Managing a financial brand requires a significant amount of work. Not only are you differentiating yourself from other BFSI orgs, there’s also an element of customer education. Whether you service personal accounts, orient toward business banking products, or offer integrated financial services, building a brand that stands out takes a concerted effort…
…which is why it might sound crazy when we tell you that you probably might not need your marketing department.
If you’re a small business owner, this same concept applies to your marketing. You can pay to hire an in-house team—Content Director, Digital Strategist, Graphic Designer, Marketing Analyst, etc.—and do it all yourself. Or, you could outsource to an expert: someone who might achieve better results with the same budget (or less).
Financial execs at smaller BFSI organizations (<$250MM) tend to find themselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to marketing. Brands of this size need to advertise to gain market share; yet, they can’t quite justify the cost of a multi-person marketing department. The solution often comes down to overspending on hires with the expectation that you’ll grow into that capacity. Unfortunately, that means stretching the budget past its ROI potential for an indeterminate period of time.
It’s not that you don’t need marketing; it’s that you don’t need an entire marketing department. The more cost-effective and savvy approach to positioning your financial brand for success is to explore the opportunities of a fractional marketing partnership.
- Listen
Elastic advertising that scales with your brand
There’s a certain elasticity that’s intrinsic to financial organizations. Interest rates, consumer spending, and myriad economic factors all affect how financial brands can and should position themselves, their products, and their services. This puts tremendous strain on marketing departments to be agile in how they pivot to address market needs.
Fractional marketing services like JXM match this elasticity. We move quickly to address market shifts by meeting your audience where they are, solving the problem that’s most relevant to them. Where internal marketing departments rely on tried-and-true channels—often to a detriment—we assess the market objectively, to better-understand the best combination of message, medium, and delivery. Together with well-orchestrated systems, this agility enables us to execute sophisticated marketing campaigns with precision.
The beauty of this fractional approach is that there’s no spend waste. You’re paying for a results-driven marketing approach, sans the static cost of human capital. If you’re spending more, it’s because you’re seeing results at-scale—not the other way around. Don’t spend to scale; spend because you’re growing.
Identifying (and understanding) your channels
Objectivity is perhaps the biggest benefit to looking outside for marketing help. Put aside the fear of working with an inexperienced firm and choose a team like JXM that has specific experience in the world of BFSIs. You’ll not only get the know-how that comes with navigating within the niche—you’ll also get an outsider’s perspective on where to best-deploy your efforts.
At JXM, we key-into results. That means observing before we make recommendations and using data as a source of truth for how we orchestrate your marketing efforts. There’s more to it than sizing up spend vs. ROI: we factor in the many variables involved in executing campaigns and make sure they align with proven KPIs, with appropriate KPAs to track performance. We seek to help you understand what works, why it works, and how to optimize your efforts so you can continue to see results. This approach ripples out into everything from bottom-line cost savings to better exposure across more lucrative channels
It’s easy to keep doing what you’ve always done, and unfortunately, it’s difficult to pivot to better strategies if your marketing department leans into consistency. Looking outward begets fresh perspective—and better insight into opportunities across your channels.
Augment the expertise you already have
Most BFSI executives reading this are probably thinking about the Digital Strategist or the Content Manager they already have on-staff. Don’t worry, we’re not trying to delegitimize their talents or expertise. In fact, we’re intent on augmenting them.
Working with a fractional marketing partner allows you to better-leverage the talent you already have on-staff by supplementing them with the resources and expertise they may not possess. In effect, they’re collaborating with a team that can ply their abilities in ways not possible in a one- or two-person team. Suddenly, you’re getting more out of the experts you’re paying for because they’re able to focus on doing what they do best—assisted by peers who can help them do it more effectively.
Remember that outsourcing doesn’t mean relinquishing control. Think of it like hiring a readymade marketing department that’s highly capable of functioning independently. At JXM, we report to you. We’re beholden to you. We’re responsible for our results. That’s what it means to hold up our end of the partnership. All we ask in return is the trust that enables us to work effectively with your team.
You might not need your marketing department
Every financial brand needs to market, but not every brand needs an entire marketing department to do it. What most need is a fractional marketing partner that can help them execute at a high level, using strategies that are unique and specific to the organization’s goals.
JXM doesn’t just know the ins and outs of marketing for financial brands; we’re the de-facto solution for BFSI institutions across the spectrum, from small CUs to regional banks and beyond. We know what financial brands expect from their marketing efforts, and we’re committed to tailoring our approach to meet those expectations—and you can take that to the bank. Let’s talk.
Transcending the transactional
Success isn’t quantified through contracts
