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By its very nature, the finance industry is highly competitive, yet at the same time slow to change. However, if finance companies want to keep up, implementing and changing the marketing strategy is vital. Without having an up to date marketing strategy, you could be missing out on effective marketing techniques which may put you at a major disadvantage as customers carry out detailed research before committing to mortgages, saving accounts, credit cards etc.
The market is so competitive as you’re competing with everything from the traditional high street banks to online aggregators like MoneySupermarket. On top of that, there is so much red tape around transparency and compliance, meaning there are only specific marketing activities you can publish. So how do you know which marketing strategies will be beneficial for your company?
Here are seven digital marketing strategies that will help you stay ahead of the competition:
It seems impossible for a large organisation like a financial institution to be without an automated system when it comes to managing their marketing. However, because of concerns around compliance in relation to digital marketing, a lot of finance companies don’t adopt any marketing automation within their strategies.
Marketing automation can include a triggering system such as; automatically sending out emails when people click on a certain button for example which also enables you to send out a personalised email to follow up with. Using an automated system can track the success of your campaigns, enabling you to filter out the content that isn’t performing well for future campaigns. This saves you so much time as you no longer have to worry about tedious tasks such as remembering to send a follow-up email to a potential client.
Creating an automated system like this within your marketing strategy helps the problem around compliance, as users can opt-in to any marketing communications, which enables you to send them the right content, at the right time. Saving you hours of having to do this yourself so you can focus on closing these deals instead.
For financial institutions, using mobile in consumer communications is the foundation of leveraging digital activities to develop a long-lasting relationship across the consumer life-cycle. According to InMobi, 60% of all internet use is now through mobile devices as consumers expect the same experience on mobile as they do on desktop. Scaling activity to where people are and ways they want to be communicated with will drive further engagement and save you and your company in time and money.
Are you finding it easy to attract new leads but struggling to convert them? Well, the good news is that you’re not alone. In 2017, only 22% of businesses were happy with their conversion rates. When it comes to conversions or the lack of them, it’s a lot more than inefficiencies. It’s showing that money isn’t being well spent.
Within a lot of industries, particularly financial services, consumer trends are showing that not only do they want more of a digital relationship with their banks but they actually prefer this type of relationship. Optimising the customer experience necessitates a strong digital presence in the banking and finance industry. It’s not just about how you provide those services anymore, but how you market them. The more you can focus on engaging with your customers on how and where they want to be engaged, the better you should be able to delight and convert.
Content marketing is stronger now more than ever and generates 3x as many leads as traditional marketing. It’s no shock that as financial institutions are in such a highly competitive market, they need to make their content stand out across multiple channels to attract and delight new customers.
There are so many different channels and mediums to choose from, but you need to focus your efforts on the types of content that your target audience and customers are most willing to exchange their information for.
The finance industry is already in a very strong position to capitalise on the use of content marketing as the topics they deal with aren’t usually understood by the actual people who they’re marketing to. This is your chance to create original content that utilises your company’s expertise and provide insights on topics your customers care about.
This may seem an obvious strategy but for some financial institutions, there still seems to be a disconnect between the corporate world of financial services and the more laid-back approach of social media.
Social media does operate differently for businesses than it would for individuals. This means that you can skip the status updates and instead focus on compelling imagery and content that represents your brand and what you can do for the customer. Still keep in mind that when it comes to social media, there’s always a learning curve. What works for your competitor may not work for you and that’s fine. Learn what does and adapt your strategy to the successes. There won’t be big benefits right away as it will take time to build your following and brand awareness. Once this has been achieved you will be able to start capturing strong engagement from your customers.
Financial institutions are one of the biggest users of direct mail and it’s unlikely to drastically change anytime soon. There’s no reason why your print marketing can’t work together with your digital marketing. If both your offline and online marketing efforts are joined up, they will create such an impactful and consistent strategy.
You could use innovative direct mail to drive those consumers to your online content. For example, by using a QR code or through a simple URL. Or if you have an offer on a certain service, you could make the offer redeemable through digital promotion.
So many organisations have ramped up their video marketing efforts within the past few years and they have every right to do so as over 60% of traffic online is video. With this in mind, it seems such an attractive form of media for the financial institutions to adopt, adapt and utilise to their advantage. The video content could be anything from how-to tutorials for online and mobile banking, promotional advertisements, as well as video content showing community involvement.
Financial companies should focus on visual storytelling to educate, entertain and attract customers. Ensure the video content remains true to the brand and to your goals. There should be no reason why you won’t start to see an increase in engagement and potential leads.
When it comes to digital marketing, there’s no such thing as a universal blueprint for what to do and what will work for your organisation. Trends are undeniably shaping businesses each and every day, which should guide you to how your company can connect with customers. Remember, every business is different. You have to make sure you’re staying ahead of the curve and are able to adapt your digital marketing strategy when necessary.
