The investor journey across digital channels is non-linear and messy – marketers need to adapt.
The linear marketing funnel is often central to how marketers think about the journey customers go on when purchasing a product or service.
For the self-directed retail investor, it’s something like:
Awareness: recognising a financial need or being triggered
Interest & consideration: seeking educational content; evaluating platforms and accounts like ISAs & SIPPs; examining products such as funds and investment trusts
Purchase: opening accounts, choosing investments
Post-purchase: monitoring performance, receiving updates, building out portfolios
A complex digital journey
Given the complexities of investing,
the scores of platforms and products,
the cautiousness of investors and poor financial literacy,
the rising influence of social media,
and the complications introduced by AI into search behaviour…
– the digital investor journey is increasingly a messy and uncertain one.
It may be laboured and require self-directed learning. Or it could be rapid and skip steps. It may involve digital touch-points being revisited multiple times. Or be heavily influenced by friends, family, reviews, and online communities.
The looping, non-linear customer journey might just be a better way of visualising it. Google calls it the Messy Middle.
Google’s Messy Middle
It depicts that our digital journeys tend to be a bit all over the place. When investing, this may include the back and forth as we get comfortable with a brand before a financial needs trigger some action; the looping nature of the exploration and evaluation stages as we get to grips with the complexities of investing and the nuances of different products; the frequent checking in with markets and our investments as we attempt to understand their evolving nature.
For marketers, the Messy Middle means meeting investors where they are:
- Seamless omnichannel marketing
- Different content > different stages of the journey > different digital touch-points
- Education centres
- Online communities and f-influencers
- Technology: CRM / analytics / marketing automation to track behaviour > segment audiences > push investors along journey towards objectives
- Metrics for brand visibility and engagement
Get in touch to discuss digital marketing strategies