pwc sverige - pitch the product pitch (content marketing) final … · 2015-09-11 · 1 fs...

Winning through customer-focused content

Ditch the product pitch:

2 10 13 24

Point of view AppendixA framework for responseCompetitive intelligence

Pitches don’t sellproducts—emotionalconnections do. How towin customers’ heartsthrough personalizedcontent.

FS Viewpoint1

Executive summaryGreat brands aren’t built onproduct pitches. By craftingstories that put customers first,great brands reach the heartsand minds of their customersand create a greater sense ofloyalty in this fast-changingworld.

Today’s marketing challenge: creatingcontent that stands out in a media-saturated world

Customers today are inundated with marketingmessages—by some counts, thousands ofmessages each day. They’ve also changed howthey consume content. In addition totraditional channels, customers are interactingwith new channels, such as web, mobile, andsocial media. How can financial institutionsbreak through the chaos to connect with theircustomers?

Financial institutions have started adoptingnew channels without understanding how bestto use them. As a result, busy customers feelbombarded by disconnected messages. Theyhear about savings accounts, life insurancepolicies, and retirement saving products—all ina day’s time, across a multitude of channels.

As customers seek financial advice relating tocritical life events—such as buying a home, orstarting a business—they find themselvesawash in information, with little sense of howto use it. The result? Customers find it easy towalk away.

Using stories to connect ideas withemotions

Storytellers, including the best marketers, havealways known that most human decisions andbehaviors are driven by instinct and emotion.We believe companies can tap into thoseinstincts through targeted stories that reachpeople by connecting ideas with emotions.

Financial institutions need a more human-centered approach that uses storytelling if theywant to rise above the flood of content.Executives know this, but face a number ofbarriers when trying to connect withcustomers. The question is how to transform amarketing operation into one that can delivercontent that reaches hearts and minds,deepens customer loyalty, and does it all in acost-effective way.

Adopting a human-centered approach

We believe that financial institutions shoulduse a human-centered approach to reach theright customers at the right places and times,with content that stands out. We’ve identifiedeight capabilities that can help marketingorganizations reach this goal by improving theefficiency of their operations while becomingmore customer-focused.

Marketing organizations working with ahuman-centered approach create a differentfeeling than traditional financial institutions.Their customers feel taken care of. They say,“This organization gets me.”

Ditch the product pitch: Winning through customer-focused content

Point of view

FS Viewpoint | Point of view3

Financial institutionshave been selling tocustomers the same waythey did half a centuryago. For now, customerscontinue to use theirproducts—not due to anysense of loyalty, butbecause they have nobetter alternatives.

1 Davidson, Sara. “Where Do Marketers Get Customers?”blog.hubspot.com, accessed December 18, 2014.

2 Wannemacher, Peter. “Must-Have Features on Banks’ SecureWebsites.” www.forrester.com, accessed February 23, 2015.

3 Google. “Mobile Banking Trends 2012.”www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/mobile-banking-trends-2012.html, accessed January 15, 2015.

Regardless of industry, typicalcustomers expect engaging, insight-driven content tailored to their uniqueneeds

Today’s customers quickly dismiss contentthat is either boring or not directly relevant tothem. To understand how far financialservices lags behind other industries, considerthis statistic: only 33% of financial servicescompanies have acquired a customer throughFacebook, compared with 73% of retail andconsumer goods companies1 (see Figure 1).

The financial services industry may believethat comparisons to the retail industry can’t bedrawn because the two are just too different.Financial services, after all, is the cornerstone

of the economy and heavily regulated. In ourview, that may be a complacent attitude. AForrester report found that one-quarter of USadults who go online would consider bankingwith a firm that did not have any branches.2

Another study by Google found that 40% ofAmericans will leave a bank’s website if it isnot mobile-optimized.3

As advances in technology make it easier toshift money or manage multiple accounts atdifferent companies, financial institutions areat risk of seeing their revenues fall ascustomers jump ship.


Figure 1: Where do we get our customers? Percentage of companies that have acquired a customer using a leadfrom the following sources.

