Global recognition and influence

The burgeoning strength and influence of Australian super funds are not confined to domestic boundaries but are gaining recognition on the global stage. When Brookfield Asset Management pursued the acquisition of Origin Energy Ltd., AustralianSuper took a proactive stance, contesting the bid due to the perceived undervaluation of a key player in Australia’s green energy transition. These assertive moves represent a departure from the traditionally passive role of Australian super funds with funds now becoming lead investors in global projects, highlighting their growing influence.

With Australia’s retirement savings pool projected to triple to A$10.5 trillion by 2040, these funds are becoming significant players in global finance, transforming Australia from a debtor nation to a capital exporter. Peasley, who oversees a portfolio of $65 billion of Australian Super assets explains in an interview with Investment Magazine, “We’re taking larger stakes in businesses and being more of a lead owner, as opposed to being a minority investor following the owners.”

Their commitment to sustainability, such as AustralianSuper’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and Aware Super’s company-wide exclusions from unethical investments, enhances their appeal with investors and competitors alike. As they expand their presence to international financial centres like London and New York, global brands are taking note of their strategies. This newfound prominence underscores Australian super funds’ pivotal role in shaping the future of financial marketing and investment worldwide.

Leading by example: Australian super fund strategies

Australian super funds are employing diverse digital marketing tactics to connect with their audience effectively. For instance, AustralianSuper’s approach encompasses a multi-platform strategy, utilising social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and X. Through these platforms, AustralianSuper shares valuable insights on retirement planning and investment strategies, targeting audiences at the awareness and consideration stages of the marketing funnel. Interactive content and partnering with industry experts to establish AustralianSuper as a trusted adviser in the financial landscape.

Hostplus distinguishes itself through its search marketing prowess and website optimisation efforts. By leveraging targeted keywords and user-friendly website design, Hostplus ensures individuals have easy access to essential retirement planning resources. This strategy effectively targets users at the consideration and decision stages of the marketing funnel, facilitating informed decision-making and encouraging active participation in financial planning.

Innovative campaigns: Future Super case study

The “FutureWealth” campaign by Future Super exemplifies innovative marketing within the Australian super industry through its strategic execution. By seamlessly integrating traditional advertising with modern digital strategies, the campaign effectively engages a broad audience. Through emotive storytelling and relatable scenarios, Future Super communicates the significance of retirement planning to audiences across different stages of the marketing funnel. The campaign’s innovative approach fosters emotional connections and highlights tangible benefits, inspiring action and engagement among its target audience.

Australian super funds are setting the standard for global retirement planning and financial marketing through their strategic engagement and influence on prominent brands.

The post Australian Super Funds leading the charge 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.

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Barbie’s Success

Released in July 2023, the Barbie movie is all anyone can talk about. The film has smashed box office predictions, showcasing it’s not just meme-worthy but a fully-fledged hit, reaching $155 million opening weekend.

One of the reasons the new Barbie film’s marketing campaign has been such a success is its creative approach to repositioning the way we see Barbie. Rather than just utilising traditional print and media advertising, Barbie’s innovative marketing strategy gained vital earned media coverage around the world. Some of these marketing ideas included:

• Utilising Airbnb listings where people could rent a Barbie house
• Dual brand promotion with brands like Crocs and Zara
• Making Google search results sparkle when Googling Barbie
• Ensuring actors like Margot Robbie dressed like her Barbie character on press tours sparking nostalgia and media coverage

This out-of-the-box thinking has proved to be an effective method of marketing, capturing the attention of everyone, whether they are a fan of Barbie or not.

While blockbuster films have more leeway and an easier time of executing creative marketing strategies, it highlights a crucial aspect of marketing – audiences want to be entertained and engaged. Instead of relying on traditional advertising channels, the campaign has used a variety of innovative tactics alongside more traditional marketing approaches, such as product partnerships, social media campaigns, and experiential marketing.

What can financial marketers learn?

By taking inspiration from the Barbie campaign, your finance brand can inject creativity into its marketing efforts and in the process broaden the brand’s image or interactions with your targeted audience.

