Tag Archive for: Financial Services

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation, Financial Services, and the 1:1 Relationship

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Marketing Automation and Financial ServicesThe financial services (FS) industry is one of the most trust-dependent, intimately-related B2B relationships in the world. Because of the sensitive (and heavily regulated) nature of financial services, marketing and sales practices are often geared towards developing a 1:1 connection. Customer acquisition and retention have traditionally been conducted through a process of face-to-face meetings and distributed physical marketing collateral. Even commodity-oriented services like consumer credit card providers attempt to give the appearance of a 1:1 relationship.

There has been a movement by financial services marketers during the past few years toward marketing automation (MA). Marketing automation routinely distributes digital marketing collateral such as email messages and provides performance measurement capabilities that reveal response rates and Internet search activity. A robust marketing automation platform, like our Lead Management Automation™, delivers a number of marketing efficiencies while maintaining a personalized experience for prospects and customers.

Lead Generation

Historically, financial services marketers have relied on print advertising, referrals, and word-of-mouth to generate leads. Although those tactics still work today, the financial services consumer now searches the web for service providers and to compare offers. B2B buyers are using the net daily to shop for third-party vendors. According to the Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project, 91% of Internet users search online for products and services.

Marketing automation provides lead generation through a process of targeted message delivery and contact data collection. MA reduces the costs of day-to-day market engagements by allowing marketers to stage auto delivery of digital campaigns and automatically collect data about prospects who respond to messaging.

In addition, lead generation through organic search results and paid ad campaigns is seamlessly integrated with outbound activities such as email marketing. When a prospect visits your FS website, information is automatically collected and imported to a database of leads. Leads can still be attracted by a 1:1 connection because marketing messages can be easily customized with fields that address prospects personally and give the appearance of a 1:1 connection.

Lead Nurturing

Customer acquisition in the FS industry entails building a mature relationship with a prospect. The most trusted and recognizable companies typically garner the lion’s share of client accounts. Lead nurturing is one of the primary benefits of marketing automation. Through a serial delivery of valuable information to prospects, FS marketers can not only easily engage with a wider pool of prospects but also create deeper engagement with prospects that indicate interest in your FS solutions.

Through traditional FS marketing strategies, lead nurturing requires contacting individual prospects via phone or email, conversing about prospect needs and company solutions, recording the engagement details, and updating contact information manually. With marketing automation those steps are streamlined while a 1:1 relationship is maintained.

Marketing to Sales

The critical point in FS marketing is where marketing has attracted enough interest and a sales call becomes the next step. Today’s financial services buyers are more proactive, in control, and discerning. Competing for individual accounts requires a strategy of connecting sales agents with prospects in a timely manner. An MA platform provides a structured process of moving leads through the sales pipeline efficiently and effectively while maintaining a 1:1 relationship.

Using marketing automation, progressively engaging messages are delivered so sales agents now connect with better educated prospects. As lead nurturing takes place prospects are moved from a marketing-qualified lead (one that has engaged with digital messaging) to a sales-qualified lead (one that is ready to discuss a purchase). Sales agents can easily identify the hottest leads through a scoring matrix that grades both prospect attributes (such as company size) and online behavior (such as downloading a product brochure). The 1:1 relationship can then be advanced through the sales staff until a deal is made.

Although the use of marketing automation in the financial services industry is in its infancy, the benefits of automating marketing practices is already yielding results, driving down costs, and improving ROI for many notable companies, all while maintaining a 1:1 relationship appearance. Contact Lead Liaison today to find out how to become more efficient and effective at your financial services marketing.

Lead Liaison

Financial Services Companies Without Marketing Automation are Losing to Competitors

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Financial Services Marketing Automation In the financial services space a chasm is forming. Progressive financial services companies are adopting marketing automation to deliver routine digital messages to prospective clients – called lead nurturing – while traditional firms are cultivating prospects using only old-fashioned methods. This is leading to a drop-off in client acquisition for those traditional firms when compared to the progressive firms that have automated their marketing practices. The problem for the traditional firms is, despite how effective those old-style tactics may be, some are losing ground to the progressive, digitally-marketed firms.

After all, plenty of statistics show most Americans use the Internet as a primary research tool when searching for products and services. That holds true in the financial services industry as well.

How can a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation™ platform make the difference between inefficient marketing/sales practices and streamlined client acquisition?

