Marketing is one of the most important departments in any company regardless of their niche or industry. If the company is not able to bring in more customers, and more importantly, retain them, then their whole business model is just swept away by the competitive nature of the world we live in today.
Most companies used to rely on marketing campaigns such as banners, TV ads, various commercial spots on public transports and merchandising. All of it came down to increasing the recognition of their brands, but there was one major issue with these campaigns. They were not interactive.
Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
Thanks to the technological advancement that we have in the 21st century, creating a marketing campaign as easy as 1, 2 and 3. But creating a good one requires large budgets, skilled staff and various other creative thinkers to craft the most engaging piece in the industry.
Financial companies have it the toughest
Financial companies are very rarely reliant on social media marketing or pretty much any marketing that engages a wide section of viewers. For example, a fashion brand can afford to affect as many people as possible, because their product is so tenacious. Everybody can easily make a decision right then and there to at least check out the new collection.
For the financial company, however, it is imperative that they choose their audience very carefully. Due to imposed laws and regulations in some countries, these companies are usually restricted to using simple affiliate marketing campaigns and maybe some Facebook posts here and there.
The biggest disadvantages are in the EU region, due to local regulators clamping down on financial marketing which usually leads people into scams and fraudulent companies. Therefore it is very hard to spot brokers and hedge funds make fully-fledged adverts for this audience.
As already mentioned they mostly rely on affiliate marketers to do the marketing for them. It costs much less and is far more effective than any other strategy these companies have employed.
However, the digital imprint from brokers is increasing day by day. The way some companies like eToro revolutionized marketing campaigns for such institutions introduced a whole new trend.
As it is seen from the infographic done by forexnewsnow.com, more and more brokers are dedicating resources towards social media marketing campaigns, but only a few of them are being successful.
Which channels to these companies target?
According to the infographic, the most important social media that these companies choose is Facebook. Simply looking at the numbers is enough to determine that no other platform is able to come even close to the statistics o FB.
But why exactly? Why not go for LinkedIn or Instagram as hard as these companies go for Facebook? Well, it depends on the theme of the social media platform and the way its visitors perceive it.
LinkedIn is very rarely a platform where people market their business and are able to find new customers through that. In most cases, entrepreneurs market themselves in order to find business partners. Customer marketing campaign on LinkedIn are doomed to fail as people are not there to be sold something, they’re there trying to sell something themselves.
When it comes to Instagram, it was already a lost cause. Even though Facebook carries a lot of similarities with Instagram it is still quite different. You see, Facebook is used to document pretty much all of your life. Input all of the certifications you’ve acquired, all of your job experience, personal experience and etc. The picture posting is simply optional.
Instagram however, is solely reliant on people posting pictures and having very discreet hints on marketing campaigns. No company was able to promote themselves enough on IG with a custom advert as well as they were able to do so through influencers.
Therefore we have a very clear distinction between the channels.
- Instagram - used primarily for personal reasons - best for influencer marketing
- LinkedIn- used primarily for self-promotion and B2B marketing
- Facebook - used for social media imprint, personal branding and B2C promotions
Why to financial companies use YouTube?
YouTube may not be the best place to promote oneself through constant uploading and etc, as it requires people to actually be subscribed to the channel. And very few people subscribe to financial channels because the core of YouTube is entertainment and random education.
These companies mostly rely on views, therefore they try to optimize their videos on YouTube SEO. It still doesn’t do too much good, because there’s not much to make content for in the financial markets. Video content for that matter. Nearly every investor or a potential customer of a brokerage prefers to read a nice article delivered by a qualified person online.
Watching financial videos is very rare on YouTube. So why do these companies have it anyway?
Well, for one thing, it is a repository for their digital ad campaigns. It’s the best place to post the video so that it could gain more and more views even after promotion stops. It is also a great jumping point to understand the YouTube algorithm and implement various YouTube ads and for sponsorships with YouTube influencers.
Even though YouTube is moving more towards corporate partnerships rather than the individual creator. The viewers themselves much prefer to listen to a random guy who is “a part of their ranks” talk about the markets, rather than somebody in a suit who is paid to be there.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that the infographic tells us a story about financial marketing and how it is forced to conform to modern norms, such as regulation and ethics.
Brokerages, banks and various other financial institutions are forced to use very limited resources. Their products require a lot of influencers, which the industry does not have. The social media platforms they try to use do not match the company’s business model, therefore it is always hard to achieve relative success.
For one thing, the infographic tells us that speaking to the audience on their terms, which is usually done by eToro, is most effective. But due to years in the business and quite outdated strategies, most companies prefer to keep it professional, even if it damages their sales.
In order to find a more in-depth statistical information about the marketing campaigns of these companies, click here and check out the source of this article.
