The imperative of personalisation in email marketing

Email marketing personisation goes beyond addressing clients by their first names. For HNWIs, it involves delivering bespoke content reflecting their specific preferences and financial situations. This approach is crucial at each stage of the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion, ensuring communications are relevant and impactful.

According to B2B revenue attribution platform Dreamdata, its benchmark research shows marketing emails are clicked in more than 40% of won deals and have a meaningful impact on the length of the customer journey.

Dreamdata’s founder and chief marketing officer, Steffen Hedebrandt, said personalisation was a core element in B2B marketing and driving sales.

“Tailoring emails to the target recipient with relevant, relatable content drives deeper engagement and builds trust.” Hedebrandt said.

Advanced segmentation techniques

Effective segmentation is the foundation of personalised email campaigns. For wealth and asset managers, advanced data-driven segmentation can be based on several critical factors:

• Investment preferences: Segment clients based on their investment interests, such as equities, real estate, or alternative assets. Provide content aligned with their investment strategies.
• Risk tolerance: Understanding a client’s risk appetite underpins investment recommendations. Segmenting clients by risk tolerance helps firms send appropriate market insights, risk assessments, and investment opportunities matching risk thresholds.
• Life stage: The financial needs and goals of clients vary significantly across life stages. Whether clients are accumulating wealth, planning for retirement, or preserving wealth, segmenting based on life stage helps deliver relevant advice and solutions.
• Wealth level: Different levels of wealth require different management strategies. Segmenting clients by their net worth allows for more precise targeting of services such as estate planning, tax optimisation, or philanthropic advice.

Integrating personalisation throughout the marketing funnel

Personalisation should be woven into every stage of the marketing funnel:

• Awareness: Use personalised content to capture the attention of potential clients. Tailor introductory emails based on publicly available information or initial consultations to create interest.
• Consideration: Provide in-depth, relevant content addressing specific client needs and challenges. Segment your audience so they receive relevant information, such as market analyses or case studies specific to their financial goals.
• Decision: Offer personalised consultations and solutions. Use insights from segmentation to propose tailored strategies and services, making it easy for clients to decide in your favour.
• Retention: Maintain engagement with ongoing personalised communication. Regularly update clients with relevant information to ensure your services continue to meet their evolving needs.

For wealth and asset managers, personalisation and segmentation are not simply marketing tactics—they are strategic initiatives. By leveraging advanced segmentation techniques and crafting highly personalised email campaigns, you can enhance engagement, build deeper relationships, and drive conversions among high-net-worth clients.

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Understanding the funnel strategy for Women Talk Money

Tactical integration

Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community stands as a testament to the power of strategic funnel tactics in achieving brand objectives. Through a holistic approach that combines content, distribution, and targeted marketing efforts, Fidelity not only educates and empowers women in finance but also cultivates lasting relationships with its audience.

The post Inside Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Addressing common challenges

Across geographies, pension and super funds face similar challenges in engaging audiences who may not prioritise retirement planning. Individuals worldwide struggle with long-term financial planning, with BlackRock’s 2023 Read on Retirement Report indicating a 15% decline in retirement confidence since 2021. This emphasises the importance of tailored marketing strategies that address the informational needs and emotional concerns of diverse audiences globally.

Laura Blows, editor at Pensions Age, writes in an article about social media and finance institutions, “The pensions industry has lagged behind in its use of social media to engage with savers, due to attitudes and time/cost constraints, but this is starting to change.”

Engaging social media: Legal & General

Legal & General Pension utilises social media to disseminate expert insights on retirement planning, investment trends, and market analysis. It utilises platforms like like X and Instagram for raising awareness through engaging visuals and business updates while LinkedIn is used to provide expert insights to audiences in the consideration stage.

What sets it apart?

What sets Legal & General apart is its interactive approach. They actively respond to queries, conduct live Q&A sessions with financial experts, and organise virtual events, creating regular touchpoints with their audience. This dynamic engagement educates its audience and establishes a sense of trust and transparency.