Source: Davidson, Sara. Where Do Marketers Get Customers? HubSpot, May 23, 2013.


A “multi-screen” world means thatcustomers’ buying decisions don’t followa straight path anymore.

More content delivered through moredistribution channels

In the past, customers often built strong one-on-onerelationships with individuals at their financialinstitutions. Now, with their shorter attention spans,customers are turning to a variety of sources for theirfinancial needs. One study found that 90% ofconsumers move from one device to another atdifferent times to accomplish a task (see Figure 2).1

How can financial institutions today ensure aseamless customer experience when content is beingdelivered across multiple channels (such as mobile,online, branch, and social media)?

Consider the standards set by other industries, liketravel. A mother planning a vacation may startsearching for travel deals using her smartphoneduring her morning bus commute. On her lunchbreak, she uses her laptop to explore a travel site thatoffers fare alerts, hotel options, and articles aboutthe best experiences. Before going to bed, shebrowses partner websites on her tablet, readingreviews of babysitting services and the best kid-friendly restaurants at her destination.

A consistent message, informed by knowledge aboutthe customer and organized in a way that guides her,is key. Successful companies achieve this consistencyregardless of where or when the customer looks forinformation.


1 Google. “The New Multi-Screen World.”www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/the-new-multi-screen-world-study.html, accessed January 15 2015.

Figure 2: Most customers move between multiple devices to accomplish their goals.

Source: Google. The New Multi-Screen World. 29 August 2012.


Instead of adaptingmessaging to how peopleconsume media today,many financialinstitutions produceproduct-centric contentthat focuses solely onfeatures and benefits. Theresult: frustration andeven distrust.

Financial institutions have jumped intonew media channels withoutunderstanding how to best leveragethose channels to engage theircustomers

Busy customers feel bombarded by a variety ofmessages about interconnected financialproducts. They may hear or read messagesabout savings accounts, whole life policies, andwealth management services, all in a day’s timeand on a multitude of channels—from radio tomobile phone to web to in-person.

Sometimes, customers can discern acompany’s organizational structure just bynavigating through its marketing content. Forinstance, customers looking for advice onretirement planning may come across financialplans in the wealth management area andinformation on reverse mortgages in anothersection. Without the right content and

organization to guide customers throughdecisions, they are left feeling confused andunsure of the best choice.

Because it is designed by people from differentdivisions and functional groups, content maydiffer in style and tone. As a result, thecompany’s brand is muddied.

Customers wonder: does this institutioncare?

As customers make critical financial decisionstied to major life events (such as buying ahome, having a child, or starting a business),they find themselves awash in informationwith little sense of how to use it. Whencompanies treat these often emotional eventsas mere transactions, they miss opportunitiesto be part of customers’ journeys (see Figure3). Without these connections, customers findit easy to walk away.


Figure 3: Customers seek guidance—not product pitches—as they make critical financial decisions tied to major life events.

Life trigger pointsand related financial

needs

Debt

Investableassets

Teenagers/students Single adults Childless couples Young families Established families Empty nesters Mature adults

Initiate bankingrelationship (saving

for college tuition)

Enter college,workforce (college

tuition, first apartment,car, new job)

Marriage (travel, losejob, start new job,

new home)

Birth of a child(second car,

health/medical, starta business)

School-aged children(bigger home, expand

business, buildcommunity ties, build

nest egg)

College-boundchildren (college

tuition, travel)Retirement (spendnest egg, legacy)


Although many executives realize they need to become more customer-centric, their efforts to change are hampered by isolated marketingteams, inefficient processes, and an inability to clearly measure impact.

1 The Financial Brand. “2014 State of Bank and Credit Union Marketing.” thefinancialbrand.com, accessed January 20, 2015.

2 PwC analysis.

3 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Navigating the Market: A comparison of spending on financial education and financial marketing.” files.consumerfinance.gov, accessed January 13, 2015.

4 The Financial Brand. “2014 State of Bank and Credit Union Marketing.” thefinancialbrand.com, accessed January 20, 2015.

