Whether your marketing strategy is a little stale or you just want some creative inspiration, here are 10 fresh marketing ideas for the financial services industry.
1. Narrow Your Niche
Have you ever read something and thought, âWhoa, these people get meâ? I know I have, and itâs that exact response that compels me to try out a new product or service (even when Iâm not looking for one).
The more you know about your ideal customer, the easier it is to create a message that speaks directly to them. Even if anyone could benefit from your products, think about who uses them the most. Center your marketing campaigns around these people.
Side Note: Donât think that niching down limits your growth. It actually does quite the opposite. Take Vested, for example. Weâre an integrated communications firm for the financial industry. Even though we only work with financial services companies, Vested is the fastest-growing public relations agency in the worldâwe grew by 317 percent in 2016. By niching down, weâve positioned ourselves as an industry leader and eliminated most of our competition all at the same time.
2. Optimize Your SEO
Picture this: Someone Googles, âhow to open my first bank accountâ and your companyâs article is the first one in the search results. Then that same person Googles, âis mobile banking safeâ and they see yet another article written by you. The information they read on your website is so invaluable that they decide to open a bank account with you instead of your competitors.
Thatâs SEO at work. You wonât see SEO results overnight (itâs more of a long game), but the pay-off is worth the effort.
An easy way to boost your SEO is to figure out what keywords your competitors rank for. You can use a site like www.UberSuggest.com to get this information. Once you know, incorporate similar keywords into your own content.
3. Contribute Guest Posts
If you know your customers get their information from certain websites, reach out to the siteâs editor and ask to be a guest contributor. When you contribute guest posts, you position yourself as an industry expert and point people back to your company. Just make sure youâve done enough research to know where your customers hang out online.
âGuest blogging can help you improve your lead generation campaign, but youâve got to be sure about the audience that youâre writing for. Instead of spreading your net broadly expecting to catch more fish but ending up disappointed, you want a more targeted approach and mindset,â writes Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital.
4. Embrace Social Media
Be honest, how good is your social media presence? Are you engaging with your followers and creating conversation? Gone are the days when social media only consisted of publishing a post and calling it a day. Social media today is very conversational. Followers expect you to reply to their comments and answer their questions.
If your social media presence needs improving, perfect it by creating a consistent social media calendar, implementing A/B split testing to see what posts outperform others, and asking your audience what they want to see more of.Â
5. Experiment With Video Ads
Video ads are taking the marketing world by storm. Most social media platforms prioritize video content over photos, so video ads increase your visibility and ranking. Need some video ad inspiration? Try creating product videos, company culture videos, how-tos, or FAQs.
When creating video ads, limit the video to one major message. Twenty percent of viewers click away from a video within 10 seconds, according to Acuity Ads. By the time you hit the one minute mark, 45 percent of viewers have left. Keeping the video short and sweet will maximize your impact.
6. Connect With Influencers
Who are influential people in your industry? It doesnât have to be a celebrity or someone with a million followers. Some of the most influential people are micro-influencers, bloggers, or content creators because they have authentic relationships with their followers.
Tap into this network by reaching out to influencers in your niche. Ask them for honest reviews in exchange for free products or services. If the influencer truly believes in your company, theyâll say yes. You could also start a brand ambassador program depending on how many influencers you want to have.
7. Tell Your Companyâs Story
Storytelling should be at the heart of every marketing campaign and strategy you have. It is the most intimate form of content marketing and is great for positioning yourself as an industry expert.
Your current and potential customers want to know the âyouâ behind the curtain. Get them emotionally invested in your company and mission by sharing how your business got its start, why you do what you do, and how your products and services have improved the lives of customers.Â
8. Tune Your Tone
The tone you use to tell your story is just as important as the story itself. How many times have you seen an ad or read an email only to think, âI get what theyâre saying, but they said it all wrongâ?Â
If your story doesnât âsit wellâ with your audience, itâs time to tune your tone. Think about it⊠if your target audience is investors with 10+ years experience, youâre going to use a different tone than if your target audience was made up of newbie investors. Tuning your tone is just another reason why itâs so important to narrow your niche (#1 on our list).
Pro Tip:Â If your company works with numerous writers (as most do) create a style guide to make sure the tone of your marketing is always consistent.
9. Use Chatbots
It seems as though every website I go to these days has an automated pop-up ready to answer any questions I may have. In an age where consumers want answers to their questions at lightning speed, chatbots help your company keep up the pace and save money.
âWith over half of consumers seeking customer service through social media, todayâs social bots can address such concerns around-the-clock. Chatbots are projected to save businesses billions by 2022 by streamlining customer service and bot-based commerce,â writes Brent Barnhart at SproutSocial.
10. Dive Into Data
Youâll never know how effective these marketing ideas are if youâre not tracking analytics. Use tracking tools to measure the effectiveness of your chatbots, whoâs watching your video ad, and which social media posts do best. Once youâre armed with strong data, use this info to sharpen your message and reach your target audience with precision.
âData needs to be contextualized as success canât be measured in a vacuum. For example, instead of just looking at how many people visited your site in the last month, itâs equally if not more important to look at how long they visited the site for and what pages they clicked through to,â writes Katie Spreadbury, UK Director at Vested.
We hope these 10 ideas spark your imagination and that you can implement a few of them into your next marketing campaign, and if you’d prefer to have a financial services digital marketing agency do the heavy lifting for you, Vested can help.
