4 ways advertising can help build awareness around personal finance services

15 Feb 2022 , 09:38 AM

Over the last half a decade, India’s personal finance ecosystem witnessed interesting developments with digitization taking the centre stage. In May 2021, India’s mutual fund industry crossed over 10 crore folios. Though the personal finance service sector saw the entry of several new players, there is less awareness among the public regarding personal finance. People are familiar with mutual funds, stocks, saving schemes and other investment options but are still not in a position to make sound financial decisions.

Getting people to embrace personal finance services is quite a challenge with low financial education among consumers. No doubt, people are interested in upgrading themselves on financial matters but the common man finds it too difficult to keep up with the finance terms and jargons generally used in communications by companies. The situation however is slowly changing and finance companies are now resorting to new advertising tactics to reach consumers in better, enhanced ways. Listed below are a few ways advertising can help bring awareness about the personal finance sector:

1. Educational content to bridge the financial literacy gap

If you want someone to try a product, you would first need to convince them of its usefulness. The same thing applies to personal finance services too. While previously a major chunk of the advertising was focused solely on promoting the services, a shift to creating educational content can help people get naturally interested in the services. With advertising that demystifies personal finance, consumers are better able to comprehend its benefits. The first step is to break down the concepts in simple terms and advertising is an effective medium that can impart education to the common man in an interesting manner without boring them with lengthy explanations and complex language.

2. Fun and quirky ads on social media can entice younger generation

GenZ uses social media to follow current events, trends and connect with brands. Advertising on social media enables one to catch hold of consumers at places where they are most active. Social media is more of a fun and entertaining experience for people and finance companies can leverage this fun element to their advantage. Advertising personal finance services with fun and creative elements infused could be a real game changer. Fun and quirky ads will not just hook attention but effortlessly convey the features and benefits of services, ultimately building trust and encouraging participation from consumers. While finance is generally a dry subject, fun ads on social media can help build awareness around various financial services.

3. Promoting thought leadership content will help make informed decisions

Personal finance service companies can promote thought leadership content through advertising. As people are now more serious about managing their finances, they are genuinely eager to learn and brush up their financial knowledge. They want to know the current market trends and proactively align their financial plans in response to the dynamic market conditions. By tapping into the power of advertising, companies could promote thought leadership content that will inform the audience about the deeper nuances of the financial world. This will remove their apprehensions and encourage them to explore an array of financial services that are widely available but remain grossly underutilized.

4. Advertising can help empower consumers to independently explore the benefits of financial services

Advertising can be leveraged to empower consumers to utilize financial services with minimum assistance. Today’s consumers, especially millennials and GenZ, are hesitant to talk to customer support executives and would like to do things on their own in a hassle free manner. Companies could digitize their offerings and use advertising to empower consumers on ways to install an application or utilize their services in the best possible manner. Advertisements employing storytelling techniques could help get the message across quickly, bring in a human factor and motivate consumers to sign up for the services.

Advertising can be a powerful tool to raise awareness about personal finance services. Though companies are offering a wide gamut of financial services, only 27% of the Indian population is financially literate as per a recent study conducted by the National Centre for Financial Education. This staggeringly low level of literacy can be overcome with smart advertising that arms the common man with enough knowledge on prudent money management. With the rapid acceleration in digitization during COVID, reaching consumers has never been easier. Advertising can go a long way in raising awareness if used correctly and it’s high time companies get innovative with ad campaigns to get more people interested in the art of managing finance!

The author of this article is Mr. Arun Fernandes, Founder-CEO, Hotstuff Medialabs

The views and opinions expressed are not of IIFL Securities, indiainfoline.com