The financial services industry is built on tradition and trust. More recently, Fintech start-ups have taken a more tech-forward approach to banking, money management, and investment. Both need to build relationships to engage new and existing customers. Video can help support your fintech marketing strategy whether you’re running a startup, or offering technology-based financial services from a more traditional financial institution.
The Complex Financial Services Marketing Landscape
Financial services marketing is complex. Your brand is held to a higher standard than many consumer brands due to regulatory and compliance standards. The standardization of financial products makes it harder to differentiate your company from others in financial services. Meanwhile, tighter regulations are leaving less room for creative marketing.
Customers are also more selective and less likely to stick with the financial services options their parents relied on. Technologies like cryptocurrency, mobile banking, and fractional investing are giving customers more options than ever before. This creates both an opportunity and a challenge. The challenge is helping customers understand why your products are the best choice for them. The opportunity is that they’re less likely to be listening.
In this complex landscape, video can help you capture and keep customer attention. It builds trust, explains complex topics, and nurtures long-term customer relationships.
How Video Fits Into Your Fintech Marketing Strategy
Video content can support many areas of your overall marketing strategy including:
- Search engine optimization
- Content marketing
- Paid advertising
- Email marketing
- Broadcast or streaming television
- Social media marketing
Using video across all of these platforms supports an integrated omnichannel strategy. That matters because it helps you deliver a clear brand message anywhere your customers might be.
1. Show up in search
When customers are looking for financial services products, Google is often their first stop. Search algorithms like Google note how long a searcher stays on page before they abandon it and return to the search page. Because video increases time on-page, it can help your brand rank higher in search results.
2. Explain service offerings
Explainer videos introduce customers to your service offerings. To see how it works, watch this explainer video we created for Venmo before they became a household name.
3. Educate consumers
Your customers probably don’t understand all the ins and outs of the financial industry. Educational videos can help them get a handle on investing, savings, or security information that might impact their decision making.
4. Build trust through transparency
Trust is essential in the financial services industry. The more customers know about your brand, the more likely they are to trust you. Video can introduce them to your team and explain the inner workings of the business in easy to understand ways.
You only need one video to start working toward these goals, but a video series can deliver even better results.
Start a Video Series
Whether it’s a group of related commercials, a youtube series or a video podcast, an ongoing video series can build trust and educate customers. Creating a series also helps you keep each video short and focused.
That’s the approach MakerDao took in their series of videos explaining aspects of their stablecoin cryptocurrency offering.
Include Customer Success In your Fintech Marketing Strategy
Many people think of marketing as a way to bring in new customers, but customer success is even more important. In the post-pandemic world, financial services customers are likely to work with multiple providers so they can access the best products and services.
Think about how the needs of existing customers differ from those of potential customers. Make videos specifically for this audience covering topics like:
- How to get the most out of the service
- Add-on or supplemental products and services
- Tax and accounting questions
- Long-term financial management
- Product or service tutorials
You may touch on some or all of these topics in awareness campaigns, but existing customers may want a deeper dive. These customers may also be willing to watch longer videos, as long as those videos deliver real value.
The best fintech marketing strategies include customization options that provide customers with videos on the topics most likely to interest them. This video we created for CitiBank is exactly the kind of information you might want to share with long-term customers.
How to Market Financial Services With Video
Five best practices can help you make the most of your video marketing and reap a positive return on investment:
- Tell a story – Fintech combines two topics that can be hard for the layperson to understand. Telling a story, with your customer as the hero, can help customers recognize how your services relate to them.
- Double-check for compliance – Make sure your videos abide by relevant regulations. Check both script wording and storyboards to avoid late-stage changes. You may want to build some extra time into the production schedule to leave room for these reviews.
- Keep it short – The right length for any marketing video is fairly short. Until you get deep into the funnel, most customers want information to be delivered as quickly as possible. Aim for 60 seconds or less.
- Stay focused – Each video should answer one question. If you need more detail, you need more videos. Keeping your topic hyper-focused also helps keep videos short.
- Be consistent – The tone and style of your videos should match your overall brand voice and guidelines. Customers expect consistency across marketing channels.
Video’s Return on Investment
A 60-second video can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $25,000 to produce. But, as any financial services professional knows, return on investment matters more than up-front cost. Video is a high-performing investment, with 92% of marketers agreeing that it gives them a good ROI.
Part of that ROI comes from video’s versatility. Every video can be used and reused in all kinds of ways. Share it on social media, send it in an email, or run it as a television ad. You can split up a longer form video into social media ready segments, reuse the audio track for a podcast commercial, or even use stills and character designs in your print marketing.
An investment in animation delivers even long-term results. Fashions in animation change much more slowly than clothing and hairstyles. So you can use an animated video longer. Plus, animation is perfect for simplifying complex topics and keeping viewers engaged.
Explore how video can support your Fintech marketing strategy. Contact the video marketing experts at IdeaRocket today.