Inroads in social media marketing for financial services

Consumers have long moved on from just using the internet for information-gathering. Social networks are growing at an incredible pace. We all know that social media lower costs and optimizes marketing spending. Now is the time for financial services companies to move from just “being” on social media and start to truly “engage” with their customers. At the end of the day it is all about using social media tools to build personalized customer relationships.

There are many financial companies, like American Express or UBS, already optimizing their use of social media. Accenture has identified 11 social media tactics that can help achieve a specific outcome and that should ideally not just be used in isolation.

It is important to keep in mind, that social media marketing always needs to be fully integrated in your company’s digital and corporate strategy to achieve the best impact possible.

Here is a link to the full report.

Results from Content Marketing for Financial Services survey

EditionsFinancial together with the Financial Services Forum carried out the first Content Marketing for Financial Services survey – with some interesting results. I was amazed that only 41% of the senior marketers surveyed actually have a content marketing strategy. We all know content in financial services marketing is key so lots of work ahead for us. And while most believe that marketing can help rebuild trust in the financial industry, the biggest obstacle is seen to be a lack of co-ordination in strategy.

Below is the link to the infographic:

http://www.editionsfinancial.co.uk/wp-content/themes/koresponsive/images/editions_infographic.pdf

The population of the internet

Vox has published a very interesting map from the Oxford Internet Institute which shows where the world’s internet users live. Amazing to note how many countries (and continents) still have pretty low usage but we all know that this will change dramatically over the coming years.

Where are you on Gartner’s Digital Business Development Path?

Garner has published a Digital Business Development Path that examines different business models from before the web to today’s digital platforms to help businesses see where they are currently and help make a case to increase their digital business. According to Gartner, by 2020 75% of all businesses will be digital or on their way to become one. So where is your business on the development path?

Source: Forbes

Mobile Megatrends 2014

Vision Mobile published their immensely interesting annual report on mobile megatrends for 2014. The report looks at the latest trends in the mobile industry and their future impact with a focus on how the mobile industry keeps reinventing itself and presents the fundamental business model changes behind the apps phenomenon, the evolution of mobile ecosystems and the future of HTML5 vs. native.

Marketing Transformers

The Accenture Interactive 2014 CMO-CIO Alignment survey – released this month – interviewed over 1,100 senior marketing and IT executives around the globe. The main result ? The desire for CMOs and CIOs to work together is strong. CMOs feel that marketing’s move to becoming more digital means the need for more technology, while CIOs see the opportunity of applying technology to marketing. All the more reason to collaborate more.

What are the skills needed by marketers to be succesful in the future?

Technology is changing the face of marketing to an extent that expectations, skills and job description have changed compared to just 5 years ago. Today, marketers need to understand trends and technology. They need to understand how social media, video, analytics work in the marketing mix while keeping their fundamental skills like being great communicators while understanding their customers.

Econsultancy recently did a survey where they asked senior level marketers what the essential 15 skills a marketer should have nowadays. Here is the result