The opportunity around ESG

The opportunity for ESG-focused strategies in finance is immense and rapidly expanding. In Europe alone, ESG fund assets under management are projected to surpass 50% of mutual fund assets by 2025, growing at a compound annual rate of 28.8% from 2019 to 2025. This rise reflects not only investor appetite but also an evolving media and digital landscape:

• Output in specialist sustainability publications has surged by 76%, while global searches for ESG-related content have increased by 63% in the past year.
• Social media engagement around these issues has also risen by 36%, showcasing a growing audience actively seeking ethical and sustainable financial solutions.

These trends underscore the need to embed Environmental, Social, and Governance deeply within your brand narratives and leverage these platforms to connect with a motivated audience.

Making Environmental, Social, and Governance a core brand pillar

Leading finance brands are going beyond static reports, weaving sustainability into their core messaging and operations. Consider the example of Stewart Investors. Their interactive environmental and social governance (ESG) tools go beyond numbers to immerse investors in their sustainability journey. These tools enable users to explore ESG metrics dynamically, diving deep into data without the need for complex spreadsheets.

Executive creative director at The Dubs Agency, Tristan Fawley, worked on the interactive tools created by Stewart Investors. Speaking about the tool created, Fawley explains, “We created an interactive application (digital and mobile optimised) that allows investors to view how Stewart Investors are affecting the companies they invest in.” He continues, “It was created to provide invested company information for almost 200 companies including location, history, what Stewart Investors like about the company, risks and associations to key benchmarks such as the UN SDGs and Project Drawdown categorisations.”

Thinking about how they made these tools stand out, Fawley shares, “In a world where many companies talk about their Environmental, Social, and Governance credentials it was important for Stewart Investors to show how they are different, in both the approach and how they disclose their credentials. ‘Greenwashing’ (where companies appear more ‘green’ than they are) is commonplace so being able to provide in-depth evidence of how they operate was key.”

“The application has become a core point of differentiation for Stewart Investors. Although many companies may talk about their ESG credentials they don’t show them beyond top level information, Stewart Investors does,” explains Fawley.

Finally, Fawley advises financial marketers to, “Be transparent, provide information and showcase it in a digital-first format.”
Such strategies demonstrate how ESG can become a central brand narrative. By building resources that both educate and engage, Stewart Investors positions itself as a thought leader in ethical investment.

Key Takeaway: Finance brands must ensure ESG isn’t confined to an annual report but reflected in the user experience, brand story, and long-term vision.

Consistent ESG storytelling across touchpoints

One of the challenges finance brands face is ensuring consistency in ESG messaging across all channels. Australian Ethical Super provides an exemplary case. Their social media campaigns frequently highlight their investments in renewable energy projects, while their blog posts offer in-depth discussions on how their fund choices align with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This omnichannel approach ensures investors experience a cohesive ESG narrative, whether they’re browsing a website, scrolling on Instagram, or reviewing annual reports.

At the upper end of the creative spectrum, Apple’s 2023 ESG video is a masterclass in storytelling. Though a tech company, its engaging visuals, creative narrative, and focus on real-world impact offer lessons for finance brands. Finance marketers, even with tighter budgets, can learn from Apple’s example: using storytelling to transform abstract metrics into relatable, human-centered narratives.

Key Takeaway: A consistent ESG narrative across platforms builds credibility and keeps commitments top-of-mind for members and stakeholders.

Building trust through transparency

Transparency is non-negotiable when it comes to ESG. Investors increasingly demand not just promises but proof. To add to this, finance brands are increasingly coming under fire for greenwashing, and governments around the world are making amends to ensure this practice is limited. Brands like Ninety One, a global investment manager, excel here. Their online ESG dashboards break down portfolio-level impact data in a user-friendly way. For instance, users can explore carbon intensity metrics for each investment product, coupled with explanatory content that contextualises these numbers within broader sustainability goals.

Beyond numbers, transparency also means admitting challenges. Brands that communicate their ongoing improvements – highlighting areas of struggle alongside successes – foster trust by showing their commitment to continuous improvement.

Key Takeaway: Finance brands must make their ESG data accessible and meaningful while embracing honest conversations about their journey.

ESG as a competitive differentiator

In a crowded market, ESG has become a crucial differentiator. Aviva Investors integrates ESG into their brand positioning as a driver of both financial performance and societal impact. Their campaigns, such as “Investing with Purpose” emphasise ESG isn’t just about doing good but also about delivering resilient long-term returns – a message tailored to appeal to sophisticated investors.

Key Takeaway: By linking ESG to both purpose and performance, brands can carve out a distinct niche in the market while appealing to values-driven investors.

Creative campaigns that inspire action

Creative campaigns can transform ESG from a compliance exercise into a movement. While Apple’s high-production ESG videos are aspirational, finance brands can adopt more accessible strategies.

Consider Triodos Bank, which uses customer stories to illustrate the impact of its ethical banking model. Their “Colour of Money” blog often features interviews, stories and advice that explores ethical investing, sustainable initiatives and other ESG-related topics.

