How important is digital marketing for financial companies?

The finance industry is becoming ever more competitive and experiencing a continued expansion of new companies to the field; and with digital marketing becoming an integral part of the financial industry – it’s only going to continue to grow. Technology has enabled financial institutions to broaden their reach, tailor their offerings to specific audiences, and offer personalised services to their clients.

As individuals amass greater wealth, the population of millionaires continues to rise, drawing an increasing number of professionals into the field of finance. Given the intense competition in this industry, having a well-defined digital marketing strategy is imperative.

The advantages of digital marketing for finance and bank companies

The world is rapidly embracing digitisation, and failing to engage with people where they spend most of their time – *ahem* the internet – may result in losing ground to competitors who succeed in this engagement.

“According to 2021 stats from marketing resource Ruler Analytics, the average customer conversion rate for financial services is 4.3 percent.”

Customers invariably have a multitude of choices when it comes to deciding where to entrust their money. The key lies in how you can persuade them to select your financial institution over all the others – but according to Wikipedia there are 165 banks incorporated in the UK as of 2023, how do you stand out?! Read on to find out…:

Build brand awareness and trust

Multiple challenges surface when creating content for a finance company, including dealing with legalities – but there’s more than meets the eye with content creation for financial services.

Establishing authority in a specific field requires gaining visibility, yet Google often presents challenges when it comes to broad topics that offer the widest exposure… the following list presents some solutions to the challenges in order to build brand awareness and trust:

• Target long-tail keywords: Ranking for long-tail keywords is notably simpler than targeting more common keywords due to the lower competition for top positions in Google’s search results. The greater the length and specificity of your search terms, the more straightforward it becomes to secure a ranking for that particular term.

• Create content featuring multiple financial experts: This technique offers additional – and relevant – information on a broader topic.

• Become a thought leader: By consistently offering valuable and accurate information, you build credibility and rapport with people. Furthermore, your customers will trust your expertise and perceive your business as a valuable resource, increasing the likelihood that they will choose your services over those of your competitors.

• Comply with regulations: False information can quickly get you into trouble, and financial services, especially, have some of the most intense regulatory scrutiny when it comes to producing online content, sharing it over social media, and advertising the brand.

Building your reputation can take months, or even years, shattering it merely takes a few minutes.

Be innovative in engagement

The dynamic nature of financial markets and increased competition necessitates that financial service firms possess the ability to remain flexible, agile, and innovative. This adaptability is crucial for not only attracting new customers but also retaining existing ones, you can be innovative in engagement through:

Personalisation: Banks and other financial services institutions have been slow to join the personalisation era, and many are now attempting to catch up as they realise that this marketing concept is not a passing trend.

Modern financial services marketers are confronted with evolving demands. They must not only stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends within the financial services sector but also remain at the forefront of advancements in finance and marketing technology. This is essential to meet consumer expectations and secure a larger share of the market.

The financial services marketing has become much more transactional in recent years, and it’s been apparent to many customers that it’s no longer about the relationships with bank tellers. In fact, consumers have been more concerned about who doesn’t charge maintenance fees, and who has the best rewards system for their account.

In general, there are circa. 3 types of personalisation opportunities for the financial services sector:

1. Prescriptive Personalisation: The goal of prescriptive personalisation is to anticipate a customer’s wants and needs based on historical data. Working within the context of the business’s goals, marketers can use this method to create rules and workflows that allow them to more easily manage users.
2. Real-Time Personalisation: Real-time personalisation relies on current, real-time data as well as historical data to create a personalised customer experience as it is happening. For example, marketing teams can leverage this type of personalisation to make recommendations for customers as they are actively shopping on the site. This helps to drive both customer engagement and conversions.
3. Machine-Learning Personalisation: This type of personalisation makes use of intelligent machine-learning algorithms. With AI-driven automation, teams can make informed decisions about how to reach out to customers based on individual behaviour

Social media: With the increasing digitization of the financial services industry, social media marketing is becoming an increasingly critical method of promotion within this space.

Financial news and current events move fast, as government and independent financial reports are generated daily. Keeping on top of these trends is a must for your digital marketing strategy to succeed, and you could do this through social listening.

Social listening is a tool you can adopt to monitor social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitors brands, and related keywords.

Social media can also help identify important financial moments in clients’ and prospects’ lives.

Generate new leads

As your financial service company places a higher priority on digital marketing, you’ll likely experience a surge in traffic to your website and social media profiles. This increased digital presence may also lead to a growing email subscriber list.

Furthermore, some of the leads that discover your company through digital marketing efforts may be inherently more qualified, potentially resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Uses of digital marketing in financial institutions

YMYL and EEAT

E-E-A-T stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.” Until a Google update in December 2022, it was just E-A-T (no “Experience”).

YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life.”

Understanding both concepts is crucial if you want to improve your SEO, and the last thing Google wants for its brand is to present bad financial information that negatively impacts your money and life.

“At its simplest level, E-E-A-T is based on the following idea: Google is hungry for good value content (pun fully intended). Google doesn’t want to send searchers to content that misleads its readers, intentionally or not, or isn’t factually accurate. When delivering search results based on the searcher’s query, Google will consider a huge range of factors, including Page Quality (PQ), so the more accurate, beneficial and helpful the content, the better the page will fare for the Page Quality check.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning

The integration of AI in the finance sector is anticipated to play a progressively pivotal role in driving competitive advantages upon financial firms. This is achieved through various means, including the enhancement of efficiency by reducing costs and boosting productivity, as well as elevating the quality of services and products provided to consumers.

Final thoughts

Financial organisations find themselves at a distinctive juncture in their evolutionary journey.

They are navigating a landscape marked by the full digitisation of markets and technology-driven disruptions, presenting them with some of the most intricate and fluid challenges in their history.

Simultaneously, they are embracing significant opportunities, largely enabled by technology. These opportunities encompass tasks ranging from effectively handling model risk amid increasing regulatory demands to actively monitoring and nurturing the strength of client relationships.

In answering the initial question posed by the title of this article, how important is digital marketing for financial companies? Very.