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Mastering Marketing in Financial Services

Financial Marketing in 2020 Report

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 2

Content3 Introduction

5 2020 Budgets

6 Marketer Snapshot: Tammy Cash, Horizons ETFs For Horizons ETFs, all marketing is content

7 Customer Expectations 

8 Marketer Snapshot: Andrew Goldman, TIAA Marketing in a “do-it-yourself” culture

9 Agency Relationship

10 2020 Obstacles

11 Marketer Snapshot: Wendy Marcone, Bank of America The importance of internal marketing to protect brand integrity

12 About Dianomi 

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 3

A close second to 28% who said they will prioritize branding for 2020

26% of financial marketers said their top priority for 2020 was to acquire new customers

Introduction

To support this focus, marketers plan to make relationship and staff changes in 2020. Nearly 60% of financial

marketers agreed that they would take more of the workload in-house in 2020 and 36% saying they would

consolidate more work with one-stop shops. One marketer who is building an internal content team is

Tammy Cash of Horizons ETFs. Cash explained that she is increasingly hiring from the journalism world so that

they can serve the right content to their customers quickly.

Another reason for the consolidation is budgets. While those surveyed, on average, expected to increase their

budgets by 10% in 2020, they still feel that it’s hard to accomplish everything they want to within budget.

The need to do more with the same--or incrementally more--is likely the reason why financial marketers want

to move more of the work in-house. Another reason is transparency. Most marketers we surveyed (82%) said they

had a hard time getting accurate campaign data to evaluate the success of their programs, with nearly 50% of

respondents saying that performance transparency and reporting was their biggest digital marketing challenge.

Over the past five years, financial marketing has undergone massive transformation in the digital tools they use to market to their customers and prospects. Today’s marketers are moving away from programmatic display and are refocusing their efforts on content marketing and techniques that drive leads and retain customers.

In our inaugural survey of 100 financial marketers...

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 4

Marketers we spoke with said that their marketing wasn’t driven just by their business needs but also by

changes in consumer behavior. Not a single respondent felt that having a brick-and-mortar presence was a

top priority for their customers. Rather, 65% said that customer experience was what customers valued the

most, followed by trust at 60%. Andrew Goldman of TIAA sees a unique trend with consumers and that is:

a do-it-yourself culture. Consumers seeking financial information and guidance on their own, rather than

asking a company or expert for advice.

Finally, we were surprised by the large role culture plays in financial marketing. Thirty-seven percent of

financial marketers cited company culture as one of their biggest obstacles. Bank of America’s Wendy Marcone

told us that hiring people who represent the brand accurately goes along way in protecting it.

“Internal marketing has almost become more important than anything else in certain ways,” she said.

The bankers are really the stewards of the

brand. They’re out there all the time with clients.

Wendy Marcone Bank of America

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 5

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Despite the economic slowdown

in Europe, uncertain politics and

more regulation, marketers will increase their spending by an average of 10% in 2020,

according to our research. Almost

80% of the financial marketers

we surveyed plan to invest more

in content marketing; 74% said

they’ll spend more on social media

marketing. And 46% plan to further

invest content production.

Brand awareness will be the priority of financial marketers in 2020.

28% of the financial marketers we surveyed said

brand awareness was their main priority in 2020;

followed by 26% who cited customer acquisition;

and 14% who will focus on making sure existing

customers remain satisfied. However, brands don’t

plan to double down on media marketers have

traditionally used for branding.

TV, connected TV, and podcast advertising were

low on financial marketers’ priorities for 2020.

2020 Budgets

BrandAwareness

28.2%

CustomerAcquisition

25.9%

Increased Share of Wallet

14.1%

IncreasedLoyalty

10.6%

CustomerSatisfaction

11.8%

CustomerRetention

9.4%

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 6

Marketer Snapshot: Tammy Cash, Horizons ETFs

For Horizons ETFs, all marketing is content

Amid a rapidly changing landscape where internet users have become more cynical and attention spans are shrinking, content marketing is finding itself into the limelight.

