Data Availability

• The initial round of research indicates that data availability is adequate on this topic.

Effective Financial Sales Marketing Strategies

• According to Sales Drive, it is key for financial services to ensure reaching their ideal clients and customers to aid with generating more sales.
• The source opined that having the right sales marketing strategy points the brand in the right direction to capture high-quality leads.
• Building up the client and business connection can help one improve brand awareness and increase business reputation in the financial services industry.
• Design Rush opined that visibility and recognition help build brand credibility, a natural overture to becoming more advantageous on the market.
• According to the source, credibility leads to competitiveness, even prestige, and when a brand is more competitive, revenue from purchase volumes rises, as does ROI.
• According to a survey, 70% of financial service marketers report increasing brand awareness with content marketing, while 61% state it has helped them generate traffic and build a relationship with their customers.
• Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%.
• Key brand awareness strategies that lead to increased revenue include consistency in voice and image and creating a powerful referral program.

Case Study: How Redwood Credit Union Refreshed Its Brand

•  Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa, California was strong financially and was steadily growing new members.
• The company was a consistent winner as one of the best places to work in the North Bay Area.
• However, it was in search of a technique/strategy to enable the company remain on the path to success and weren’t sure how their brand identity might further support growth.
• Redwood believed it had a solid brand strategy, but felt it was a bit dated visually, however it didn’t want to refresh it simply for the sake of change.
• The real problem was a lack of clarity in how they could fully express the brand and talk about it in a consistent and differentiating way across the organization.
• According to Brett Martinez, CEO of Redwood, “We were looking for a way to articulate our brand that captured the real essence of who we were and what made us special.”
• The senior leadership team felt the brand had potential; all it needed was a boost.

What the Brand Did

• Redwood management reached out to Weber Marketing Group to explore ways in which the credit union might clarify and amplify its brand.
• The company implemented brand awareness strategies such as helping people feel loved, segmenting and defining its target audience and more.

Results

• The results of Redwood’s brand transformation seem to be reflected in the credit union’s bottom line KPIs.
• In 2015, total assets increased by 14% to $2.8 billion.
• In the first nine months of 2016, it grew over 15% to $3.15 billion.
• Net income in 2015 grew by 2.2%, reaching more than $48 million.
• Net income for 2016 was estimated at $55 million, an ROA of 1.84%.
• The credit union also saw loan volumes shoot up by 14% to $2.1 billion, and the forecast is for another 20% increase.

Summary

• We focused the initial hour of research on providing some insights into the relationship between brand awareness and revenue increase and also, a case study of a brand that successfully increased its revenue through brand awareness.
• We recommend continued research to provide additional case studies on this topic.
• Furthermore, we propose continued research to provide the current trends and best practices for increased brand awareness trends for financial services.
• For a deeper dive into the above-suggested research parts, we recommend further research. Details on our recommended research paths have been provided in our proposals below.