marketing Strategies
1. Automation and Big Data
According to an IBM study in 2015, they estimated that every day we collectively create 2.5 quintillions (1018) bytes of data and that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last 2 years. Being arguably the most data-driven industry globally, the impact of Big Data cannot be overstated.
Customer experience platforms and automation tools make it easy to utilise and apply these data points as part of the marketing strategy for financial services. For instance, the data can tell you who is saving up for a major purchase and most likely going to apply for a loan, big data can help you anticipate which products people will want, and you offer them before or after they are needed, and it can help you identify specific customers for additional customer service.
An innovative use of automation to consider is creating tailored services, offering personalised solutions, and using data to create custom dashboards for clients.
2. Social Media
There are currently 3.78 billion social media users, accounting for approximately 48% of the total human population. The average social media user spends 142 minutes/ 2h 24 minutes a day on social media sites. This number is expected to increase as social media continues to become the primary channel for communication.
Maintaining a steady social media presence on the platforms that the audience frequents with a cohesive strategy in place to offer value to followers will help the brands create marketing opportunities, build trust, and grow their customer base.
Ideally, financial service providers should use social media platforms to connect with followers and foster trust. Done correctly, it could cut the cost of customer service and customer acquisition.
A smart social media strategy utilises content, storytelling, creative humour, a consistent message, and the desire to offer the customer value rather than the bank.
3. Digital Storytelling
Storytelling is an effective marketing tool because of its ability to hold your audience's attention and engage them beyond fact.
Whether through videos, ads, social media, or cross-channel platforms, the marketing strategy should encompass telling a compelling story that captures the audience's attention, envokes excitement, and has the ability to move the viewer.
Financial service providers must aim to create relatable and sharable content that entertain, educate, or help their customers in some way- preferably all three. This will help financial service providers create a human factor whilst simultaneously promoting the products in the ad.
4. Financial Literacy Programs
The digital environment has changed how money is used, acquired, handled, spent, and saved; and how loans and other financial instruments are evaluated and given. This can cause stress and anxiety for the more financially illiterate customers, who make up the majority of financial services providers' customer base.
Financial literacy programs allow banks and other providers to reach out to customers and provide an additional channel to build trust and connections. This is beneficial for both the service providers and the customers. This can be a sustainable growth channel to increase the number of potential customers.
An additional benefit to the service providers is that the more financially literate customers are and the more competent they are in making economically sound decisions, the more financial products and services that can be marketed to them, meaning more money for the company.
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