“Building out content that really

resonates, that is organic within the

platform that it is served on and

that adds real value is something

many marketers are focused on

at this point in time,” said Tammy

Cash, head of marketing at

Toronto-based Horizons ETFs,

which manages 90 exchange

traded funds and has more

than $10 billion in assets under

management.

Cash points to the key ingredients

to a successful content marketing

campaign, which include data,

technology and personality. On

data, she explains the importance

of “understanding it, mining it

and using it appropriately for the

specific audience segment”, while

personality entails “ensuring you

can provide a level of education

around an asset class or a type of

product and doing so in a way that

can resonate humor as well and to

a broader audience.”

Cash also emphasizes the need

to have the right team members

to create content marketing

campaigns at financial services

firms. “I’ve built the marketing

team with a publishing concept,

which I think is happening

more and more in the world of

marketing,” she said. “Hiring

increasingly from the worlds

of journalism has been a real

opportunity to get people on board

who are used to work in a deadline-

driven world, used to think about

marketing from an organized,

strategic, calendar perspective.”

It entails building core

requirements as it relates to

publishing and production,

including videos, podcasts and

infographics. “It’s experts in the

world of content production and

distribution in every aspect of

marketing, from social media, from

videos, you name it,” she said.

What does the future of content marketing world look like in Cash’s view?

More shorter-form videos such

as 15-second clips that lead into

longer content, and a greater

emphasis on artificial intelligence

and marketing automation. Videos

will not only be shorter, they will

also be more personalized.

Ultimately, Cash believes that

all marketing will be content

marketing. “It is all content,” she

said. “It’s about serving the right

message to the right audience at

the right time.”

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 7

Customer Expectations Financial brands said that customer experience (65%) and trust (60%) are what consumers value the most in

their relationship with them. So, what do customers want from brands? Research from J.D. Power found that

consumers are interested in receiving financial advice or guidance from their bank. Yet, only 28% said they

actually receive such information. What’s more, customer satisfaction in their bank surges when consumers feel

they are receiving the advice they need. Traditional differentiators such as price, brick-and-mortar presence and

location are perceived to be the least valued.

? What do customers value most in your relationship with them

Other

Trust

Price

Location / Proximity

Length of Relationship

Innovation

Customer Experience

Brick-and-Mortar Presence0%

14.5%

4.8%

60.2%

3.6%

19.3%

65.1%

22.9%

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 8

Marketer Snapshot: Andrew Goldman, TIAA Marketing in a “do-it-yourself” culture

The perfect recipe for successful content marketing in financial services is still unknown, but there are some key ingredients that are must-haves.

“There are so many ingredients

that would go into that recipe,” said

Andrew Goldman, senior director

for B2B content marketing at TIAA.

“You need to be a thought leader

as a content marketer, you need to

publish in a way that people will

come and seek out your advice.”

He pointed to three specific

ingredients at the top his list.

“Number one is a healthy respect

for the attention economy in

a do-it-yourself culture,” he

said. “Number two an absolute

commitment to positive disruption.

Not showing up the way everyone

else does, but when you do show up

and gain people’s attention, you’re

right. And the third ingredient

in that recipe I would say would

be absolute solid grounding in

relationship marketing principles,

building relationships with

consumers, understanding that

audience.”

For content marketing in financial

services in particular, it’s also

important to recognize there’s not

just one decision maker, but rather

a committee of decision makers

who need to be convinced over a

long sales cycle.

Goldman added that measuring

the impact of a content marketing

campaign can be challenging.

“It’s the hot topic,” he said. “There’s

no silver bullet to measuring a

content marketing effort but there

are a number of ways to look out

for what I would call short-term

performance metrics.”

He mentioned engagement, virality,

amplification, as well as research

surveys. “I think there’s also a mix

of digital and even non-digital

analytics, event subscriptions, desk

discussions at an event, that you

would use,” he said.

Looking forward, Goldman sees

interactive formats and video as

the tools of the future in content

marketing, with a particular focus

on video episodic content, written

episodic content, short blogs and

articles.

“The large publishing platforms

have made video a central

experience for consumers, a

cultural experience at this point,

so I think it’s a natural evolution,”

he said. “I’m not sure how fast and

furious it’s going to go with B2B.

It already is at a pretty interesting

tipping point, but I think a lot of

people in our industry are asking

that ROI question now.”

