To run a successful financial marketing campaign, you can’t stay stagnant. Just because something has worked before doesn’t mean that it will continue to succeed. To help you rise to the challenge of an ever-changing financial marketing landscape, let’s explore some of the biggest financial marketing trends in 2019.
Chatbots
More and more websites are implementing chatbots that can answer basic questions and help site visitors. These bots use artificial intelligence to guide the user through their experience.
Developers are continuing to develop more intuitive AI that can better aid users. As time passes, these bots will be able to help with increasingly complex activities. As chatbots grow more complex, they will develop the capacity to help users make important financial decisions.
Financial institutions usually have a variety of forms, products, and pieces of information that a user can access. Having a chatbot, which can answer questions instantaneously at all times of day and night, can greatly improve the customer experience.
Another important, yet often overlooked, aspect of chatbots is their ability to develop and maintain your brand’s personality. Developing a consistent personality for your bot can improve you brand awareness and leave a positive impression on your customers, even when the bot is unable to do what the customer needs.
Content Marketing
People often fail to appreciate or pay attention to the constant marketing directed at them. Because of this, financial institutions should focus on content marketing. Instead of solely pushing a product, content marketing positions you to meet the customer where they are.
Content marketing goes hand in hand with the increased emphasis on mobile. When developing a content marketing strategy, it is important to remember that this content will appear across platforms.
The type of content matters, but it not the most important aspect of this strategy. Videos, blogs, infographics, ebooks, and white papers are all effective methods of marketing your product. However, the crux of content marketing, regardless of the medium, is that you provide something of value to your customer.
Effective content marketing can lead people to trust your brand and eventually join it. As Financial Brand says, “This strategy, when personalized and supported by value propositions, is an excellent way of educating consumers, moving people through the sales funnel, and converting them to customers.”
Personalization
Personalization is becoming more and more crucial across the internet. This trend is particularly acute in the financial services industry. Personalization is no longer considered an exception. Instead, users see personalization as a part of good customer service.
This trend is not new. Personalization has become increasingly more integral for years, and has become a mainstay among digital marketing trends. However, user expectations continue to grow, which means that financial services companies need to improve their personalization to maintain their clients.
Personalization is no longer a matter of going above and beyond. It has become a cornerstone for maintaining your existing customers. This infographic by The Financial Brand shows that ⅓ of customers who leave a brand do so because of a lack of personalization.
What empowers this hyper-personalization is an increased emphasis on data analysis. By keeping track of all of your users previous buying decisions and browsing info on your site, you can ensure that your users only get the information that is relevant to them.
Mobile
Mobile technology continues to become increasingly important, and is no exception for the financial industry. Across demographics, mobile technology use continues to increase. Mobile devices are overtaking home computers in terms of internet access and the completion of online tasks. This means that any channels you have must be mobile friendly.
However, being mobile friendly may not be enough. Consider designing marketing strategies specifically for mobile users, whether that be through your website or app. This means that your content should be easily consumable and small.
Hand in hand with mobile technology is the importance of social media. Social media marketing allows you to target audiences to get your products and services in front of the right eyes. It also gives you a way to increase your brand awareness and improve your customers’ opinions of you.
Customer Outreach
Customer outreach is the development and maintenance of your relationships with your (potential) customers. The actual practices may vary, but the goal remains the same: improve your reputation and develop trust.
Maintaining a solid rapport is essential for the long-term success of your financial business, so this process is key. As a financial company, you are dependent on maintaining your current customers as well as finding new ones.
Oftentimes, this relationship building will take place online, through social media, review sites, or email. How you handle yourself and interact with customers online is paramount to the success of your business. As SMBCEO says, “Your business might be seen as a nuisance if your efforts are over the top. And, if you never respond to complaints, customers could see your business as unresponsive and uncaring.”
However, much of these efforts can and should occur offline as well. Hosting a financial workshop or meeting with a potential customer in person can leave an extremely positive impression. All of this can be done without explicitly marketing your product and will build positive impressions of your company.
At Sting, we understand that your marketing strategy and practices can make or break your company. We consider and respond to current trends when developing effective marketing strategies for financial companies. Our data-driven marketing approach is sure to yield the results that your financial company desires. If you are interested in elevating your financial company and increasing your customer base, contact us today!
