Imagine you’re at a party and I’ve been asked to control the sound system.

Now it may be hard for me to accept, but I soon discover that not everyone loves 80’s pop as much as I do. Would it be a good idea to increase the volume just because I think everyone should? Of course not.

If the music you’re playing isn’t good for your audience, there’s no point in playing it loudly.

The same lesson stands for how you should tailor your marketing strategy. Rather than blindly and widely marketing your messages, it’s critical to use technology to optimise marketing and communication processes for the benefit of the client if you want to be successful.

Use tech to do the basic blocking and tackling

Implementing technology for the sake of implementing technology may sound exciting, but first and foremost, technology should be used to get the basic things right. These include actions like making it easy to contact salespeople, ensuring your website content is consistent with the sales team messaging, and making emails easy to read across various devices.

This last point will be particularly important as customer demand for an omnichannel experience grows. PwC’s 2018 Digital Banking Consumer Survey found that 15% of banking customers now use their mobile device as their main platform for interacting with their account – up from 10% just a year earlier.

Use tech to get to know your clients better

Keep in mind that technology is the means to an end. The end, in this case, is knowing what your customers want, what their needs are, and how they want to be treated – all of which promotes trust. Last year, Gartner asked CMOs what marketing capabilities they considered to be most vital for the coming 18 months. The top response was customer analytics.

Use tech to customize messages, not to broadcast them

Across the board, customers are expecting more targeted, relevant, and personalized communication. This was illustrated in Accenture’s 2017 Global Distribution & Marketing Consumer Study, which found that around two thirds of banking customers expect personalised communications on products and services. And among investment advisory customers, that figure is even higher – 73%.

Technology needs to be used in a way that enhances communication and compliance without losing sight of what’s most important at the end of the day – the simplicity, ease, and personalized touch that need to be present throughout the customer experience.

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.