The financial services industry has undergone massive changes in recent years. Customers now expect to be able to access financial services and products digitally, whenever and wherever they want. This shift has created major opportunities for financial services providers to utilize digital marketing to connect with customers and grow their business.
Benefits of Digital Marketing for Financial Services
There are several key benefits that financial services firms can achieve through effective digital marketing:
Increased Brand Awareness
Having more people know your financial brand is really important. Digital marketing methods like search engine optimization, content marketing, social media advertising, and pay-per-click ads can help get your brand seen by many potential new customers online. When people go online to search for different financial products or services like loans, credit cards, retirement planning, investing, and more, they can find your brand more easily. Tactics like making your website content really optimized for financial keywords so it shows up at the top of Google searches, creating helpful blog posts, videos, and other formats that provide value and mention your brand, running targeted ads on social media platforms, and bidding on relevant keyword searches so your PPC ads show at the top can all increase awareness. Marketer has expertise in all these areas like SEO, developing great content strategies, managing social media ad campaigns, and setting up pay-per-click campaigns that can help build more brand awareness.
More Sales Opportunities
Digital marketing also allows you to closely track all your leads and sales that come from different online channels and platforms. This way you can clearly identify which digital sources are driving the most valuable potential customers and real sales for your financial products. With these insights, you can then optimize where you focus your marketing budgets and efforts to maximize sales opportunities from digital. For example, you may discover that Facebook ads perform much better for generating mortgage leads, while Google search ads are better for credit card sales. Knowing this, you can shift more budget to Facebook for mortgages and Google for credit cards. Marketer analyzes all your sales and lead data to uncover the specific best digital platforms for your financial offerings.
Enhanced Customer Experience
Nowadays customers expect very easy and personalized experiences when using financial services online and on their mobile devices. Digital marketing provides great opportunities to meet customers where they are and give them the customized, omnichannel engagements they want. You can use tools like chatbots on your website to provide instant access to account information and customer support. Mobile apps allow customers to check balances, complete transactions, and more all on their phones. Targeted messaging reminds customers of important dates and offers solutions tailored just for them. Marketer can help implement many different digital features and tactics to enhance the overall customer experience.
Lower Costs
Acquiring customers and generating leads through digital marketing channels tends to have lower costs per lead and customer than more traditional offline marketing methods. There is also usually less staff time and resources required to manage digital marketing campaigns and tactics once they are initially implemented, especially when utilizing automation and self-service options. This provides much greater efficiency and lower ongoing costs than some traditional channels. Marketer provides expertise in managing cost-effective digital marketing campaigns that acquiring customers in a budget-friendly way.
Competitive Advantage
If your financial brand isn’t utilizing digital marketing effectively, then you are at risk of losing ground among competitors who are connecting with consumers online. Establishing and optimizing a strong digital marketing presence with data-driven campaigns can really set your financial brand apart. Embracing innovation and continually testing emerging tactics also helps you stay ahead. Marketer helps plan and execute successful and measurable digital marketing strategies that maximize your competitive position.
Digital Marketing Tactics and Channels
There are a diverse range of digital marketing tactics and channels that financial marketers can leverage to achieve their goals:
Search Engine Optimization
SEO involves optimizing website content and technical elements to rank highly on search engines for relevant queries. Financial companies should focus on topics like loans, credit cards, accounting, retirement planning, investing, and more. Higher search visibility equals more website traffic and conversions.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
PPC ads allow financial brands to appear prominently in search engine results when specific keywords are searched. This is an effective way to target those actively searching for financial products. However, there must be a process for driving visitors to convert once they click the ad.
Social Media Marketing
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn present opportunities to connect with current and prospective customers. Financial content, offers, webinars, and events can be promoted organically and via paid campaigns. Ad targeting helps reach very specific demographics and their interests.
Content Marketing
Blogs, videos, podcasts, eBooks, and other formats allow financial brands to position themselves as thought leaders. Useful, relevant content helps build trust and credibility. A content strategy should focus on topics that customers care about at different stages of their journey.
Email Marketing
Email newsletters, alerts, educational content, promotions, and more allow for consistent communication with subscribers. Personalized messaging and automation help nurture customer relationships over time leading to sales. Integrations with CRM data enable customized content.
Affiliate Marketing
Partnering with relevant websites and influencers that promote your financial products and services to their audiences can expand reach. Affiliates earn commissions on converted leads and customers. Thisextends brand visibility efficiently.
Keys for Success with Digital Marketing in Financial Services
There are a few important factors financial services marketers should keep in mind to get the most value from their digital marketing efforts:
Customer-Centric Content
Content should directly address pain points and questions during the customer journey. From education to acquisition to onboarding to service, content needs to resonate at each stage. Surveys, analytics, and CRM data provide insight.
Website Optimization
The website needs to convert visitors efficiently. This requires clear messaging, simplified navigation, prominently featured products/services, strong calls-to-action, frictionless forms, and fast load times. Testing and refinement is key.
Responsive Design
With many customers accessing services via mobile, financial websites and ads must be responsive. Mobile-friendly and seamless functionality is critical to avoid frustration and exit rates. App development may also be required.
Data and Personalization
Marketing campaigns can be made far more effective through CRM, lead, and customer data. Tailoring messaging and offers using segmentation improves conversion and lifetime value. Digital channels allow easy testing of personalized campaigns.
Multi-Channel Attribution
There must be tracking mechanisms implemented across channels to attribute leads and sales accurately. This provides visibility into the true ROI across digital marketing activities, allowing optimization of spend and strategy.
Innovation Mindset
Digital marketing evolves rapidly. Financial brands need to continually test emerging formats like social commerce, influencer engagement, micro-moments, automation, and more to stay ahead of disruptive competitors. Early adoption can be rewarded.
The Future of Digital Marketing in Financial Services
Looking ahead, it is clear that digital innovation will continue driving transformation of financial marketing. Here are few other trends to keep an eye on:
- Even greater personalization powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Expanded use of customer data for predictive analytics and campaign modeling.
- Video marketing across all stages of the funnel – educational, promotional, interactive.
- Leveraging messaging apps and digital assistants for customer engagement.
- An omnichannel approach tying together physical and digital interactions.
- Live-stream selling and product demos will become more popular.
- Expanded partnerships between financial brands and fintech providers.
- Voice search optimization will be more integral in digital strategies.
The financial services marketplace is extremely competitive. As such, digital marketing will play an increasingly prominent role for customer acquisition and retention moving forward. Financial brands that embrace digital transformation will gain a decided edge.
