One of the main advantages that digital-native companies have compared to legacy financial institutions is the technology infrastructure that supports the development and delivery of products and services, contextual personalization throughout the customer journey, and improved experiences and engagement. To respond to these market advantages, banks and credit unions must rapidly upgrade their marketing technology capabilities to support a more customer-centric approach.
Unfortunately, many banks and credit unions have not responded adequately to fintech firms or large alternative technology providers. Some legacy banking organizations have been defensive, with iterative modifications to existing business strategies, while others are confused about what actually needs to be done.
Interestingly, while the largest financial institutions have the financial capabilities to invest in new technologies, many fail to move from a product-centric approach to customer-centric marketing.
To succeed in the future, financial institutions will need to move beyond their traditional product and service mindset. By leveraging an existing customer base and brand strength, banks and credit unions can use data to build a more robust view of customer needs and improve engagement across the journey all of the customer.
Changing Marketplace Raises the Martech Bar
As branches became unavailable during the pandemic, awareness of digital native alternatives increased, with consumers and small businesses ‘testing the waters’ with alternative providers who had created customized digital solutions a lot. See the article : Luxury Lifestyle or Financial Stability – What to Choose? | mint leaves. For bank and credit union marketers, increased trust in digital banking products and services has provided a surge in usage, and an opportunity for institutions to create enhanced levels of real-time communication and engagement .
What became even more important during the pandemic was the need for financial institutions to deliver messages seamlessly across multiple channels, such as phone, tablet, computer and even smart devices simultaneously. It has also become more important to create two-way interactions as opposed to simply using push communication.
Finally, the pandemic has required financial marketers to rethink their business model to provide hyper-personalized engagement at scale. This requires new marketing technologies that support data collection, analytics, real-time enabled communication, the democratization of knowledge, and agile test and learn approaches.
Read more: 5 Martech Tools & Trends for Financial Institutions
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Marketing Priorities Differ by Type of Provider
In response to the opportunities (and challenges) that have evolved from the pandemic, financial services providers of all sizes and types are prioritizing investments in marketing technology. To see also : The abortion ruling pushes companies to tackle divisive politics. According to research carried out by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Capgemini, the focus of these investments differed between smaller financial institutions, larger banks and credit unions and high-tech firms.
Research has found that high-tech firms make customer focus a greater focus of their marketing strategies than traditional financial institutions. Legacy firms continued to be very product-centric in their mindset, organization and marketing strategies. In fact, the research found that only 7% of traditional financial services companies were customer obsessed in 2021.
“59% of large financial services companies say their martech roadmap only somewhat aligns to their customer strategy.”
Read more: How Inflation Is Reshaping Bank Marketing Strategies & Budgets On the same subject : Supreme Court ruling on abortion sparks health tech Cambridge Analytica moment.
Martech Maturity Differs by Type of Provider
The research also took a deeper look into the strengths and weaknesses of financial services and technology organizations based on martech maturity across 24 key capabilities across five categories, including strategy, process, technology , data and organization. Organizations were grouped into three maturity brackets as low (bottom 25%), medium (middle of 50%), and high (top 25%). This helped to determine a strategic roadmap for each maturity level.
The model showed that larger financial services firms were less mature than smaller financial firms and that all legacy banking organizations lagged behind large technology firms in martech maturity. In fact, nearly 40% of legacy financial services organizations self-rated their firms as being at the lowest level of maturity, compared to just 14% of technology firms. Alternatively, 30% of technology firms considered themselves to have a high level of martech maturity versus only 20% of legacy banks and credit unions.
“The greatest maturity gaps for traditional financial services firms are in the areas of strategy and data.”
The study found that financial services firms need improvements around data (collection, analysis, measurement, and knowledge activation and democratization). In addition, traditional financial services firms need more insights integrated into their program strategies and execution – moving from product-centric to customer-centric.
Investing in Becoming Customer-Centric
The most advanced financial services organizations invest in data analytics and automation to create personalized experiences throughout the customer journey. They also align their martech investments to supplement and complement their organization’s broader customer initiatives. As the research dug deeper, it found that traditional financial firms are less likely to plan resource allocation around future opportunities, and are less likely to collaborate with external providers to deliver customer-centric innovations. customer.
“Only 36% of large financial services firms say they personalize programs based on real-time data, compared to 51% of technology companies.”
Modern technology is the biggest obstacle to success and the area of great opportunity for both traditional financial firms and high-tech providers. Outdated technology constrains larger financial services organizations, making it difficult to keep pace with the capabilities of high-tech firms and fintech organizations that are digitally native.
Areas for improvement and investment include:
Read More: 62 Digital Marketing Statistics Every Financial Marketer Should Know
Modern Marketing Technology – Now More Than Ever
The digital transformation of the marketing process in banking is equivalent to using modern technology to continuously evolve all aspects of the digital banking business model. This includes what products and services are offered, how an organization interacts with customers, how an organization supports customer centricity, and how engagement is supported throughout the customer journey. To support continued investment, all marketing activities must support business results.
According to Capgemini research conducted by Forrester Consulting, organizations that invest in modern marketing technology benefit in the following ways.
Simply put, modern marketing technology is transforming how marketing is done and the results you get. Those organizations that invest in a modern martech stack will win the battle for customer acquisition and retention, while those that lag behind will lose out. The most progressive organizations will not only use marketing technologies to drive communications but to democratize knowledge for everyone in the organization.
This will break down data and communication silos, and improve customer engagement and experiences. Similar to the transformation of digital banking, the evolution of marketing technology is a never-ending process. Those who delay investing in the future will fall further behind.
