Results: Financial marketing personalization still challenging, budget dollars shifting

The time for precision financial marketing personalization is now, according to the State of Financial Marketing report released in November 2023. However, most financial marketers rate themselves as “simply adequate” at achieving personalized marketing approaches, says Jim Marous, the report’s author.

“Financial services marketing is at an inflection point,” according to Marous, owner and CEO of Digital Banking Report. “It is imperative that marketers reinvent their marketing approaches so they can deliver precision, segment-of-one marketing at scale.”

What’s hindering financial marketing personalization?

According to survey respondents, who represent global banks and credit unions of all sizes, there are numerous challenges interfering with their ability to provide personalized marketing at scale. Below are some of the biggest challenges that arose in this survey.

Challenge #1: Data accessibility and infrastructure

The data needed to understand each consumer or business owner can exist across many different databases, data providers or marketing channels. Marketers are left to wrestle with identifying and sourcing the most relevant data to piece together a complete data profile. This work could be better performed by data scientists specialized in managing marketing databases, but many institutions (of all sizes) don’t have access to this capability internally.

Challenge #2: Analytic tools and capabilities

It takes advanced analytical tools to be able to extract predictive data attributes and create dependable models. Most financial institutions struggle with how to source, apply and fund the analytical tools and capabilities that will personalize marketing campaigns and customer experiences.

Challenge #3: Marketing automation

Financial marketing personalization means delivering the right recommendation to the right individual at the right time, via the right channel. Accomplishing this typically requires automated systems that can combine data insights with multi-channel delivery capabilities. Such systems should also be able to track delivery-channel performance in a way that informs future campaigns and spending.

According to Kristopher Lazzaretti, president of Data-Driven Marketing at Deluxe, most financial services companies have concerns about integrating marketing automation. Lack of time, budget, and personnel – as well as concerns about legacy systems – can present significant hurdles.

“Marketers call us because it’s like hitting the easy button,” says Lazzaretti. “We become an extension of the marketing team, bringing with us the data, analytics, and automation capabilities needed for personalized marketing.”

Marketing budgets geared toward personalization

Most marketers increased or held steady their funding for financial marketing personalization, the 2023 report found. The same is true for allocations related to marketing via connected devices.

“2024 marketing budgets are moving in the right direction in terms of investment,” Lazzaretti says, noting that the most significant increases were for “marketing/data analysis,” which increased by 43 percent, and “onboarding/cross-selling programs,” which increased by 42 percent.

How marketing budgets are shifting in 2024