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The financial market has changed a lot over the past few years. Now, more people are using digital financial services like online banking and digital wallets than ever before. The number of digital activities involving day-to-day monetary operations has surpassed traditional payments a long time ago.
The increasing popularity of digital finance is a major reason why financial organisations are actively spending on online advertising and marketing of their businesses/products/services. However, due to the lack of planning and an ROI-focused strategy, most of these institutions fail to achieve the desired results from their digital advertising efforts and spends.
Today, in this article, we will discuss some of the most interesting data and facts related to the increasing trend and the importance of digital marketing in the financial services sector. We will also discuss some of the proven online marketing strategies for finance industry businesses.
Note: We at Proven Digital work closely with a number of financial institutions like banks and investment organisations to monitor and boost their digital growth through results-driven marketing strategies.
Digital Marketing for Finance: Data & Statistics
1. 9 in 10 banks expect mobile/online to become the primary channel for payments by 2020.
I mean this is an eye-opening fact. If your banking institution or investment company does not already have a digital payment system (wallet, online baking, etc.), you might be missing a lot of opportunities.
Today, consumers prefer simple and quick ways to perform transactions. With digital payments, they do not have to go to a bank or institution in order to perform a transaction. They can just use an app on their smartphone or a website to send/receive money in a matter of seconds. Digital transaction facilities like UPI (Unified Payments Interface), digital wallets, internet banking, etc. have made life easier, not just for customers but also for financial institutions, by allowing them to serve more consumers quickly and efficiently.
2. Over 20% of all online advertising budget comes from financial institutions
Another fact that shows the increasing popularity and importance of digital marketing in finance is that more than 20% of the entire online advertising budget is spent by finance sector companies.
As a financial services company, you should reconsider whether or not you are giving online advertising sufficient importance and budget in your marketing plans.
3. Not all financial institutions effectively measure their marketing ROI
This is an interesting fact that shows how and why digital marketing of many financial institutions fail to produce results.
Besides having a strong digital advertising strategy, it’s equally important to have the proper means to track the results or ROI. This helps not just ensure that your efforts are working but also make the necessary changes if they aren’t.
However, more than 50% of financial institutions fail to track their results or do it only for about 25% of their campaigns. As a result, they fail to achieve the desired results from their online campaigns, despite having employed the best campaigns and marketing teams.
4. 97% of people now use online banking
The trend of online banking is not new. Almost 97% of all people with bank accounts or any association with any financial institution use the internet and/or smartphone apps to transact. In other words, online/mobile banking is now being used by more people than traditional bankings.
What’s in there for banks and financial institutions?
Well, of course, they can learn from the trends and start offering more means for their users to have smoother, safer and better online banking experience. Build a mobile banking app, a digital wallet app, etc. if you don’t already have one. Enable your customers to interact via social channels and the internet for resolutions of their queries and complaints.
5. Mobile payments are now stronger than ever
The mobile payment trend is now growing at an annual rate of over 60% and is projected to achieve the $500 billion dollar mark in 2020.
That means more people are now using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to perform day-to-day financial operations such as online payments, investment, fund tracking, trading, money transfer, and more.
6. “Click to Call” button is the customer companion
More than 50% of mobile customers prefer to use the “click to call” button on the bank website/app whenever they need to make changes to their bank accounts or need help.
This says a lot about the importance of having the right call to actions at all the right places on your financial website and/or app.
7. Financial institution customers use social media to interact with their banks/institutions
Facebook and Twitter are two of the most common social media channels used by customers to interact with their banks and other financial institutions whenever they need help, want to seek clarification or file a complaint.
This tells you how important it is for banking businesses to be active on social media to give exposure to their business and reach more of their target audiences. Social media is known to boost engagement and the overall business reputation.
Also, many customers use online reviews to know about financial companies. So, you should consider optimising online reviews about your financial business/company.
8. While over 80% of banks use social media, not all of them spend on advertising.
While a big number of banks and institutions are on social media and use these channels to interact with their customers, responding to their comments, offering advice, creating communities and facilitating transactions, only a few of them use paid advertising to expand their reach to more customers.
However, the financial companies that use Facebook, Twitter and other online advertising media report a huge success in their campaigns and growth in ROI.
9. Emails concerning finance and business have a 39% open rate
That’s a lot, given that not many people like to open promotional emails. While promotional emails in the financial sector are opened around 39% of the times, the click-through rate (CTR) is around 5%, which is still better than other industries such as mobile and travel.
10. Financial advisors and companies who use a blog are likely to get 70% more leads compared to those who don’t.
Content marketing has always been one of the best ways to reach your target audience, especially in the financial services sector where consumers are always looking for some good, free advice.
By having a dedicated blog on your finance business website, you can effectively improve the leads coming to your business.
Besides blogging, financial services marketers use a number of other content strategies to promote their products/services to customers online, extend the reach and increase the overall brand reputation.
Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Financial Businesses
Based on the above research and data, here are some of the best digital marketing techniques for the financial services sector.
In last blog, we also shared digital marketing strategies for educational industries.
Social Media Marketing
Not just as a way to assist existing clients but also to build stronger relationships with clients through engagement and to get new clients, social media is certainly one of the best ways for businesses in the finance sector.
Over 70% of financial advisors report using LinkedIn and other social channels to find and get new clients. But at the same time, only about 50% of the finance industry are active on all the popular social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Social media, when utilities to the fullest, can be wonderful resources for finding opportunities in terms of new clients and business in the finance sector.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is certainly the best strategy many financial marketing teams are already using to promote their services/products to target clients. In fact, most professional financial marketers use separate strategies for different market channels based on effectiveness and desired results.
In the past couple of years, the number of financial service companies hiring dedicated marketers or digital agencies to manage their content campaigns has drastically increased.
Email Marketing
Even though CTR is on a bit of the lower side (3.1%), email marketing still happens to be one of the best ways for financial service businesses to acquire clients. With the help of modern email marketing resources and techniques, the performance of financial email campaigns can certainly be improved. There is, however, the need to create specialised email marketing campaigns based on target customers and goals. Also, the system should be created to effectively track the ROI of email campaigns and make improvements as and when needed.
Mobile/App Marketing
The use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to access financial services like investment, trading, banking, etc. has almost quadrupled in the last couple of years. This gives a nice opportunity for financial service businesses to get more customers and retain the existing ones by strengthening their mobile presence.
One way to do so is by making sure that your business website is optimized for mobile. If possible, consider having a dedicated mobile app for your business. Add features like in-app payments and click to call to inspire engagement and enable customers to do more with your app.
Digital Marketing is no longer a luxury but an important part of any financial service marketing campaign. Make sure to get your financial marketing strategy created by an expert digital agency that understands the niche and is able to deliver results through efficient monitoring and re-planning.
Proven Digital is an expert digital agency with years of experience in the marketing of businesses in the finance sector. Contact us today to know more about how we can help your business grow!