Search marketing and website optimisation: Aviva Retirement Solutions

Aviva Retirement Solutions stands out for its comprehensive approach to search marketing and website optimisation, ensuring a seamless user experience for audiences across the globe. By focusing on relevant keywords and optimising its website content, Aviva ensures individuals searching for retirement planning solutions find valuable resources effortlessly.

What sets it apart?

The website features interactive retirement calculators, webinars, and thought-provoking blog posts on financial planning. Aviva employs personalised content recommendations based on user behavior, ensuring visitors find relevant information effortlessly. The seamless user experience contributes to increased user engagement and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.

Strategic traditional advertising: Prudential Pension Campaign

Prudential has successfully blended traditional advertising with a modern touch to engage a broad audience at various stages of the marketing funnel. Its pension campaign, aired across television, radio, and print media, leverages storytelling and real-life scenarios to raise awareness and foster interest among potential customers, ultimately guiding them toward consideration and conversion stages

What sets it apart?

Prudential understands the emotional aspect of retirement planning and has crafted advertisements that resonate with individuals on a personal level.

Beyond the conventional channels, Prudential has also integrated its offline campaigns with online platforms. This synergy enhances the overall impact of its marketing efforts, allowing Prudential to reach a broader demographic and reinforce its brand message effectively.

Harnessing the power of podcasts: Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows has embraced podcasting to deliver insightful content to its audience. By hosting regular podcasts featuring industry experts, it provides in-depth analysis, market trends, and expert opinions on retirement planning. This approach not only caters to the growing popularity of podcasts but also positions Scottish Widows as a thought leader in the pension industry.

What sets it apart?

The podcasts cover a range of topics, from investment strategies to the psychological aspects of retirement. Hosted live with a panel of impassioned experts, the content, people and host changes often keeping it engaging and fresh for audiences.

Pension marketing explained

In the UK pension industry, successful funds are those that understand the evolving needs of their audience and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly.

Laura Blows explains in her article on social media and finance organisations, “Pension schemes utilising social media need to tailor their approach on different platforms, for instance talking to younger members on TikTok and older members on Facebook.”

The ability to create a compelling narrative, provide valuable content, and target the audience at each stage of the funnel across multiple platforms is the driving force behind successful financial marketing.

The post UK Pension funds Redefining Digital Marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Financial storytelling often feels like navigating a labyrinth of charts and reports, inducing yawns faster than a market downturn. But what if you could elevate your financial narrative, turning complex data into a compelling story that captivates investors? Enter Tome, the AI storytelling tool poised to revolutionise your approach without unnecessary frills.

What is Tome?

Consider Tome as a sophisticated amalgamation, merging GPT-4’s linguistic prowess with Dall-E 2’s visual acumen. Present it with a prompt, such as your company’s vision for fintech disruption, and it generates narratives that transcend typical financial discourse.

Tome’s magic lies in its ability to tap into human emotion. It understands that financial decisions aren’t driven solely by logic, but by a complex tapestry of hopes, fears, and aspirations. Tome helps you to weave narratives that resonate with audiences on a deeper level.

Speaking to The Dubs Agency, senior graphic designer, Tom Bradshaw, explains, “Tome makes it easy to create a sophisticated visual presentation in a relatively quick time period. Enter a simple prompt and it produces a presentation right away.” Bradshaw continues, “AI features such as the ability to adjust tone, extend or shorten copy are helpful.”

Why should you use Tome?

Now, why should financial marketers consider integrating Tome into their arsenal? Let’s dissect the advantages:

• From data deluge to persuasive narrative: Escape the monotony of data slides. Tome breathes life into numerical intricacies, transforming your growth trajectory into a dynamic narrative that outshines traditional presentations.
• Tailored brand persona: For brands lacking a distinctive voice, Tome steps in. Seeking a witty and disruptive image? It crafts intelligent and humorous remarks. Aiming for the embodiment of stability? Tome weaves narratives of financial sagacity, leaving a lasting impression.
• Memorable content: Move beyond forgettable presentations. Tome taps into emotional cues, constructing experiences that resonate.
• Efficiency meets creativity: Marketers face perpetual time constraints. Tome acts as an efficient creative partner, generating tailored narratives and visuals fast.

