7 Major Digital Marketing Trends to look out for in Banking

We all know that this is the era of digitization. It means there is a rapid increase in the number of people using digital mediums.

One of the report's from Statista tells us that around 4.33 billion people were using the internet till mid-July 2019 which makes up to 56% of the world population.

And banking is such a sector which has one of the highest customer engagement so it is very much necessary for the banks to adopt digital marketing techniques and thereby connect with their customers.

At present also there are many banks which use digital marketing as one of the major components of their marketing strategy, at the same time it is necessary for them to keep an eye on the latest development and trends in digital marketing as well.

In this blog, we will be looking at the digital marketing trends which will be driving the future of marketing strategies in the banking sector.

Top 7 Digital Marketing Trends in Banking Sector

This is one of the most important factors that attract new customers and helps in retaining the existing ones as well.

Everyone wants to get things personalized according to them. Banks here first need to understand that what do customers expect from them?

Here banks can collect data by sending emails to customers by the name of an individual person working in the marketing department of the bank as the chances of getting a reply or feedback are more here.

Using marketing automation tools can help the bank to track individual customers.

Banks can use the collected data to display the relevant content through their banking applications, landing pages, and other points of contact with the customers.

Personalization creates an impression in the mind of the customers that they are important to the bank on an individual level and they are getting something that is specially customized for them.

Mobile marketing is one of the most important digital marketing trends to look out for because the number of people using their mobile phones to access the internet is increasing in a rapid way.

People are more likely to use their mobile phones instead of laptops or PC for anything they want to do online and that’s why the mobile platforms must get a higher priority in 2019.

Banks should make it a point that their websites and other content related to it are mobile-friendly and easily accessible to the customers.

The best way to do this is to make a mobile banking application that will help the customers to perform various tasks related to their bank.

It will also help banks to do in-app marketing in which they can provide a highly customized product or a service related to content directly within the individual’s mobile banking application.

But make it a point, your marketing efforts should not irritate the customers.

Social media is such a platform where you can do anything from starting a new business to marketing a business.

Increasing connections with your customers are very easily possible through social media and that’s why it is a great way for banks to connect with their customers.

But when we move towards preparing social media strategy for banks the game changes a little bit. Here are some key points to be kept in mind by banks while preparing social media strategy:

Increasing Touchpoints -

Many banks struggle to make connections with the customer as they interact with the customer only when needed.

Having a social media account will help banks to interact with the customer as well as build relationships. Giving fast reply on social media chats by bank employees during working hours can prove to be an important part of social media strategy.

Building Leads -

The main reason of having a social media account is not only just building relationships with clients but also to generate leads by offering direct value to the readers. It all depends on how efficiently banks can connect social media with banking.

Banks should make content that includes – limited time offers, special rates, and other personalized solutions which creates a sense of exclusivity and personalization for their users.

Social Media Optimization -

Banks need to understand that not only having an optimized website is important but also a well-optimized social media profile is very crucial, as this profile will act as a mini-website for them.

With relevant keywords, banks should make sure that they never miss an opportunity to interact and engage with their target customer.

Using Emotional Targeting -

Emotions of the customers are very much important for the banks, as it is the main reason for customers switching from one bank to another. Solving customer’s problems with products and services must be the main focus area for the banks.

This is where social media comes to the rescue as Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to target your audience on the basis of their location, age, gender, education, and interest.

Here banks must prepare the content related to their product and services and target their customers accordingly.

Geo-location is the geographical location of the customer. Banks can access the location of the customers via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, IP address, and GPS.

The geo-location of the customers is very much important from the banks' perspective because it can help banks to target the customers of particular geography if they want to do so.

It can help the bank to push a particular message or notification specially designed for a particular region. The location of the customers can also be used to track their behavior and personalized offerings can be planned accordingly.

There has been immense technological development in the field of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and deep learning processes that have helped the virtual assistants to become more intelligent and useful.

According to Comscore, half of the search queries would be voice-based by the year 2020. Voice search is far more different from normal desktop or mobile search.

Whenever customers type and search for anything in the browser, then it shows them a large number of pages in the search engine result.

Your bank’s name would be one of them. But when customers use digital assistant for searching, then it shows only a limited number of results. As a result, it is very much necessary for the banks to customize their SEO strategy for voice search.

Therefore banks need to keep an eye on how the customer speaks so that it will help to optimize the website for voice search.

Digital payments have become a trend amongst all customers. Nowadays people don’t use their wallets but instead they prefer cell phones for making payments.

This behavior of customers makes it much more necessary than ever before for banks to expand digitally.

Here banks can expand their reach by providing the same digital payments facility through their mobile banking app.

Banks can also look out for a specialized e-wallet or a mobile payment app with more advanced security features which will help to gain the trust of customers.

Also providing various discount coupons and cashback rewards along with zero transaction fees on digital payments will be an added advantage while attracting new customers for the bank.

Chatbots are one of the best ways to provide customer support as they are the first point of interaction.

At present, there are many chat-bots available but they have capabilities that extend only up to the same old FAQ answering and low-level customer inquiries.

Banks need to go beyond that, moving towards bots that can provide advanced customer support, personalized advisory messages, and a better user interface. It would help in increasing engagements with the customers.