As marketing in financial services moves away from big campaigns and blanket messages, innovation is becoming crucial.
“I’m a big believer that innovation is important in every aspect of everything you do professionally, but particularly in marketing when you think how fast paced the world has become. If you are not moving beyond the status quo, you are going to become irrelevant very quickly,” says Janette Jovic, head of digital and content at PGIM Marketing, adding that her team is now moving towards more agile, test-and-learn, marketing initiatives.
Innovation comes in many different shapes and forms. One aspect of innovation that PGIM has already fully embraced is analytics, and not just as it relates to digital channels.
“We hired a marketing analytics manager that sits within our team,” Jovic says. “I worked with him to develop an executive dashboard that gives us a sense of how everything is performing across all of our marketing efforts, including offline, things like conference engagements, PR. That really helps us to understand what’s working and what isn’t.”
Another way to innovate is to focus on personalization, which she sees as the future of marketing in financial services. Offering tailored content to clients is one piece of the puzzle, but “it’s really about offering them something that allows you to connect on a one-on-one level,” according to Jovic.
“It’s only going to resonate with them if it truly helps them do their job or make better decisions at the end of the day. That is something that, until we can do it in a very thoughtful way that’s true to our brand, we’re not even going attempt it. But we’re thinking about it.”
Jovic explains that as people consume information in different ways, in both their personal and professional lives across industries, they’ve come to expect a certain standard, and PGIM has realized that it has to be there to meet clients where they are.
