Financial services marketing with the right audience in mind

Financial services marketing can implement inbound strategies to reach out to new audiences, investors and clients. A creative, transparent and bespoke campaign can target a huge volume of high net worth leads, at a high quality that won’t waste your sales team’s time. For more information on how you can create a high performing investment campaign read our guide to financial marketing strategies.

It’s so intriguing to see the battle raging across the financial services marketing sector at the moment. There’s a clear divide between millennial and baby boomer audiences, with little sign of the gap being bridged.

This is especially the case in the media. Older generations are accusing millennials of being flighty and lazy when it comes to their finances, labelling them as entitled and poor savers.

The cannon’s fully loaded on the other side, too. Millennials level accusations that boomers have taken all the wealth and are holding onto it, leaving younger generations with few options to safeguard their futures.

It’s become such a problem, the International Business Times and other organisations are actually stepping in and urging older generations to stop bullying millennials.

Why this poses serious problems for financial services marketing

Away from the slings and arrows, investment tastes are also changing. While many baby boomers are looking for quicker returns to try and boost their pension pots, some millennials are turning their backs on the usual ‘safe bets’ to search for more ethical industries to back. Millennials are shunning diamonds, for instance.

Many boomers are now set for retirement, and millennials are overtaking them in the population stakes (stateside, at least). As a result, a lot of financial services marketing is focused on attracting younger investors. However, there’s a serious hurdle facing them: the internet.

According to a recent study by Adobe, 40% of marketing directors want to ‘reinvent themselves for the digital age’. There’s just one problem though; only one in seven know how to go about it.

Enter, experienced financial services marketing companies with a wealth of knowledge when it comes to attracting younger investors. It’s essential when you consider that millennials have the internet ingrained in their blood, with some going as far as using robo-advisors.

Don’t forget the personal touch when marketing financial services

The financial services marketing industry is seeing a huge amount of change when it comes to its clients’ ideal audience. Boomers are still there, looking to invest, and aren’t going down without a fight.

On the other hand, millennial investors are young and can be inexperienced. While they’re able to discover a host of alternative investments thanks to the internet, this can also increase the risk factor thanks to the sheer amount of misinformation and opportunism online.

Here’s an altogether different problem, though - the problem of over stereotyping and putting your prospects into these heavily-labelled boxes. How do you market your services to the right people without generalising them and driving them away?

Identifying and targeting the personas you wish to reach is an essential first step for any marketing campaign. These can be used to create effective powerful content and attract that target audience no matter what their age or investment experience.

Marketing financial services online has never been easier, thanks to the depth of targeting offered by major social media channels and Google AdWords for PPC marketing. A strong paid social and paid search campaign that carries an influential message for your target audience will bring the right people to you, and nurture them from prospects into long-term investors.

The investment game is changing online, so its important to have the right strategy in place to attract a relevant audience and grow your business. The internet remains the best way to reach out to all those potential investors when it comes to financial services marketing; especially if you know who you want to target and consider an inbound marketing campaign.

Brands that perfect their inbound lead generation strategy see falling marketing costs, better quality leads, greater client engagement and other benefits that outbound methods simply can’t provide. If you want to know more about inbound lead generation, take a look at our blog 'Everything you need to know about Inbound lead generation.'