How banks should market their services to Millennials
Millennials now represents the largest group of consumers in the U.S and it’s time for every banking institution to pay close attention to this cohort, their needs and expectations. Millennials are people generally born between 1981-1996, which means most are now making their own financial decisions.
To connect with them properly, your brand needs to stand out and aim towards their generation. Millennials often love brands that are positive and personalised, which is exactly what your business needs to do in order to appeal to this generation of informed buyers.
The lives of millennials move fast, which means your brand needs to create a convenient way for customers to manage their money in a stress-free manner. It’s time to move away from the days of telephone banking towards mobile and artificial intelligence apps.
Digital marketing is one of the best ways to grab the attention of millennials. According to Digital Authority, going digital will create a much better level of service and builds trust with your customers. Here’s how you do that!
1). Create a cross-brand presence
Most millennials use digital transactions to handle every part of managing their money, from paying bills to paying for coffee. It’s important that your business uses a full range of digital experiences to show potential customers exactly what you can do.
A good example of this would be Apple Pay TV advertisements, which show consumers exactly how they could get around their day-to-day activities paying for items using their phone. It’s important to be convenient for your customers to keep them coming back for more.
It’s also important to speak up socially. A big way to get involved with millennials is to support current causes through your business. Showing your support for these causes will create a better reputation for you and turn your brand into one that young people love.
2) Work with brand advocates
Word of mouth is big when it comes to creating a great business and generating profit. The generational age of social media gives you an even bigger boost to get the word around about your product.
A good example of this is Starbucks’ apparent marketing technique of failing to spell their customer’s names right on coffee cups. It hasn’t been confirmed, but if it emerges that this is done on purpose which is actually a really clever technique. Millennials are more likely to take a picture of their coffee cup because of the goofy spelling and share it across online platforms for all to see, therefore unknowingly sharing the Starbucks brand with others.
You can do the same for banking, although maybe don’t get customer’s details wrong! Instead, create a unique way for people to access your business, and make it shareable. Encourage customers to use hashtags for your company online, and use prizes as incentives to get more people involved.
This is essentially free advertising for you, directed straight at the audience your company is trying to target the most.
3) Get involved with voice search
Voice search is going to be huge in 2019, and there’s no better time to get involved than now. Making sure your business can be accessed via voice search, and creating an Alexa skill for your brand is a very powerful way to target millenials.
By creating an Alexa skill, you’re giving millennials a convenient way to access important banking information. Creating a skill will cost you a bit of money, but it is the best way to stay ahead of your competitors. 60 million people can now be reached via voice search assistants, and a large majority of these people are millennials who are constantly looking for better ways to manage their finances.
If your company can create a way for customers to access their bank balance and transfer money using a voice app, you’re immediately boosting yourself way above your competitors. Word of mouth easily gets round when it comes to these skills too, as most people are comfortable using a voice assistant in front of others.
4) Make sure your brand is optimistic
One thing millennials appreciate more than anything is friendliness, and brands which they are comfortable around and trust.
Millennials are right in the midst of student debt and they struggle to find affordable housing. It’s your job as a financial brand to not ignore these struggles altogether, but understand that people have these worries and target them in a sensitive way.
For example, when advertising on social media it is important to share content on ‘how to repay loans comfortably’ rather than ‘here’s how to cut back to pay off student debt quickly’. It’s all about the language you use. Make your brand empathetic and you’ll see it go a long way.
5) Make use of chatbots
A big thing you’ll see circling social media at the moment are chatbot apps which help people to manage their finances. This clever artificial intelligence works in such a way that when using the app, it feels exactly like the user is talking to an actual person.
Chatbots are the most effective way to give great, speedy customer service without fail. Chatbots give a personal touch to your services, especially when it comes to banking.
If your business can create an app which understands the funds of each individual customer and allows them to set up their own methods of saving, perfect. Similar to that of voice search, people are also very likely to tell their friends and family about apps like these as they’re so user friendly.
It takes the pressure off your busy customers of having to manage their own money and manually move savings around, however still has a sense of privacy and safety knowing feeling that, in essence, a robot is doing this at the customer’s request.
This post comes from Kyros Insights, a loyalty program analytics agency.
