Cash keeps piling up
Banks have tried various tactics to convert the cash hoard into investment fee business in an era of low-interest rates with cash piling up on current and savings accounts. However, when we look at the results, we must conclude that these attempts have only partially succeeded, at best. More traditional approaches such as launching yet another (defensive investment) product or setting up a new campaign pointing at the virtues of investing or incentivizing the advisors to sell more funds and lowering entry fees have not convinced the mass market to reconsider their loss-making savings accounts and switch to investments. Conventional tactics do not succeed in pushing wealthy savers into investments. We need a new approach to address the never-investor, certainly in a digital context lacking human assistance.
Rediscover the saver
The typical saver will not ask for an investment proposal or select an investment solution themselves. Traditional savers need to be approached differently and presented with a particular offering. Personal targeting and engagement legally kick off an advisory flow in which a risk profile is mandatory and constitutes yet another hurdle to overcome.
The saver won’t be willing to undergo a lengthy and time-consuming questionnaire, especially in a digital context, without any human encouragement. Indeed traditional risk profiling instantly kills conversion and needs to be rethought in a hyper-personalized way.
Instead of pushing investment products via classic, generic marketing campaigns that only convince the usual suspects, financial institutions should launch hyper-personalized campaigns that revolutionize the onboarding process yet respect all regulatory obligations.
Reengineering the journey
In 3 simple steps
This disruptive approach starts with reengineering the sequence of an advisory flow, making it more customer-friendly and effective:
A behavioral journey
By rethinking the journey and considering the unique mindset of savers, banks nudge the never-investors into buying their first investment products. Of course, this is the most challenging part. But, getting a die-hard saver invested opens up an array of opportunities for selling more investment products. Building your conversion engine will help you re-use that single, innovative journey for multiple campaigns. Each campaign targets another selection of clients, enabling to address all clients, target group by target group.
Acquisition costs remain low since onboarding customers is fully digital. Moreover, as the number of physical branches is declining and brick-and-mortar is costly, financial institutions can unleash the full potential of their digital channels and enrich their commercial potential.
