Digital Marketing and Service Industry: Digital Marketing in the Banking Industry

Introduction

The financial services market has undergone significant changes in recent years. Information technology, including models of modern information architecture, databases and data warehouses, data protection, data management, computer communication, modern statistical software and other IT tools, contributed to an enormous increase in the speed of data processing, the introduction of ATMs, the functioning and processing of various types of credit and payment cards and a like. This technology advancement enabled financial organizations to offer a wide range of quality products and services to the market. In addition, due to the exponential growth of digital communication channels, and in particular social networks, the role of digital marketing takes on an increasingly important item in determining the overall marketing budgets.

In order to be competitive, the financial organization must focus on fostering customer loyalty, integrating various communication channels, lowering operating costs and good risk management. Financial organizations (banks, insurance companies, leasing companies, investment and pension funds, etc.) strongly influence the flows of activities in the real economy. Such impact has been particularly noticeable in the last five years in Serbia, but also in the whole world. High degree of competitiveness of the financial services market is, among other things, conditioned by the fact that “production” and the provision of some financial services also involve certain non-financial organizations. Direct and “lateral” competition compel financial organizations to compete for the marketplace by developing innovative activities and offering a richer and more quality product and service range in comparison to the competition. Therefore, the primary activity of financial organizations must be the research of needs, preferences, habits, wishes and demands of present and potential clients and ways of their profitable satisfaction.

In order to identify, anticipate and profitably satisfy the requirements of its clients, and accordingly ensure continuous growth and development, it is necessary that the entire financial organization and the activity of all its employees (especially those who are in constant contact with clients), rely on the modern settings of financial services marketing (with special emphasis on digital marketing).

Some of the postulates of financial organizations’ modern marketing are:

• •

  Assets of the organization / company are worth little without its clients;

• •

  The task of managing the marketing of a financial organization is not only to attract new ones but also to retain existing clients;

• •

  New customers can only be acquired by delivering superior value / offer;

• •

  Only satisfied customers can be loyal to the given organization;

• •

  The role of marketing is to create a superior offer and to achieve customer satisfaction, but also to anticipate the future needs of its clients.

All marketing activities use the Internet (web and email) as a channel of communication. The Internet has many advantages comparing to other media and provides much greater opportunities for banks, not just as a channel of communication, but also as a distribution channel. In addition to text and graphics, the Internet also transfers audio and video content to clients. Banks frequently communicate with their clients via e-mails. They are working on an analysis of the target group of clients after which they send out e-mails that need to be concise and clear. After sending the message, they evaluate the results achieved and apply the experience in order to redefine marketing communications. Mobile marketing is increasingly present in the offer of banking services. It includes mobile banking, which is often provided as a part of the clients’ current account package. In addition, mobile marketing allows banks to reach customers through a mobile device with some type of marketing message.