Jul 4, 2019
Follow on from last week
Last week I outlined some thoughts on the pros on cons of financial services companies outsourcing their marketing, as opposed to doing it in-house.
I had quite a lot to say last week, but I didn’t want to send you an essay, so this week I thought I’d pop you another quick note with a few more thoughts:
Not everyone is a marketer
Whether you opt for ‘in-house’ marketing over outsourced or vice versa, what’s vitally important is that you get a true ‘marketer’s’ perspective on your strategy, both short and long term.
The big win with marketing is being able to watch the changing trends and understanding the way that the market is going to go, allowing you to jump on things and really take advantage.
If you don’t currently have that skill – either in-house or via your agency – you’re missing opportunities, so I’d advise you to rectify that as quickly as possible.
Preventing ‘side of desk’ tasks
One of the things I’ve experienced in the time we’ve been working with financial service businesses is the amount of them who attempt to do marketing ‘on the cheap’ by giving responsibility for people who are not natural marketers.
Often it’s senior and operational management saddled with the task, when they should be focusing on doing what they’re good at.
Wherever you decide to put marketing responsibility, preventing it from becoming a ‘side of desk’ task is vital.
Content is king
The financial services firms who really succeed with their marketing are the ones who understand the importance of content, and don’t relegate it to an afterthought.
After all, content allows you to engage with your audience in a non sales-focused way, bringing them closer to you and increasing their trust in what you deliver.
Whether you’re doing content in-house or using an agency, focusing on producing high quality written and visual content is absolutely vital for firms that want to succeed in 2019 and beyond.
For many of our clients, these three factors are what sway them towards using an agency – for them, having a strategic dimension to their agency relationship, producing high quality content and ensuring that marketing is a priority all point towards outsourcing.
Maybe you’re in the same position, or maybe you’re not. Either way, I hope these thoughts help you to create and sustain marketing that gets you results.
If any of this resonates with you, and you’d welcome a conversation about how we can help improve your marketing while saving you time and money, please contact our branding team or email dave@financestream.co
