Here are 5 ways your financial institution can support your influencer partners to help them drive more customers.

Influencers and affiliate marketing have been around for over twenty years, and for financial institutions (FI) , it’s becoming a high-impact digital customer acquisition channel. It’s easy to see why banks and FIs rely on it: influencer partners fuel sales funnels in a way that’s scalable and cost-effective.

If it’s your bank’s first time working with influencers, you might not be sure if you’re giving influencers exactly what they need to drive customers to you. The good news is that because you’re early into it, it’s exactly the right time to look at your relationships with them, identify potential break-off points, and work with your influencer partners directly to lead them onto bigger pathways to success.

Here are five things to prioritize to make sure your influencer partners can maximize their success in driving new customers:

1. Get them ahead of the curve with your products

Don’t wait until the ship has already left the dock – get your influencer partners ahead of product news and releases as soon as you can to give them the power of exclusivity with their audiences. Where possible, give them the inside scoop on new products you want to promote. Provide them in-depth details like ideal personas, specific psychographics, and more so that influencers can laser-focus their targeting strategies to send the right customers to you.

Here are questions to ask yourself. The answers to these questions can be useful to your influencer partners:

• What are the product features and how do they align with the values and target audience of the influencer?
• What’s the product’s USP?
• How likely is your product going to convert?
• What product messages are working well with what audiences?

2. Have a unique value proposition that gives your product a competitive edge

Publishers have many brands to choose from when it comes to influencer and affiliate partnerships, and they need to see the value the product has for their dedicated followers. Emphasize the product features that set you apart from other financial institutions. Influences can leverage these points to lure potential customers to your landing page.

• Is there any differentiated product offer, discount after-sales service, coupon, or rewards that sets you apart?
• How can you support influencers with unique promo codes or offers exclusive to their audience?

3. Strike a balance between content freedom and compliance requirements

To lead successful campaigns, work through timely content mandates- including any content guidelines, platforms, and posting schedules- and let the influencers convey the brand message in their own voice so far as they are compliant.

And for influencers who are looking to break into the regulated space of financial services, compliance requirements can be tough water to navigate. Work with your compliance team to chart out your risk tolerance and make sure that your influencer partners know exactly how much latitude they have to talk about your brand to consumers:

• What are the actionable marketing guidelines to be followed by influencers?
• What are the Dos and Don’ts wrt brand guidelines and compliance requirements?
• How much editorial control you can give to the influencers?
• How can you monitor your campaign proactively to ensure the promoted offer, and product details are accurate and updated?

4. Optimize your landing page to match the audience’s expectations

As a lower-funnel tactic, influencers are sending high-intent leads to you, which means you must ensure fast and frictionless customer onboarding. And for that, your landing page should be well optimized.

• Is there something about your website that’s making new customers leave?
• Is your landing page well-designed to ensure minimum drop-offs?
• How can you maximize frictionless onboarding of customers sent in by influencers?
• Are the digital account opening capabilities well-optimized?

5. Be transparent about your analytics

In addition to sharing information about brand values and product specifications, provide important data back to the publishers to get the most out of influencer collaborations.

Sharing conversion data, sales data, and more empowers them to make data-driven decisions:

• Which videos, content, or posts are making the biggest bottom-line impact?
• What type of targeted messaging is resonating most with the specific persona?
• Which audience generation is driving maximum sales?

The Bottomline

It might not just be your first time working with influencers – it could be their first time, too, so focus your energies on supporting all of your partners and setting them up for long-term success. When done well, influencer marketing can be a cost-effective solution to drive new customers. Using the above strategies will help you take your early influencer marketing campaigns to the next level.

If you want to know more about how to maximize the results with influencer partners and drive more customers to your financial institution, check our range of turn-key solutions built specifically for financial services