Content marketing financial services to millennials is still in its infancy, as traditional finance companies embrace strategies that include a heavy focus on social media outreach and the introduction of bold new ways to offer their services.
With that in mind, there are three strategies that financial companies can use to cater to millennials and win over this coveted audience.
Understand where millennials are going for their financial needs
Millennials enjoy doing business over the internet, which means that the traditional financial marketing strategy of face-to-face interaction is not effective with this group. And that helps explain the rising popularity of a new breed of financial technology companies that are disrupting the personal investment industry.
Known in slang terms as “fintech,” these new financial companies are using “robo-advisers” to replace human personal investment advisers, and these automated financial advisers are crunching numbers and feeding them into algorithms to determine where clients should invest their money. Fintech companies find most of their clients through social media and referrals.
They eliminate a chunk of their operating costs by streamlining their business down to a phone number, an email for customer service and a blog where clients can obtain useful information.
Millennials are flocking to fintech companies for personal investment because they are more attracted to technology as a means of investing their money than they are about making a personal connection with a financial adviser. To compete, traditional personal investing companies will have to offer services that mimic what fintech is offering.
Add innovation to content marketing financial services
Traditional content marketing financial services companies are slow to change and fixated on things that have worked in the past even if those things are no longer effective. Millennials are not a traditional target audience, and because of that, they take interest in financial companies that offer bold new ideas.
Fintech companies understand this concept because they understand their target audience. They realize that millennials are not a group that needs their hands held with constant in-person interaction. Millennials want companies that do things differently, but with a purpose.
It is risky to offer financial services that eliminate 24/7 customer support and where most interaction between the service provider and the customer happens through email or on social media. But that type of convenience and hassle-free process is exactly what millennials want from their financial services.
Financial companies that want to grab their piece of the coveted millennial pie are going to have to begin thinking outside the box and offering new ideas about how financial services are offered.Because without a shift in the fundamental attitudes about how to sell financial services, many companies will miss out on attracting the lucrative millennial audience.
Focus on how millennials use financial services
Millennials want to use content marketing financial services to build wealth so that they can pursue their passions and invest in charitable organizations. They view money as a tool to better their life and the lives of others, so they do not respond to traditional personal investment sales pitches about retirement funds and disability insurance.
Millennials also want to be closely involved in investment decisions as opposed to the more hands-off approach their parents and grandparents had taken. They see financial service experts not as wise men whose every word is gospel, but rather as partners who can help them build their wealth. Millennials also prefer to invest in financial products that are simple and easy to understand, including term life insurance and Roth IRAs.
Part of the reason for this simplicity is that a lot of millennials are researching financial services and buying financial software that helps them understand exactly what products match their life goals. Financial service companies that treat millennials as partners instead of clients are going to have more success attracting this audience.
Relationships create results
Traditional financial service companies that want to reach millennials must be willing to throw out the old playbook. Instead, they should draw inspiration from the disruptive way that fintech companies are changing the personal investment game. It is really all about finding innovative ways to market to millennials, with a heavy focus on social media outreach and communication through email, Skype and Google Hangouts.
If you need help crafting an effective content marketing strategy that caters to millennials, please Contact us today.
