Accounting for around 14% of the total digital advertising spend across the globe, financial services marketing is a key area for growth when it comes to a fulfilling career. What it involves is bridging the gap between financial service providers and customers, helping both navigate the complex intermediate landscape.
Besides traditional outbound marketing methods, which focus on a generic approach, financial services marketing has also tried to adopt an inbound or internally targeted marketing strategy. Effective financial services marketing is what has shaped the approach and reach of financial services providers, giving them a medium to connect with their audiences and potential customers like never before.
While there are several interesting career opportunities in financial services marketing, it is important to first understand what the stream actually holds, why it is relevant, and who benefits from it. After that, the discussion on careers in financial services marketing, their scope, and opportunities will make much more sense.
What Is Financial Services Marketing?
Financial services marketing employs an array of marketing strategies, resources, and tools to create awareness about and draw potential customers to purchase financial products. Just like any other form of marketing, financial services marketing involves generation of leads and converting them into a pool of loyal customers through the creation, launch, and maintenance of various marketing campaigns.
At its core, financial services marketing is like any other form of marketing, but there is an obvious difference. In the case of financial services marketing, the pool of target audiences is very broad, which is why it has always used a combination of traditional or outbound marketing (television, radio, print, emails, newsletters, brochures and signage), along with inbound marketing (blogs, PPC ads, social media pages, websites) strategies.
Who Benefits from Financial Services Marketing?
Financial services marketing can bring unprecedented benefits to retail and commercial banks, investment banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, credit unions and companies, accounting and tax advisory firms, mortgage providers, and more. Basically, any entity selling a financial product or service stands to benefit from an effective financial services marketing approach if they have paid enough attention to the specific marketing activities required.
A Career in Financial Services Marketing
If you are planning on a career in marketing, financial services marketing could prove to be one of the most promising and bright options. After all, the financial services industry is not just the oldest in the world but also the one which is bound to stay, probably forever. This is because industries like transportation, clothing, food, and real estate might be subject to huge upheavals and sometimes irrelevance, but the finance sector will always be a part of day-to-day dynamics.
No wonder many financial institutions all over the world are assuming greater prominence with every passing day. A career in financial services marketing, therefore, holds great opportunities and prospects for interested individuals and teams.
The Requisites for a Career in Financial Services Marketing
Without a doubt, you would require a degree or professional certification to work in the marketing domain for any large company. However, when it comes to financial services marketing, there is an added need for special skills and knowledge of the finance sector. Working as a financial services marketing professional requires you to have a fair understanding of accounting, financial analysis, internal auditing, and so on. A degree highlighting your knowledge or a resume elaborating upon your previous experience in the same field would help.
However, any form of marketing, at the end of the day, requires you to be creative. Designing campaigns based on the customer’s questions, maintaining and updating these campaigns for relevance and scope, and finding new ways to employ your underlying finance skills in the marketing department is no piece of cake. Therefore, for a career in financial services marketing, creativity, communication, and confidence are required just as much as financial knowledge and skills.
Standing Out of the Crowd is the Key
When planning a career in financial services marketing, you have to understand that it is not a very easy job to stand out of the bubbling crowd of similar service providers and still make a mark great enough to entice the customer. You should be able to come up with fresh ideas, not be afraid of experimenting with them, and focus on both new and existing customers for the best results.
The idea is to be able to build trust with your prospective customers and give your existing ones enough outcomes and returns to retain them. A recent study in the UK predicts that over 70% of young people will be managing their finances exclusively via digital channels by 2023, which means that as a financial services marketing professional, you must also be ready and adept at dealing with digital platforms, tools, and technologies for the most effective outcomes.
A career in financial services marketing can turn out to be a very specialized, niche job, if you are prepared for that. There is plenty to learn from and plenty to explore, considering the finance sector is always going to be relevant, no matter where global economies are headed. Mediums, currencies and modes of communication may change, but what will not change is the scope and opportunity of a career in this field, because customers will always be on the lookout for solutions to their financial concerns. Your marketing strategies can bridge the gap between your company’s promises and the customer’s needs.
short url:
