It seems that nowadays, we live in an online world. As a result, the use of online advertising as a marketing tool is on the rise, but it seems that the financial services industry is a little behind the trend. When I asked a few financial services firms why they choose not to employ online advertising to reach their customer base, I encountered the following rationales:
- “We enjoy print advertising better.”
- “We feel that there is no way to track our success with online advertising.”
- “We don’t budget for online advertising, we choose other marketing initiatives.”
While these reasons aren’t completely preposterous, I believe that they aren’t as justified as firms would like to believe. Online advertising is becoming the quickest and most efficient marketing tool in a variety of industries. We here at FTF have seen an uptick in online advertising in the past few months and expect it only to rise as we continue into 2012.
The days of “Print” anything, whether it be news, books or advertising, are numbered. I’m sure if you asked a group of individuals under the age of 35 how they consume their news and other reading materials, most would say online. In order to reach a new client base, firms are going to have to start moving into the online circuit and realize what it can do for them. According to Internet World Stats, 272,066,000 people in North America surf the web daily, and that is just North America! If even 1% of those individuals came across your firm’s advertisement, that amounts to 272,066 people who are viewing your brand each day. When you figure you are spending on average $2,000-$4,000 for an online advertisement to run anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks, you’re spending mere pennies per each potential lead.
As for tracking success, this is more than possible in today’s market. Sites that offer online advertising can track the click-through rate, meaning that they can see how many prospects click on your advertisement and get directed to your firm’s site. Also, the firm utilizing online advertising can use coding to track click-through and downloading rates from their end as well. Online advertising is a quantifiable marketing tool.
With that said, firms should begin to shift some of their marketing budget into the space of online advertising. It is the way of the future whether we all like it or not.
To learn more about online advertising opportunities with FTF please contact me at Caitlin.Collins@FTFNews.com.
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