Key Takeaway: Even with modest budgets, finance brands can use customer stories, videos, and interactive content to create ESG campaigns that resonate deeply with their audience.

Lessons from industry leaders

To drive ESG communication that truly hits the mark, finance brands should:

1. Invest in interactive tools: Create digital experiences that let users explore ESG data in an engaging way.
2. Leverage visual storytelling: Use tools like infographics, videos, and animations to demystify ESG metrics and bring impact stories to life.
3. Adopt a multi-channel approach: Ensure ESG messaging remains consistent across websites, social media, investor updates, and reports.
4. Be transparent: Build trust by making ESG metrics accessible and sharing honest updates about progress and challenges.
5. Humanise the message: Borrow from Apple and Triodos Bank by centering ESG stories on real people and communities affected by your investments.

With ESG now the norm, your finance brand must recognise the opportunity to lead not just with products but with purpose. Authenticity, transparency, and creativity are the pillars of successful ESG communication.

The post How finance brands can lead in ESG communications appeared first on Financial Marketer.

By leveraging principles like loss aversion, framing effects, and social proof, you can design campaigns that resonate more deeply with investors, driving better engagement and ultimately, more successful outcomes.

Global financial advertising platform Dianomi’s APAC managing director, Julian Peterson, said while behavioural economics can significantly help marketing he warned there are too “too many cases” of campaign effects being overstated.

“Humans can find it hard to overcome our inherent biases, therefore, ads that exploit these can be strong behavioural drivers. Behavioural techniques, such as choice architecture, can also be used for landing page and website design.” Peterson said.

“However, context is important and effects are not always as expected – constant testing and learning will help evaluate the effectiveness of targeting biases with an advertising campaign.” he said.

For those working in financial advertising Peterson suggested the “Save More Tomorrow” program to learn about behavioural economics. At the time of writing more than 15 million Americans are using the Save More Tomorrow approach to save towards their retirement. 

This program was developed by behavioural economics pioneers Shlomo Benartzi and Richard Thaler with three core principles.

People are first asked to commit now to saving more in the future which helps avoid their “present bias”. Secondly savings rates increases are linked to pay rises to minimizes the influence of loss aversion since “take-home pay” does not fall. Thirdly, once people are signed up they remain in the program unless they opt-out. This makes use of inertia.

The power of loss aversion in financial marketing

One of the most potent concepts in behavioural economics is loss aversion, the idea that people fear losses more than they value equivalent gains. In financial marketing, this principle can be harnessed to shift consumer behaviour in subtle but powerful ways.

Research has shown people are significantly more likely to act when faced with the possibility of losing something they already have, rather than the prospect of gaining something new. A case study by Morningstar found 65% of people displayed signs of having stronger responses to losses than equivalent gains (loss aversion).

Financial marketers can apply this by crafting messages that frame inaction as a loss. For instance, “You could miss out on a comfortable retirement by not starting your investment plan today” could be more compelling than simply stating, “Start your investment plan today for a better future.” By strategically framing messages in the context of loss, marketers can tap into deep-seated psychological biases, encouraging consumers to take immediate action.

Framing effects and decision contexts

The concept of framing effects is closely related to loss aversion, where the way information is presented significantly impacts decision-making. Ultimately, understanding and applying framing effects can be a game-changer in your campaign design.

A notable example of this is the framing of fee structures in investment products. Research by Barberis demonstrates consumers are more likely to choose products when fees are presented as a small percentage of their investment rather than as an absolute monetary amount. This subtle shift in framing can make fees appear less daunting, leading to higher conversion rates.

Moreover, framing can be used to influence perceptions of value. For example, consider two investment products: one with a guaranteed return of 3% and another with a potential return of 7% but with higher risk.

By framing the guaranteed return as a way to “protect your capital in uncertain times,” marketers can appeal to risk-averse individuals while framing the higher-risk option as “a chance to significantly grow your wealth” might attract those more comfortable with taking on risk.

To effectively utilise framing effects, financial marketers need to understand the target audience’s risk tolerance and tailor messages accordingly. Testing different frames through A/B testing can also provide insights into which messages resonate most effectively with different segments of the market.

Social proof as a catalyst for action

Social proof, the idea that people look to the behaviour of others to guide their actions, is another powerful tool in the behavioural economics toolkit. In financial marketing, leveraging social proof can help overcome inertia and spur action, particularly in markets where trust and credibility are paramount.

One successful case study comes from Wealthsimple, a robo-advisor platform that improved user engagement by showcasing testimonials and user statistics prominently on its website. One way was by highlighting “over 100,000 investors have chosen Wealthsimple,” the platform effectively leveraged social proof to build trust and encourage new users to sign up.

Social media platforms provide fertile ground for amplifying social proof through user-generated content, where satisfied customers share their positive experiences, further validating the financial products or services being marketed.

