More than 50% of offline investors first collect information online before making an investment decision.
And according to research from RRD, more than half of consumers have discovered a new brand, product, or service in the past year via both word of mouth and social media.
These statistics show how social media can be a literal goldmine for financial services brands looking to attract customers and foster sustainable growth.
But only if they manage to use it well.
Financial services marketing is often restricted in its capacity, partly due to traditional advertising approaches, but mainly due to the strict regulatory compliances it has to adhere to.
Social media advertising helps finance brands stay on top of their prospects’ minds and win customers while staying within their regulatory bounds.
In this article, you will find six tips to perfect your social advertising campaigns for a far-reaching and powerful marketing impact.
Financial Services Marketing – A Challenge Of Its Own
Marketing financial services is not as easy as marketing a makeup product or an apparel brand.
These conventional products have an inherent charm and appeal that most financial products lack. The products that financial brands hope to sell are inherently dull – that is why convincing people to buy them can be a challenge.
Another reason financial services marketing is trickier than other industries is that the finance industry is jargon-heavy.
Finance professionals use highly technical terms, and their processes are also filled with industry jargon.
It can be challenging for marketers and advertisers to break the jargon into a language that a typical social media user with an attention span smaller than that of a goldfish can understand. No offense to social media users. We are all in the same boat!
Moreover, many regulatory and compliance formalities restrain the financial services marketing industry.
You cannot take even a step in a particular direction without looking back at your legal advisor to see if they are giving a green or a red signal. These restrictions stifle advertisers’ creativity and hold them back from competing on a playing field that is similar to that of other brands.
Additionally, people buy value. They invest in things that they believe will add value to their lives.
This is why it is easier to convince people to buy a waterproof watch – all they have to do is take a shower wearing the watch to know it’s worth their money.
Most financial services are unlike the waterproof watch.
They generate results in the long run, or sometimes, they don’t generate any tangible results at all.
This presents another challenge for financial advertisers to convince their customers to buy their products.
Financial marketing incumbents’ reluctance to marketing automation appears to be yet another challenge for marketers and advertisers. They can only do so much with legacy strategies and traditional marketing methods.
And finally, a large part of ecommerce, regardless of the industry, rests on trust – something the finance industry lost after the 2008 recession.
It’s been many years since that happened, but customers are still skeptical about trusting financial services.
This presents another hurdle in the way of financial services marketers as they go forth toward building their audience’s trust and getting their buying cycle turning.
Now that you know of all the hurdles in financial services marketing, let’s move forward and discuss some tips to get your advertising game going despite all these challenges.
