Mediaboss Marketing

By Dawn Melesko, Digital Strategist at ZAG Interactive

With the pressure on financial marketers to demonstrate ROI intensifying, its more important than ever to understand the buyers journey and create content that moves people through the sales funnel. To drive measurable growth, bank and credit union marketers need to target key audiences with relevant content to that speaks to their specific needs at each stage of the funnel.

Consumers are visiting branches less often. They can open accounts on mobile phones, and apply for loans at work on their lunch break. While lead nurturing and effective prospecting can be accomplished cost effectively in digital channels, the financial services industry has lagged behind. Banks and credit unions have failed to allocate sufficient budgetary resources where users most of their time. Instead, financial institutions have been flushing money down the toilet on tactics that cant be tracked and dont produce leads.

This is why a content marketing strategy is more important than ever before. Now that people can be targeted in digital channels with amazing accuracy, it makes financial sense to move budgets away from traditional media towards content marketing strategies that focus on generating leads, growing relationships and improving the bottom line.

With that in mind, here are three tips to help you maximize your success with content marketing in digital channels.

As organic reach on Facebook continues to plummet to zero, investing in paid promotion is a necessity. One of the strengths of todays social networks lies within the targeting capabilities available to advertisers. Social media platforms have amassed rich data on consumers that financial marketers can leverage.

Using your research and sales data, you can identify specific segments that can be targeted within social platforms. You can target people who are either engaged, married or pregnant, or those who are members of a credit union, or customers at a national/community banks. For example, 70% of people rolled over their 401k into an IRA due to a recent job change according to Oliver Wyman.

Here are some other great examples of targeting options available within Facebook, and the potential banking products that match with them:

To develop a sound content strategy, marketing and sales teams need to be aligned. They need to share knowledge, and agree on what qualifies as good leads. Working together, they should define common pain points and objections, plan upcoming initiatives and establish metrics for measuring progress.

A study by Marketo found that when both sales and marketing teams are both in synch, organizations became 67% better at closing deals and generated 209% more value from their marketing efforts.

People have different needs and expectations as they get deeper into the sales funnel; accordingly, they seek specific information unique to each stage. Marketers need to develop the right content that speaks to prospects needs at each stage of the sales funnel. Personas and journey mapping can be a powerful way to determine appropriate messaging for different segments. Although it takes more effort to develop unique messages for different target audiences, theres greater potential to make a bigger impact and produce better results. People want to feel like you are speaking directly to them. Lets use the persona Frank the First-Time Homebuyer as an example for a quick content mapping exercise:

Awareness. Frank is newly engaged and is aware of a problem he rents and feels its like throwing away money and isnt sure if he can afford a home. Create content that helps him determine if its better to buy or rent and how much he can afford, like a blog post with a buy or rent calculator. This isnt the time to hard-sell Frank on a mortgage. At this time, just introduce your financial institution and offer helpful advice for his specific needs. During this stage, drop a remarketing pixel on your website, so you can target Frank to return and continue to build awareness.

Consideration to Conversion. Frank is now considering a solution to his problem, buying his first home, but wants to know how to get the lowest mortgage rate, and is concerned about his ability to afford a 20% down payment. Create content that explains how rates arent the only factor in the final actual cost of a mortgage (to compete with online mortgage sites with super low rates and high closing costs), and share information on how he could get a home with no money down. You can also offer more calculators, information on how to get pre-approved or pre-qualified, and a mortgage checklist. At this stage, include a strong call to action to set up appointment with a loan officer or direct him to your online mortgage application.

Loyalty. Frank has become a happy customer and moved into his new home. Now is a wonderful time to introduce a referral program to get him to refer his friends, or ask to get a positive review on social media. Frank may also benefit from some of your other banking or loan products down the road so make sure you keep him engaged with your brand for the next time hes in the market for another financial product.

All content 2017 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced by any means without permission.

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3 Tips to Create Content And Social Media Marketing That Sells - The Financial Brand

As marketers, it is important to know upcoming social platforms. Just a few weeks ago, we reported on why CMOs should be in charge of the CEOs social media personal. When it comes to being social media savvy in the organisation, many in an organisation look towards their marketing teams to be ahead in the game.

But what do marketers really prefer? Well according to a recent Social Media Examiners Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Facebook has been found to still be the primary platform for marketers. Nearly two-thirds of marketers chose Facebook as their most important social platform. Following closely was LinkedIn which came in at 16%.

Twitter came in at 9% while Instagram came in at 7%. The platforms marketers were using the least include Pinterest at 2% and YouTube at 4%. Facebooks usage statistic increased from 55% to 62%, while LinkedIn decreased from 18% to 16% in 2017. Meanwhile, Twitter dropped from 12% to 9% and Instagram rose from 4% to 7% in 2017, surpassing YouTube.

In terms of ad spend, 93% of social media marketers surveyed regularly use Facebook ads and 64% have plans on increasing their marketing activities on Facebook. Despite the importance placed on Facebook, the study revealed that 40% of marketers still dont know if their Facebook marketing is working.

B2C marketers (45%) were more likely to agree that their Facebook marketing was working compared to B2B markers at 37%. 53% of marketers surveyed saw declines in their Facebook News Feed exposure due to Facebook algorithms. 42% revealed that they were unsure if there was a decline.

