What Is Financial Service Marketing? (Plus 10 Strategies)

Updated October 7, 2022

When a company has high-quality products and services, marketing can enable it to raise awareness of those products and services, build a brand and reach potential customers. For financial service firms, marketing and relationship-building are essential to attracting and maintaining clients. If you're interested in marketing at a finance business, you may benefit from learning about the variety of promotional strategies you could use. In this article, we discuss the definition of financial service marketing, describe who uses it and provide 10 strategies for conducting it successfully.

What is financial service marketing?

Financial service marketing is the process of promoting the products and services of a financial services firm. Marketing efforts for any company typically have the goals of raising brand awareness, attracting customers, making sales and generating revenue. Here are some examples of financial services firms that may benefit from marketing:

Commercial banks
Credit unions
Financial planning firms
Accounting firms
Investment banks
Insurance companies
Brokerage firms
Mutual funds institutions

These organizations may aim to help customers by providing support services, such as:

Banking
Loans
Wealth management
Insurance
Financial advice
Stocks and investments
Accounting and bookkeeping
Tax consulting

Who uses financial services?

Financial services are useful to a variety of institutions. This is because many organizations and agencies, whether for-profit, nonprofit or government, require funds and resources to operate. Financial service businesses have teams of experts in complex financial and economic matters and can help companies or individual clients with managing money and capital responsibly. Marketers for finance businesses can create content for specific target audiences to capture attention and attract clients. Here are some common clients of financial service firms:

Individual customers: Many people use financial service firms like banks daily to save and transfer money, take out and pay back home and auto loans and make investments.
Commercial businesses: These clients may pay financial services companies to manage their books and ensure adherence to tax and other business-related financial laws and regulations.
Health care facilities: Health care facilities often work with insurance companies and other financial institutions to process insurance claims and transfer payments for services rendered.
Educational institutions: Schools, colleges and universities may require the services of accounting firms and other finance businesses to keep track of school expenses and support the finances of staff and students.

Related: 30 Types of Business Services

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10 strategies for financial service marketing

Financial service marketing is different from other forms of advertising. To develop the best strategies for these services, consider the organization's mission and goals, target markets and available resources. Here are 10 strategies for conducting effective financial service marketing campaigns:

1. Digitization

Providing digital products can help you market your financial services and gain more customers. For example, you might develop a mobile app for customers to sign in to online accounts, view their finances, gain customer support, schedule services or make purchases from their phones or tablets. Along with increasing convenience for both customers and employees, digitization can help to keep sensitive financial information safe.Related: What Is Mobile Advertising and How Does It Work?

2. User experience

Optimizing user experience means making it easy for users to navigate a business's digital resources. Ensuring a company's website, app and other resources are free of errors is critical to maintaining customers. By offering a high-quality user experience, you can convince customers of the superior quality of your financial products and services.Read more: UX Marketing: Why It's Important and How It Works

3. Social media marketing

Many modern consumers use social media daily. Advertising your finance business services on various social media platforms can reach a large variety of audiences and encourage people to visit your website, explore more about the business and even make purchases. Make sure to include easy links to email lists, apps and other financial resources so customers can navigate from social media apps to the business.

4. Education

Providing educational materials to customers can be a great way to promote your services and raise awareness of your brand. Consider publishing articles, infographics and ebooks about popular financial topics to help customers learn about finance and discover the business. Answering questions and providing information can help teach customers the importance of your services.

5. Customer support

Develop ways to provide customer support and help consumers with the unique issues they may be experiencing. Many companies hire specific team members to work in customer support departments, answering calls and responding to messages. Strong customer and technical support can show customers you care about their needs and encourage them to continue using your services.Related: What Is Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 Technical Support and Why Do You Need It?

6. Data analysis

Data analysis is the process of gathering and assessing large amounts of information to gain actionable business insights. Financial service companies can track customer data to determine customer behaviors, needs and feelings. Then, marketers can collaborate with product development teams to solve any issues, optimize services and provide more value to customers.

7. Customer outreach

Customer outreach is the process of communicating with customers and trying to increase customer engagement rates. Initiating a relationship with customers can help raise awareness about a business, encourage customer loyalty and improve customer retention rates. Financial service firms can perform outreach by offering resources like free consultations, webinars or financial management programs. They can also engage customers through email marketing strategies, like mailing lists.

8. Relationship-building

Beyond digital engagement, financial businesses can practice relationship-building to connect with customers personally. As a marketer, salesperson or account manager, consider reaching out to customers personally to schedule meetings. These meetings could be to answer questions, give sales pitches or discuss business in general. Client relationship-building can occur over lunch and dinner dates, sports games or other social activities.Read more: How To Develop and Maintain Positive Client Relationships

9. Customer feedback

Customer feedback is essential for gauging customer satisfaction with a company's products and services. Conducting surveys over social media, email or in person can help you gather qualitative and quantitative data. You can then use this data to develop relevant promotional material.Related: How To Write a Customer Feedback Email (With Template and Examples)

10. Creative marketing

Being creative is key to setting your marketing campaigns apart from competitors. Consider promoting your business mission and characterizing your brand with a specific social goal. Then, create and deliver emotional and powerful stories that display the company's work to reach this goal.

What Is Financial Service Marketing? (Plus 10 Strategies)