How customized content can help you connect with your customers in the financial industry.

The financial industry is crowded, overhyped, and untrustworthy. There’s more technology, competition, and regulation than ever before.

The relevant question for financial services today is: How do I become different enough to engage the marketplace?

The only way forward is building customer relationships, and the only way that happens is through customization. Why is connecting with customers on their level especially important?

The marketplace is changing with its customers, are you?

Advancing technology is pressuring financial institutions to keep up with customer expectations. From advances in artificial intelligence to cybersecurity, technology is transforming the financial services industry. Understanding customer needs and wants lets firms invest in the right technology. It also helps them improve their customer experience.

Worried about overstepping or overinvesting in change? Don’t be. Consumers are ready and waiting for a higher level of personalization. More than 75 percent of customers are willing to hand over their data in return for more personalized service. The caveat is, of course, providing top-shelf privacy and security.

While technological development has made finance more accessible and convenient, security is a major issue. Cybercrime might sound abstract to some, but it causes real-world damage and is a leading barrier to success in digital finance. In a global survey of people who said they’re not likely to bank using mobile devices, over half said security concerns topped their list of reasons.

What do you need to take on this changing marketplace? Personalization is the way forward. But how can you give your customers the customized content they want?

Customers demand content tailored to their needs

Personalization means finding out your customers’ needs and wants. Then, tailoring your message, service, or product to meet them. Customizing often goes far beyond listening to what customers say they want and need. Today, it's done through data and research. Personalization also requires observation, intuition, and experience.

Forward-thinking brands display key traits to engage their audience. Here are a couple to get you moving forward:

• Integration. Tech companies are becoming finance companies and vice versa. Consumers want “all-in-one platforms” as opposed to software solutions. Finance websites are becoming more interactive. They’re offering short feedback loops to engage new customers quickly.
  
  A great example of integration is DBS Bank in Singapore. It launched DBS Car Marketplace, an online market for people who want to buy or sell cars. From budget calculators to test drives, customers can arrange everything online. The marketplace even offers exclusive perks, such as handling the paperwork in ownership transfers. Integrations like these address core customer needs. Plus, they eliminate the hassle of dealing with multiple institutions in what used to be complex transactions.

• Recognition. You can’t satisfy the needs of all customers all the time, so you must focus on one or more target markets. This may mean addressing the current life stage of your customer. Teenagers, parents, and retirees require different messages because they have different needs and wants. They also have different levels of assets and debts, so they need different solutions.

Increasingly, companies are going beneath the surface in their quest to customize products. They try to recognize different emotions, personality types, and psychographics when customizing. For example, two adults could have similar demographic information but completely different personalities. One is a pioneering speculator using blockchain, and the other is a conservative saver using traditional banking. A pitch that works for one customer won't convince the other. Each customer requires a unique pitch.

In the crowded marketplace, institutions that balance their focus on the right target market with a seamless experience stand out. How can you give customers a seamless experience? Provide valuable content that helps your customers at every stage of their journey.

Empower your sales team to deliver customized content

It’s not enough to understand your customer and share the information with different departments in your organization. You need to take action to meet consumer needs. How do you apply customization in your organization?

• Empower your sales team. Empowering means leading, not managing. Give your staff the freedom to innovate, act decisively, and take ownership of their results. They need the freedom to customize offers for customers in any stage of the sales process.
  
• Help your team do their job. Salespeople spend too much time on tech support, approvals, and data entry. Giving them the proper support means they’ll spend more time doing what they do best: closing deals.
  
• Improve your product continuously. Customers live in a changing world, and you need to keep pace to stay relevant. Making incremental improvements enhances the customer experience. It also assures your sales team always has a competitive product to offer.

Give your sales team the freedom, support, and product to do their best work. With the right tools, growing and managing your sales team becomes easier.

Don’t make your customers find you — Find them

Why should you offer financial services in places customers are already looking?

Customers are already searching for your product or service. To forge a strong relationship with them, you need to personalize. In today’s market, customization requires companies to overcome advancing technology, competition, and regulation.

To succeed, you need to be different, to be better, and to tell your story. If you don't, your chances of converting leads to sales are only as good as anyone else's. Triptych can help you create customized content in a fraction of the time. Talk to our team today to learn how to enable your distributed salesforce.