Marketing teams within organizationsare fragmented, often working towarddifferent goals

Organizations are continually re-inventing thewheel, oftentimes starting from scratch onprojects that a different team might have testedand failed at two years ago. This leavesmarketers with a very segmented view of whichmessages are effective with particular customergroups. In fact, 66% of executives in a survey ofbanks and credit unions said that silos were amajor or minor challenge in their organizations(see Figure 4).1

Without stronger coordination and sharedobjectives, marketing teams spin off in alldirections, delivering mixed messages tocustomers while adding to marketingproduction costs. In fact, we’ve estimated thatmore efficient and coordinated marketingoperations could produce the same results with20% less expense.2

Marketing groups spend a lot of moneyon content, but they set priorities andstrategy without a clear understanding ofwhat works

The total amount spent annually by financialservices providers on consumer financialproducts and services is approximately $17billion, according to the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau.3

Yet many marketing teams lack the tools andinsights to measure whether those dollars arebeing spent effectively. In fact, 88% ofexecutives in the same survey said they werechallenged by measuring return on investment(ROI) at their companies.4

Lacking true customer insights, marketingteams try to define success based on how muchcontent is produced, how much traffic isachieved, and whether the content wins industryawards. Instead, they should be focusing on howeffective the content is at driving sales orcustomer engagement.


Figure 4: Financial institutions’ biggest marketingchallenges.

Source: The Financial Brand. “2014 State of Bankand Credit Union Marketing.” February 10, 2014.


We believe marketingorganizations need tothink differently andorganize their contentaround customer needs toalign with the customerjourney.

Our two-pronged approach starts by tackling the operational barriers that keep marketingorganizations from being efficient content producers. Improving efficiency provides opportunitiesfor marketing organizations to improve effectiveness by fostering stronger customer engagement.By producing highly targeted, thoughtfully produced content in a collaborative, cost-effective way,financial institutions are better positioned to help drive the customer behaviors they want.



Marketing leaders faceobstacles when creatinghuman-centered content.We discuss the primaryones here, and identifysome practical steps tohelp overcome thesechallenges.

Obstacles typically fall into three categories


Obstacle Description Overcoming these challenges

Complacency • Some individuals or groups within themarketing organization may not see theneed for change. In financial institutionsthat hold a strong market position,historical success—when compared tocompetitors—has lulled marketinggroups into thinking that change is notneeded.

• Conduct a comprehensive competitiveassessment that looks at externalexamples for lessons learned and atinternal options for what different leadersmight need or desire.

• Develop more rigorous metrics thatmeasure impact, not just activity, andshare them across the organization.

Interrelatedroles andprocesses

• Content is managed broadly acrossfunctions and lines of business, leadingto unclear ownership. For example,members of different brand, product, andchannel groups may develop contentwithout coordinating objectives, roles,and/or responsibilities, which results in adisjointed customer experience.

• When these groups start involving theirrespective marketing agencies,untangling the web of processes andhandoffs can become a formidablechallenge.

• Gain an understanding of the end-to-endcontent creation ecosystem. Who isinvolved (internally and externally), andwhat processes and technologies arethey using to manage and coordinatework? Verify that process handoffs areintentional and understood.

• Develop brand standards that provideguidance on the messaging approachand level of detail across various typesof content (such as financial education,FAQs, research reports, etc.) andcustomer segments.

• Address how feedback from risk reviewgates should be incorporated withoutdeviating from the brand’s messagingapproach.

Multipletechnologyplatforms

• Content management solutions oftenproliferate across marketing groups.Without common platforms and tools tomanage content, marketing groups lackthe ability to share content and leadingpractices across all formats, includingscripts, social media, and publications.

• Map current state against future statetechnology needs, identifying gapsand/or overlaps in content managementplatform capabilities and providers.

• Build a business case that analyzes notonly the return on investment but alsothe costs of inaction.


In our view, financialinstitutions that adopt ahuman-centeredapproach will engage theright person with theright message, at the rightmoment and place, todrive the right action.

Making customer connections, one storyat a time

For most people, how they manage and spendtheir money is a very personal matter. Itfollows that financial decisions can beemotional for many customers. They no longerseek the best products based solely on return orcost. Instead, customers are increasinglylooking for companies they think highly of andfeel comfortable doing business with.

