On average, financial services companies in the B2B space spend 8 percent of their revenue on marketing. With millennials now raising families and moving into leadership positions at work, they are an attractive market. They’re also a digital-savvy generation, and they expect a B2C experience where they can research products without the input of a salesperson, easily compare the costs and benefits of competing services, and purchase and manage their investments online. Consequently, the marketing mix for financial services must skew heavily toward digital strategies and techniques, whether targeting a B2B partner or working to influence end customers on their behalf.
Lead generation via social media marketing and targeted email campaigns resonate with the millennial customer, but they present unique challenges that require a knowledgeable marketing partner with significant experience in the space to navigate data security, privacy and consumer protection regulations. The ability to balance risk – regulatory vs. customer acquisition and retention – is essential, because financial services companies can no longer shy away from their target customers’ preferred way of communicating, researching and purchasing.
Account-based Marketing (ABM) can be effective as well, allowing financial services companies to precisely target those in the B2B space by preferred financial profile, product and service portfolio, customer base and any number of other data points.