Understanding your target audience (and those who aren’t)

Another reason why the Barbie movie’s marketing campaign has been such a success is its deep understanding of its target audience. However, the Barbie marketing machine went one step further and utilised effective strategies to capture the attention of those who, until now, thought they had no interest in Barbie.

By tapping into nostalgia, resonating with the audience, and creating pop culture moments like Margot Robbie’s Barbie Premiere looks, this campaign appeals to Barbie fans, the disinterested, and the detractors alike. Additionally, while Barbie marketing was everywhere, it wasn’t the same repeated campaigns, graphics or ideas, meaning content was seen as original, interesting and engaging.

What can financial marketers learn?

Finance brands can adopt a similar approach by identifying the different segments within their target market and tailoring their marketing messages to resonate with each group.

For example, for older Millennials Barbie tapped into their sense of nostalgia of early childhood, whereas for Barbie detractors the feminist lens of the billboard campaigns and slogan of ‘She’s everything. He’s just Ken’ helps to reintroduce the doll and remove the negative stigma surrounding it. Using these examples as inspiration, understanding the motivations, preferences, and pain points of your clients will enable you to create more compelling and relatable campaigns.

While content marketing should be tailored to those you want to attract, thinking outside the box and creating quality content can engage those who aren’t currently in this segment. Creating engaging content that’s original and taps into the zeitgeist can expand your audience and generate leads.

Breaking the Barbie mold

One of the first trailers for Barbie was a unique take on the 2001 A Space Odyssey, where viewers watched little girls in a desert rage and smash dolls against rocks. The scene was so far removed from what you would expect of a Barbie movie trailer it instantly captured the attention of fans and non-fans.

What can financial marketers learn?
Expect the unexpected is a major lesson of Barbie’s marketing strategy. By flipping the script and showcasing scenes and content you wouldn’t expect, it entices audiences to find out more. Consider how your finance brand can break free from the normally ‘rigid’ nature of financial content marketing in fun and creative ways, to set yourself apart from the competition and gain new and engaged audiences.

Multi-platform promotion at its finest

One of the key strengths of the Barbie marketing campaign is its multi-platform promotion. This approach has truly brought the Barbie world to life and ensured audiences were talking about it months before its release. This was achieved by not only utilising the well-trodden channel mix of social, print, television and traditional advertising but also incorporating real-life Barbie experiences such as the Airbnb house and through actors’ clothing choices during press and event coverage.

What can financial marketers learn?

Finance brands can learn from this approach by leveraging various channels to amplify their message and reach a wider audience. By repurposing and atomising content, you can ensure maximum exposure across different platforms. This strategy allows you to deliver a consistent brand message while tailoring the content format to suit the preferences and consumption habits of your target audience.

Mix traditional advertising, like print and billboards, with online content marketing in your campaigns to bring your brand front of mind. Ensure content remains different across platforms, engaging and suited to your audience to ensure engagement remains high.

Take risks

What a lot of viewers have come away thinking is how much the team got away with when it came to the Barbie brand. The storyline heavily makes fun of Mattel executives and plays on the idea of a team of men being in control of what’s commonly seen as a girl’s doll.

What can financial marketers learn?

It’s clear Mattel took a risk with the film and its marketing, however, it’s their ability to make fun of themselves that’s helped this movie succeed. By not taking themselves too seriously and having fun with the brand and marketing – in a calculated way – it’s allowed a whole new audience to form a connection with the product. In a global report by Oracle, it was found 91% of people prefer brands to be funny and 72% would choose a brand that uses humor over the competition.

Barbie’s Collaborations

Barbie’s movie marketing campaign has partnered with a variety of brands, such as Mattel, Xbox, Airbnb, and Nyx Cosmetics. These partnerships have helped to reach a wider audience and generate excitement for the film.

What can financial marketers learn?
Finance brands can follow suit by partnering with other brands that share their target audience. Utilising partnerships to extend brand voice and awareness can be an effective method of gaining a broader organic reach.

But what about B2B brands?

While the Barbie marketing campaign primarily targets B2C consumers, its underlying principles are equally relevant to B2B brands.

By adopting a customer-centric approach and creating engaging content that cuts through to your B2B clients, your finance brand can strengthen its relationships, increase brand loyalty, and generate more business opportunities.