By adopting a human-centered approach thatdistills complex content into targeted, engagingstories, financial institutions can createemotional connections that are memorable,celebrate customer achievements, and drivetheir behavior.

What does success look like?

Customers will have a deeper loyalty tofinancial institutions with committed, two-wayrelationships. They will participate in andprovide feedback on customer forums. Theywill consume more of their financialinstitution’s content, and the quality of theirinteractions will be higher—for example, bygenerating product leads or suggesting servicemodel enhancements. These customers willspend more time on their financial institution’swebsites and social media networks. Deeperengagement will lead to higher product usage.

Marketing employees will develop and haveaccess to high-quality content. They will beable to use it more efficiently andcollaboratively across channels, and they willbe able to measure its effectiveness. Allemployees will have access to high-performingcontent and leverage it to scale theircapabilities.

Financial institutions will see growingproduct sales, lower acquisition costs, andbetter returns relative to how much they spendon marketing. They will capture a higher shareof wallet based on increasing customerengagement, usage, and product sales.


Competitive intelligence

Our observations ofindustry practices.

FS Viewpoint | Competitive intelligence11

A handful of financial institutions have successfully adopted ahuman-centered approach to marketing content. They began byfocusing on a variety of processes and systems that helped improvethe efficiency of their content operations.

Efficiency capabilities Retail bank P&C insurer

Joint planning and coordination Adopted detailed brand standards for visual content andmarketing themes.

Uses informal, product-specific taxonomies to trackcontent across campaigns.

Designs cross-product, cross-segment marketingcampaigns.

Developed enterprise-wide governance process forcontent composition.

Uses internal standards and certification protocols tosupport consistent writing and development standardsfirm-wide.

Content coordination Designed a master calendar to coordinate contentacross channels.

Defined content ownership roles for channels andcampaigns.

Collaborates informally across campaigns.

Enables content authors to search for published contentacross repositories and view the associated metadata,such as “created by” or “publish date.”

Enforces enterprise taxonomy and documentationstandards for all content.

Knowledge sharing Established forums to enable collaboration and shareleading practices.

Failed to invest in tools and repositories for sharinglessons learned across campaigns.

Feedback mechanism enables employees across themarketing organization to connect with content creatorsto ask questions or give feedback on published content.

Metrics-based optimization Uses advanced social listening to supplement agency-driven campaign tracking.

Limits feedback loops to individual events. Broaderfeedback protocols have not been established.

Some reporting on customer interactions acrosscampaigns exists, but it is still relatively immature.

Consistently captures and monitors customerinteractions across business units.

Understands the frequency and volume of content thatmost customers want. Measures changes in customersatisfaction based on shifts in content volume andfrequency.


Leading On par Lagging

FS Viewpoint | Competitive intelligence12

Some financial institutions have begun improving the effectivenessof their marketing content, too, but most still lag behind theircounterparts in other industries.

Effectiveness capabilities Retail bank P&C insurer

Human-centered design Uses event- and activity-driven media campaigns tohelp create personal ties with customers.

Generates a large quantity of product related contentthat is instructional in nature. Most of this content uses amore personal, human-centered approach.

Uses the concept of personas in content design, but thepersonas have not been aligned by customer segmentand channel. The result is inconsistency acrosssegments and channels.

Tailors customer communications (such as invoices)based on a customer’s profile. For example,communications about premium increases are handleddifferently for price-sensitive customers than they are forloyal customers.

Narratives Focuses brand messages on compelling stories linkedacross campaigns.

Product campaigns use a variety of formats andmessages, but there is no uniform approach acrosschannels. The result is customer confusion, especiallywhen content is accessed through a non-traditionalpath.

Uses both authentic and provocative marketingcampaigns that focus on customers’ personal hopesand goals.

Touchpoint management Although some content resonates across channels,most content is developed with the expectation thatcustomers stay within one channel.

Initiated projects to develop cross-channel customertouchpoint maps.

