Finance marketing online: part two

The facts about brand awareness and direct response from Kieron Matthews, Marketing Director, IAB

1. Brand awareness informs you and direct response is about being informed enough to do something. A direct campaign assumes you are already informed – assume nothing unless told otherwise.

2. Brand awareness cannot be measured by click through.

3. Brand awareness and direct response should not be managed by separate departments when delivering online campaigns. If you are, this is a legacy of advertisers working with ATL and DM agencies. CHANGE IT as soon as you can.

4. Writing ‘click here’ on a banner doesn’t improve your chances of consumers doing so. It certainly isn’t the badge for direct response campaigns.

5. Direct response does not need to manifest itself in a physical action. A mental or positive feeling towards a brand is a direct response – well if you measure it, it is.

6. Product is everything – creativity can only do so much.

Affiliate marketing tips for finance advertisers, offered by Alison Guise, General Manager, Commission Junction Europe

1. Use a dynamic messaging tool which automatically updates your creatives over all of your affiliates ensuring that you are keeping compliant with FSA regulations.

2. Ensure that your terms and conditions are extremely clear so that there can be no misunderstandings by affiliates.

3. Communicate regularly and effectively with your main and prospective affiliates – keeping them up to date with offers, seasonality peaks and troughs and any other information about your product lines. The more information they have, the better they will be able to sell your product.

4. Partner with a network which has a combination of tools to monitor the quality of their network and your programme (this should be a combination of technology and dedicated staff).

5. Don’t be afraid to trial and test – brand groups and incentive sites can reap massive rewards, the key is to work closely with your network to make sure that your affiliate strategy always fits in with your brand objectives and brings incremental revenue.

Five key facts from the IAB/Thinkbox TV and online study 2008

In 2008 the IAB conducted an in-depth piece of research with Thinkbox, examining the effectiveness of using TV and online together. Brand campaigns from a number of sectors were analysed. Here we present the key financial findings from this landmark piece of research.

1. Research suggests that TV campaigns in the financial sector – such as the Halifax Howard ads – create familiarity and reassurance. This means that when it comes to online ads, consumers recognise the character and are encouraged to explore products. With Churchill’s recent Challenge Churchill campaign, the TV campaign created a high profile while the online aspect delivered individual engagement with one respondent commenting: “The use of the strong image of Churchill the dog in both online and TV makes it instantly recognisable”.

2. The financial sector performed particularly strongly in the ‘likely to buy / likely to try’ metrics where there was an increase of 20% amongst those who had seen both the TV and the online advertising.

3. When asked to respond to the statement ‘I feel I know this brand really well’, 46% of people who had seen both online and TV financial ads agreed, an uplift of 14% on those who had seen only the TV ad.

4. The research also showed that exposure to both online and TV financial ads had a positive impact on respondents’ willingness to buy or use the brand in the future. Almost half (45%) of respondents who had seen both online and TV financial ads were likely to buy or use the brand, an uplift of 20% on those who had seen only the TV ad.

5. Looking specifically at Churchill, when asked if they were likely to buy/use Churchill in the future, 45% of respondents who had seen both online and TV ads agreed, an uplift of 15% on people who had seen only the TV ad.

Effects of negative social networking against brands

A disgruntled customer of HSBC set up a Facebook group ‘Campaigning against HSBC’ to protest against the bank levying charges on its graduate accounts. The protester gained many followers online which resulted in petitions and large groups flashmobbing flagship branches.

After the success of this group the same disgruntled customer started work as a campaigns officer for the Burma Campaign using online to mobilise protest against human rights abuses in Burma. The aim was to name and shame British insurers that profit from doing business in Burma. Already two insurers, XL and Chubb, have pulled out of Burma. They recently asked over 20,000 supporters to contact the ‘Dirty Insurance Companies’ via email/post, urging them to pull out.

http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/tag/facebook-campaign-against-hsbc/

5 must-know facts about the finance consumer

• The average credit card consumer completes 7.2 searches and 20 site visits over a period of 25 days prior to making an application.

• Over 20% of all credit card applicants were also concurrently researching current accounts with a further 29% researching loans.

• Consumers are becoming increasingly disloyal to their current account provider when looking for other financial products online; 32% of total loan applications were made with a different bank to their current provider.

• Consumers are using more highly specific search terms - 32% of car insurance transactions include at least one search term from the bottom 5% category of search terms by volume.

• 63% of applications included at least one generic search term during the research process.

Google: Understanding the UK finance consumer, (2008)

You should be watching blogs

Every finance brand, regardless how big or small, should be keeping a close eye on the blogosphere – an exciting space filled with constant word-of-mouth activity. Whether you like it or not, consumers will be talking about your brand online every day, some of this commentary will be positive, whilst a poor customer experience, unethical corporate behaviour and poorly managed bad press can result in a wealth of negative discussions that can stay on the internet forever!

Finance brand blog mentions

There are many free solutions to use to track down mentions of your brand in the blogosphere.

Here are a few of the top blog search engines:

• Technorati Technorati

• Blog Search Engine Blog search engine

• Google blog search Blog search on Google

How are five of the most reputable finance companies represented in the first page of Google?

Consumers prefer not to have to hunt long and hard for a brand’s new offering. If they can’t find what they are looking for in a couple of searches, it is most likely they will give up. This means your search engine optimisation (SEO) is critical in shaping how consumers navigate the web.

On the following pages we have simply made five searches for some of the biggest finance brands to see how they are performing on the first page of Google.

1. Egg Banking

The first page of results is mostly taken up by Egg Banking, either their own
brand sites or sites talking about them. However the fifth result down is held by a sperm banking company, a space that Egg should be holding.

2. Norwich Union

Search results show Norwich Union takes up every result on the first page as well as other related terms at the bottom of the page. Related search terms at the bottom of the Google page are determined by how well a website is constructed and how popular it is.

3. HSBC

This search for HSBC produces another set of results specific to the HSBC brand. Again related search terms are located at the bottom of the page signifying it’s a popular search term.

4. Smile

If searching for Smile, the internet only bank, the first spot is taken up by their homepage. However results there after are taken by music videos, charities and other websites. Although there could be a number of brands with the same name competing for the same space, if your SEO is up to scratch, all those spaces will be filled with your brand.

5. Northern Rock

This search mostly returned pages from news sources instead of Northern Rock websites. Having said this, the first search result is taken by Northern Rock.

Top ten banking usability rules from Catriona Campbell, Director and Founder, Foviance

• Provide a reminder of login details

• Provide a clear overview of the customer’s accounts

• Make the journey between public and secure processes continuous

• Ensure all financial information is easily retrievable

• Provide details on transactions

• Enable detailed search

• Allow personalisation

• Do not include pop-ups in the application

• Limit advertising

• Ensure that customers feel secure

Four important points banks should keep in mind by Catriona Campbell, Director and Founder, Foviance

• Online is just one of many channels – For a rounded customer experience, banking institutions need to communicate and share knowledge and data between different channels. For example, branch staff should be able to advise customers on how to use a card reader or how to open an eAccount.

• Make online banking an accessible and pleasurable experience – Don’t overload users with complicated terminology and convoluted processes. The online channel has unlimited resources; use this to include as much information and help to guide less financially savvy people, young and old people or people from different nationalities.

• Don’t waste your customers’ time – Don’t flood the users’ screens with holding pages or financial ads or small print when they log in.

• Listen to your customers’ feedback – Banking, and finance in general, is an obscure world for many people. Online surveys are a rich source of suggestions, requests and complaints.

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