5 Marketing Tips for Financial Services
Regulatory demands, bureaucratic processes and older technologies can pose challenges for regulated industries when it comes to marketing. But with the right knowledge and practices, marketing can be a major asset for financial service brands.
Below are 5 marketing tips for financial services:
- Strategy is Everything. This is the first place you should start with marketing for your business—with a marketing strategy. This is the single most important tip for a financial service firm. And gives you a solid foundation for marketing success. Your marketing strategy should include identifying how marketing will support your overall business objectives, who your target audience is, what they desire and/or problems they want solved, and how can you deliver this solution to them. Your strategy once defined should regularly reviewed.
- Help, Not Hype. Marketing is not just about amplifying your targeted message to your targeted market, it is about delivering independent value before you attempt to make the sale. Focus on the problems and desires of prospects and customers match those up with your marketing efforts. Meet their needs and solve their problems, and your audience will find the help useful and you will become top of mind when they are looking for someone for help.
- Create Open (FREE) Content. “Tim O’ Riley says the enemy of any creative is not piracy but obscurity” Create relevant and useful content online and then make it spreadable. You’ll reach a far wider audience and gain the credibility of a industry thought leader. And don’t just make it free – market it extensively.
- Be Geographically and Culturally Relevant. Many global financial service firms believe that they can simply replicate the marketing messages, tactics, and content created at the corporate headquarters. This is a big mistake. Each geographical marketplace is different and it is important that your marketing reflects this.
- Don’t Confuse Action and Awareness. The hallmark of marketing is that it gets people to take action, to change their minds, and most of all, to do more of what they might have had an inkling to do in the first place – which can in turn be measured. Just because you have a million views doesn’t mean your marketing was effective. There’s a huge difference between action and awareness. It’s what your audience does (action) that counts!
With these 5 marketing tips, you’re better positioned to move your Financial Service organization’s marketing programs forward. As you take your next steps, watch what works and measure your marketing impact on core business goals. If you put a strong foundation in place today – based on strategy, compliance and a focus on the
information-empowered customer – your organization will be able to confidently scale up its investments.
Note: Make sure that your Financial Service organization marketing is compliant with requirements of FINRA, the SEC , FSA , IIROC , Sarbanes-Oxley , and others.
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