Created a centralized customer group to analyze thenature and volume of interactions across the customerlifecycle.

User-generated content Leverages customer-generated content through opensocial channels and bank-managed blogs.

Developed standards to manage risk and createconsistent rules for responding to and amplifyingcustomer-created content.

Engages customers online to ask questions or givefeedback on published content.

Uses ads in creative ways, such as taking real-timeTwitter posts about a campaign and projecting them ona digital billboard.


Leading On par Lagging

A framework for response

Our recommended approachto the issue.

FS Viewpoint | A framework for response14

Eight capabilities thatwill help you become amaster storyteller.

When marketing operations areefficient, employees have more time andenergy to focus on generating creativecontent.

Improving efficiency

Many marketing organizations operate at full-speed but waste time, energy, and resourcesbecause they duplicate efforts across divisionsand don’t have clear governance structures.Focus first on building efficient operations.Smart use of data and metrics helps employeesfocus on what’s working and identifyopportunities to collaborate and reuse ideasand content.

Adding effectiveness

Content, including long-form feature articles,social media, video, multimedia, and user-generated content, should connect emotionallywith customers. Content should be coordinatedso that efforts across all channels tell parts ofthe same story. Employees should beempowered to develop messages that have acommon tone and style across campaigns andchannels. Content also tells the story of thebrand’s relationship with customers.



Transforming andaligning your marketingcontent meansovercoming high barriersto change. Begin byunderstanding the gaps inyour organization, settingpriorities, and makingselective, high-impact betsto find the right paths forchange.

How should you prioritize and decidewhich capabilities to work on first?

Chief marketing officers and other decision-makers should consider their resources, theinstitution’s overarching priorities, the level ofeffort, and the potential impact of eachinitiative’s success when deciding how toproceed (see Figure 5). Some initiatives will bestraightforward. Others may change courseseveral times as priorities shift or obstaclesemerge.

Your approach should take into account theorganization’s culture, including whether itadapts to change incrementally or wholesale,its resources, and its competitive landscape.How quickly are competitors moving to engageyour customer base, and how effective is theirmarketing?


Figure 5: Consider impact and level of effort when deciding how to prioritize marketing capabilities.


Joint planning andcoordination

Marketing, business units, and IT needto work hand in hand to define overallgoals for the marketing organization.

Establishing common vocabulary, models,processes, and vendor relationships acrossdivisions eases communication, focuses theorganization on success, and reducesorganizational politics.

Taxonomy

Establish a common structure and vocabularyfor describing, categorizing, and taggingcontent to help improve collaboration andconsistency across functions and businessunits. Using the same language will also helpcommunicate a shared vision for campaignsthroughout the content lifecycle.

Examples of areas that marketingorganizations often need to build a commontaxonomy for include campaigns, contributors,content types/formats, divisions, channels,products, and target segments.

Publication model

Identify the most effective publication modelfor each campaign (see Figure 6). Yourcampaigns can publish original content,aggregate content produced elsewhere, orcombine the two approaches.

Ask which publication model is right for yourorganization. Consider what level of controlyou want, the level of effort you’re willing toexpend, and how much engagement you expectfrom customers. For example, if you have avery passionate user base, you might considermoderating a forum where users generate alarge proportion of content. This improvestransparency and customer engagement, butyou would have to decide how heavily tomoderate the forum to manage risk. Askyourself if there are factors present now thatmight change your decision going forward.How do you want to publish content in thefuture?

Technology and vendor management

Marketing organizations often work withmultiple agencies and public relations firms.They’re also likely to use a variety of contentmanagement systems, publishing tools,reporting systems, and other technologies tosupport their work.

Financial institutions should evaluate the end-to-end content creation ecosystem tounderstand who is involved (internally andexternally), as well as which processes andtechnologies are being used to managemarketing efforts. Organizations should makean effort to rationalize the number of differentproviders and negotiate more favorable termswith selected vendors.


Figure 6: Which publication model is right for you?


Content coordination Content coordination improvesproductivity and enables a moreseamless customer experience.

We suggest that you plan and coordinate yourcontent in three areas.

