How to Market Financial Services to Millenials

Back in May, I read this great article about how to market financial services to millennials. Written by Jeff Fromm and Jason Parks, executive VPs at Barkley, this article suggests that the secret to marketing to this segment is the consideration of how exactly they grew up.

Fromm and Parks make a fantastic point. Out of the 80 million millennials in the U.S., half of the millennials have children and each day 10,000 millennial moms over the age of 25 give birth. Parenthood changes a person’s priorities. If you’re a parent, you know how true this is. While financial planning, estate planning, and insurance may not have been a hot topic for this “irresponsible” generation before, it sure will become an important subject as they plan and provide for their offspring.

Millennials are at a wealth disadvantage — they are making less money than their parents were at the same age. Although millennials have education, they also have debt as a result of that education. Fromm and Parks explained that although brand loyalty was high for millennials pre-kids, once they become parents, brand loyalty dramatically shifted to value brands like Dollar General and Wal-Mart. Given past events (dot-com bust, September 11th, housing crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan wars), millennials are “more likely than other generations to believe that working hard and saving/living frugally are the ways to achieve success.”

Fromm and Parks say that to win with Millennials in the marketing of financial services, companies must…

1. Embrace disruptive schemas that align to millennial values.

2. Create tools that simplify millennials’ life and financial planning needs.

3. Act in a more authentic and transparent way.

4. Curate content that helps millennials make more informed decisions.

5. Engage millennials as your brand partner by allowing them to co-create new products, customer delivery channels, and more.

Marketing financial services is not an easy thing, but marketing to millennials is even more challenging.

As marketing teams consider the millennials’ life experiences, they will be able to create more compelling campaigns and more valuable products.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

5 Ways To Get Free (Or Nearly Free!) Financial Leads

One of the best ways to generate high-quality leads is to use a service like INO.com’s Standard Lead Generation program. Through this technology, we match your offer with select segments of our active trading audience. You can obtain a high volume of leads without sacrificing quality.

Although this is a cost-effective and efficient way to generate a high volume of leads for your financial product or service, you can also supplement your lead generation volume through campaigns that require relatively low manpower and cost.

5 ways to generate free (or nearly free!) leads…

1 – Good, Sharable Content

Does your content just beg to be shared? Having unique and interesting content can go a long way. What about publishing a review of online discount brokers, or maybe a free ebook with a new strategy to trade a specific stock sector?

If you produce something of value and encourage sharing, you could get your brand in front of a large volume of prospective customers.

An article by Web Marketing Today lists 7 tips to get people to share your content.

• Make it easy for people to share your content
• Ask people to share your content
• Use images
• Create “round-ups” as blog posts or other content
• Write listicles
• Write strong headlines
• Write long-form content

2 – Social Media

Social media is a very powerful tool that can help your lead generation and sales efforts.

Although marketers recognize the power of this medium, some argue that it is not always quantifiable.

While this has been true in the past, major platform players like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have provided application updates that display, track and measure lead generation campaigns.

3 – Partnerships

Another great way to reach a new audience and generate new leads is through the establishment of a partnership and in turn, the establishment of a new relationship with their audience. Through this partnership, content sharing, email marketing swaps, and referrals can be executed with a mutual benefit as the focal point.

This strategy expands your reach, yet still keeps your target market tight!

4 – SEO

You will win big if people can find you on the web. Search engine optimization (SEO) can help people find you and your lead generation programs.

If you’re offering good content, content that people are interested in and actively searching for, then they will be delighted to enter into your lead funnel — that is if they can find you.

Read – 6 Ways to Improve Your Website’s SEO Right Now

• Get to know your customers
• Research and identify keywords
• Put your customer first
• Use links strategically
• Post new content frequently
• Give it time

5 – Be Generous!

With the right searching, you can find just about anything as free content. You need to beat i. You need to give visitors that little bit more to draw them in. Once they are in, you need to be generous with your time and interaction. You only have a small window of time to foster a deep relationship that could lead to a sale. Therefore, under promise and over deliver. By being generous with your interaction and content, you will beat your competitors and not only collect leads but monetize them. 

Generating high-quality leads can be as easy as a simple phone call with me, but there is no reason you can’t take your content and rework it to create a great low-cost, low-effort lead generation campaign. Keep in mind that there is a ton of free content out there, but truly determine what your potential customers really need and then match them up with the services you provide that can help fulfill that need.

Be generous in your offering and remember that your customer’s time is valuable. Then, through SEO, social media, and partnership campaigns, you can reach a valuable audience who will find you valuable as well.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.