Financial Services marketing
Financial services marketing jobs have been transformed over the last decade, largely due to the changing business models. The marketing and delivery of financial services is far more sophisticated, and crucially customer-led, today. Sir Brian Pitman, former chairman of Lloyds TSB, once famously said, "We used to consider ourselves a bank. Then we considered ourselves a provider of services. Now we consider ourselves as creators of value.”
Customer service and loyalty
Financial services businesses are recognising the lifetime value of the customer, engaging in complex database segmentation, branding and customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives to name a few. The creative edge within FS is equally as exciting - both Above the line (ATL) and Below the line (BTL) campaign executions are inventive and quite radical.
Customer service, CRM and lifetime value of the customer are crucial for financial services institutions in an increasingly global and competitive world. Customer satisfaction is an important indicator for customer loyalty, and this delivers numerous benefits to a business through referral, lower servicing costs, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and retention impacting positively on the bottom line.
Traditionally, the relationship has been a face-to-face interaction between the bank manager and the customer/client. However, with growing online banking and the mix of 'bricks and clicks' delivery, financial institutions are looking for new ways to enhance the customer experience in the absence of face-to-face transactions. This buoyant activity has seen an increasing number of first-class marketer appointments, as well as growing the size of the marketing function - both in terms of resource and budget.
Main challenges
The compliant and legislative environment adds an element of challenge to financial services marketing. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has strict guidelines for marketing financial services products, and this is a key issue on their agenda. Part of this subject concerns the use of plain language.
The nature of financial services products tends to be complex, and often the language used simply confuses many customers. Increased competition and the crowded nature of FS is testing marketers’ innovative flair. Where products are commoditised (such as credit cards), or being targeted to the same markets, innovation marketing techniques and brand values are key to successfully differentiating the service offering.
Opportunities and marketing job types
Opportunities exist with the leading high street banks, credit card companies, insurance, pensions and mortgage providers as well as specialist finance houses and merchant banks.
Typical jobs in marketing include:
- Campaign Managers
- Marketing Communications
- PR Managers
- Head of Communications
- Events Managers
- Internal Communications
- Head of Brand
- Customer Insight Managers
- NPD & Product Managers
- Business Development Managers
- Affiliate Marketing Managers
- Brand Managers
- Relationship Marketing Managers
Most FS employers require candidates with some financial services or professional services background. For specialist roles, relevant experience in the marketing discipline e.g. database marketing for customer insight roles, DM or advertising for campaign management and so on are preferable.
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