Traffic planning

Coordinate and negotiate between businessunits and functions to prioritize campaigns andcontent and to manage timely creation anddelivery. Establish content calendars andidentify when information sharing or handoffsoccur between teams. Instead of receivingmultiple unrelated marketing communicationseach month, customers will receive targetedmessaging.

Content ownership protocols

Define roles and responsibilities for all contentareas and channels. Where roles overlap,define and implement “rules of the road”across the organization to managedisagreements that arise over content.

Collaboration

As you consider content coordination, alsoconsider how you will share knowledge withinand across teams. Effective coordinationrequires knowledge sharing, which in turnrequires the skills and cultural mindset toshare. Whatever communication channels youestablish should help promote collaborationacross teams. This includes, for example, broadvisibility into the roles and responsibilitiesdefined in the previous steps.


Figure 7: Content coordination helps align the needs of multiple stakeholders and enterprise goals.

Use tools and mechanisms tofoster collaboration so that thepeople responsible forimplementing human-centereddesign and storytelling canwork together easily.


Knowledge sharing Sharing knowledge about which practices, tools, and content work—and which don’twork—is crucial to a marketing organization’s success.

While knowledge is perhaps the most significant asset of many companies, approximately eightypercent of organizations lack a formal knowledge retention strategy.1 We suggest you enableknowledge sharing using four techniques.


Knowledge sharingtechniques

Description

Curate content internally Establish processes to capture and transfer different types of content.Adopt tools and processes that make it easy for employees to locate,organize, and gather high-performing content. Establish a process toregularly update content.

Establish forums Establish tools and guidance to encourage formal and informal knowledgesharing. Forums can be online collaboration tools, as well as places andgatherings for face-to-face conversations. Explore individual relationshipnetworks of key personnel across teams to facilitate communication.

Manage tools and access Develop a framework to identify, capture, and transfer unstated andexplicit knowledge, including lessons learned and unique practices. Theframework could include a central knowledge repository. Use the righttools to surface, share, and leverage leading content practices across theorganization.

Build the right culture Identify key competencies and training programs across teams, roles, andeven generational differences. Implement succession planning at allorganizational levels. Cultivate a culture of diversity, innovation, inclusion,and continuing education.

1 PwC analysis.


Metrics-basedoptimization

Financial institutions should useconsistent processes and metrics togather feedback and enable a clear,unified definition of success that islinked to business goals.

Leveraging insights from campaignmeasurement enables you to make decisionsquickly about what is and is not working and toillustrate opportunities for improvement.

Measurement systems

Agree on what objectives to measure and howyou will measure them (see Figure 8). Forinstance, will a campaign be measured by thenumber of customers who have seen it or thelength of time a customer spends engaged inthe content? At an even more granular level, isa “like” the same as a “share” or a “favorite”worth as much as a “retweet?” Which pieces ofcontent are being accessed most frequently,and how are customers accessing them?

Feedback loop

Gathering feedback both during and afterevents or campaigns enables employees tobuild on that knowledge in future marketingefforts. Although most financial institutionsgather metrics, few have created feedbackloops that continuously optimize marketingprocesses and content to adapt to what thosemetrics convey.

Return on investment

Gather metrics on campaigns and develop away to assess how well campaigns, platforms,or products are meeting business goals. Thefundamental question to ask: is the campaigndriving the desired business action?

Integrated dashboards

Build insightful, shareable dashboards thatenable business leaders to report progress, gainbuy-in, and identify which factors drivesuccess. For instance, what drives success: thechannel, the timing of the content, the design,or the information contained in the content?


Figure 8: Illustrative metrics that achieve different objectives.


Human-centered design Adopt a mindset that puts people, notproducts, at the center of yourmessages.

Human-centered design begins withunderstanding your customers at every level.For example, a human-centered design meanshelping your customers understand how theywill send their kids to college, not how different529 plans work.