Behavioural economics for marketers

To effectively incorporate behavioural economics into financial marketing campaigns, consider the following strategies:

• Segment and personalise: Behavioural economics principles are not one-size-fits-all. Segment your audience based on risk tolerance, investment goals, and other relevant factors, and personalise campaigns to align with these characteristics.
• A/B testing: Continuously experiment with different imagery, loss aversion messages, and social proof techniques to determine what resonates best with your audience. Use data-driven insights to refine your campaigns.
• Storytelling: Weave behavioural insights into compelling narratives.
• Transparent and simple messaging: While behavioural economics can make campaigns more sophisticated, clarity is still paramount. Ensure messages, regardless of how they are framed, remain clear, transparent, and easy to understand.

Behavioural economics: your secret to success

Harnessing the principles of behavioural economics allows your finance brand to move beyond traditional strategies and engage consumers on a deeper psychological level.

As the financial landscape becomes increasingly competitive, financial marketers who integrate these advanced behavioural insights into their marketing efforts will be well-positioned to stand out and succeed.

The post Worried your financial marketing is failing? Use behavioural economics 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.

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The best way to keep your clients happy and loyal? Do the right thing and know your responsibilities. In fact, just like a social media strategy, a privacy and security strategy should be a key part of your brand. With that in mind, here’s an overview of what’s been happening over the past 12 months, and what you need to know to stay up-to-date.

The Digital Service Act: the future of marketing

If you’re advertising to customers in the European Union, you need to be across the Digital Service Act, which was launched late last year. Based on how online platforms distribute information, this act has a couple of purposes. Regarding companies such as Google and Meta, the objective is to hold them accountable for the content that’s on their site. And for consumers, the act will better protect their online rights and ensure that advertisers behave ethically.

In marketing, the most significant change will come in how you can target consumers in the EU. The act prohibits online ads that target consumers based on sensitive personal data. This can mean things like religion, sexual preferences or political beliefs. It will also give consumers more information on the ads they are being shown – including if and why an ad is targeting them specifically.

By empowering consumers, these new rules should have a big impact on transparency and visibility within advertising. Now, those in the EU will be informed on why they’re being targeted by an ad and who paid for it. Additionally, they’ll now be able to see whether content is sponsored or organically posted.

Changes in privacy law around the globe

Data breaches are becoming more and more common in the digital age – which is why countries are introducing harsh new penalties for companies that don’t protect consumer data. In the United Kingdom, the 2018 Data Protection Act controls how consumer data can be used by customers. It decrees that, should a data breach happen, consumers need to be notified within 72 hours. By reacting quickly, it means that those affected by the breach can take action to protect themselves and change any details, passwords or sensitive information that was compromised in the data breach.

Australia is an interesting example of how companies are reacting to data breaches, their impact on consumers, and how governments are changing relevant laws. With 2022’s massive breaches of Medibank and Optus – two brands trusted by millions of Australians – privacy and the protection of user data came into the public spotlight. After these leaks were made public, the Australian government launched into action, announcing tougher penalties for companies who didn’t take appropriate care of their customer details. While the previous maximum penalty was $2.22 million, under the new bill, this increased to either:

• $50 million
• 3 x the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information
• 30% of a company’s adjusted turnover in the relevant period

Despite these beefed-up penalties and the risks of not taking care of customer data, many companies weren’t ready. According to a report by advisory firm Arktic Fox, only 41% of brands claimed they were prepared for the new measures. Similarly, just 23% were focused on improving things over the coming 18 months. These statistics are damning – especially when building trust is such an important part of branding.

See opportunities where others don’t (or won’t)

We know that finance brands should focus on trust in times of crisis. And the same philosophy applies here – it’s all about customer confidence in your brand.

Instead of treating them as a chore or a boring thing you have to tick off, why not treat privacy and security as an opportunity to differentiate your business? It could be a fantastic advantage that solidifies your niche in the financial field. After all, according to Cisco, nearly a third of consumers have stopped doing business with a brand that isn’t up to snuff in the privacy and security arena. And if your brand isn’t serious about protecting data, you could be next.

But by taking a proactive approach, you can avoid losing customers, and even attract new ones. In fact, according to that same Cisco report, for every dollar that companies invest in privacy, they see a $2.70 return. In a similar vein, a study by the Harvard Business Review actually showed that being upfront about how customer data is used for ad targeting actually increases click through rates.

These examples prove that privacy and security don’t have to be boring parts of doing business, and that paying attention to them is a great way to increase profits and attract customers – especially in the B2B sector.

The post In focus: privacy and data compliance appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Harnessing the power of data

The ability to collect, analyse, and interpret massive volumes of audience insights is at the heart of data-driven creative. As financial marketers, you now have unprecedented access to analytics ranging from user behaviour and preferences, to industry trends and competitor insights. Intelligently leveraging these insights can result in highly personalised and relevant creative campaigns that resonate profoundly with your finance brand’s target demographic.

In today’s climate there is now a growing importance for creativity to produce stellar results alongside other critical drivers like ad placement choices and audience targeting.

A small guide to utilising data

Speaking to The Dubs Head of Social Media, Tara Cimino, she explains, “It’s important for finance brands to strike a balance between creativity and compliance, ensuring creative strategies comply with relevant regulations and ethical guidelines.”

