A powerful and demanding force has overtaken our leading industries, including banking and financial services. That power is customer expectation. As companies utilize new and nimble technologies that reach consumers in new and evermore engaging ways, it raises the standards for their competitors and that standard bleeds over into other industries as well.
Social media is the golden standard of engagement and has been since the launch of the first social networking website more than a decade ago. Social media exists to grow connections and relationships. In an article titled “The Psychology of Social Media” released by social media engagement company Buffer it is revealed that when we see content that we like, it adds value to our relationships and reinforces a sense of closeness. Obviously that reinforcement has an addictive quality as social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have become an almost essential part of day to day life for most American consumers.
But why? Why is social media so appealing to so many? The British Psychological Society suggests that “the human preference for novelty… plays into the attractiveness of social media” in the journal entry “Why do we ‘like’ social media?” Fresh content delivers a stimulation that keeps users coming back for more. And the social media giants optimize on this desire by refreshing the design and features every few months.
As a great example of this, Vox deemed “Stories” as Instagram’s smartest move yet. Why? Because it took what Instagram was already doing well and “super-charged” it. And it worked. According to the article, “Instagram Stories has attracted more than 400 million daily users and changed the way people share and consume things online.” The root of this attraction is user control. Instagram placed Stories right at the top and allowed viewers to control the pace of their content. Watch it, advance it, skip it entirely… The choice is theirs. Meanwhile Instagram quietly utilizes smart algorithms to customize the Stories feed even further to highlight the content each viewer finds most relevant. The result? “It is arguably the fastest-growing media format ever.” With success like this, it pushes other companies across industries to adapt their engagement strategies to follow suit.
Banks and credit unions need to identify their engagement challenges and retool their communication strategies to meet customer expectations for the next decade. The digital-first shift may feel radical to some, but it is only through these innovations that FIs can position themselves for the future. The marketing departments of successful organizations are developing the strategies that will meet their customers with relevant communications driven by cutting-edge technology and solutions.
DeepTarget’s intelligent marketing and sales automation is in use by hundreds of credit unions and banks across the country to deliver relevant product offers and pinpointed one-to-one messaging to their banking customers through mobile banking, online banking, web, and email, all the while engaging them in a seamless communications experience, wherever, whenever and however they bank.
