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With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer and back-to-school routines in full swing, it’s prime time to revitalize your financial literacy efforts.
Education is about empowering learners with the possibility for a better future by simplifying complex ideas and making abstract concepts accessible. When it comes to financial literacy, financial institutions (FIs) have the opportunity to help build confidence and ultimately promote financial wellness at each stage of life.
But how can you harness these opportunities and create a simple, accessible financial wellness journey while building trust and loyalty with your consumers?
Priorities by Generation
A survey by Investopedia polling 4,000 U.S. adults looked at the financial knowledge of various generations. Two personal finance priorities all four generations agree on—avoiding fees and reducing debt. The report shows that millennials and Gen Z are also prioritizing how to build or improve their credit scores with a desire to learn more about personal finance, while Gen X and boomers are focused on planning for the future and maintaining wealth. And when asked about their go-to education sources, all four generations said friends, family, and the internet.
The importance of financial literacy transcends generations. It can start as early as saving your allowance in a piggy bank or getting your first job with a direct deposit, and it continues to progress through the financial journey of building credit, applying for school loans, buying a car, becoming a homeowner, investing, and saving for retirement—reinforcing the need for ongoing financial education.
Encouraging Engagement
Financial literacy is not one-size-fits-all, and there’s a clear opportunity to make financial literacy simpler and more accessible. For example, promoting financial education with the help of business intelligence, marketing automation, and frictionless digital experiences can be a powerful strategy for consumers and financial institutions alike. This approach can empower individuals with the knowledge and tools they need to make informed financial decisions and access financial resources that are relevant to them while providing you with data-driven insights and measurable results to maximize the impact of your efforts.
Business Intelligence (BI):
BI tools can help your FI streamline the process of gathering and analyzing data related to your target audience’s financial needs, preferences, and behavior, providing the insights needed to tailor your financial education.
Personalized, Automated Marketing:
Using the data collected through BI, you can set up marketing automation workflows to deliver your financial education content to the right audience at the right time. These could include helpful tools and tips for saving money, car shopping, or home buying, and should link to a direct offer with how your FI can help them.
Frictionless Digital Experience:
You’ve created awareness and initiated the conversation, now, it’s time to encourage engagement with a user-friendly, secure, and efficient experience. For example, if your outreach message includes information about credit building, consider adding a personalized URL that allows applicants to review a pre-filled application for a line-of-credit promotion. If the message is about creating a rainy-day fund or planning for the future, you could include a link to your modern, intuitive digital account opening application.
Track & Measure Results:
Integrated analytic tools can track the performance of your financial education content and marketing automation efforts. This enables your FI to monitor metrics like website traffic, click-through rates, conversion rates, and application completion rates.
Iterate & Improve:
Based on the data and insights gathered, this is your opportunity to see what’s worked well and what can be changed to continuously refine your financial education outreach. Dive into analyses on transactions, balances, and portfolio impact to determine next steps and improvements.
An End-To-End Solution
As evidenced above, personalizing what you communicate as part of your financial literacy efforts is certainly important, but in order to spark interest that results in action, it’s equally important to tailor how you spread financial awareness.
Combining business intelligence and marketing automation with a frictionless digital experience can create a comprehensive financial ecosystem that not only provides access to financial resources but also equips your target audience with the knowledge and skills they need to make sound financial decisions. This approach can lead to better financial outcomes for your audience and contribute to your organization’s success.
How is your FI creating a simple, accessible financial wellness journey for your consumers?
MeridianLink helps our customers develop lifelong financial management relationships while optimizing consumer experiences, driving loan volume, gathering deposits more effectively, and increasing efficiency with our comprehensive, data-driven digital solutions.
Discover how we can help your team truly have an impact on the financial future of the communities you serve.
