Revolutionizing Personalized Marketing in BFSI Industry with the power of Location-Based Targeting

In recent times, we observed that the paucity of time has reduced the attention span of customers and intense competition has resulted in shifting of their loyalties. Hence, personalization or targeting has become the need of the hour. As quoted by Salesforce, “70% of consumers say a company’s understanding of their personal needs influences their loyalty”. [source]. Adobe also highlights that “66% of consumers say encountering content that isn’t personalized would stop them from making a purchase”. [source].

The BFSI industry relies heavily on trust and loyalty of its customers, and personalization provides a means of building and maintaining that trust. Personalization here, refers to the customization of financial services to meet individual customer needs and preferences, which in turn improves customer experience and increases customer satisfaction. Additionally, personalization can also help organizations increase revenue and profitability by promoting cross selling and up selling. 

With evolving personalization across the industry, marketers and advertisers started delivering different content or advertisements to consumers based on their geographic locations, which is referred to as Geo-Targeting. Geolocation data which is collected either via GPS, IP addresses, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth beacons can be used by companies for personalized recommendations, notifications and promotions increasing the likelihood of conversion and customer loyalty. The Geo Marketing market size is expected to reach USD 32.5 billion by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 25%. [source] 

In today's world of digital marketing, Geo-Targeting has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses across industries especially, to target Millennials and GenZ customers. The rise of mobile banking and the increasing popularity of online financial services in BFSI industry has increased the importance of Geo-Targeting. Personalized Marketing and Geo-Targeting combined helps to create highly targeted campaigns that deliver personalized messages to customers in a specific location. By utilizing Geo-Targeting, financial service providers can reach their target audience in a more effective and efficient way, ultimately increasing customer engagement and driving revenue growth. 

The global BFSI industry players are leveraging Geo-Targeting in their marketing strategies in following ways: 

• Targeting customers with personalized content based on location: Financial Institutions can send personalized content, targeted messages, offers, and promotions to customers who are located within a specific area. By targeting customers in specific geographic areas and including offering content related to local financial events or providing location-specific financial advice, financial institutions can build stronger relationships with customers in those areas, ultimately leading to increased customer loyalty and retention. Also, insurers can use Geo-Targeting to target customers from disaster affected area and offering them specific policies for their coverage in such scenarios. 

• Improving customer experience through location-based services: By leveraging location data, financial institutions can offer a range of services that can enhance the customer experience, such as location-based alerts and notifications. For example, a bank could send a notification to a customer when they are close to an ATM or branch location. This way, banks can increase the customer satisfaction. 

• Increasing traffic to physical branches: While digital banking and online financial services have become increasingly popular, physical branch locations are still an important part of the BFSI industry. Geo-Targeting can be used to drive foot traffic to physical branches by offering promotions and incentives to customers who are located within a certain geographic area.  

Besides the examples mentioned above, few other potential use cases for Geo-Targeting in financial industry are: 

• Fraud Prevention: A bank can use Geo-Targeting to monitor unusual transactions that occur outside of a customer's typical geographic location. The bank can then flag this as a potential fraud attempt and notify the customer to verify the transaction. 

• Branch/ATM Locator: A bank can use geolocation data to help customers locate the nearest branch or ATM. This can be especially helpful for customers who are traveling or are in an unfamiliar area. 

• Loan Approval: In some cases, a bank may use geolocation data to verify a customer's location before approving a loan application.  

• Financial Planning: A bank can use geolocation data to gain insights into a customer's spending habits and offer personalized financial planning advice. 

• Risk management: Financial institutions, especially the insurance players can analyse data about the crime rate, economic indicators, and other factors that affect the financial well-being of customers in a specific area, helping the customer to make informed financial decisions. 

The broad use of geolocation-based interaction heralds a new era of real-time predictive customization. It all comes down to targeting the correct audience using location, communicating in real-time, and then creating a better experience from start to finish. In the end, whether its targeting customers based on location, offering personalized content, improving the customer experience, or increasing foot traffic to physical branches, Geo-Targeting can help financial service providers achieve their marketing goals and drive growth in today's competitive marketplace.