Final thoughts

The Barbie film marketing campaign serves as an unexpected case study for finance brands, offering valuable insights into innovative marketing strategies that can be applied to both B2C and B2B contexts.

Just like Barbie’s evolution and adaptation, finance brands have the opportunity to break from the traditional marketing mold and play around with their marketing approach to potentially engage new audiences and drive results.

The post Barbie’s Marketing Makeover: Lessons for Finance Brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

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.

Just the gist of inclusive marketing

Inclusive marketing recognises and embraces the diverse needs, backgrounds, and experiences of individuals and communities within the financial landscape. It goes beyond targeting a narrow demographic and instead focuses on creating campaigns, messaging, and strategies that resonate with a broad range of audiences.

By incorporating inclusivity in financial marketing, you can foster a sense of belonging, build trust, and cultivate lasting relationships. Inclusive marketing involves authentically representing diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences helping you to tap into new markets, drive growth, and reinforce your commitment to a more inclusive and equitable future.

According to KPMG, marketing that reflects the target client is more effective in influencing their behaviour. The research notes, 69% of black consumers are more likely to be persuaded to buy a product or service from a brand whose communication strategy positively reflects their ethnicity. Further to this, a survey by Deloitte found out of 11,500 global consumers, the youngest respondents (from 18 to 25 years old) took greater notice of inclusive advertising when making purchase decisions.

The six principles of inclusive marketing

According to SalesForce, there are six principles of inclusive marketing.

• Tone – Consider your tone throughout all marketing communications and ensure it remains respectful and considerate of all communities and individuals.
• Intentional language – Consider the language and symbols used throughout your marketing and where they are placed to ensure mistakes aren’t made.
• Representation – People want to see themselves represented in marketing and the media. Ensure your campaigns are diverse and reflect the diversity of society.
• Context – Don’t miss out on cultural influences or the order and hierarchy in traditional marketing. For example, stock photography can often uphold stereotypes that need to be negated.
• Avoid appropriation – Ensure your finance brand doesn’t assert cultural appropriation practices by taking culturally significant aspects of minority groups without understanding their significance.
• Counter-stereotype – Go against stereotypes and ensure content uplifts individuals and communities.

How to get inclusive marketing right

To effectively embrace inclusive marketing, your finance brand must prioritise authenticity, empathy, and a deep understanding of its diverse audience.

The most important thing is to research and learn about the unique needs, aspirations, and challenges of various demographic groups. This serves as the foundation for developing an inclusive message that connects with a diverse range of audiences and your target clients.

Your finance brand should prioritise and authentically reflect diversity in its marketing materials. This means presenting a diverse range of viewpoints, experiences, and backgrounds in a respectful and accurate manner. Featuring different individuals in commercials, photography, and content is one important way of ensuring this.

Inclusivity also includes language and communication. You should constantly try to use inclusive language that avoids preconceptions and stereotypes, ensuring a respectful and equal environment. Building an inclusive brand identity requires adapting language to be gender-neutral, inclusive of varied abilities, and culturally sensitive.

The importance of a review process

Often, culturally insensitive campaigns or campaigns that lack inclusion occur because no one from that community group has been consulted. You’re not expected to know everything about what’s inclusive or culturally insensitive, but you are expected to ask questions and ensure content remains respectful.

One way your finance brand can help promote and achieve inclusive marketing is through collaboration and partnerships. By actively seeking out diverse voices, consulting with community organisations, and involving a wide range of perspectives, you can ensure your marketing efforts are culturally sensitive, inclusive, and resonant.

Looking beyond marketing

Furthermore, accessibility and inclusive design play a vital role. You need to ensure your digital platforms, communications, and services are accessible to individuals with disabilities. This includes providing alternative formats for content, optimising website accessibility, and accommodating diverse communication preferences.

Final thoughts on inclusive marketing

At the end of the day future generations and diverse consumers are expecting more from their finance brands. By embodying authenticity, empathy, and a commitment to inclusivity, you can forge genuine connections with your audience.

