Last year we wrote in n>genuity, a payments journal published by TSYS, Five Key Ways Card Issuers Can Improve Their Marketing This Year. This year we are updating it with five trends that should be prioritized.
What are the key marketing trends that B2B brands and those operating within the financial services and payment industry should prioritize?
Priority #1 | Customer Experience (CX)
Digital transformation is redefining customer experiences and expectations across categories – and it’s not just critical for B2C companies, but extends to B2B and those operating within financial services. Brands are increasingly differentiating through the customer experiences they offer. The best approaches to (CX) ensure brands are relevant and provide content valued by customers. Furthermore, it entails delivering experiences that are engaging and consistent across all customer touch points.
For more on this, check out the eBook, Cultivating Customer Experience: Differentiate—and Win—in the New Competitive Battlefield.
Priority #2 | Mobile Marketing
Mobile is the future. People are consuming more digital media on their mobile devices than their desktops. A Smart Insights study found the time a person spends with “digital media on mobile” is 2.8 hours – daily.
"A Smart Insights study found the time a person spends
with “digital media on mobile” is 2.8 hours – daily."
Brands must tailor digital communications to the mobile user starting with implementing mobile first responsive design, which allows websites to be viewed easily regardless of the device – phone, tablet or laptop. Brands that don’t do so will risk being left behind. This trend will continue to gain momentum in 2017.
Priority #3 | Mobile Apps
With nearly – if not already – 200 million U.S. smartphone users, mobile apps will continue to flourish this year. Apps, whether from a banking institution, card issuer or a loyalty program, must offer basic transactions – like the ability to check account balances, complete transfers and make mobile deposits. Apps should consider evolving to fully integrate other features like spending trackers or budgeting tools, photo-enabled bill pay and smartwatch compatibility.
Today it's assumed brands will offer an app – and now it's about making sure those apps are on par with expectations. Financial service providers must catch up or watch the industry disruptors advance ahead of them.
Priority #4 | Usability (UX) to Inform Digital Experiences and Product Launches
Before launching new digital experiences and products, invest in usability testing – a method for testing your new initiatives before launching them. It’s the best way to understand how users – those representative of your customers – perceive a design and experience. Are they able to find the information they seek and complete the tasks they set out to accomplish?
Before launching new digital experiences and products, invest in usability testing – a method for testing your new initiatives before launching them.
Including UX as a part of your strategic plan means that the companies operating within financial services will be sure to offer experiences with a customer-centric orientation.
Priority #5 | Storytelling and Visually Driven Content
Following behind B2C marketers, B2B brands are embracing more visual and interactive content in order to entertain and inform. Why? To increase customer engagement.
Organizations continue to engage customers with branded content and with stories through videos. One B2C example is Yeti’s My Old Man campaign, which showcases storytelling really well while creating an emotional angle to connect with customers. The video series communicates the brand’s personality without a direct product push.
Organizations continue to engage customers
with branded content and with
stories through videos.
B2B brands – especially those operating within the financial services space – need to offer more interactive content aligned with their offering. Interactive elements should include storytelling through videos, and we still recommend tutorials, calculators, polls, quizzes and interactive infographics.
Conclusion
These are just some of the trends we recommend as priorities for B2B brands and those operating within the financial services space. As IOT takes off connecting our devices to one another and people to them, we’ll be carefully monitoring this trend. It is only a matter of time before it explodes.
We believe B2B brands and companies operating within the financial services space that cater to today's increasingly digitally engaged customer will more meaningfully connect with them and accelerate their business growth.
Download our free eBook, Cultivating Customer Experience: Differentiate—and Win—in the New Competitive Battlefield, or reach us at carolyn@cekpartners.com or +1.404.345.6447.
About C.E.K. & Partners
C.E.K. & Partners is a brand and strategy firm that the world’s most notable brands – across payments, financial services, health care and manufacturing – depend on when they seek market research, brand strategy, thought leadership and brand management. We develop programs that build brands and meaningfully connect them to customers in order to accelerate business growth.
Building a brand is an investment that requires energy and expertise – that’s why we’re here to help. Contact us at carolyn@cekpartners.com or +1.404.345.6447.