Sonia Danner, Senior Marketer at Marketreach, explains how mail can be a financial brand’s secret (marketing) weapon.
Finance is serious business.
Securing a mortgage for your home, fixing life insurance for your family’s future, a student loan for University. Consumers interact with financial businesses during some of life’s biggest moments. Trust is therefore incredibly important for any brand outreach in the sector.
According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 71% of consumers say it is more important to trust the brands they buy or use today. It is also one of the top three buying considerations. When it comes to communication, it is crucial that finance brands choose the most appropriate channel to build trust.
According to the same research nearly 90% of Gen Z consumers say they prefer brands that combine physical and digital experiences.
Compared with other channels, mail is a tangible and trusted format. It is in the hands (and homes) of the target consumer, as opposed to a fleeting scroll on social media. This tangibility makes it inherently reassuring to consumers in a blink-and-you’ll miss it, digital-first world. Moreover, the very fact of receiving mail demonstrates thoughtfulness on the part of the brand.
In the finance sector, building trust is key. But grabbing that all-important attention is also very important.
According to WARC’s recent research, The Attention Advantage, well over half of mail marketing (58%) is retained to be re-read later, shared with a family member, or filed away until the contents will be most useful. This means that finance and insurance brands can leverage this channel to drive trustworthy and meaningful attention with their audiences, that ultimately drives results.
There are some fun ways to garner trust and attention within the finance sector – SunLife is just one brand that has utilised mail to its potential.
All insurance companies suffer from the same problem: a high number of online enquiries that are never followed through. SunLife Pet Insurance is no exception. Clearly, these enquirers have a need. Equally clearly, they’ve included SunLife in their consideration set. The challenge for the brand was to find ways to nudge them further down the funnel.
SunLife came up with an interesting concept: enlist pets to do the sales job on its behalf. The brand created ‘smelly mailpacks’ that pets – and therefore their owners – would find unignorable. After testing, peppermint emerged as the most stimulating scent for cats. For dogs, bacon proved the winning aroma.
Insurers need to get to prospects before they buy elsewhere, so speed is of the essence. SunLife was already set up for success. Digital print meant the brand could produce and send fully personalised mailings within days whenever it received an unfulfilled enquiry.
For the marketers at SunLife, the results smelt sweet. The campaign saw a response rate of 7%, nearly double the target. ROI was an impressive 3.8:1. Just as importantly, the average premium paid was 11% higher than expected. Relative to those acquired through aggregator sites, a higher percentage of customers chose to upgrade to the Gold or Silver packages.
According to a recent report from Marketreach, compared with other channels, nearly two-thirds of respondents claimed that mail attracted their undivided focus. Moreover, 65% of respondents who had received a piece of mail could not recall seeing any other form of communication from the brand in question.
Whether it’s the act of opening an envelope or the fact that mail is usually perceived to contain valuable information, the channel is seen to warrant full concentration, and so having a creative concept for mailings is sure to deliver ROI.
Businesses within the finance and insurance sector are often battling for the attention of consumers and meaningful media attention is becoming increasingly scarce. But by harnessing the power of mail, brands have the potential to earn that precious cut through with customers while also driving impactful results.
