It can be difficult for finance companies to understand where they need to be marketing, and how they need to do it! At Brighter Directions we firmly believe in educating and the transfer of information to our clients and contacts so that you have all the information to excel at your social media campaigns, whether you do this yourself internally, or outsource to a company like us!
Within that same ethos, here’s some insights and research so you are able to not only market your company more efficiently, but build your engagement with your customers on social media:
Understand the importance of social media in the finance industry
Many finance companies we speak to are often unaware of the opportunities that social media can bring within the industry and market. We’ve spoken to many who are concerned about the IFA regulations within social media, or simply do not understand that there are opportunities online.
Research has showed that 60% of UK residents have turned to online banking – a number that has doubled over the last 10 years. This digital change has caused several banks to close and promoted finance companies to concentrate on their online presence and digital marketing.
’Santander UK offers a helpful example of a company putting the customer first via social media:
The bank created a holistic view of 14 million customers across the social channels they prefer, equipping the company to deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time. The effort was a big success, generating more than 1.5 million social engagements in just one year!
Navigate compliance and regulatory challenges
When it comes to using social media as a business, we all know that brings some challenges, these are more prominent within the finance sector due to the amount of legislation, personal data and sensitive information carried forward – something that needs even more consideration now that the new GDPR law is coming in place May 2018.
Using Santander as another case study:
“There are certain challenges you face when you take on social as a bank, and one of these is to deal with compliance and regulatory issues,” said Keith Moor – CMO of Santander UK – in a recent case study. Organisations like ours have grown up developing processes and procedures that deal very well with static mechanisms. Social, however, is a very dynamic and unpredictable mechanism.”
Find the most relevant platforms for your industry
Although you may feel like being available on every online platform at once will do you the world of good as a company, some of these social media platforms may not be relevant/useful for you – or more specifically your audience.
One thing we stress to our clients all of the time is to focus on the ones which are best for your specific industry and make sure you build a strong strategy and engagement plan for these platforms, and implement it successfully.
You may have 15 different social media platforms to choose from – asking yourself are these relevant to what we do? Will this waste us time and money? Will my customers, prospects and stakeholders be visible and engaged throughout this platform? Or not.
Do your research and make sure you’re investing your precious time and money in the most positive and productive manner – not all marketing has an immediate ROI, and social media is a relevant example of that, it is a tool for brand marketing, not sales marketing.
Also bare in mind the facilities and tools available throughout each platform – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn social platforms all offer different tools for customer care. LinkedIn’s sponsored InMail allows marketers send personalised messages to customers at scale. Twitter’s DM prompt feature helps customers convert to a private conversation into a direct message. And lastly Facebook messengers invites brands to revolutionise customer service by building their own chatbots.
If you would like a FREE, no obligation chat about how you can build your customer engagement and online presence please do not hesitate to contact us on 01246 586330!