She continues, “Finance brands can utilise creativity in various ways to stand out from the competition by developing a unique brand identity and voice, customer engagement, and interaction that builds an emotional connection.”

1. Understanding audience behaviour

The capacity to obtain deep insights into audience behaviour is one of the most significant benefits of data-driven marketing. Utilising analytics to detect patterns, preferences, and pain points allows you to create innovative content that precisely addresses the demands of your target audience.

2. Scalable personalisation

Building audience trust is critical. Data-driven creativity enables your finance brand to develop personalised experiences at scale, ensuring every audience feels appreciated and understood. Your finance brand can tailor personalised communications around customer demographics, previous interactions, and financial habits. This personal touch has the potential to significantly enhance brand loyalty and drive conversion rates.

3. A/B testing to improve performance

For improved success, data-driven creative should be dynamic and constantly optimised. A/B testing can be used to identify which creative aspects, including ad images, copy, and call-to-actions, are most effective in driving clicks and conversions.

A/B testing can lead to significant insights that drive future creative decisions as platform algorithms become more competent at understanding customer behaviour. “A/B testing creative across different targeting options is best practice to ensure content that’s resonating most for each audience group is being optimised towards,” says Cimino.

4. Data-driven storytelling

Incorporating statistics into creative storytelling can help your finance brands’ messaging gain traction and authority. Data can provide greater depth to your content, whether it’s emphasising great financial achievements or demonstrating the impact of your services on customers’ lives.

As Cimino shares, “Data-driven insights provide informative and engaging content for finance brands to distribute. Including stats in social media creative drives higher engagement and is an effective way to drive traffic onsite.”

Data is the cornerstone for creating interesting and powerful creative assets, whether it’s designing eye-catching images and infographics or writing appealing ad content.

“Infographics are a great way to utilise existing data and showcase it in a visual and engaging way that’s perfect for use on social media.” She adds, “Whitepapers and research already undertaken by finance brands will be full of statistics and figures that can be repurposed into moving animations or graphics to then entice users to click through.”

Stay ahead of the game

Increasing personalisation strategies can assist your finance brand to remain competitive and relevant as digital marketing platforms deliver greater data and control. Data is becoming an invaluable commodity to delivering exceptional and targeted content. Financial marketers can unleash the potential of data-driven creative to produce remarkable results by studying audience behaviour, personalising ads, A/B testing, and using data-backed storytelling.

Utilising data to enhance your creative strategy is critical to your future success. Cimino explains, “Investing in a creative strategy allows finance brands to differentiate themselves from their peers. Innovation is at the core of everything we do for all our clients.”

Using data to drive creativity will be the critical differentiator for any finance brand trying to stand out, develop meaningful connections with their audience, and generate significant growth in a highly competitive industry.

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Visual communication: trust and effectiveness

Capturing clients’ attention in an age of information overload has become increasingly difficult. According to studies, 31% of customers believe pictures are more successful than text alone in expressing information. This predilection for visual material highlights the importance for your finance brand to prioritise strong design in its communication strategy.

Speaking to The Dubs’ Executive Creative Director, Tristan Fawley, good design is “Design that’s emotive and elicits engagement.”

He continues, “Creating any content without defining its purpose is worthless. Therefore, how the content is distributed will drive its design considerations. For example, long-form videos on YouTube are very different to short-form TikTok videos. Always consider how the content will be consumed and let that drive how it’s designed.”

The impact of good design on financial success

The impact of design goes beyond attracting attention and successfully presenting information. It’s been demonstrated to have a tangible impact on the success of finance brands.

Graphic design has been proven to increase sales, improve ROI, reduce customer attrition, and raise conversions. According to a recent study, 57% of marketers believe a strong brand identity aids in revenue growth. This demonstrates the link between good design, branding, and financial performance.

“Effective design plays a crucial role in all stages of the audience journey,” explains Fawley. “From arresting imagery on social media to a social formatted video, to optimised webpages, design is key to ensuring high engagement and a return on investment.”

Defining good design and branding

Aesthetics are only one aspect of good design; it also includes the strategic use of visual elements to communicate your brand’s values, personality, and purpose. It entails developing a consistent and visually appealing identity that engages the target audience. A good design reflects the essence of your finance brand, elicits emotions, and instils confidence and trustworthiness.

However, branding encompasses the entire customer experience, from visual components like logos, colour schemes, and typography to messaging, tone of voice, and overall brand positioning. It’s the process of creating a distinct and appealing identity that distinguishes a finance brand from its competitors and builds a strong relationship with its target audience.

Fawley suggests marketers, ”Understand the environment it sits in and ensure it delivers on the objectives set for it.” He adds, “Simple considerations such as does a design fit a mobile screen without scrolling will be a key driver in its ability to function.”