Tom shares other benefits of Tome, “It can be used for training purposes, e.g. brand guidelines, event presentations and webinars.” He continues, “Anyone on the team can use it. It doesn’t need a designer to do much fixing once someone is finished. I spend a bit of time doing this in Google Slides.”

Not a perfect tool

However, let’s not be overly enamored with Tome. It’s a tool, not a silver bullet; it necessitates your guidance. The narratives it produces are raw materials, awaiting your input. Investors still seek a human touch, a genuine connection that AI cannot replicate. Think of Tome as your AI-assisted collaborator, streamlining the creative process while you, as the orchestrator, craft the masterpiece.

Bradshaw continues, “If you require simple charts and tables, it’s great. However, for the work we do, like complex tables and charts, the level of functionality and personalisation just isn’t there. This is the case across a lot of AI image generators. The output is not usable yet. For generic images such as a laptop or the Harbour Bridge, the quality is so bad we wouldn’t use it.”

Final thoughts

Is Tome the Hemingway of pitch decks? Not quite, but it stands as a potent tool for injecting sophistication into financial marketing. It’s an invitation to break away from mundane data-centric presentations and allow your brand’s narrative to shine. In an era saturated with information, what resonates isn’t just numbers; it’s the carefully curated narrative.

Overall, Bradshaw recommends using Tome to create simple presentations featuring text, image, a simple chart or table. “Use it to share among your team and with clients; it’s perfect for these tasks,” said Bradshaw, adding, “If you need anything bespoke such as an infographic, complex charts or tables, you’ll need a designer’s input.”

The post AI-powered financial storytelling: does Tome deliver? appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What is tentpole marketing?

Tentpole marketing, also known as big rock or blockbuster content revolves around creating an annual piece of content that becomes a cornerstone topic, defining your brand’s narrative and establishing its authority in the industry. This type of content is the bedrock of your brand’s annual marketing strategy, providing a focal point for campaigns and a consistent touchpoint for consumers.

The term ‘tentpole’ simply represents how this content holds up your brand’s overarching marketing ‘tent’ throughout the year.

Real examples of finance brands dominating tentpole marketing

1. Barclays Premier League Sponsorship
   Barclays’ long-standing sponsorship of the English Premier League serves as an excellent example of tentpole marketing. This yearly investment not only aligns the brand with a globally watched sports event but also allows Barclays to integrate its financial products seamlessly into the passion and excitement of football.
2. BlackRock: Global Investor Pulse
   BlackRock conducts the “Global Investor Pulse” survey, an extensive research initiative that explores individual investors’ attitudes, behaviors, and challenges. The findings are shared through reports and visually engaging, interactive online platforms, providing BlackRock with a tentpole content piece that enhances its thought leadership and client engagement.
3. ING and the Amsterdam Marathon
   ING’s sponsorship of the Amsterdam Marathon exemplifies the fusion of finance with a healthy and active lifestyle. By associating with a major running event, ING strengthens its brand’s connection with the community and underscores its commitment to wellbeing.
4. NatWest: Student Living Index
   NatWest in the UK publishes an annual “Student Living Index”, a research report that explores the financial behaviours and challenges of university students. Interactive tools designed for students to make informed decisions about their finances, university and student life. The index also breaks down student living costs through graphs, pull-out data and easy-to-understand explanations.
5. DBS Bank and Marina Bay Sands Light Show (Singapore)
   DBS Bank in Singapore collaborates with Marina Bay Sands to create a spectacular light and water show. The event, called “DBS Marina Regatta,” is part of the bank’s efforts to engage with the community and promote its brand through innovative and visually striking experiences.

The benefits of tentpole marketing

• Consistent brand visibility: Annual tentpole content provides a consistent platform for brand exposure, reinforcing messaging and values.
• Establishing authority: Owning a recurring topic positions a brand as an authority in the field, fostering trust and credibility among consumers.
• Cultivating audience anticipation: Successful tentpole content creates anticipation, with audiences eagerly awaiting each year’s release, driving engagement and loyalty.

