Financial services are imperative to population. So given its importance, can financial organizations sit back and have the luxury of waiting for the customers come to them? In the past financial enterprises could afford to do this but in the present day, this could be a risky proposition for the following reasons:
- Stiff competition due to commoditization of financial products
- Emergence of numerous fin-techs
- Lack of trust among customers about the financial services
- Regulatory barriers obstructing easier marketing
- Digital transformation that are making traditional marketing techniques obsolete
- Growing demand for personalized digital experiences
The above reasons makes an effective financial marketing strategy essential for businesses to acquire customers.
“There’s going to be more change in the financial services industry in the next 5 years than there’s been in the last 30 years”
– Dan Schulman
The Core Competencies Of A Financial Marketing Strategy
Financial marketing strategy is a technique devised to create awareness about a financial product. The financial marketing landscape is extremely complex. The financial marketing strategy any enterprise formulates, should navigate through a maze of stringent guidelines. These include, mentioning appropriate affiliations, avoid deceptive or misleading advertisements about financial services, stick to transparent communication by not withholding any information from customers and more.
A financial marketing strategy should help businesses achieve the following:
- Build brand awareness
- Establish brand credibility
- Bolster revenue growth
- Bring down the customer churn
- Acquire new customers
Financial services digital marketing holds a share of 14% out of the total global digital advertising spend. If 92$ spent on lead acquisition, 1$ is categorized to converting them into customer. Hence, an effective strategy that will propel business growth by faster customer acquisition is a must for enterprises offering financial services. Usually, businesses adapt digital as well as, traditional marketing techniques which includes, television, radio, print and signage.
13 Must-know Financial Marketing Strategies To Stay Ahead Of The Game
To come up with strategies that work wonders for their financial ventures, B2B marketers should take into consideration the markets they are targeting, their enterprise’s mission and goals, and also the resources available for them to use.
An overview of some of the best financial marketing strategies to drive lead generation and revenue growth:
1. Make Your Financial Service Website The Best
Create a website that will wow the users because, 83% of consumers access a financial service company based on its website. Financial service enterprises should work towards transforming their website into an asset with apt modifications in its design and functionalities to ensure it is fast, mobile-first, user-friendly, and secure. 47% of users click the back button if the website fails to load in less than 3 seconds.
2. Grab The Attention Of Search Engines
There are multiple online search for financial services, approximately amounting to more than 700,000 each month. Businesses can convert these searchers to their paying customers through search engine optimization. Business can ensure their website ranks higher for certain keywords and place their offering in front of the user at the exact moment they’re searching for a financial service. This strategy is highly effective as SEO leads have a 14.6% sales conversion as compared to only 1.7% for outbound leads generated from print ads.
3. Educate And Empower Customers With Content Marketing
By providing educational materials in the form of blogs, articles, infographics, white papers, and videos enterprises can help users learn about their financial services or products. High-value content can attract, convince, prospects and also convert them into paying customers.
4. Take The Social Media Route
Financial enterprises should consider promoting their products on all social media channels. By advertising on multiple social media platforms, businesses can reach a wide variety of audience and encourage them to visit their website and purchase their financial offering. About 95% of millennial prefer businesses that have a Facebook page.
5. Analyze Data To Gain Useful Insights
One of the effective financial marketing strategies enterprises can adopt is data analysis. Enterprises can track user data to infer their behavior, pinpoints that affect them. After gaining valuable insights, businesses can make amends if required to make sure their financial service caters to the needs of the user.
6. Choose A Conversation-oriented Approach
Financial industry is jam-packed with mega brands and faceless corporations. It is noteworthy that customers gravitate towards businesses that take a humanized marketing approach by caring about the same this as customers care about. By taking a conversation-oriented approach, businesses can market their service to a community and get customers to rally around a brand and a common cause. By initiating heart-felt conversations with users, businesses can differentiate itself from their competitors and win more mindshare.
7. Standardize Messaging And Branding
Standardizing branding and messaging of a product is one of the important financial marketing strategy. It is crucial for financial enterprises to keep their messaging, colors, logos consistent across all channels while they promote their product. Besides fostering continuity of experience, familiarity to users, standardizing branding and messaging helps in building trust and gaining more mindshare.
8. Opt-in For Digitization
Digitization of financial services or products is a good financial marketing strategy. Financial enterprises can digitize their services by introducing a mobile app for easier transaction, set up online experience portals for customers to sign up for a specific services or change the service without having to visit a branch. Besides helping enterprises cut costs, it helps them to simplify time consuming processes and provide convenience to users gain traction. Nearly, 20% of financial companies have executed digital transformation strategy for better revenue.
9. Create A Strong Customer Support
Resolve the issues the customers are experiencing by providing good customer support. With a dedicated customer support team that responds quickly to messages and promptly answers calls, financial enterprises can build confidence in the customer about their services and retain them. According to research, 93% of customers make repeated purchases depending on the customer service experience and 89% make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.
10. Create A Good Customer Outreach
Customer outreach programs are effective financial marketing strategy that paves the way for customer engagement and retention. Financial enterprises can organize financial literacy programs and free consultations to drive user engagement. Interacting with customers will help enterprises better understand user behavior and their pain points. With these insights, they can create financial offerings that the customer will be eager to purchase several times.
11. Generate Leads With Email Marketing
Financial enterprises can benefit immensely by adopting email marketing as it gives a 4,400% return on investment (ROI), generating and closing more leads Businesses in the finance industry can leverage contact databases to access email addresses and kick-start email and newsletter marketing campaigns to connect with customers and increase awareness about their brand.
12. Consider Customer Feedback
Businesses can collect feedback about their service from the customer either through online surveys or by interacting with them. By analyzing the input, companies can learn their product’s shortcomings and modify it accordingly. Customer feedback also helps B2B marketers create compelling content for promotional campaigns that strikes a chord with the users.
13. Encourage Brand Advocacy
Leverage your customer success stories and positive reviews as a financial marketing strategy. Share video testimonials of your happy customers on your product page, encourage customers who used your service or products to write a review on social handles and persuade your customer to refer your product to family and friends. By encouraging brand advocacy, businesses can build trust amongst users. As per data, about 66% customer rely on customer reviews to purchase a product.
Wrapping Up
Financial marketing strategies work best when they are always customer-centric. Whether a customer has approached a financial enterprise through a website, a call, or an app, businesses should understand the users’ needs and pitch in their services accordingly to achieve marketing success. Businesses can utilize chatbots, AI, and other tech integrations to provide the best financial solutions, increase their user base, and retain customers. By leveraging these 13 best financial marketing strategies, enterprises can gain new customers, reduce attrition, increase brand awareness, and bolster revenue growth.