The benefits of good design and branding for finance brands

• Trust and credibility: A well-designed brand identity instils client trust and credibility. It assists your finance brand in establishing a positive reputation and distinguishing itself in a congested market.
• Brand awareness and recall: A strong brand identity with a memorable design fosters brand awareness and recall. When presented with a variety of options, people are more inclined to select a brand they can quickly recognise and recall.
• Emotional connection: Good design has the ability to elicit emotions and create an emotional connection with customers. Your finance brand may develop loyalty and long-term partnerships by appealing to customers’ emotions.
• Cohesion and consistency: A well-executed design and branding strategy ensures consistency across several touchpoints. Consistency fosters familiarity, trust, and promotes the underlying values of your finance brand.
• Competitive advantage: In a highly competitive industry, effective design and branding can help you stand out. It enables your finance brand to differentiate itself from the competition, acquire new clients, and keep existing ones.

Final tips and tricks

There are a number of things to consider when executing a good design. “Always consider how audiences will see and interact with it, not just how you see it yourself,” explains Fawley.

“What works for one environment will not for another, create a bespoke approach to allow designs to be optimised to different environments, such as desktop versus mobile, YouTube versus TikTok or even print versus digital.”

The most vital tip Fawley can impart is that design can’t be a one size fits all approach. “For a design to be effective it has to be appropriate to how it will be distributed and consumed.”

The future of good design for finance brands

Just like with any marketing trend or strategy, it’s important you remain diligent in staying up to date. Outdated design can be a major deterrent for clients and negatively impact your finance brand.

Speaking to Fawley, he identifies the following as the key trends to look out for. “Mobile, mobile, mobile. Ensuring all content when designed has mobile consumption front of mind is essential.”

He continues, “For social cards, this might be font sizing, for video, social publishing dictates format size (1:1) and the need to include subtitles as the video will auto-play with sound off. The mobile audience is now the main audience, any design not considering mobile is set to fail.”

The importance of effective design for your finance brand cannot be overstated. As consumers increasingly consider and critique brands before making purchasing decisions, it’s critical to invest in a strong brand identity that successfully communicates your values, establishes trust, and distinguishes you from the competition.

Good design and branding are critical tools for your financial success in today’s visually-driven environment, with the capacity to enhance sales, improve ROI, reduce churn, and raise conversions.

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By integrating personalised financial wellness content and educational tools into their service offering finance brands may help increase engagement, retention, and income. Here’s how financial marketers can get it right.

Five key findings

According to a report by the Financial Health Network, clients are more satisfied when they think their financial institutions are supporting their financial health, yet most don’t. In fact, 47% of consumers believe it’s their financial institution’s duty to help them make better financial decisions.

Financial wellness tools can take many forms. From savings tools to personalised advice about loans to financial education hubs offered by asset managers, financial wellbeing is about improving clients’ relationships with money and reducing stress.

Five significant findings were identified to help your finance brand improve its financial wellness and loyalty.

Finding 1: Improve customer satisfaction

By providing comprehensive and tailored financial wellness content, asset managers can enhance customer satisfaction levels. This includes offering educational resources, budgeting tools, investment guidance, and personalised financial planning.

Finding 2: Achieve loyalty

Loyalty is a vital aspect of your finance brands’ long-term performance. Clients who believe their primary financial institutions actually care about their financial wellbeing are more likely to remain loyal. You may create trust, foster long-term relationships, and reduce customer churn by addressing your clients’ financial wellbeing demands.

Finding 3: Grow customer connections

Focusing on financial health not only increases loyalty but also allows your finance brand to grow customer connections. Having a deeper understanding of your clients’ goals and areas of concerns provides increased opportunities to introduce them to your broader product or service offering.

Finding 4: Broaden your appeal

Adopting financial health as a primary business strategy might assist you in broadening your finance brands’ appeal and reaching previously untapped market segments. You may bridge the knowledge gap and empower individuals by prioritising education and accessible tools.

Finding 5: Deliver high-quality solutions

Clients prefer financial decision-making resources and high-quality solutions that improve their financial wellbeing. You must concentrate on offering relevant and meaningful content that’s easily available via many platforms. You can establish yourself as a trusted authority in the financial wellness arena by delivering transparent information, expert guidance, and user-friendly solutions.

Finance brands getting financial wellness right

While financial wellbeing fosters loyalty and improves client retention, it can often be left to last. According to one study, 8 in 10 asset managers have no wellbeing strategy.

A finance brand leading the charge is Bank of America (BofA). BofA Life Plan App utilises an omnichannel approach to financial wellness creating a platform that converses with the consumer, enabling them to provide content that’s timely and suited to each client’s situation.

In Australia, MLC has its Financial Wellness Hub, which boasts interactive and educational content in one place. Similarly in the UK, HSBC has its Financial Fitness Hub which enables users to determine their ‘financial fitness score’ and offers tailored advice to help people improve.

Embrace financial wellness or be left behind

At the end of the day, by delivering high-value and personalised financial wellness content you can build loyalty among your clients. By prioritising financial health, you can enhance customer satisfaction, foster loyalty, uncover cross-selling opportunities, reach underserved market segments, and deliver the resources customers desire.

