Consumers expect more convenient, seamless service and personalized experiences from their financial institutions than ever before, and the onus is now on Chief Marketing Officers to find a straightforward strategy to differentiate their bank’s brand and stand out from competitors.
The 2022 Gartner CMO Spend Survey showed that average financial industry marketing budgets as a percent of overall company revenue dropped to their lowest levels in history — to 7.4% in 2021 from 10.7% in 2020. This decrease means Marketing departments have to do more with less.
That’s where digital innovation comes in. Recent technological advancements save time and resources by eliminating manual friction and manual processes. As a result, automated solutions help marketing leaders prepare for the future of banking while improving operational efficiency.
Top Financial Marketing Challenges and How an IDA Solves
The present and future of banking is digital. Data from Statista shows that over 65% of the U.S. population uses a digital banking service, up from around 61% in 2018, equating to millions of users. But, while banks have a great opportunity to reach these users digitally, establishing the right strategy takes time and effort.
Let’s discuss the unique challenges surrounding establishing the right digital engagement strategy for your financial institution and how one of these critical pieces of technology – an intelligent digital assistant, or “IDA” – can help solve them.
Transitioning to Digital Experiences
Studies have shown that consumers now expect more from their financial services provider, and much of that expectation lies in the desire for extensive digital options. Consumers want and need choices for engaging their bank digitally, and personalized customer experiences continue to drive retention. A Gartner survey found 80% of CMOs feel solely responsible for or play a leading role in setting their company’s digital business transformation strategy. Part of this strategy involves bridging the gap between your customers’ and members’ financial needs and your organization’s tools.
How an IDA Helps
An IDA helps make the transition to a digital customer or member experience seamless for your operations.
Kasisto’s IDAs, powered by our digital experience platform, KAI, deliver an intuitive, intelligent, and insightful conversational banking experience. Similar to your best branch banker but scaled through a financially literate digital assistant, KAI serves as the digital doorway to your bank.And by building an IDA with a personality unique to your financial institution, you align your financial institution’s existing brand with your customers’ first touchpoint in their digital journey.
Improving Customer and Member Care
In addition to these responsibilities, Chief Marketing Officers are now consistently tasked with safeguarding customers, a role previously held exclusively by specific Customer and Member Care teams.
CMOs and their teams often deeply understand what makes financial consumers tick, and they’re often chartered with designing the best end-to-end experiences. They have the data and insights that show where and when to engage with them and can use this advantage to improve existing customer and member relationships.
How an IDA Helps
IDAs act as a valuable and integrated part of your internal team, answering customer queries and assisting with financial knowledge. The best digital assistants consistently manage 90% or more of the questions that come their way. Your team gets access to valuable data that they can use to provide the kind of service that customers or members will remember and return for.
For example: A customer pings a bank’s IDA to ask for new checks since they are moving to a new home. An IDA will not only handle this request, but it can also take it a step further by offering detailed information about affordable home loans.
This type of service shows a customer or member that they’re heard and their bank is taking proactive steps to ensure their financial security and well-being. By directly addressing people’s queries and giving additional information, you ensure they remember interactions and come back wanting more.
Attracting and Retaining Customers
Traditionally, Sales departments have shouldered the brunt of securing new clients. Now, there are over 350 different providers of digital banking services, which means your potential customers or members have numerous sources constantly vying for their attention. In this frenetic environment, Marketing departments must step in and help with customer acquisition and retention. That’s why CMOs and marketing leaders focus more on delivering digital experiences that attract and retain. In fact, according to Salesforce’s latest State of Marketing report, 80% of marketers are now in charge of CX initiatives across their enterprise.
How an IDA Helps
CMOs must deliver growth by drawing people in through relevant messaging and marketing as part of these CX initiatives. Attracting and retaining financial customers and members most often comes down to answering two questions:
- Do they feel like they’re cared for?
- Do they have access to the most modern digital options and innovative tools for engagement with their bank?
An intelligent digital assistant answers both questions by providing personalized recommendations and tailored conversations. From generating unique financial insights derived from account and transaction patterns to using conversational memory to recall previous interactions, IDAs speak directly to your customers and members.
Demonstrating ROI
As a high-impact role within a financial institution, CMOs are expected to generate a return on investment in marketing strategies, resources, and technology – something that is not always easily attainable or quantifiable since marketing is not usually directly tied to revenue.
So, how can banking CMOs gain an immediate return on investment for technologies they implement? By attributing increased operational efficiency to your conversational AI platform.
How an IDA Helps
IDAs deliver strong ROI by reducing traditional customer servicing costs, such as branch and call-centric models, while improving customer engagement and increasing revenue opportunities through a financially literate conversational experience.
Plus, Kasisto handles much of the platform management for you, so you don’t have to tap an entire team of resources. This helps directly reduce expenses and increases the efficiency of your organization.
Solve Your Marketing Challenges with Kasisto
Ready to tackle these common challenges head-on and increase the impact of your financial institution’s marketing efforts? Download The Banking CMO’s Guide to Amazing Banking Experiences. Let’s start a conversation if you’re ready to make a move.