Inclusive marketing goes beyond mere representation; it’s about fostering a sense of belonging, empowering individuals, and creating a financial landscape that’s accessible to all. When you get inclusive marketing right, you not only drive business growth but also contribute to a more inclusive and prosperous society as a whole.

The post How finance brands can achieve inclusive marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

In either case, a sophisticated program of content marketing can help manage change by reassuring clients and investors, educating and inspiring them.

Downward pressure to lower costs

When clients are shopping around for better rates, and rates are expected to correlate with market performance, margins naturally come under pressure. The response is often to find ways to cut operating costs. But differentiation is also key here, primarily in the quality and relevance of advice, and in the value proposition overall.

Content can support this. A combination of blogs, video content and social, even podcasts, can make clients feel like they’re in good hands, that they have a special advantage. Content can reinforce the human face of the firm, spotlight the personalities involved and help create personal connections that are harder to break than pure investor/firm relationships.

Calls for greater transparency

In turbulent times, many investors become anxious about how secure their investments are. They want greater transparency into where their money is being invested, how it’s performing and what the risks are. Asset managers are responding with automated reporting, data analytics tools and data visualisations.

In times of high anxiety, content marketing plays a critical role. Use it to specifically address pain points causing anxiety, to give an extra layer of reassurance, beyond the data.

Even more diversification, requiring more education

Investors are looking to rebalance their portfolios with more investments in private markets. While these carry higher risks, they can also deliver higher returns with longer investment horizons.

Investors need to understand these asset classes and products better. This is another opportunity for differentiation – being a reliable provider of quality information on these asset classes. And with the mass affluent a growing segment, there’s more demand for content that speaks to them in plain language, rather than jargon.

Younger investors expecting different things

With many trillions of dollars expected to be transferred to heirs globally over coming decades, we’ll see serious multi-generational wealth transfer benefiting Generations Y and Z. These younger investors will switch wealth managers if their high expectations for tech tools and personalised client experience aren’t met.

Next-gen investors also want information distributed on the platforms they already use and presented in formats they prefer. When creating content marketing strategies, firms should re-consider the traditional ‘expert-in-a-suit-talking’ videos and remember that future generations have grown up with TikTok.

The ESG imperative

Younger investors are helping push up the demand for environmental, social and governance investing (as are women – see below). The US is on track to have one-third of all investments in ESG within the next couple of years. See our recent blog for more information on creating ESG content that investors want.

Inclusivity on everyone’s radar

Today, women represent a much greater share of high-net-worth individuals globally, as HNW husbands and baby boomer parents die out, as cultural attitudes to women participating in society change, and more women head up businesses. Finally the AWN sector is seeing the potential for revenue growth and looking at how they can attract and retain women as clients.

Women’s goals often differ from men’s, and women aren’t a homogenous segment – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. To reach the many microsegments of women, we need digital platforms that offer relevant content and personalised CX.

Content must address women’s need for connection, and target life stages and goals intelligently. Information must be delivered in an empathetic way, focusing on pain points, to help earn trust. If a firm doesn’t have the knowledge and diversity inhouse, consider a third-party content provider.

Telling the mergers & acquisitions story

One continuing trend is M&A – firms looking to gain competitive advantage by scaling products, services and systems and re-orienting business models.

Targeted storytelling can help support a business and its salespeople if they’re looking to sell. Content marketing can also support your ‘Announcement Day’ to help shape how investors and employees respond over the weeks and months that follow the initial comms campaign. Content marketing can help you round out that story ongoing and continue to give certainty.

Digital assets not going away

Clients are still interested in the potential of cryptocurrencies and indirect crypto to help diversify their portfolios. In fact, the global cryptocurrency asset management market is expected to reach $9.36 billion by 2030 according to market research.

However, falls in prices have undermined trust in this asset class. Firms can use content marketing to educate their clients about the intricacies and risks of these digital assets and ecosystems, will full transparency, to help restore confidence.

The post Asset management: the role of content marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

As global conversations around climate change and sustainable practices continue to increase, sharing your finance brand’s ESG commitments can help to build trust and loyalty amongst clients and investors. So, why is ESG content important and how can you get it right?

