You're Next, #FinServ: Digital Marketing and Where to Start

Written by: Liz Pochop

Financial service organizations have recognized that a digital presence is essential to growing business, and more are taking their digital marketing approach to the next level. As of 2013, 59% of customers were unaware of their financial firms social media presence, and with the rise of digital marketing in recent years, financial services’ digital advertising budget has skyrocketed. According to RnR Market Research , financial services’ digital marketing budgets will double between 2012 and 2017, reaching $168.4 billion worldwide.

So what are these organizations doing? One of the most difficult hurdles to jump in digital marketing is calculating a clear ROI, a reason why financial service organizations have been slowly shifting their efforts to digital marketing.

A key part of your digital campaign strategy is building your brand. Developing this strategy to deliver clear ROI doesn’t stop at graphic design and style guides. Connect with your customers and drive brand advocacy and consistent engagement with your voice through blogs, eBooks, and other messaging outlets while promoting through your social channels to boost sharing and viewership.

Develop a content strategy for your website: strategize blog series and thought leadership based on industry trends and predictions. Solidifying your company as an industry expert and trailblazer gives you a broader reach through social sharing and also creates opportunities for features with larger outlets and platforms: Conferences and events, research, and more.

Measure your strategies’ success. A content strategy is only as strong as the goals driving it. With every content or social campaign executed, there needs to be a scale of success in place. For example:

What are you lead/target goals for this content campaign: What audience are you trying to reach, and how big is that audience?

What investment is tied to this campaign: How much of your marketing budget are you spending on social promotion? Use this amount to measure against how many opportunities are produced from your campaign, providing a clear return on your campaign investment.

All of these metrics will hold your team and company accountable to the growth goals you have in place and help implement processes so your campaigns are fluid and scale as your business grows. They will also help you clearly identify what strategies are working—and which ones aren’t.