Date: October 2021

As I come to the end of my internship with Marketing Eye at their Melbourne office, I’ve finally been able to take the time and reflect on the skills that I have obtained and the knowledge I have gathered along the way. As a university student in their penultimate year, I was faced with the decision of what career I wanted to do once I graduated.

Marketing has always been a passion and interest of mine and I was so excited when I saw an internship opportunity available at Marketing Eye. The application process was very straightforward and I was invited to join the team for a few months after a phone interview with one of the marketing specialists. I will never be happier with my decision to intern at Marketing Eye as the experience I’ve obtained will enable me to approach future jobs with not only more confidence but more ability as well.

Instagram was launched in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and racked up 25,000 users in just one day. The app began with a primary focus for users to feature and post photographs, especially photographs taken from mobile phones. Instagram performed exceptionally well and had a whopping 27 million users by March 2012. Instagram’s success no doubt alarmed Facebook, which purchased Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion in cash and stock.

Ever since Facebook acquired Instagram, Facebook decided to add many different features to the already extremely popular app. These features included enabling users to post videos instead of just photographs as well as adding messaging on Instagram like Facebook, stories like Snapchat and later reels like TikTok. Maybe you’re already sensing a theme here but what Facebook was essentially trying to do is turn an originally user-focused app that was Instagram into a fighter social media platform to compete with other social media apps such as Snapchat and Facebook. This tactic worked well for Facebook initially but not in the long run. Why you may ask, well we’ll explain below.

LinkedIn has become a powerful tool that plays a critical role in connecting professionals and organisations across the world to make them more productive and successful. For financial services firms, the platform offers an opportunity to optimise their firm, grow their network and generate leads amongst new audiences. And yet, many financial services firms struggle to leverage their talent, their platform and their network to increase brand awareness and generate qualified leads. So how should financial services firms use LinkedIn?

Here are the four key ways that financial services firms should be using LinkedIn to their greatest benefit.

Reflecting back on my time as an intern at Marketing Eye, I am incredibly grateful for the knowledge and skills I have obtained from this journey.

Before Marketing Eye, I had worked under one other marketing internship position. Although the titles were very similar, the work was vastly different. My role at Marketing Eye pushed me to work individually and hold greater accountability for my work. My greatest challenge initially (as my supervising marketing executives can attest to) was finishing my tasks within the recommended timeframe. Previously, I had worked in a team to complete a blog post and we were given several days. However, Marketing Eye pushed my ability to complete blog posts by myself, within at least a day. Initially, I could not comprehend finishing a blog post within a couple of hours as I would agonise and perfect each sentence as I went; making sure that each line was perfect. 

I eventually learned that this is an ineffective way to approach my tasks.

As a second-year commerce student, and someone who has always been interested in the In’s and Out’s of marketing, being offered an internship with Marketing Eye was a dream come true. Whilst I do love my university degree and am no doubt learning the key fundamentals that will assist me in my future careers, it is all relatively theoretical. At Marketing Eye, and in my position as an intern, I was given the chance to actively use the skills I have been taught, engage with real-life tasks, and ask deeper industry-specific questions. 

Video content is an essential part of your marketing strategy for your financial service firm. From explaining the benefits of intangible investment products to encouraging people to open up a savings account, video content has a strong potential to not only increase ROI for marketing but also improve your relationship with your customers.

Marketing within the finance sector can be complex due to the heavy regulatory and compliance factors involved when handling such products. As the COVID-19 pandemic has proven, financial services are essential for all individuals, no matter what walks of life they may come from. However, such a necessary service can come with difficulty for businesses to differentiate their own service from others.   Therefore, it is of utmost importance for financial service firms to have strong impactful marketing.  This is especially important when taking into account the digitalization of customer interactions. 

Read on further to learn about 5 proven digital marketing strategies which are effective for financial service firms.

There are no two ways about it. Email marketing is one of the most popular, cost-effective and highest performing marketing channels currently available. A recent eMarketer study shows that the average ROI of email marketing is 122%. The ROI of email marketing is approximately four times higher than its next closest competitor. Every study shows us that email marketing is performing well and looks to remain the case for years to come.

While a marketing consultant is not essential to the success of your business, employing one with industry experience will certainly help to streamline a company's marketing efforts. Employed as an external advisor, a marketing consultant will bring their expertise to your business to plan and execute proven marketing strategies. A consultant understands the customer's unique needs, analyses market insights, processes and issues. All this garnered information is combined with their knowledge to suggest and apply solutions that will improve your company's marketing efforts. 

Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer. Lead generation plays a pivotal role in the success of professional services firms looking to grow through 2022; therefore, professional firms should not overlook its importance. Below are five ways that professional services firms can improve their lead generation capabilities.