Best practices for success

• Atomisation for year-round impact: Break down the tentpole content into bite-sized pieces for year-round distribution. This could include blog posts, social media snippets, and multimedia formats to keep the audience engaged throughout the year.
• Strategic distribution: Identify the channels most relevant to your audience and strategically distribute content across platforms. Leverage social media, email marketing and partnerships to maximise reach.

Case study

Working with The Dubs Agency, Aviva Investors’ ‘Little Book of Data’ stands as a shining example of tentpole marketing. Now in its sixth year, this publication has become a sought-after annual release in the finance industry. The success of the ‘Little Book of Data’ can be attributed to several key elements:

• Rich insights and data: The ‘Little Book of Data’ doesn’t just present data; it delivers meaningful insights and trends through storytelling.
• Engaging visuals: The content is visually appealing, making complex data accessible and digestible for a wide audience.
• Consistency and innovation: While maintaining a consistent annual release, Aviva Investors also introduces innovative elements like engaging maps, stunning visuals and exciting graphics to keep the content fresh.

Final thoughts

Tentpole marketing in the finance industry is not merely a strategy; it’s a mindset. Finance brands that embrace this approach, creating content that resonates, educates, and captivates their audience, will find themselves not just riding the waves of industry change but shaping them.

Aviva Investors’ ‘Little Book of Data’ serves as an inspiring example of the power of tentpole marketing—a power that, when harnessed effectively, can propel a brand to new heights year after year.

The post Mastering tentpole marketing for finance brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

And now? Comics. 

This simple yet ingenious tool does all the things finance content marketers dream of doing — in one fell swoop. 

Comics put the fun in finance content marketing

As any finance content marketer will tell you, one of the biggest barriers to customer engagement is customer apathy. And that’s because people tend to think of finance as dry and boring.

Comics have quite the opposite reputation. Comics mean a fun and relaxing break from adulting.

One bank that’s already onto the power of comic books in finance content marketing is the Bank of Uganda. Through a series of adventures, superhero Mani teaches the Moni kids financial literacy — from learning what the Bank of Uganda does and how it works, to finding out about the regulations that protect accounts. The comics are in the form of four downloadable ebooks, housed on the bank’s website.

Comics put the simple in finance content marketing

Another obstacle to customer engagement in finance content marketing is the perception that money is too complex to comprehend. ‘We all fear what we don’t understand,’ writes author Dan Brown in The Lost Symbol.

That’s why techniques that simplify and clarify — like listicles — get such a warm response. And comics are on the same track, with their commitment to replacing technical information with straight-forward stories.

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For inspiration, check out the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s graphic novel, The Story of The Federal Reserve System. This clever content takes a subject to which entire tomes are dedicated, and transforms it into an easy-to-read tale, narrated in the second person (‘you’) to create a sense of intimacy, and dotted with familiar references, such as ‘perhaps someone in your family has recently taken out a loan at a bank — to buy a car, for example’. 

Comics put the storytelling in finance content marketing

A stack of research has proven there are neuroscientific reasons why we all love a good story, including the fact that identifying with characters boosts oxytocin, a hormone that motivates empathy and trust. And trust, is, of course, vital to successful relationships between finance brands and customers. 

For that reason, South-East Asia-based DBS Bank enlisted a marketoonist to help them transform their culture, from that of a traditional big bank to a ’27,000-employee startup’. 

And the UK’s NatWest Bank is going even further, by turning the customer into a character with its new educational video, ‘Island Saver’, which aims to teach children about responsible money management — and adds an interactive element that helps with long-term relationship building.

As finance content specialists we can help you illustrate the stories your brand needs to tell.  Get in touch.

The post Comics and cartoons: the latest in finance content marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The Sustainability Reports and the beautifully shot videos reflect the brand’s commitment to creating change in the community and regeneration in the environment.

The series is timely and innovative, representing a unique angle of illustrating key data through visually appealing, interactive mediums.

Subscribe now for content marketing insights and trends straight to your inbox.

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