B2B vs B2C

And while B2B and B2C marketers do operate differently, there are some common grounds.

Facebook currently leads in the B2C space with 72% of marketers selecting it as its first choice. The same can be seen for B2B marketers. According to the study, for the first time, Facebook surpassed LinkedIn as the most used platform for B2B marketers, rising from 37% to 43% as LinkedIn dropped from 40% in 2016 to 37% in 2017.

B2C marketers are also 17% more focussed on Instagram compared to B2B marketers. They are also 8% more focussed on Facebook and 6% more focussed on Pinterest compared to B2B peers. Meanwhile, B2B marketers are 37% more focussed on LinkedIn and 10% more focussed on Twitter.

The Social Media Examiners Social Media Marketing Industry Report surveyed 5,710 marketers from varying industries on a global level.

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What's your favourite social media platform for marketing? - Marketing Interactive

For the second year in a row, Northern Arizona University was ranked No. 1 in the nation for social media engagement by Rival IQ and Up&Up.

The study looked at the social media channels of 338 Division I colleges and universities between August 2016 and May 2017. Using software to analyze more than 316,000 tweets, 170,000 Facebook posts and 79,000 Instagram posts, Rival IQ, a company specializing in social marketing analytics and insights, teamed with Up&Up, a marketing agency for higher education, to rank effectiveness, provide deep analysis and highlight best practices.

Were honored to be recognized as the top-performing university for social media engagement for the second year in a row, NAU President Rita Cheng said. Its a testament to the camaraderie and spirit of the entire NAU community who cant help but share how proud they are to be Lumberjacks.

John Gallagher, head of marketing at Rival IQ, said alumni, students, fans and the community can drive engagement, regardless of a schools size.

Our social media presence is an extension of Lumberjack life, said Maria DeCabooter, social media strategist at NAU. Social media changes all the time, but great content remains the core element of our social strategy. We listen, respond and engage with our audience in efforts to match the enthusiasm of our campus, community and the Lumberjack spirit on social media.

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NAU ranks No. 1 in nation for social media engagement - NAU News

Social Media Isn't Just One Person's Job Inside Higher Ed (blog) The key to resourcing your institutional social media effort is to lean hard towards integration. Just like with any other significant marketing effort, you need to have a team that develops social media strategy, executes that strategy, and measures ...

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Social Media Isn't Just One Person's Job - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

Everything in digital media is going visual, including search. Platforms and brands have experimented with the technology for years to improve in-store experiences, increase engagement and retarget audiences.Heres what you have to know:

The numbers:

Pinterest LensPinterest in February introduced its visual search technology Pinterest Lens and is pitching itself to marketers as the place where consumers, especially millennials, come to discover items they didnt even know they wanted. The beta feature allows consumers to search using images. It isnot available to marketers yet, but Pinterest was pushing Lens hard in Cannes last week.

Its easy to see the appeal. Point the Pinterest mobile app at everyday objects a dress, a desk or a piece of fruit (Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp first demonstrated the tool with a pomegranate) and it will return related images, even outside Pinterest. Last week, the platform updated its Lens with the ability to zoom in and out on an object. Lens sets Pinterest apart from Facebook and Instagram, which does not offer any means of search through images, pinning it against the search and discovery mammoths Google and Amazon.

Google Lens A few months after Pinterest premiered its Lens, Google came out with its own mobile version, even adopting the same name. Google CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the new technology at the companys I/O developer conference in May, describing it asa set of vision-based computing capabilities that can understand what youre looking at and help you take action based on what you are looking at.

Unlike Pinterest Lens, where a user takes a photo of an object, Google Lens uses artificial intelligenceso that information about a place or item automatically appears on the screen when a user scrolls over it with their phone. The visual search app can also be integrated into the Google Assistant, which means consumers can use a combination of voice and visuals to discover something they are looking for. Pichai said the technology will be available soon, perhaps in time with its Pixel 2 smartphone, which Google is rumored to be working on.

Bing Visual Search At the beginning of June, Bing upgraded its image search capabilities so users could search for images within images, something Pinterest, but not Google, does. Users can search for any photo and tap the magnifying glass button at the upper-left corner to zero in on anything within the image whether its an outfit, face or product. A selection of related images then appears, sometimes with links for the user to then buy the products.

Brands own visual search platforms Brands and retailers, such as Target, Neiman Marcus and Macys, began implementing visual recognition technology for their own apps and websites mostly around 2014. Home furnishings retailer Wayfair is the most recent brand to do so. In May, it created its own visual search engine for consumers to search for its products across desktop, iOS or Android.

The buyer view Searchers are increasingly interested in either graphic results, picture-based results or interacting with pictures for discovery because many people cannot explain what they are searching for in text all the time, said Scott Linzer, vp of media at iCrossing. We just dont have enough information on how far an advertiser can take it. One of the things we are working with Pinterest on is to find out how do I then take that level of intelligence from the picture and be able tomonetize against it for clients.

Were excited about all the new search and discovery tools and technologies hitting the market today, including Pinterest Lens and extending to voice search and other tools, said Orli LeWinter, svpof strategy and social marketing at 360i. While the advertising opportunities are few and far between at this moment, we believe they are indicative of a future where our technologies are much more intuitive to our lives.

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What to know about visual search - Digiday