Analyze customer needs

Collect data on customers’ needs, interests, andbehaviors, and then develop profiles of groupsof customers. Many organizations profilecustomers using subjective, rather than data-driven, customer segmentation. Subjectivesegmentation can lead to the mistake ofemphasizing demographic, rather thanbehavioral and attitudinal factors. For instance,it might be assumed that customers of a certainage and income bracket are not comfortableinteracting online, while behavioral researchmight show that this segment does, in fact, do

extensive online research before making apurchase decision. Figure 9 shows examples ofbehavioral and attitudinal factors used forsegmenting customers.

Personalize content

Gather data about not only customer groups,but also individuals, so that you can providepersonalized content based on theirinteractions and expressed needs. Establishstandards for crafting personalized contentthat protects customers’ privacy.

Rapid prototyping

Develop content quickly, test it, and move onwith successes. A robust test environmentenables you to pilot changes with small groupsof customers. This approach can quicklyidentify winning ideas before significantinvestments are made to roll out changes morebroadly. It also empowers employees torecognize new channels and forms of contentand enables them to test those options rapidly.


Does your content use human-centered design?

Consider these questions:

• Is your content about products orpeople?

• Are marketing campaigns built aroundstories or are they more like instructionmanuals for your products?

• Do your campaigns elicit positiveemotional reactions?

Human-centered design focuses on peopleover products, individuals over groups, andexperiences over information.

Figure 9: Example of customer segment based on behavioral and attitudinal factors.


Storytelling & narratives Content uses a narrative structure and arc. It is more story than information, and itis designed to elicit an emotional response from people.

Human-centered design helps you to understand your customers. Use that knowledge to decide onthe right stories to connect with them. Storytelling gives you the form you need to draw people inand create memorable moments. We suggest four steps to help you create stories that will inspiredeeper customer engagement and loyalty.



Touchpoint management Every interaction with customers should be consistent, managed, and streamlined.

Understand where and how your customers engage with your content so you can customize it totheir needs. Customers should feel that financial institutions are guiding them along a journey asthey encounter financial milestones.


Catalog and analyze touchpoints

Chart customer content touchpoints across allchannels (see Figure 10). This includesinteractions with content in branches oragencies, on the website, in social mediachannels, or in traditional advertising venues.Sometimes, interactions may occursimultaneously, such as when a customer is onthe phone and looking at the website.

Leverage “moments of truth”

Identify the highly emotional “moments oftruth” that make or break the customerexperience. Which touchpoints are mostimportant, and to which customers? Leveragethose few interactions by customizing contentso you reach the right customer with the rightmessage at the right time.

Partnerships and sponsorships

Find and develop partnerships that help youreach customers in new and innovative ways.Target new products and services to customermicro-segments.

Use interaction scenarios

Develop multiple messages and contentscenarios that are driven by customer insightsto understand the different ways customersmight encounter campaigns. Test messageswith customer focus groups beforeimplementing them.

Figure 10: Illustrative customer touchpoint map.


User-generated content Develop platforms to encourage customers to create and share brand stories andcustomer experiences.

User-generated content is more important than most marketers know, especially for the youngerdemographic. More than eight in ten “Gen Yers” say user-generated content from people they don’tknow influences what they buy, and 51% say it’s more important than the opinions of their friendsand family and far more trustworthy than website content.1 We suggest quickly ramping up youruser-generated content strategy by using three concepts.


Participationmodel/platform

Community partnership Establish standards

Objectives Understand and describehow and to what extentyour content will enableinternal and external usercommunities to produce orinteract with it.

Manage user-generatedcontent by reviewing it,responding to it, andmaking it easier forcustomers to deepenengagement.

Respond rapidly and withquality customer care toneeds and concerns. Setstandards for promotingand interacting withcontent to avoid affiliatingyour brand with users whocould damage it.

Keyconsiderations

• What methods ofcommunications appealto your customers?

• Is the model efficientand scalable?

• What are the degreesof freedom you arewilling to give yourcustomers?

• How closely affiliateddo you want yourplatform to be with yourbrand?

• How are you engagingyour customers?

• Are adequateresources dedicated tomanaging thepartnership andresponding tocustomers in a timelyway?

• How actively do youwant to moderate thecontent?

• How do you creategenuine interactionwithout oversteppingrisk boundaries?

