Social Media Marketing for Financial Services

The financial industry can no longer choose to ignore social media. From the experimental room, it has now become a key tool for customer engagement, brand development, and lead generation. Digital marketing for financial services social media strategies is reinventing the way that banks, insurance companies, fintech institutions, and other financial service companies engage new and existing customers.

If you’re ready to unlock the potential of social media with an eye toward success in finance, let’s plan your foray. Discover how to know your audience, choose the right platforms, create compliant yet engaging content, and efficiently track your progress!

Knowing Your Customer in Financial Services

Rule one of any marketing campaign is “know your audience” – and never more so than for financial services. Knowing your customer helps you create messages and offers that are in touch with their wants and desires.

3-1: Target Customer Profile

Figure 3-1: Identifying Target Market Demographics
Company Name: Company Name
Company Type: Barber Shop
Business Focus: Drawing younger and older generations to enjoy high-quality and fashionable cuts.

Because financial services is so diverse, the likelihood is that you will have several:

Gen Zers and Millennials in need of budgeting apps, student loans, or a first-time investment.
Gen X, Baby Boomers in need of wealth management or retirement planning advice.
Business owners looking for bespoke loans or business insurance options.

Understand your target audience, so that you can:

Develop customer personas based on age, occupation, financial objectives, online activity, etc.
Adapt your style of communication to their levels of financial understanding.
Customize the customer experience and increase customer retention and conversions.

Pro Tip:
Leverage data scenario tools such as surveys, Google Analytics, or social media insights to further hone that audience and transform assumptions into localized strategies.

Deciding On The Right Social Media Platforms

One size doesn’t fit all. Platforms aren’t all created equal and financial services companies shouldn’t just push in order to push; they should be concentrating on the channels where their audiences already are.

As the preferred platform for professionals, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B financial services such as wealth management, business loans, and corporate advisory. Use it to:

Share valuable content such as killer industry reports or exclusive insights.
Share success stories to lead to more credibility.
Buy Ads: Use LinkedIn’s Ad platform to run lead generation campaigns aimed at Executive-level business.

Twitter

Twitter – it goes so quickly, but is excellent for breaking financial news, customer service, and bantering on the latest topic du jour. Include hashtags such as #fintech, #personalfinance, and #retirementplanning so your posts can be found.

Facebook

Facebook is still a dominant platform, and consumer-facing financial products like credit cards, personal loans, and insurance can do well there. Leveraging micro-targeting features:

Advertise based on granular demographic information such as income or family status.
Leverage Facebook groups to cultivate communities, like aspiring young investors or first-time home buyers.

Instagram

Amazingly, visual brands aren’t the only ones that thrive on Instagram. Which is the best place for financial institutions? Here are two ways in which financial institutions can succeed:

Educational reels on how to handle debt or tips for saving.
Sharing images of infographics and quotes that are visually appealing.
Collaborating with influencers to add a human element to their brand.

Developing a Content Strategy

Having defined your audience and platforms, the next step is to produce cool, interesting and relatable stuff.

Prioritize Engagement

There are a lot of highfalutin’ financial terms out there that are just plain overwhelming. Break it down by:

Sharing bite-sized educational posts (like “What is compound interest”) with your followers.
Using relatable analogies in your copy and imagery to money, taxes, mortgages, etc.
Prompting engagement with polls, Q&A posts, or live webinars.

Storytelling Matters

People are more trusting of financial institutions when they see narratives that resonate with them. Tell stories about:

Actual customers who have benefited from your services.
Motivating employees who lean in.
The story of how your organization came together.

Consider Compliance

The devil is in the details of financial content. Everything you post on social channels must comply with regulatory standards, which we’ll address next.

Key Areas of Focus

Transparency: Don’t sugarcoat the risks of financial products. Stay away from jargon and fine print that could confuse or mislead consumers.
Disclosures: Make sure disclaimers are easy to see and read, particularly in visual ads.
Data Privacy: Do not share customer data and make sure that your social activity complies with GDPR (or your local data laws).

Tips for Staying Compliant

Double check with your lawyers before you publish.
Use pre-approved templates and captioning instructions.
Get compliance software that can screen social posts for regulatory issues.

Measuring Success with KPIs

Everyone loves a flashy social media campaign, but show me the results. Not tracking progress is a lack of awareness and nobody can know what they’re working on and what they’re not working on.

Key Metrics to Watch

Engagement Rate (likes, comments, shares): Is your audience engaging with your content?
CTR (Click-Through Rate): Are people clicking through to your landing pages?
Lead Generation: How many leads were generated as a direct result of your campaigns?
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): What does it cost you to acquire a new customer?
Conversion Rates: How many leads that you have end up signing up or paying you?

Based on these KPIs, evaluate which strategies are best from an ROI perspective, pulling funds from what doesn’t work to what does.

Real-World Examples

A few real-world examples to illustrate the potential of a respected social media strategy in small business! Here are two standout campaigns:

American Express

On Instagram, Amex invited cardmembers to share their special travel and lifestyle experiences with their #AmexLife campaign. This accountable user-generated content established trust as it displayed the success of membership.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite’s “Finance Social Media Content Calendar” campaign went after financial brands with templates and strategies for social posting. This led to a large number of high-quality leads and made Hootsuite an authority in the finance marketing space.

The Future of Digital Marketing for Financial Services

The digital space is an ever-changing beast and new trends will revolutionize how we use social media in financial services:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Hyper-personalized content can be enabled by AI tools and risk analysis made more efficient, along with a customer interaction optimization via chatbots.

Video Content

Short-form videos and live-streaming will prevail, offering financial services the opportunity to visually simplify complex subjects.

Social Commerce

Scalable in-app purchasing is booming in categories such as retail, and finance should be moving toward transactions (opening accounts or buying insurance) on social platforms.

Social Media Should Be Integrated into Your Strategy

Utilizing social media for financial services marketing is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity to be competitive. By knowing your audience, selecting the correct platforms, producing engaging content, remaining compliant, and analyzing performance, you can find new space to grow in your organization and toward your brand—but also strengthen your connection with your customers.

If you’d like help from the professionals to develop your social media strategy for financial services, contact the experts at our team today! We’ll customize a strategy that lifts your brand, speaks to your audience, and delivers results with great force.

Discover how e-commerce businesses can leverage analytics and customer insights to boost sales in our guide, Unlocking the Power of Data Driven Marketing in E-Commerce.