To truly make an impact in the financial wellness space, you need to provide personalised financial education tools and seamlessly integrate them into your service offerings and content strategy to drive engagement, retention, and revenue. By embracing financial wellness, you can differentiate yourself in the highly competitive financial landscape and position your brand as a trusted authority in the space.

The post Financial wellness: the missing link in brand loyalty appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What is AI technology?

Artificial intelligence technology is simply when machines can do the tasks or jobs that are commonly thought to be done only by humans. AI technology has been a part of financial marketing for a while now, predominantly in the form of chatbots or voice recognition.

However, as technology continues to improve so do the ways in which AI technology can be integrated into your financial marketing tactics. In a recent study, 41% of marketers reported enhanced performance and a rise in revenue growth as a result of using artificial intelligence in their marketing operations.

Speaking to Andrew Frith, Research and Social Media Director at The Dubs, he explains, “AI has the potential to transform financial marketing by providing advanced analytical capabilities, personalised customer experiences, and automated decision-making.”

How can AI improve financial marketing?

There are a number of ways artificial intelligence can improve financial marketing. As previously mentioned, the use of chatbots and voice recognition have been great contributions to the overall customer experience and helped streamline problem-solving capabilities.

When asked, Andrew notes four other ways artificial intelligence can improve financial marketing.”Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionise financial marketing by providing advanced analytical capabilities, personalised customer experiences, and automated decision-making.

“AI can help financial institutions stay ahead of the competition and provide superior service to their customers.”

There are four key areas AI can help financial marketers:

• Predictive analytics: Artificial intelligence algorithms can analyse vast amounts of financial data to identify patterns and predict future outcomes, allowing financial institutions to make informed decisions on customer behaviour and market trends.
• Personalised customer experiences: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can offer personalised recommendations and support to customers, based on their specific needs and preferences. Around 95% of marketers believe that artificial intelligence will improve their ability to personalise user experiences.
• Risk assessment: Artificial intelligence can help financial institutions to better assess and manage risk by analysing data and identifying potential areas of concern.
• Marketing automation: Artificial intelligence can automate marketing campaigns, including targeted advertising, email marketing, and social media outreach, helping financial institutions to optimise their marketing efforts and maximise return on investment.

Pros for financial marketers

When integrated effectively and innovatively, artificial intelligencecan have vast benefits for financial marketers.

“Integrating AI into financial marketing can offer significant benefits to financial institutions, enabling them to provide superior customer experiences, increase efficiency, and achieve a competitive advantage in the market,” Andrew says.

Here are four ways in which artificial intelligence can benefit your brand and finance business:

• Improved customer engagement: Artificial intelligence can provide personalised customer experiences, tailored to each customer’s individual needs and preferences, leading to higher levels of engagement and customer loyalty.
• Increased efficiency: AI-powered tools can automate many of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks associated with financial marketing, such as data analysis, reporting, and campaign management, freeing up staff time to focus on more complex and strategic activities.
• Enhanced targeting and segmentation: Artificial intelligence can analyse vast amounts of customer data to identify patterns and segments, enabling financial institutions to target specific customer groups with highly relevant and personalised marketing messages.
• Faster decision-making: Artificial intelligence can process large amounts of data quickly and accurately, enabling financial institutions to make informed decisions faster and respond more effectively to changing market conditions.
• Greater cost savings: Artificial intelligence technologies are projected to help reduce marketing costs by 30% across industries. Artificial intelligence can primarily reduce costs associated with traditional marketing methods, such as print advertising and direct mail, while also improving the return on investment of marketing campaigns.

Cons for financial marketers

While artificial intelligence can be a big help and support for financial marketers, it’s not a perfect solution. Just like with anything, it still requires someone to oversee what’s occurring in order to prevent any issues.

Artificial intelligence utilises algorithms and past data to complete its tasks. This means things such as context or nuance can be lost in the milieu of information it’s processing. Checking answers and ensuring you keep tasks simple and straightforward remain necessary for you to get the best results.

Just like you see in those scary sci-fi horror movies, artificial intelligence doesn’t have human empathy. While it may seem obvious, AI technology lacks a ‘human touch’ which can be necessary to build trust and rapport with your clients. Ensure AI isn’t utilised or limited in cases where empathy is paramount for maintaining good customer service and engagement.

Finally, artificial intelligence isn’t suitable for complex tasks such as providing financial advice where personalisation is a priority. Every client and financial situation is different. Speaking to real people who are experts is paramount in these types of situations.

While artificial intelligence is amazing, it’s not a perfect solution for every scenario and should only be utilised in appropriate settings to ensure you maximise results.

Concerns

While AI is amazing, it shouldn’t be trusted 100% of the time. Just like people, AI can make mistakes that, if not identified, can impact your financial marketing strategy to a significant extent.

When speaking to Andrew, he noted six key areas of concern. “Data privacy and security, bias and fairness, transparency, human oversight, integration with existing systems, and skills.”

