Banking and Finance: How to Spice up your Digital Marketing

Some marketing campaigns are hilarious and others heartbreaking, whatever they are, they are interruptive for sure- because it makes you stop by and notice! To justify the statement, you may think digital marketing campaigns should always be the most attractive and catchy. But that is not often the case. For instance, the banking and finance industry is one of those industries in which you cannot really make use of a lot of creativity and colorful marketing campaigns. Whether it is a social media campaign or any other kind of digital marketing technique, you need to put in a lot of thought, while also keeping in mind the various regulations governing the financial industry. So, how exactly can you go about digital marketing for this industry?

Here are some tips:

• Talking to customers about more than just banking – Whether it is through the social media or through any other digital marketing channels like e-mails or websites, it is important to keep your customers engaged. It is true that talking to customers about events and activities in the banking industry can be rather less exciting and it might be difficult to keep the customers engaged. Hence, you need to make an effort to think beyond the financial perspective of what you can do for your customers and get them talking about what they might be interested in or what they can relate to. For example, you could ask questions through your facebook page to get to know your customers’ opinions on general matters of interest like events that happened in their city etc.
• Adding a little color – When using social platforms for marketing, make sure that you talk in their language. Connect with them and communicate with them like they do. If you make your communication formal, on any social platform, it will turn out to be an extension of your website and people will lose interest. Hence, you can share pictures or videos of events in banks or of new services provided, and engage with customers in a meaningful way. For example, Wells Fargo has posted pictures of the last signs switching over through a social media channel when they transitioned the last of their Wachovia branches over, instead of sharing a press release about the same.
• Organizing contests – Contests have always proved to be one of the most effective ways to engage with customers. You can have contests on any digital marketing channel, although it might be most effective on a social networking channel. Contests, again help you connect with and keep regular contact with your customers. For example, HSBC Students had promoted their scholarship contest through social networking channels and it triggered an overwhelming response within their community.
• Highlighting success stories – What could be more effective for promotion than a genuine third party endorsement. Rather than having self promotional ads, you can have some of your existing customers share online, their experiences with your bank. You can identify some of your customers whom you’ve had the longest relationship with, or some with a unique story etc. and share them through your digital marketing channel. If you share these stories in a creative and fun way, you can have your customers interacting and engaging in no time.

These are some things you can do while carrying out your digital marketing campaigns. In order to increase the effectiveness it can be accompanied by other regular marketing campaigns as well like partnering with colleges or universities etc. Marketing for banks and financial institutions, even though is a tough job, if done properly and thoughtfully, can generate best results.