Financial services, including Banking, Insurance, Credit Cards, Forex, and Crypto brokers, are among the most competitive verticals in the online world. Leads are expensive, with some keywords in Google AdWords costing North of $9.30 per click. There's no lack of competition, and it takes deep pockets to run any kind of effective campaign.
Further evidence of these extreme competition levels comes from a quick look at the various affiliate plans offered to affiliates. Forex brokers pay anything up to $900 CPM for a verified account with an FTD (First Time Deposit) of $250 for Tier-1 countries. If that's what affiliates can make, then the in-house cost for bringing in an FTD must be at least the same level.
Paying $900 for a $250 commitment doesn't work, though, if your up-sells don't make up the difference. With ESMA's leverage limits, a $250 account will only ever be trading micro-lots, with the trading commissions being equally low.
The game is won or lost in your Retention department. Unless your retention agents can get additional deposits, your brokerage is unlikely to recover the $900 affiliate payout. You have to get subsequent deposits from your FTDs to make the trading commissions you need for your brokerage to realize a profit.
Financial services have a cumbersome inbound element:
- Has a client received all their necessary logins and platform links (if required)?
- Has a client supplied all their necessary KYC and Compliance documents?
- Has a client taken any necessary regulatory questionnaires?
- Has a client's funding method been approved?
- Has a client had any deposits declined and if Yes, why?
- Is a client facing a potential margin call?
These and more affect your retention metrics. Miss the mark on any of these, and that elusive re-deposit or upsell will soon start to fade into the distance.
With the regulatory constraints faced by companies in the financial services verticals, your sales and retention departments need to have their eyes focused firmly on the ball. You really can't afford to leave clients waiting for account logins, for example, or any other necessary communications. If you don't let your clients know what account funding options they can choose from, you're unlikely to get too many deposits.
Web services and online platforms have seen tremendous advances over the last few years, and the client journey has become far more streamlined. That's a good thing, but it does come with one downside. Clients today are impatient. They expect everything to happen at the click of a button, and when that doesn't happen, your business will lose clients.
That's where your CRM comes into play. Your CRM should give you a quick but extensive view of the client's journey at every step of the way. Has the client received all the information they need to start doing business with you? Have you sent any necessary KYC or questionnaire requirements? Does your client know how to fund their account and how to start doing business with you?
That and more should be part of the automation flows in your CRM. You could do it with endless Excel sheets instead of a CRM but good luck with that one!
Spending more time on administration means less time left for anything else. Effective sales and retention departments rely on a timely flow of information and feedback. There's no point trying to get a second deposit from a client if their first deposit attempt failed or their KYC documentation didn't pass your compliance.
Without a single platform to track all your customer interactions, important messages can be lost. That leads to clients left waiting, which in turn leads to less than satisfactory results for your sales and retention.
Clients might well be communicating with your company through various avenues such as phone calls, email messages, social media, instant messaging. If you can't track all these, inevitably, you'll be missing some client communications. That, in turn, leads to a lost client.
Your customer relationship management (CRM) solution should help you keep your clients happy by organizing all client information updated and available to your teams to build those all-important relationships that keep your clients engaged with your brand and services. More engagement means more deposits and higher trading commissions for your brokerage. That's the only effective way to minimize client churn and keep your ROI looking healthy.
It helps keep your affiliates happy as well as you can continue to pay those $900 CPA commissions!
Is your business in the financial services verticals, and you need some help with your client journey? Talk to the Antelope System experts, and we'll show you how to optimize your business for the best possible ROI.
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