“Financial marketers should be aware of these considerations when utilising AI technology, and take appropriate steps to mitigate risks and ensure AI is being used effectively and ethically to benefit customers and the institution,” Andrew says.

To explain in further detail, here is what you need to look out for when utilising AI technology such as ChatGPT and other systems:

• Data privacy and security: Artificial intelligence relies on vast amounts of customer data to provide personalised experiences and insights. Financial institutions must ensure they have robust data privacy and security measures in place to protect customers’ sensitive information and comply with relevant regulations.
• Bias and fairness: Artificial intelligence algorithms can perpetuate existing biases in data sets, potentially leading to discriminatory outcomes for certain customer groups. Financial institutions should be aware of these risks and take steps to ensure AI is used in a fair and unbiased manner.
• Transparency: Artificial intelligence can sometimes generate results that are difficult to explain or interpret, raising concerns about transparency and accountability. Financial institutions should ensure AI-powered tools are transparent and can be audited to ensure they are producing accurate and reliable results.
• Human oversight: Although artificial intelligence can automate many tasks, it still requires human oversight and intervention to ensure it’s being used effectively and ethically. Financial institutions should have appropriate governance structures in place to ensure AI is being used in a responsible and ethical manner.
  Integration with existing systems: Financial institutions must ensure AI-powered tools can be integrated effectively with their existing systems and workflows, avoiding disruptions or compatibility issues.
• Skills and expertise: Financial institutions must have the appropriate skills and expertise in place to manage and implement AI-powered tools effectively. This may involve hiring specialised staff or partnering with external vendors with expertise in AI and financial marketing.

Looking to the future

While artificial intelligence has improved drastically in the past few years, it will continue to do so. If you don’t want to be left behind, it’s important you stay up to date on the latest trends and happenings in this arena. In fact, 56.6% of marketing experts believe artificial intelligence will have the largest impact on the industry by 2025.

So what can artificial intelligence teach us about the future of financial marketing? As Andrew explains, “The increased use of AI technology in financial marketing teaches us the future of marketing is likely to be increasingly personalised, data-driven, and technology-enabled.”

He adds, “Financial institutions that embrace these trends and invest in AI-powered tools and capabilities are likely to gain a competitive advantage in the market and provide superior customer experiences”

As we mentioned, while artificial intelligence is awesome and can be a big support for financial marketers, there still remains a level of concern when using it. Artificial intelligence isn’t perfect and should always be monitored, tested and overseen to ensure it doesn’t impact your brand negatively.

The post What financial marketers need to know about AI appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Where asset managers are going wrong

While asset managers have recognised the need for greater focus on ESG and promotion, many aren’t getting it right. Often, when asset managers create content around ESG that’s niche and focused on what investors want its focus is on promoting its own new products or services creating a tone of inauthenticity. This lack of engaging content, alongside an alarming amount of information gaps, reveals ESG is one area asset managers can improve.

Currently, ESG content remains generic with most topics widely over-indexed. To make your content truly shine it’s important to not repeat the same ideas, information and content everyone else is putting out. Overarching topics like climate change and energy are oversaturated whereas specialist topics like deforestation are often overlooked.

These specialised topics and niche areas of interest are where the opportunity lies for financial marketers. Investors want to be educated and gain timely information from a reliable source. Providing an investment angle on ESG topics can help secure your place as an authority in the area and help generate and nurture leads.

What to ask yourself when creating content that hits:

• Is your ESG content reiterating information from broad subject areas or providing specialised information on niche topics?
• Does your content provide unique insights from an asset management perspective?
• Is the information relevant, timely and accurate?

Why ESG content is important

Supplying engaging, relevant and informative ESG content should be a part of every asset manager’s marketing strategy. At the end of the day, consumers are demanding it.

Here are three reasons why it remains important:

• Output in specialist ESG and sustainability media outlets has increased by 76%
• In the last 12 months, there has been a 63% increase in searches globally for ESG-related content
• Additionally, there has been a 36% increase in social media engagement globally around ESG issues

To gain traction, nurture leads and capture an engaged audience, asset managers must prioritise marketing ESG insights.

Remove the disconnect

This disconnect between what content asset managers are supplying versus what investors are demanding (niche topics) offers a unique opportunity for financial marketers. At the end of the day, an information gap is also an opportunity gap.

Identifying the areas where your asset management firm is underdelivering content your audience wants is the first step to removing this disconnect. Utilising analytics, research and first-party data can help in this area.

By creating content on underdelivered topics you can capture an interested audience by demonstrating thought leadership and becoming an authoritative figure within the industry. This can help generate meaningful leads and enable your brand to effectively nurture web visitors.

To ensure you outperform your competitors and stand out from the crowd, your asset management firm needs to reallocate resources and restructure its content calendar to reflect these growth opportunities.

Asset managers getting ESG content right

What does success look like, you ask? These three asset managers produced quality ESG content about specialist topics while remaining authentic and true to its brand’s messaging.

BNP Paribas Asset Managers

BNP Paribas Asset Managers regularly create ESG marketing content on diverse topics, often fulfilling investor demand for underdelivered subjects.

