7 Essential Branding Strategies for Financial Services Companies

You’re looking to expand the client roster for your new financial services business, but your marketing efforts haven’t yielded the results you’re looking for. It might be time to enhance your branding strategy so that you appeal to more clients in your niche. The below article shares some tips to help you develop a brand identity that reflects your company’s values.

Work with the Right Pros

You don’t have to overhaul your branding strategy on your own. It can be extremely helpful working with any number of professionals who can help you with everything from developing a new website to writing content for social media. A graphic designer, too, can be instrumental in helping you create a logo and other images that will put your business’s best foot forward.

Keep in mind you may need to have a few tools on hand in order to effectively communicate with your hired help. For example, if you work with a graphic designer, you would benefit from a JPG-to-PDF converter so you can compress images into PDFs, which retains their quality (compressing JPGs degrades it); a PDF-to-JPG converter will convert the image back to a JPG for use on your website, social media, and other mediums (you can try this option from Adobe Acrobat). You may also want to consider a program like Slack to keep the lines of communication open between your staff and any freelancers or agencies you hire.

Deepen Your Business Education

Sometimes, the world of branding can seem confusing and complicated, especially when you’re trying to market your business to high-income clients that need financial services and advice. You may be interested in going back to school and earning your business degree online to pick up practical new skills. By taking courses online, you can enroll in specific programs for accounting, corporate communications, marketing, management, and more, all while running your business and taking care of your family.

Understand What “Branding” Means

Before you can design your brand strategy, it’s important to understand what your “brand” really is! Emotive Brand states that ultimately, your brand refers to the way people perceive your business. This perception is a result of visual elements and public communications materials. 

Ensure that all of your external marketing materials, including logos, slogans, social media posts, emails, and more, would help build your credibility among people interested in financial services. If you need creative inspiration, check out your competitors’ brand strategies!

Prioritize Content Marketing

In the financial services industry, content marketing is key. Your clients are seeking your guidance on crucial financial decisions that will affect their portfolio, and you need to prove that you’re an authority in your sector. Through content marketing, you can cover economic trends and developments, expert wealth management tips, and other topics that are relevant to your clients. This is a great way to cultivate trust with your target audience and drive new revenue in the future.

Select Optimal Brand Channels

There are practically endless ways to connect with your audience through digital or print marketing – so which should you choose? Consider where your clients already turn for information. For example, your ideal clients might be on Facebook and Instagram, or they might be searching for local financial advisors through Google. Therefore, you would want to ensure that you’re investing in search engine optimization and publishing content regularly on these social media platforms.

Be Consistent

No matter where you’re publishing your branded content, you need to stay consistent! Ensure that you have a standard color scheme and tone of voice across all channels. Inconsistent branding can confuse your audience.

Measure Crucial Brand KPIs

If you’re not measuring your brand KPIs, you’ll never know whether or not your strategy is truly effective! Start assessing the success of your strategy by evaluating a few KPIs that carry a lot of weight. For instance, Haiilo recommends tracking your growth in direct traffic, referral traffic, earned media value, share of voice, search engine rankings, social media following, and your backlink success. If you’re disappointed in the results, you can always change up your strategy!

These days, having a brand strategy in place is the key to expanding your reach. With a clear brand, you can connect with prospective clients in your target audience. By implementing some of these suggestions, you can create a branding strategy that will get you the results you’re after.