Prioritizing the Best Leads

Our marketing automation platform provides a powerful way to focus your sales staff on leads that show the highest degree of interest in your services. Through a lead nurturing process that sends messages and information at scheduled intervals, the system can determine which prospects are advancing through your sales pipeline to become the hottest leads. Firms with no marketing automation platform must rely on poorly managed buying signals.

For smaller firms, scoring leads is a proven way to prioritize your prospects so the limited sales resources available can be focused on leads most likely to commit to you soon. Without lead scoring it can be difficult to determine which leads are the hottest.

Big Impression

Another benefit of marketing automation for smaller firms is that a well-managed marketing campaign presents a larger image to your prospects. By allowing your marketing staff to automate activities, your prospects “see” a company that appears to have a fully-staffed marketing department, which may be received more favorably than a small firm image.

Efficiency

Marketing automation delivers messages to more prospects more efficiently so your marketing staff can spend more time developing your brand. Once a prospect becomes a lead, the system can manage the lead development process by automatically delivering progressively engaging material until the lead passes a scoring threshold that moves him to the point where your firm’s salespeople should initiate contact. While this lead moves through the sales pipeline other leads are also being advanced to a sales-ready stage.

Build Credibility

By using a marketing automation platform financial services firms can develop a disciplined approach to client acquisition that builds credibility through a defined series of engagements. Firms can execute email campaigns, digital advertising strategies, online surveys, and other marketing practices in a way that cultivates prospects. Leads become familiar with your firm and trust is built through a process of consistent messaging that shows interest in their well-being.

More Opportunities

One of the most profitable revenue generation advantages financial firms have is in their ability to up-sell and cross-sell current clients. Without a marketing automation platform firms must devote personnel to contacting clients one-to-one to uncover additional sales opportunities. By using a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation platform your firm gains visibility into existing clients’ interests or needs through their digital footprints and your sales personnel can be alerted when up-sell or cross-sell opportunities present themselves.

There are several more common marketing automation benefits for financial services firms. To learn about additional common benefits, and to determine how our Lead Management Automation platform will specifically benefit your financial services firm, contact our sales department at sales@leadliaison.com or 888 895 3237.

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation for Financial Services

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Marketing Automation for Financial ServicesAs our marketing automation solutions are being adopted by companies in more industries, we thought it would be helpful to explain how marketing automation for financial services companies such as accounting firms or financial advisors will help them. Many firms lack fully staffed marketing departments; typically one or two individuals are responsible for the multitude of marketing activities required to compete in the financial services space. The Lead Management Automation (LMA) platform allows financial services firms to execute robust marketing campaigns and manage leads that enter the sales pipeline more efficiently.

Marketing practices involve creating digital assets like email messages and display ads, delivering marketing assets to target markets, capturing lead information from inquiries, and preparing leads for initial contact. Fostering relationships can be accelerated when staff has the ability to examine lead information, determine the most likely customers, and manage leads through a sales pipeline. Because financial services often have limited marketing resources to perform these tasks, this technology becomes more attractive.

Some of the benefits of our Lead Management Automation platform for financial services companies include:

  • Delivering digital marketing content through automated schedules
  • Identifying lead sources from financial services networks and third-party referrers and Web publishers
  • Gaining visibility into clients specific pain points and interest drivers
  • Alerting staff to up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
  • Automatically qualifying leads for sales-readiness through parameters set within the platform (grading, scoring, buy signals, etc.)
  • Cultivating (nurturing) leads through progressively engaging messages that educate and engage the market
  • Dynamic prospect list segmentation which automatically organizes and prioritizes leads
  • Devoting limited resources to the hottest leads based upon their online behaviors and demographic attributes

Although many financial services companies use traditional marketing and personal relationship tactics such as client and business partner referrals, hosting seminars, and other non-digital means, today’s financial services company is likely using the Internet to research potential firms. Financial services companies looking to stay competitive should find out how easy our Lead Management Automation platform is to implement and how the rich features can boost your revenue rate and target the best leads.

While it is true that the financial services industry is more heavily regulated than other industries, automated marketing practices can nonetheless be implemented. To find out how our Lead Management Automation platform can streamline time-consuming marketing activities and help prioritize and manage leads, contact our sales department at sales@leadliaison.com or call 888 895 3237.