What it’s doing right
BNP Paribas consistently publishes content and offers both critiques on international ESG topics alongside more personal thought leadership such as interviews with its CEO and corporate insights into its sustainability initiatives.

In addition, this content is shared in a variety of formats such as a podcast and short-form videos making it more accessible and fostering engagement.

Robeco
ESG content is a core tenet of Robeco’s content strategy. It’s spread across its social channels and housed on its website, with education being a key component that sets its content apart.

What it’s doing right
Robeco’s ESG marketing content is focused on educating investors on complex topics in a diverse array of areas. Unlike BNP Paribas, Robeco has a strong social media presence in which it shares its ESG content regularly. Focusing on timely topics and newsworthy events, Robeco has adopted a strong always-on content strategy.

Offering video content, podcasts, webinars and educational materials, Robeco ensures its content remains fresh and engaging helping to nurture leads and capture an invested audience.

Schroders
For Schroders, it regularly posts content that directly fills the ESG information gaps Peregrine has identified.

What it’s doing right
Schroders has a diverse range of ESG content, much of which directly fulfills these ‘white spaces’. Presented in a variety of formats, from podcasts to Q&As to videos enables more interest and engagement. Additionally, it provides both a global perspective and a more micro perspective on many topics, offering content that’s more tailored to certain investors.

Like Robeco, it also has a strong social media presence where this content often features. This can help boost engagement and reach a broader audience.

ESG content is not a ‘nice to have’

At the end of the day, investors want ESG insights but many asset managers are continuing to supply the same content without much thought to what its audience wants. Consider what’s newsworthy, what investors are interested in and educational materials that can help.

Rather than looking at the white spaces as areas of failure, view them as opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. Make the most of them and ensure you fulfil investors’ content demands to help build a captured and loyal audience.

The post How to create ESG content that hits target appeared first on Financial Marketer.

How bad is the information gap in the finance sector?

Research conducted by global financial content specialists Dianomi and The Dubs has found often the topics that weren’t being offered to audiences were what they most wanted to see. For example, in that report, it was found while ETFs have the highest amount of interest from clients they only make up 6.06% of articles produced by global asset managers.

While this is specific to asset managers, it’s a problem across the entire financial industry. Filling information gaps should be a priority for all finance brands. By identifying and supplying content on what your audience wants, you can capture an interested audience and generate more meaningful leads.

Put simply, information gaps are areas of opportunity. But how can you identify them?

How to identify information gaps

Andrew Frith explains an information gap can be two things: “There may be a mismatch between the information a finance brand’s audience is looking for and what information the finance brand is publishing”.

“Understanding the target audience’s information needs is something most finance brands will already have a good grasp on but it can be further analysed by doing research into the specific search behaviour of the target audience,” Andrew says.

The first step to identifying an information gap is finding out the core search topics that your target audience is interested in. Then, using an SEO platform, begin to expand upon these core search topics with a ‘broad match’ analysis.

“This will identify the cloud of associated search terms the target audience is searching on and the potential search volumes of these broad matches.” Andrew adds, “This now allows a finance brand to use this for content planning and to create content that addresses these broad match topics and search themes that may have been neglected.”

Another way of identifying information gaps is by performing a ‘gap analysis’.

“A gap analysis allows a finance brand to identify what searchable content they have in common with their competitors, but more importantly what searchable content their competitors are ranking for on search engines that they themselves are not,” Andrew says.

Again, an SEO platform allows for this kind of research and can support finance brands in their content planning by enabling them to address potential information gaps in their current content.

What content format is right for you?

Selecting the right content format is an important part of creating a winning marketing strategy. Just producing white papers or video content, for example, isn’t an effective approach to content marketing.

According to Josh Frith, “People prefer to consume content in different ways – visual, auditory, reading… It’s critical that we as marketers acknowledge this.”

In the scheme of things, B2B finance brands have a relatively small target audience, so we can’t make any assumptions as to how these few people prefer to engage with your brand. That’s why it’s important to share content in a range of formats – podcasts, editorial and video,” Josh says.

At the end of the day, creating a variety of content that your audience wants is important. You don’t have to make every piece of content different to one another either. For example, if you create a white paper that sits on your website, you can repurpose this to create short video content, infographics and social media imagery. Think creatively and take into consideration the platform you are publishing on.

Tips and tricks from the experts to help improve your content

If you’re still struggling to identify your information gaps it can help to go back to basics.

“When you’re feeling stuck, it can help to go back to basics and work on a buyer persona. Using plenty of detail, imagine the typical client you’re trying to reach – name, age, profession, likes and dislikes… The more detail, the better,” Josh says.

“Next, ask yourself questions such as: what are the difficulties facing this person’s industry? What products or features will make it feel as though this person is being heard by your brand?”

While it can be overwhelming, it’s important to not overthink what you’re creating. Remember, information gaps are areas of opportunity so it pays to take the time to learn and find out exactly what they are.

The post What content does your finance audience truly want? appeared first on Financial Marketer.