No matter the industry a business operates in, having an effective marketing strategy in place would be crucial to its overall success. A robust set of marketing strategies have to be implemented by a business to reach its targeted customer base. Scott Tominaga points out that within the financial industry, marketing would extremely crucial for varying types of business, including credit companies, brokers, banks, financial advisors, financial planners, alternative lenders and startup financial companies. Financial services marketing involves the use of distinctive marketing tools and tactics to magnetize new customers, as well as retain existing ones.
While financial services sector is definitely one of the oldest and most prominent industries in the world, it does not mean that the companies involved in it have the luxury of sitting back and just have customers come to them. The competition level in this market has significantly surged up over the years, especially with the emergence of aggressive FinTech firms. To gain a much-required edge against their competitors, companies dealing with financial services have to create and implement well-planned marketing strategies. A financial company additionally has to define and sharpen their core values from the branding and marketing perspective, in order to effectively connect with their customer base.
Digitalization has today shifted the control from the marketer to the customer. This seismic shift has major implications for financial services marketing, urging the need to follow a digital-first approach. Millennials and Generation Z especially prefer to engage with companies, including the ones offering financial services, via digital channels. To connect and engage with these customers, companies need an impressive online presence. While traditionally, financial service providers have majorly depended on traditional marketing process, it is time that they evolve their campaigns as per the modern trends and embrace digital marketing. Techniques like content marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing has become popular for connecting with customers. Even social media platforms are used by financial services providers of today to keep customers engaged and improve conversions.
Customers today interact with financial services brand across multiple channels right from smartphone apps to websites. Hence, they expect familiarity and continuity in all such platforms. Both of these elements are crucial to gaining more mindshare and building trust. This is the reason why companies need to have branding elements that share a common theme and design across multiple channels. These elements include banner ads, header images, profile pictures and logos. Moreover, the messaging of the financial services company also needs to be consistent across channels.
Scott Tominaga further mentions that gaining a proper understanding of financial services marketing ROI is vital to make sure that suitable investments are being made. But without data, gaining this perspective is difficult. Combining consented data from email, social media, CRMs and more into a unified data structure that can offer actionable insights for improved marketing ROI has become prudent for financial service providers.