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 9

Agency RelationshipNearly 60% of financial marketers plan to bring more work in-house in 2020 and 36% said they will consolidate

outsourced work to one-stop agencies in 2020. This is reflective of a larger marketing industry trend, not just

in financial services. As the ANA noted in its recent marketer survey, 78% of respondents have established an

in-house agency versus only 42% in 2008. Those who made the move reported that 58% of their marketing

work was now handled in-house. And two-thirds of marketers said their in-house agency workload increased

“a lot” in the last year. Just 36% of financial marketers planned to outsource more work in 2020 and, of those

planning to outsource more work, just 31% said they plan to increase agency budgets. One reason for this is

that brand marketers feel that their agencies need to be more “innovative.”

? Is your digital marketing agency as proactive as you’d like it to be in recommending innovations and new technologies

We handle this in-house

No, they need to be more innovative

Somewhat, they occasionally suggest new ideas, technologies, platforms, etc.

Yes, they regularly suggest new ideas,technologies, platforms, etc.11.4%

29.1%

31.7%

27.9%

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 10

2020 Obstacles Eighty-three percent of financial marketers cited reporting and getting accurate campaign data to evaluate success as the

biggest digital marketing issue they face, followed by increased privacy legislation e.g. GDPR (41%) and third-party cookies

and audience targeting (29%). This is important because, as Bob Elias, EVP of Customer Experience & Marketing at Chubb puts

it, marketers should not make decisions off of single KPIs. Instead, they need to analyze multiple metrics to understand the full

quality of what they are doing and not just the quantity. But, advises Elias, marketers should not just look at campaign data.

Things like brand value are often not included in those metrics.

Supply Chain Challenges 3.6

Reputational/Trust Challenges 3.6

Political Environment 4.8

Limited Budgets 59.0

Economic Environment 16.9

Crowded Competitive Landscape 43.4

Company Culture Obstacles 37.4

Compliance Regulations 21.7

Brand Dissonance 7.2

%

43% of finance brands said a crowded competitive landscape was their biggest marketing obstacle in 2020, followed by company corporate culture at 37%.

Nearly 60% of finance brands cited limited budgets as their biggest obstacles in 2020.

? Of the following, which two obstacles do you feel will limit your marketing success the most in 2020?

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 11

Marketer Snapshot: Wendy Marcone, Bank of America The importance of internal marketing to protect brand integrity

“You’ve always had to protect

your brand,” said Wendy Marcone,

senior vice president for global

marketing at Bank of America.

“I don’t know of a time when that

wasn’t true. There’s just a lot more

opportunities for your brand to

take a hit.”

She explained that at large

companies such as Bank of America,

there are a lot of checkpoints

in place to ensure marketing

messages are well understood

by everyone. This is especially

true at global companies.

“If something works very well in

the US market, it may not work in

every other market,” she said.

“It might be offensive, or insulting,

or something they can’t even

pronounce. There’s a lot to think

about.”

She added that “reputational risk is

a big deal and the path back from

that sometimes can be long”.

In Marcone’s world, internal

marketing goes hand in hand with

managing that reputational risk,

since hiring people who represent

the brand accurately goes along

way in protecting it.

“Internal marketing has almost

become more important than

anything else in certain ways,”

she said. “The bankers are really

the stewards of the brand. They’re

out there all the time with clients.”

Every bank employee must believe

in what Marcone and her team

are trying to communicate about

the brand and the company’s

personality. “If it’s not believable

to them, why would a client, or a

prospect, ever believe it.”

In a world where everybody can build a global brand through technology and social media, but where brands can also easily be destroyed, protecting a brand integrity has become more important than ever.

MASTERING MARKETING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES 12

About Dianomi Dianomi provides advertisers with access to an audience of 100 million business and finance consumers.

Through or native display and video units, brands can target consumers with content and product marketing messages on over 350 premium publishers.

Advertisers trust Dianomi for our brand safe placements, performance-based pricing and access to relevant audiences, such as retirement and ETFs.

By aligning ads with contextually relevant content, Dianomi can help financial marketers achieve a higher ROI than other native ad platforms.

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