Financial marketers may not be flavour of the month at the moment. But that should not stop you from picking yourself (and your reputation) up off the floor. There is still business out there to be won and never has it been more competitive in the financial and investment markets. Everyone is looking for financial expertise and as a financial marketer it is your job to make sure it is your expertise your potential clients turn to. So how exactly do you go about this? Here is a run-down of the 5 most important factors to consider when marketing your business in the financial world.
1. Get the word-out.
Whether you offer savvy online services to engage and interact with your customer-base, or are more inclined to do the leg work necessary it is important you are noticed as the trailblazers for your financial industry. Firstly, whether you are either of these, it is important to evaluate your website and judge whether it is the kind of site that makes you stand out, shows off your knowledge and skills or quite simply makes you look like professional and trustworthy. It is your digital business card. Avoid biased or inaccurately researched content – you don’t know who you might offend. Between 80% and 90% of business CEOs or decision-makers will research a financial marketing firm online. A further 30% will research you – using various social media platforms. Not having the right website or online presence might destroy your marketing practices before you even begin!
2. Engage with your audience
If simply getting the word out is not gaining any meaningful leads consider the prospect of reaching out to them in a personal but formal manner. Visit seminars, attend fund-raisers, or become more engaged in community aspects – you never know who may be there. Public Relations, as already mentioned, are not exactly a financial marketer’s friend at the moment. However, by showing you have the expertise, experience and skills in ‘how the world sees you’ you can work on a controlled PR strategy to leave your client shining in an otherwise hostile industry. Engaging with your audience through various social media channels may have the added bonus of showing your human side; your ability to interact with people at all levels. Produce an e-newsletter to your clients and potential customers. Start blogging too. Customers and consumers love to read about industry and gain any tips they can to future projections.
3. Focus your email campaign
Start a concentrated and focused e-mail marketing campaign and offer tips and industry insights. A consistent and newsworthy email campaign is the best. Compile a list of email content for a 6 month period and periodically release. Be sure to research your customer preferences, according to a recent survey, 32% of affluent investors prefer weekly emails and 37% prefer a monthly email. Also, the day of week and time of day is important too. Historically, morning emails have been the most popular and received the most click-through rates. Get to know your customers preferences to avoid them switching off. Information free of charge keeps your audience engaged and looking to your next release.
4. Look for any kind of exposure opportunities.
By becoming a recognised industry expert in your field you have the opportunity to reach thousands, if not millions of people. The most popular exposure medium is still and probably will always be television. People are more engaged by video and there is no better exposure than a TV appearance. Start by reaching out to local media in your region or country. If you have done your homework and researched your interview area well you will soon be contacted by national media, or at least placed on their contacts list for a future date. Media training is well worth investing in for this. The way you come across and the things you say could well keep your phone ringing off the hook in the near future, or leave you crawling for cover from the media spotlight. Make sure you tell the world about your exposure too, keeping it to yourself won’t do you any favours.
5. Review your options
Finally, it is important to keep your financial marketing strategy small, concise and flexible. There is no point in constructing a plan with hundreds of pages that offers no scope to adapting market conditions. This is especially true for financial marketing, the markets are shifting constantly. Keep a rough but detailed plan to hand where at strategy meetings it can be reviewed in 10 minutes and changed accordingly. Constantly measure results to have a basis for conducting your next step. This is useful to evaluate whether some steps should be repeated or changed in the future.
A well-developed but flexible marketing campaign can save you money, free up time and increase your chances of successful financial marketing activities. What’s more, it can build your business through connecting better with potential and existing customers.
Sandy Halliday, a PR and Marketing fanatic for London Marketing Company Beattie Communications, is on-hand to help you in all subjects of offline and online marketing communications.
