In a recent study of the financial sector conducted by Monotype with CITE research, 49% of consumers said trust is the most important factor when choosing a financial institution. You think financial marketers aren’t listening. The same study showed that 46% of financial services marketers said creating a trustworthy brand is their primary objective.
Ask Jill Wangler and she’ll tell you. The Marketing Analytics & Impact Director at One America says that one of the best ways to build trust and credibility is through print. “Inherently, print can be seen as more permanent and invested. You are committing to a message or content that has an inevitable shelf life. Your message and content has commitment and permanence.”
First and foremost, print is tangible—something consumers can touch and feel. There are no buttons to click or swipe—buttons that disappear. Second, with print, consumers are not endlessly tied to their laptops or phones. Third, by using QR codes via print, you connect your consumers to the digital environment on your own terms.
“Sometimes we aren’t or simply don’t want to be so connected,” Wangler says. “Sometimes you want to fully engage with what’s right in front of you and use all of your senses. This makes print unique and effective.”
When customers walk into a financial institution, they know they’re in one. Sounds obvious, right? But there is a lot that goes into the sentiment. Today’s financial institutions exude confidence, brand recognition and authority by their sheer physical presence. From a digital perspective, that is a little harder to pull off.
The real key is in how financial marketers blend the power of digital and print to solidify a brand’s messaging—a blend that has to work. According to the Monotype/CITE study, 43% of consumers admit that a fragmented brand experience makes a financial institution seem less trustworthy. This is especially true when it comes to mobile devices, where more people are conducting their financial business.
To stand out today takes perfecting the complement of your print and digital strategies. “That is more a matter of an effective brand and communications strategy,” Wangler says. “Print is one, but a very essential tool in the marcom toolbox. When done effectively—resonating messaging and visuals, appropriate targeting, adequate frequency—and using a multi-channel strategy, you are poised to make an impact with your target audiences.”
In the continual effort to measure the success of their marketing initiatives, One America looks at digital metrics of QR codes that drive to critical landing pages, which should in turn connect to conversation metrics. Of course, Wangler says it is always monitoring print orders and utilization of inventory.
In his firm’s efforts to stay connected to the marketing trends driving the financial services space, Paul Leibowitz keeps a close eye on the trends the industry uses, including print. In the course of the scores of campaigns he creates, print remains in the mix, especially if you want to blanket the audience with content.
“Print allows a reader to spend quality, thoughtful time reading and understanding the topic without distractions that come from every space on the screen,” Leibowitz says. “And the level of production of the piece definitely impacts the time spent on the printer piece. It’s an opportunity to provide a branded message directly in the hands of a targeted audience. I find you can get the target audience to do a deeper dive knowing you will have their attention for more than a minute or two.”
Trust is everything, so finding every opportunity to solidify your messaging is critical to building and maintaining relationships.
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