Balancing the Equation: Marketing and Branding for the Finance Industry

First of all, branding for the finance industry required many things. Trust is an important element of branding for most industries. However, nowhere does the issue of trust loom larger than it does for companies in the financial industry. Any business that expects clients to trust them with their money must take care to present a brand that is synonymous with trust and reliability. To do otherwise would be foolhardy at best.

The process of building a trustworthy brand begins with a company’s logo and carries through all of its marketing efforts. Consistency is one of the hallmarks of trust, and it’s essential for finance companies to instill confidence in their customers every step of the way.

How a Logo Can Make People Trust You with Their Money

The killer logo you choose may, in many cases, be the first thing that people see when researching your company. For that reason, it needs to be thoughtfully designed to convey the qualities that represent your brand.

Conveying Reliability and Conservatism with Colors, Shapes, and Fonts

Logo design is both an art and a science. To be effective, your logo must be more than just a striking picture. It must subtly let potential clients know what to expect if they do business with you.

The colors, shapes, and fonts that make up your logo can do a great deal to instill trust. For example:

1) First of all, colors are crucial. Many finance companies choose blue, a serene color that symbolizes conservatism and reliability, for their logos. White conveys purity, making it another good choice; and red symbolizes strength.

2) The shapes you choose, including both internal shapes and the overall shape of your logo, send a message too. Square shapes tend to convey solidity. Circles represent warmth and community, and triangles may signal speed and innovation.

3) Font choices are important because you don’t want the lettering in your logo to be at war with your branding message. Many finance companies choose serif or sans serif fonts. Sans serif fonts are the more modern option, but serif fonts signal tradition and deep conservatism, making them a good choice.

You should plan to work closely with your designer to arrive at a logo design that accurately represents you and your company.

Analysis of Finance Logo

Now let’s take a look at a finance logo we designed to show how the colors, shapes, and fonts can work together to create a strong brand.
This is a logo that we designed for a company in the finance industry:

Everything about this logo sends the message that this company is reliable, trustworthy, and takes its clients’ money seriously. For example:

1) It uses two shades of blue with white accents. Both shades of blue are fairly conservative, with navy being the more conservative of the two.

2) It utilizes two solid shapes combined with a third, slightly more innovative shape. The overall logo is a rectangle. It contains a smaller square that, in turn, surrounds the triangular shape of a mountain.

3) The mountain itself is a symbol of solidity and growth at the same time, making it an excellent choice for a finance company.

4) The font used is very traditional and conveys deep conservatism.

As you can see, all of the elements of this logo work together to let potential clients know that they can feel safe entrusting their money to this company.

Creating a Winning Finance Brand

Once you have your logo designed, you need to give some thought to who your target audience is and how best to reach them.

Customer/Investor Personas

Creating a customer or investor persona can help you fine-tune your branding message and reach potential clients.

A persona is a representation of your ideal customer. For example, you might target people with children who want help investing for their children’s future. Alternatively, your company might specialize in retirement planning.

Whatever you do, you can create a persona by asking questions about your audience:

1) What demographics are you targeting? (Age, sex, marital status, income, etc.)

2) What psychographics are you targeting (Hobbies, interests, other relevant information)

The key is to be as detailed as possible so you can hone in on precisely the people who are most likely to work with your company.

Finding Your Brand’s Voice

The next step is asking yourself how to talk to your customer persona. If your persona is a very wealthy investor, you might adopt a very conservative and formal voice to speak to their concerns. On the other hand, a financial company that specializes in college planning would probably want a warmer, family-friendly tone to appeal to parents who are concerned about their kids’ futures.

When you adopt a brand voice, you must use it consistently. You can’t afford to use one tone on your website and another on social media. Branding is largely a matter of consistency and predictability. Your voice must be a reflection of your brand’s ideals and priorities.

Marketing Ideas to Connect with Your Audience

When it comes to marketing a finance company, it’s not enough to have a strong and consistent brand. You must use your brand to reach out to your target audience in unique and innovative ways.

Successful branding the finance industry is also by creating Authority with Curated Content

Authority is extremely important to finance companies. After all, if your audience doesn’t believe that you know what you’re doing, they’re unlikely to trust you with their money.

Of course you will need to create and share new and original content that is useful to your customers. However, it’s also essential to seek out and share content that they might find relevant. You may notice that the brands you follow on social media tend to share news articles and other information with their followers.

For example, you might want to:

1) Follow major newspapers, financial journals, and other relevant publications

2) Follow authority blogs that write about finance-related issues

3) Follow influencers in areas that relate to finance

Any time you share their content, make sure to comment on it and offer your own take on the subject discussed. Doing so will help you build authority.

Using Social Media to Build Trust

No financial company can afford to ignore social media as a way of reaching customers and building trust with them. You shouldn’t try to be on every social media site. For example, few financial institutions can expect to get much return on their investment by using Snapchat. But having a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and a LinkedIn page is enough and can help you grow your brand.

How can you build trust on social media? Here are some ideas:

1. Stick to a regular posting schedule so that the arrival of new content is as predictable and reliable as the image you want to convey.

2. Respond regularly to your followers’ questions and comments.

3. Be consistent with the type of content you share. You might be tempted to post something funny, but if it’s not directly relevant to your audience and related to your business, save it for your personal page.

4. Find ways to answer potential clients’ most pressing questions in a way that doesn’t require anything of them.

5. Make at least 80% of what you post valuable to your customers, and only about 20% should be direct sales pitches. You should not bombard your followers or pressure them.

Consistency is the hallmark of building trust on social media.

How to Integrate Customer Service and Marketing

Finally, one of the best things you can do to increase your brand recognition and build customer loyalty is to integrate customer service and marketing. They might not seem to go together, but they do.

Research shows that more than 80% of all consumers research companies online before doing business with them. For that reason, you can’t afford to ignore customer reviews and feedback.

You may notice that many companies now respond directly to customers’ questions on social media. That includes complaints. If a customer comments about a problem they had, your job is to get them a response as quickly as possible. Not only will it give you the opportunity to make that customer happy, it also shows everybody else who sees the message that you take customer service seriously. It also shows everybody else who sees the message that you take customer service seriously. 

App notifications and real-time communication

Incorporating API tools can also help in providing in-app notifications and real-time communication for growing your brand. This enables you to have a seamless integration between customer service and marketing efforts.

You should plan on having someone monitor your social media accounts all the time. That way, nobody has to wait for a response to an important customer service question. Even if someone posts a negative comment, you should look at it as a gift. When you respond calmly and professionally, you show your customers who you are as a company.

Wrapping Up

If you want current and prospective customers to trust you with their money, you have to create a strong, reliable, and trustworthy brand. If you choose the right logo and combine it with a well-thought-out and customer-centered marketing strategy, you’ll be able to control your brand and grow your business. Customers want to trust you – you just have to give them a reason to do so.