Presented by yellowHEAD
In the health, wellness, and finance industries, influencing these very personal purchasing decisions is a challenge. Join this this VB Live event to learn how to use real data to make powerful connections with these consumers and more.
Money is a wildly sensitive topic; 44% of Americans find it a more challenging topic than death, politics, and religion. And this means brand marketers in the financial services industry have something of a great big challenge on their hands when it comes to creating a healthy emotional connection with their target consumers. It could be even trickier for fintech companies, the digitally-based money apps that don’t have a friendly person behind the counter at a local branch to counter the intimidation and anxiety.
“We have to be much more empathetic, and make sure that people understand who is behind the brand,” says Adriana Estrada, VP Brand Strategy at Stash, a fintech aimed at simplifying investing for beginners. “We want to get away from what’s traditionally been very homogenous and cold fintech branding, so that we’re differentiated, distinct, and coherent, so that people understand what we’re saying and we have a certain amount of credibility.”
Part of this, she says, is messaging that reinforces the brand promise: that the company was created by founders who care about people’s financial well-being. Their aim was to create a platform for their customers to learn about investing and take the fear out of it. The hope was that once these new investors learn the ropes, they’ll stay the course for the long term, confident they’ll continue to see results.
The company tackles the inherent fears about investing with education, Estrada explains. Much of the anxiety around money springs from a lack of financial literacy. To combat that, Stash has extensive learning available for millennial and GenZ investors, and has even established a financial literacy program for kids from grammar to high school age, called Stash 101. The goal is to win their trust and encourage them to feel that Stash is a worthwhile advisor and ally.
“While we can’t guarantee financial results in investing, we do our best to give our investors as much information as possible from an educational point of view so they learn what they’re doing as beginner investors,” she says.
How data makes a difference
Data informs all of their marketing in several ways. First, it gives the company insight into their consumers, how people of every demographic spend their money, which helps the company leverage those financial moments. For instance, they know that the average spend for families for back-to-school is about $700. With this insight, Stash can angle the messaging for their banking product to families with kids. Goals let customers designate money for different activities – and a family can set aside part of their budget for back-to-school shopping.
The data also shows that about 95% percent of Stash customers have little or no investing experience, which guides the development and launch of their education products, touching on the most essential pieces of the puzzle these customers might be missing – and how that education ties back to where they are in their financial lives.
Data is also the heart of the campaigns they run, says Dale Sperling, Stash CMO.
“The most powerful campaigns are the ones that create meaningful brand impressions and drive results,” he says. “We use incrementality and predictive modeling to monitor, optimize, and inform decision making.”
Each platform is unique and media consumption styles need to be considered when optimizing creatives, he adds. For instance, a long-form ad/post on FB won’t have the same impact on Twitter where dwell time is considerably shorter and the customer might be processing hundreds of pieces of content in one session. Twitter followers tend to prefer news and announcements, while Facebook followers look for family-focused content and so on. And all followers are increasingly interested in video content.
“We want to be able to have a dialogue with people,” Estrada says. “We have to be much more empathetic and talk to people in ways that they want to be spoken to, and have a high level of care for people when they talk to us. We need to be good listeners.”
To learn more about the ways data can help you tap into your customer’s wants and needs in the most complex verticals, how to design messaging that creates real connections, and more, don’t miss this VB Live event.
Don’t miss out!
You’ll learn about:
- The industries that require a new marketing perspective — and why
- The growing role of creative in competitive digital landscapes
- What buyers in sensitive and complex verticals are looking for, and how to make them believe you’re the one
- Triggering the right emotional connection with your audience
- How and why data should be the backbone of your campaign
- Optimizing creatives for every social media platform
Speakers:
- Claudio Franco, CMO, Gympass
- Dale Sperling, CMO, Stash
- Noa Miller, Creative Strategy Lead, yellowHEAD
- Krista Neher, CEO, Boot Camp Digital (moderator)