5 Digital Marketing Trends for Financial Institutions
It seems like everyday there are changes in technology that impact the world of marketing in the financial services sector. Here are five digital marketing trends you should be aware of in the banking industry.
1. Digital Continues to Grow
Digital advertising and marketing continue to pace the sector, with 17% of organizations committing more than 50% of marketing budget to online media. This is an increase from 14% of the sector in 2017. This same trend holds true for mobile marketing, where most allocate less than 40%, but the investment is on the rise.
When you factor in social media, the trend is even more impressive. In a 2019 survey of financial institutions, 84% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that social media was important to their organizations – an increase from 76% in 2016.
From social to video to PPC ads across search, most banks will have a digital presence and will increase their digital marketing efforts across platforms to improve ad efficiency.
2. AI’s increasing role as first-line customer support
Chat is one of the fastest growing aspects of any customer support, with an increase in availability, complexity, and sophistication of options. Consumers want answers quickly without having to call. Chat and chatbots in banking that integrate into social media, websites, and apps, make it easy for customers to ask questions and receive the help they need with minimal effort. This makes chat ideal for standard customer queries, checking accounts, services, and screening through the first tier of customer service.
While chat shouldn’t be your only line of customer service, it is extremely valuable to offer 24/7 chat services, with a sophisticated chatbot in-line.
3. Super segmenting, tactical targeting & premier personalization
Big data allows financial institutions to target individual consumers rather than segments. This creates greater personalization and better user experience for your customers. Single-person segmentation relies on tracking through cookies and aggregating data across omnichannel touchpoints, such as online visits, social, and applications.
This increase in personalization ties into consumer desires for personalization and connection with their banks, with some 74% of all consumers expecting brands to treat them like an individual. How does this work in practice? Machine automation and AI combined with big data allow you to offer personalized options, modular services and products, pre-approval for loans and services, and other personalized information.
Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction
TONY ZAMBITO
4. More Sophisticated Search
While organic search has remained the same, new types of searches are becoming more popular. Marketing content must now be fully optimized to appear in mobile search as well as through smart devices, such as Amazon Alexa. Tailoring content marketing and keywords to meet those needs, without altering the customer’s experience is critical. Banks should adjust content sharing strategies to offer succinct answers for mobile and voice queries.
5. Consistent messaging on all touchpoints.
Most consumers will experience a bank through multiple channels including social media and a website before opening an account. Some will also download and check the app before doing so. Adjusting to this multi-touchpoint experience underlies the importance of a creating consistent customer journey across all platforms. You should also track customer passages to help tailor the experience and meet their expectations.
Digital marketing trends in banking and financial services are always changing, but many elements remain the same from year to year. For example, all banks should be focusing on offering a strong digital presence and app to meet the needs of younger consumers while offering convenience to everyone. Most should also focus on offering improved customer experience, with more personalization and more adaptable services to increase user satisfaction. Tying these elements into digital ads will also help with the increased online competition.
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