Financial advisers have changed the way they interact and communicate with their clients since the COVID-19 pandemic. These 7 tips will help you focus your strategy around these fundamental changes and build your financial marketing toolkit.
COVID-19 had a significant impact on pretty much everything about the last 2 years. It changed how we live, work, socialise, shop, and even invest. Financial firms have had to adapt to their needs by providing everyone with remote access to financial advisers and banking.
Online marketing is a crucial tool for engaging with clients and prospects as we have emerged from the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Investors of all ages are now more concerned about long-term investments due to uncertainty in our economy. We expect investors to closely monitor their investments while focusing on various trending topics, including inflation, cryptocurrency, ESG and fintech.
Financial clients continue to look for reliable information in 2022 to help them navigate the uncertainty of another year as we see inflation boom.
62% of people who actively consume financial advice will invest more than those who do not. While some financial experts predict market corrections and promising continued growth, investors will continue to consult their trusted advisers and also look for expert content online. [1]
Financial companies must be seen as experts more than ever to gain the trust of prospects and current clients. These five essentials are vital for financial firms to succeed in our ever-changing world.
1) An Omnichannel approach
Omnichannel marketing is not a new concept, but the way we do it and the results we get from it have changed.
All of us are familiar with the concept of frequency and reach. Most businesses’ main goal is to reach your target audience enough times, in the right ways, to be remembered. It doesn’t take into account all the ways you can reach these targeted audiences. This is why we need an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Omnichannel is a concept that focuses on the implementation of multiple marketing channels to provide consistent brand experiences to clients and prospects. These channels can be either physical (in-person meetings) or digital (social media or websites).
Financial institutions have found it difficult to implement omnichannel marketing, because they are unable to track the success of their efforts.
A study by Experian’s study found that 51% of financial firms rely on inaccurate or simplistic marketing attributions. Sometimes, they don’t have data-driven insights to determine which channels deliver conversions and the best ROI. [2]
Data is priceless. Financial institutions must have a base of data to identify which marketing channels work best. These efforts will inform future marketing decisions, and ultimately save money on strategies that don’t produce strong results.
2) Multiple touch points
Client-centric marketing is key to omnichannel success. You can personalise your marketing by focusing on your target audience.
These elements are crucial, because clients and prospects expect to obtain information quickly. Expect consistent encounters with your brand and the assumption that it will all occur seamlessly across all communication channels and devices.
Touch points can be paid or unpaid. However, we quickly learn that you cannot only concentrate on one type of touch point.
3) Traditional touch points and digital
Be careful before you cut your digital media budget. Digital touch points can still be strong drivers of brand and sales, and create more impact than traditional media touch points like TV, radio, or print.
With confidence, we can tell that clients and prospects are more likely to recall your brand if they have frequent interactions with you through an omnichannel marketing strategy.
4) Personalised Communication
Financial services have always valued personal service. Clients want one-on-one advice to help them manage their money. Face-to-face meetings are a good way to build trust.
However, this has shifted a little as younger advisers and investors became part of the equation and the pandemic. We have seen this through the shifting work model in COVID-19.
More and more clients are asking for communication through platforms such as WhatsApp.
Individuals have become more comfortable conducting business online during the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend extended to financial advisers, as well as their clients of all ages.
The new norm will be a digital-first mindset and personalised human interaction. This sounds daunting, but there are solutions.
Many people already use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their business contacts, family members, and friends. The first step is to make social media work for you.
LinkedIn’s 700 million+ users and tools to target your messaging at a targeted group of potential clients, sharing business knowledge, make it an ideal starting point for many financial advisers. LinkedIn accounted for 46% of all social media traffic to company sites in 2021.
Although it can be difficult to quantify the direct impact of social networking, it is an essential part of a comprehensive marketing plan. It can help build brand awareness, highlight your USP’s, and position you as a thought leader.
5) Subject-Matter Experts
Social media is a great way to exchange ideas and knowledge with colleagues and across industries. Content can be used as a proof ground to show why your company is better than others.
You can be a subject-matter expert and share your knowledge by creating content. It’s not about promoting your brand or showcasing yourself. Your goal is to increase interest in your content, and in you.
You can create content in many forms, including articles, videos, podcasts, client testimonials, and social media posts. If you provide enough exposure to your content, prospects and clients will begin to see you as an expert in solving their problems, and will look to your company for solutions.
Testimonials from clients are a powerful tool for communicating expertise and affirming abilities. Potential clients can relate to their honest assessment of the services provided.
6) The clients journey
The sales funnel is a planning tool that helps you reach the right sales targets. This tool has been transformed into the client’s journey.
The client journey describes how your prospective client progresses through five stages: awareness, consideration, engagement, retention, and advocacy. It outlines clients’ needs, wants and pain points, and how your firm can address them.
This knowledge will allow you to provide value and answers for your clients when they need it most. This in turn helps build relationships and manage problems, which is a key ingredient for engagement.
Your sales and marketing teams will be more aligned if they have a solid understanding of the clients’ journey. Sales will understand the needs of prospective clients, and marketing will understand how to draw them in.
We can track the journey of the client and monitor their behaviour, as well as their interactions with email. This allows us to tailor messaging and measure the effectiveness of our communication.
7) Data driven penetration
Marketing practices in all business sectors are increasingly data-driven.
Financial advisers can use data integration to measure the effectiveness of a campaign or content type. This allows you to track clients’ journeys and nurture existing clients.
It is crucial to identify KPIs to ensure your data-driven strategy for your company succeeds. These critical data-driven analytics metrics require your attention as a marketer.
Your salespeople can target prospects ready to engage when they use the right combination of content creation and data automation in their marketing outreach. Your CRM can help track your marketing’s ROI by linking sales data to it.
Marketers can accurately identify clients using multiple devices by adopting a data-driven marketing approach. This not only saves you time and money, but also improves the client experience and shows that you are paying attention to their needs and behaviours.
Financial marketers must successfully navigate the new marketing environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic. They must also have an omnichannel approach, personal communication, subject-matter knowledge, clients journey and a data-driven perspective.
These elements will work together to help your firm generate leads, nurture audiences, drive towards goals, and combine all these factors together.
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