When it comes to crafting your marketing strategy, understanding the changing nature of your customers is only half the battle. The other half involves finding an actionable way to adapt so you don’t grow outdated in the ever-changing landscape of trends, technology, and advisor preferences. This requires an element of reinvention and disruption that the financial services industry hasn’t exactly been known for throughout much of its history. The key is adapting to understand your customer’s behavior and how they interact with your brand.

Think like an entrepreneur

Don’t be afraid to channel your entrepreneurial side by testing different strategies and learning from them. Like an entrepreneur, exploring novel marketing approaches can allow you to grow and adapt with the changing industry climate. Remaining agile and open to experimentation with new ideas will allow you to see how your audience responds to a variety of tactics so you can choose the best ones to tailor your strategy.

Think like the customer

The future of marketing means being much closer to the client than before. Marketing teams might adopt roles that were previously held by client services or internal sales. And when it comes to content, it’s not enough to think solely about your end goal. You need to think about the needs and preferences of your customer: what message do they want to hear? How do they want to receive it? When do they want to hear it?

As the financial services landscape continues to change, your marketing strategy should similarly reflect a constant process of evaluation and reinvention. Remaining open to new ideas and cultivating a unique understanding of what your clients want will help them to see your communication as a collaboration, not a sales pitch.

This blog was inspired by our latest piece of research, The Financial Marketer Mindset: Technology’s Impact on Marketing Strategy. We interviewed marketing decision makers from financial services firms to get their thoughts on how technology, if used properly, can help marketers confront some of the biggest challenges they face today.