If your bank or financial institution is looking for a new way to get attention this year, video marketing is the key. Among millennials, video is one of the most popular types of media consumed, so there’s no better way to work on your image and instill trust in the next generation.
You’ll start by creating a video marketing strategy. How do you want your viewers to respond to your video? What should they take away from each video? And, what business goals can you honestly promote? Here are some other strategies to keep in mind.
1. User generated content- Get your customers to market your bank for you. By putting together a campaign of UGC, you show the public how important your customers are to you, and every piece of content produced acts as social proof that backs your brand.
Santander, in the UK recently used this approach themselves. They collected clips of their customers in their everyday lives and pieced the clips together to make a commercial.
Their CMO Keith Moor had this to say about the approach: “By using warm, engaging, funny and real footage, we aim to showcase our purpose and the role Santander plays in people’s lives in a compelling and honest way.”
2. Tell stories- We use stories in marketing capture the viewer, keep them interested, and showcase your solution as the hero. There are countless ways your institution can use stories to appeal to their market, and stories come across beautifully in a video.
As a local bank, you can tell a story of the family who almost lost the home they wanted to buy when one of the big loan partners stepped back and left them scrambling.
Share the story of a student who wanted to go to college but couldn’t get the loans they needed to fund their education.
Real stories with real people offer an authenticity that is still rare in marketing today. Audiences crave these honest glimpses of other customers because they can see themselves in their shoes, feel their emotions, and see success in working with your business.
3. Share more about your business– Today’s technology offers the opportunity to know a company more than ever before, and people love it. Explain what makes your business different by putting together videos that feature your employees and the qualities that make them unique.
For example, even large banks can put together geographically distinct videos of the people who live and work in an area. The market who sees this will remember those people “Hey, you were on TV.” And they’ll feel proud to have worked with them.
This strategy goes beyond the perfectly dressed realtor to showcase Ann, a mortgage broker, who has the flexibility to get to most of her son’s basketball games- Go Wildcats because your company stands for family.
You can also include quirky birthday parties the office has, holiday celebrations, or clips of your employees working in the community. At the end add a message of thanks for the local support.
4. Educate your audience– Content marketing is on fire, and all of the big banks are getting into it. But, that doesn’t mean you’ve lost your opportunity, there is always more to teach. Even better, you can be the expert in any topic that competitors aren’t teaching.
Millennials love content and have specifically enjoyed Barclay’s Life Skills campaign. By educating your potential customers, you become the service provider they come to when they need financing.
5. Get views– On top of creating campaigns your viewers will enjoy, and learn from, today you have to add funds to advertise your campaigns.
Millions of new videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat every day, and you’ll want to make sure your audience gets an opportunity to consume the content you’ve put together by advertising.
Take advantage of the social platforms and get an initial boost of traffic to your videos to make sure they are seen, with any luck you’ll be able to capitalize on the viral nature of social media.
The video marketing strategies you include in your campaign mean the difference between a campaign that takes off and one that flounders. Being successful starts by understanding the group of people you want to help and building a series of videos that speaks to their needs.
For example, this could be seniors who are interested in reverse mortgage loans, young families learning about their investing options, or students who need financial support.
Create the videos that fill these needs, advertise to make sure the right people find the resources, and continue to provide value to earn an audience’s respect and loyalty.
