Social Media Influencers: Banking’s Next Generation of Marketers

What’s the deal with social media influencer marketing? Gone are the days of social media influencers raking in revenue for weight loss tea and vitamin gummies; companies ranging from gym wear specialists to food and beverage companies are now using influencer marketing to win consumers’ trust.

With trust being the core theme, we can refer to a recent survey of 1000 U.S. consumers, conducted by PR agency Matter Communication. The survey found that 61% of people are likely to trust recommendations from a friend, family member or influencer on social platforms, whereas only 38% are likely to trust recommendations from a brand’s social media account.

Why aren’t most banks using influencer marketing?

Since the financial crash, banks have struggled to regain consumers’ trust. A new digitally native generation are about to be inaugurated into banking, comprising their target audience. So are they adapting?

As a case study, PwC stated that ‘Financial institutions are beginning to recognize that solving banking needs means catering to different generations. understanding what forms the nucleus of the bank-consumer relationship at a micro level can influence profitability over the longer term’ Homogenizing consumer needs into broadly generational categories is what banks are getting completely wrong, some argue. It’s antithetical to what influencer marketing does – which is target audiences on a macro level to more accurately predict and influence consumer behaviour as a whole.

Finding ‘the needle in the haystack’ isn’t always the best approach. As ­­­­­Ron Shevlin puts it, ‘Millennials” (or any generation) is a bad answer because they’re an undifferentiated set of consumers—their needs and behaviors are too diverse to be a targeted segment for innovation efforts.’ By demographic, I myself tend to align with more ‘Millennial’ behaviors, despite being categorized as Gen Z by birth year. These boundary lines of generational categories make it more difficult for brands to target audiences. By contrast, influencers combat this by using their platform to capitalize on emotion; they share their personal views on a product and hand agency over to the consumer.

The Outliers

The Royal Bank of Scotland, now incorporated as part of the NatWest group in the UK, have historically had a problem with branding. Bailed out by the government and taken into public ownership in 2008, twelve years later RBS is still the UK’s least trusted bank. However, they’re showing a streak of dynamism by being one of the few major banks to use social media influencers. Promoting a new digital banking app, Bò, influencers have been drafted in to extol the virtues of RBS’ latest venture, set against competitor apps such as Monzo and Revolut.

What next?

If major financial institutions want to keep up with a digitally adept clientele, they’re going to have to adapt to changing market trends. Simply relying on prevalence of branches in the community is a relic of the past, and gearing marketing towards a broad demographic has already proven fruitless for garnering interest amongst so-called ‘Gen Z’.  By taking a fresh approach driven by social media influencers, banks and credit unions can create interest, build trust, and bring in new customers.