• What service-levelagreements will youapply to issuescustomers raisethrough user-generatedcontent?

• What metrics will beused to measureengagement?

• Do your participantsunderstand whatcontent is consideredacceptable?

• How will you managethe risks associatedwith sharing user-generated content?

1 HubSpot. “Why User-Generated Content Is More Important ThanYou Think.” blog.hubspot.com, accessed 18 January 2015.

Appendix

Select qualifications.

FS Viewpoint | Appendix—select qualifications25

Project and client Issues Approach Benefits

Customer-centriccontent strategy—Top retail bank

Although the bank had strong, product-specific marketing, there was no unifiedstrategy to create content. Disconnectedmarketing, product, and front-line teams,each with their own agency relationships,were involved in creating and distributingcontent.

As a result, customers were exposed tomany different marketing messages asthey moved across channels. The bankstruggled with how to use marketingcontent to change customers’ behavioror create customer loyalty.

PwC helped the bank develop aconsistent approach to content creationacross the organization. The teamhelped the bank:

• Identify opportunities to increase theefficiency and effectiveness ofcontent, especially for the rapidlyexpanding medium of video.

• Refine the content developmentoperating model to improve bank-widecollaboration and integrate morerobust feedback mechanisms.

• Define proofs of concept to test thefuture-state content operating modeland guiding principles.

The client had a clearer, more unifiedstrategy and roadmap for how to improvecustomer engagement through content. Itwas also prepared to launch a pilotproject to test the guiding principles fromthis strategy. The client was able toidentify opportunities for improving theefficiency of content production by 15%to 20%.

Content governancemodel—Multi-line insurancecarrier

A large, multi-line insurer struggled toclearly communicate its underwritingappetite (the types of risks it insures) toagents and brokers, sending inconsistentand sometimes conflicting messages tothe market.

A proliferation of content managementplatforms across business units,products, and customer segments madeit difficult for sales and underwriting staffto find content, including underwritingguidelines.

PwC helped the insurer identify criticalpain points and opportunities to improvegovernance and organization of content.This included helping the insurer:

• Establish a new governance model toset standards for creating andupdating reference content.

• Develop a new taxonomy and userinterface for content management.

• Identify strong candidates for contentmanagement systems based oncritical business needs, such assearch, collaboration, publishing, andmobile.

The client benefited in multiple ways:

• Intuitive navigation and advancedsearch made the contentmanagement system moreaccessible.

• Marketing messages became moreconsistent. Internal and externalreference content, such asunderwriting standards for differentproducts, are now regularlymaintained. This helps improve agentawareness of the insurer’s standardsand brand.

Appendix—select qualifications


© 2015 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwCrefers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is aseparate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for generalinformation purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professionaladvisors.

“Ditch the product pitch: Winning through customer-focused content.” PwC FS Viewpoint, April 2015.www.pwc.com/fsi.

www.pwc.com/fsi

To have a deeper conversation, please contact:

Catherine Zhou [email protected]+1 408 808 2969www.linkedin.com/pub/catherine-zhou/2/22/996

Dan Jackett [email protected]+1 415 498 7559www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-jackett/9/12/97a

David Schiff [email protected]+1 213 356 6921www.linkedin.com/in/dschiff

Joann Jen [email protected]+1 206 398 3459www.linkedin.com/in/joannjen

Francois Ramette [email protected]+1 312 298 2046www.linkedin.com/pub/françois-ramette/0/397/854

About our Financial Services practice

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PwC serves multinational financial institutions across banking andcapital markets, insurance, asset management, hedge funds, privateequity, payments, and financial technology. As a result, PwC has theextensive experience needed to advise on the portfolio of businessissues that affect the industry, and we apply that knowledge to ourclients’ individual circumstances. We help address business issuesfrom client impact to product design, and from go-to-market strategyto human capital, across all dimensions of the organization.

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A publication of PwC’s Financial Services Institute

Marie Carr

Partner

Cathryn Marsh

Director

Emily Dunn

Senior Manager

Kristen Grigorescu

Senior Manager

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