The benefits of sharing ESG content

According to a recent report by McKinsey, there are a number of benefits for finance brands sharing ESG content. The major one is that it can help top-line growth by helping attract both B2C and B2B customers by providing more sustainable products. 71% of consumers say they prefer to buy from companies that align with their values and 83% of consumers think companies should be actively shaping ESG best practices.

Overall, if your finance brand isn’t sharing ESG content you’re missing out on a prime opportunity to engage with keen investors and clients. Economic services business Deloitte has extensively researched this area and has concluded that “Companies that fail to embed sustainability in their corporate communications to create a strategic, investor-relevant narrative are missing an opportunity”.

Getting your content right

Sharing your ESG commitments should be part of your overall content marketing strategy, but it sometimes can be difficult to get it right. At its core, your content should be topical and provide accurate information. While many finance brands share their environmental commitments, it’s important you remember to share social and governance content.

Here are three things to consider when creating ESG content:

• Transparency – Always remember to share transparent information that offers insights into your finance brands’ core values and practices.
• Timely – Your content needs to be timely. It’s important to get ahead of recent events and share information with your clients that they can rely on.
• Get specific – It’s important you are clear with the information you are providing. Offer clarity through content that’s specific and easy to understand.

Additionally, rather than just engaging clients online and providing them with information another important component of ESG content is education. Ensuring your clients understand your ESG commitments and the macro ESG landscape is critical to helping to build trust and loyalty. Making content as easy to understand as possible is important. One finance brand that’s producing stellar infographic content is Vanguard.

At the end of the day, consumers and businesses want to see your ESG commitments and values. ESG values are becoming more and more important in an individual’s decision-making. If you haven’t yet started incorporating ESG content into your marketing, it’s time to start.

The post Why ESG content matters appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Understanding the region

The key to nailing digital marketing in South East Asia is understanding that the region is diverse. Comprising ten individual countries, culture, internet access and technology are at all different stages across the region. Understanding each country’s internet user demographics will help enable your finance brand to create tailored content that reaches our target market.

Below are some things your finance brand needs to consider when creating a digital marketing strategy for South East Asia:

• Vietnam and Indonesia have the youngest internet user population
• Brunei and Singapore have a more mature and richer internet population
• Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia currently has an emerging internet economy that’s growing rapidly
• Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines have a large internet user base with most users aged between 15-24

To do financial marketing well in South East Asia, it’s important to remember that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. You need to carefully consider each country’s individual characteristics and provide marketing content that’s tailored to them.

Three ways to nail digital marketing in South East Asia

To get your digital marketing strategy right, your finance brand needs to understand the nuances of the different communities within each country. South East Asia is a diverse region that requires a diverse financial marketing strategy.

In 2022, the smartphone reigns supreme and is vital to users accessing the internet. This year, around 88% of internet users will be accessing it via their smartphones, with smartphone penetration ranging from a high of 98.8% in Thailand to a low of 81.7% in the Philippines.

This is important to keep in mind for finance brands, as you need to not only ensure your website is mobile-friendly, but you’re also creating marketing content specific to mobile users. A focus on social media and optimising the customer journey to account for the greater use of smartphones is critical to nailing digital marketing in South East Asia.

In terms of digital content marketing, there are a few things to consider to get it right:

• Local language dominates – Investing time and resources into creating hyper-local content that utilises the local language of each country will enable your finance brand to form meaningful relationships and build trust and brand awareness.
• Create content that resonates with the values of the community – Tapping into the cultural and dominant values of each community will ensure your content resonates with audiences and forms authentic connections.
• Traditional media should be a part of a multichannel marketing approach – While digital content is dominant, traditional media remains a highly trusted source for many people living in the South East Asia region. To truly make an impact and make your finance brand a household name, integrating traditional media strategies into your overall financial marketing strategy will give you a competitive edge and ensure your content reaches a wider audience.

What finance brands can learn from marketing in South East Asia

Overall, digital marketing in South East Asia is a lesson in creating content that’s tailored to specific demographics. A one-size-fits-all approach isn’t effective and it’s critical your finance brand understand the unique qualities and nuances of each community in the region.

To truly make an impact in South East Asia and generate leads, your finance brand needs to consider not only the cultural diversity but also how each user accesses the internet and digital content.

