Financial services businesses such as investment broker, banks and other lenders have to face high competition and increasing pressure from new entrants, such as cryptocurrency brokers and fintech companies. To stay relevant and successful, these companies need to embrace the latest trends in marketing. And one of the most powerful trends is Facebook marketing.
Can Financial Services Really Find Clients on the Social Media?
Social media has evolved beyond a fun online place to meet friends. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are forums where consumers are looking for recommendations for products and services. Facebook pages, Instagram and Twitter accounts created by major brands are the new marketing tools for attracting consumers. Facebook ads, likewise, replace traditional print ads and leaflets.
There is no question about the fact that the future of financial services is digital. From internet banking to mobile pay solutions and from Multimat machines to chatbots replacing human employees, banking and financial institutions invest in latest technologies. These technologies offer three key benefits:
- Creating a modern brand image for old and established institutions
- Reducing operational costs
- Making it easier for consumers to interact with the institutions and use their services.
How Should Financial Services Build and Conduct Their Meta Marketing Strategy?
We come now to the gist of this article: how to conduct an effective Facebook marketing strategy for a bank or investment broker? Fortunately, major names in the financial field have already paved the road for you. Thus, you do not have to reinvent the wheel, but follow a set of already established best practices.
Here they are:
1. Connect with Every Generation
Your Facebook marketing must be a mix of information, education, entertainment and sales pitches. And this mix should appeal to every generation group: from the Baby Boomers who are looking for ways to maximise their pension plan, to Gen Z who is ready to join the workforce.
This means that you need to figure out how to put your brand under various lenses – from the serious and formal image required by older generations to the hi-tech and always available image the young generation associates with professionalism.
2. Put a Face to Your Meta Marketing Strategy
When you are preparing your images for Facebook posts and ads, always remember to use people’s faces. These faces should correspond to the age group you are addressing and express confidence.
In this way, your prospects will be able to relate to your company and develop a relationship with it. This is the first step towards becoming a subscriber and, later on, a client.
3. Don’t Address Everybody, Find Your Niche!
What is the profile of your ideal customer? Are they ready to invest money? Are they shopping for a mortgage loan? Or do they want a safe saving solution for their nest egg? This profile must determine your Facebook marketing strategy.
Do not be afraid to define your precise niche, even if it means a smaller user base. You do not need to attract everyone to your Facebook page and then to your website. You only need those Facebook users who are most likely to become your clients.
4. Use Facebook as a Customer Service Department
Occasionally, you will find a private message or a comment on your Facebook page relating to an issue a customer has with your services. They may have had trouble using an ATM machine. They may be expecting an answer for a loan application and it hasn’t come in days.
Whatever the issue may be, address it. Encourage the user to contact you in private, by phone or email, in order to solve the issue. This is what customers expect of brands on the social media, from retail, to internet providers and banks.
5. Facebook Is Rented Ground, Get Prospects to Your Website
Getting page likes is not the end purpose of your Facebook marketing strategy. Organic traffic is almost dead on all social media platforms. And paid traffic is getting more and more expensive.
Your ultimate goal is to bring all your Facebook followers to your own digital properties: your website and your app. This is where you continue the work of converting them into customers and keeping them loyal.