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For the Financial Services sector, the inbound methodology provides a really interesting way of thinking about marketing. It’s about educating and informing. It’s about retention. It is not about overt selling. All of which fits entirely with the ethics, rules and regulations governing the financial services industry.

How does Inbound Marketing help financial services marketing ?

The industry is made up of quite different organisations – accountants, auditors, membership-based networks, client facing advisers, brokers, intermediaries and more. Each have their own marketing needs and ways of going to market.

Whether you are a client-facing financial adviser marketing yourself in a defined geography, targeting particular types of consumer or business, or a network looking to recruit and retain members across the country, your marketing needs can be similar:

Are you content with your content?

Content is one of the most valuable weapons any company can have in their armoury – it is the energy source for your entire inbound marketing strategy. Creating and delivering consistently high-quality content that is fresh and appropriate to each of your target audiences is vital for bringing in new leads and retaining customers. People absorb information in different ways – audio, visual, written, graphical and hands-on experience may all play a part in the way a potential buyer learns about your solution.

Selling into strategic accounts has always required a high degree of planning, a rigorous opportunity assessment process and the best (and most expensive) sales reps who can articulate your company’s strategy, vision and distinctiveness whilst distinguishing your products and services in the mind of the customer.

In many ways strategic marketing support has taken a back seat to the process of identifying the influencers and decision-makers, anticipating each stage of the buying process, analysing the competition and tuning into the buyer’s political issues. If the sales processes and planning are not executed correctly then firms whose market consists of only a handful of high profile companies will fail to achieve their objectives, waste vital opportunities and burn a lot of cash. Marketing can sometimes be viewed as a bit-player, playing second fiddle to the sales machine.

Why is it important for marketing and sales to be aligned?

IT'S ALL ABOUT WINDOW DRESSING

You’ve written the most amazing copy ever to be written and you’ve crammed every last word onto your landing page so it looks like you’re the most knowledgeable company out there, you're the king. The expert.

But looks are everything and no matter how good your content is, if it’s not easy to find and easy to read, then it won’t get read.

Here are 10 ways to optimise your content for maximum readability:

Some B2B sales teams doubt the ability of marketing to help with their “spear fishing approach” to new business sales.  Instead, they see marketing as the operator of a wide net that catches lots of sprats, albeit hopefully, alongside the prize fish they are actually looking for.