The post Finance marketer’s guide to digital marketing in South East Asia appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain has been best known for its role in cryptocurrency, but this isn’t all it can be used for. Investopedia explains it as, “a distributed database or ledger that is shared among the nodes of a computer network.”

Put simply, blockchain technology stores information digitally, in a secure and decentralised format. The best part about it is that it’s secure and guarantees the fidelity of data, without the need for a third-party system. Overall, it can improve trust as consumers don’t need to solely trust the financial institution. Instead, they can base their trust on the immutability of blockchain technology.

Who can benefit from this technology?

Owing to Blockchain’s decentralised nature, this means data can be more transparently viewed by having a personal node or by using a blockchain explorer. So, finance brands can get the best of both worlds, with data being able to be viewed easily by consumers while maintaining high security.

Pawel Kuskowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Coinfirm, states: “Blockchain is transforming the investment and asset management market and is improving transactional security and transparency”.

Blockchain can help with more than just trust

According to Lucy Gazmararian, Crypto and FinTech Advisory, PwC Hong Kong, “Blockchain has the potential to cut costs, speed up transactions and promote greater financial inclusion by streamlining cross-border and remittance payments”.

Overall, it can provide several benefits to finance brands beyond simply security and transparency. It can:

• Reduce costs
• Improve customer data storage
• Improve operational efficiency
• Enable faster settlement and money transfers

Most of these added benefits of blockchain can help the digital customer experience. From enabling easier money transfers to improving the operational efficiency of digital finance technology, it can deliver easier financial management tools to users.

At the core of it, blockchain technology can help your finance brand improve trust amongst consumers by providing greater security and transparency. With trust being a key area where financial institutions are losing out to FinTech brands, it pays to invest in technology that can help.

The post Blockchain: improving trust for finance brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The onboarding process

At the end of the day, the onboarding process is an important component of your financial marketing strategy. In fact, a Signicat report shows that when faced with a bad onboarding experience, more than half of all customers are less inclined to use that bank in the future, and a third will warn friends to stay away. To engage consumers and convert leads, you must make the onboarding process easy and create authentic connections with clients throughout it.

Why content is your secret to onboarding success

Creating a strategic digital content strategy that supports a long, drawn-out ‘purchasing decision’ could be your finance brand’s secret to success. A financial marketing strategy can help foster a long-term relationship with your clients and move them from the awareness stage to the loyalty stage in the customer lifecycle model.

Here are five steps to ensure your digital content supports your onboarding process:

• Personalise your content – Ensure your communications and digital content is personalised and tailored to the specific client. Over 76% of consumers said receiving personalised communications was a key factor in their consideration of a brand.
• Utilise omnichannel marketing – Ensure you connect with consumers and build strong relationships with them across all the channels they use, from SMS marketing to social media and digital advertising.
• Differentiate your content – What content works for one consumer may not work for another. Ensure you create a fresh and engaging digital experience, by utilising a range of different content formats such as short-form videos to blog posts to emails; J.D Power reports that customer satisfaction increases as the number of customer communications increases.
• Utilise digital ad retargeting – Digital ad retargeting is when your finance brand serves ads based on prior engagement. This is important when creating an ongoing relationship with clients and helps your finance brand to nurture leads. In fact, retargeting beats all other ad placement strategies with a 1,046% efficiency rate.
• Don’t forget mobile – Ensure your digital content is mobile-friendly and targeted to where your consumers are viewing content. If most of your demographic has social media, it’s important this is where a majority of your digital content strategy is targeted towards.

Digital content doesn’t stop after conversions

Once your finance brand has successfully converted a client, this isn’t where your digital content strategy ends. The onboarding process is ongoing, even past the point of conversion. Digital content should continue to be used to nurture and support your clients. At the core of it, client retention is a long game that can be achieved through an effective financial marketing content strategy.

Here are four ways to continue to nurture your clients, long after the beginning stages of the onboarding process:

• Deliver informative and educational content
• Publish high-quality content consistently
• Create social media posts that foster a community
• Personalise client communications

To truly create a great onboarding process for wealth managers and other finance brands, digital content is a critical component you can’t just leave to last.

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