Wh webinar for financial services

Digital Marketing for Financial Services:

Top 10 Trends for ‘10

Trend 1: More financial applications will be socialized.

Financial services’ first forays into social applications were largely for fun, a way of increasing and reinforcing brand awareness.

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Trend 1: More financial applications will be socialized.

But as social media marketing matures, financial brands will focus more on delivering useful tools in the places where Web users spend the majority of their time.

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Trend 2: Financial decision-making is also socialized.

• Consumers become less reliant on financial brand sites as primary information sources as other sources become more available.

• Those sources also become more reliable, vetted by other consumers and more established in their focus and reputation

• Example: the blog Consumerist.com has 500k visits/month; 57% of its visits are from brand name searches.

Trend 3: The hyper-educated financial consumer

We can expect consumers to arrive at financial sites knowing more than ever about their options.

Trend 3: The hyper-educated financial consumer

This changes the informational role of the financial services site; 101 is still important, but providing ways to advance decision-making is paramount.

Trend 4: The rise of financial service account aggregators.

• Aggregators like Mint, Geezeo, and MoneyStrands take away some of the account management role of financial services sites.

• In the long run, this limits opportunities for cross-sell, forcing financial service sites to step up relevance and functionality.

Trend 5: Customization is king.

• New consumers weaned on personalization expect more products to be customizable, and they’ll give their loyalty to products that allow them more self-expression and better choices

• CapitalOne’s CardLabs got positive buzz as a tool with lots of customization options that allowed users to evaluate trade-offs easier (though the site is now defunct)

Trend 5: Customization is king.

But customization is valuable even at the selection level, i.e., letting customer choose different ways of looking at the same information.

Trend 6: The next must-have data set: social media monitoring

• The monitoring market is starting to mature, though a common set of metrics has yet to be established.

• Our recommendation: don’t wait for standardization. Choose the right tool and begin monitoring now.

Trend 6: The next must-have data set: social media monitoring

• Why? Because the qualitative data you gather on conversations about your brand is far more important than the quantitative.

• And brands can’t afford to be slow reacting to outbreaks of negativity; in social media, bad news gets halfway around the world while good news is still getting its shoes on.

Trend 7: Marketers embrace social media marketing’s true role.

• Social media marketing efforts work best alongside more traditional marketing techniques; even brands with a large social media presence will continue to rely primarily on advertising for awareness

• Social media success can’t be measured in number of hits, despite what many practitioners claim. It’s about increased relevance.

Ford’s 2008 social media impressions Ford’s 2009 display advertising impressions

90,000,000

13,221,358,000

Trend 7: Marketers embrace social media marketing’s true role.

Marketers that embrace this role will find useful ways to integrate traditional and social media to keep the conversation going.

Trend 8: The money follows measurability.

• Emerging channels continue to grow as brands play catch-up.

• Display advertising holds steady; look for it to increase more rapidly as financial brands catch on to advanced targeting and better measurability

• But paid search remains the workhorse; measurable, safe, and dependable

Trend 8: The money follows measurability.

The increased investment in digital channels largely comes at the expense of traditional channels, especially print

Trend 9: The de-centralization of your Web site

People now interact with brands on review sites, blogs, social network pages, video sites, etc. as much as on Web sites.

Trend 9: The de-centralization of your Web site

In both B2B and B2C marketing, this means disseminating your content in places where it can be found – don’t depend on users getting it on your Web site.

Trend 10: Marketers will call on White Horse for help with Trends 1-9.

Thank you!

Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging [email protected]

www.whitehorse.com | Twitter: @whitehorsepdx | Blog: http://community.whitehorse.com