What Financial Services & Insurance Marketers Need To Know About Managing Listings

Research shows that 83 percent of customers perform online research before visiting a bank branch* — and when customers make those searches, they're likely to see financial service institutions' online listings.

It might surprise you, but business listings receive 2.7x more views than a brand's owned website. In other words, they're often the "digital front door" — and if you want customers to visit your branches or take other action, it pays to care about them.

With that in mind, let's dive into the relationship between physical and digital distribution channels — and find out how financial services and insurance companies can gain a competitive advantage as they focus on managing and optimizing their listings.

Let's get "phygital"

Let's zoom out for a moment to take a look at the retail banking industry: in 2022, 2,927 banks closed in the US. This led to downstream challenges as new-to-bank balances originated in the branch grew 10x versus digitally-originated accounts. Digital channels lacked the in-person onboarding and cross-selling that financial professionals provided in the branch. But it's not about having to choose; rather, it's about balancing physical channels using digital with "phygital" storefront strategies to help serve clients at scale.

There are actually more physical locations related to banking in 2022 than in 2021 if we factor in Interactive Teller Machines (ITMs). 33% of banks have deployed between 100-500 ITMs in 2022, while 60% of firms plan to deploy them in the next 1-3 years. Successful banks are creating more diverse distribution channels focused on high-touch (ex. branch and microbranch strategy), low-touch (ex. virtual and ITM models), and no-touch models (ex. digital direct, robo-advisor)

This is where listings come in. Instead of expecting your customer to find your physical storefront, you need to bring your online storefront to them. Think of a listing as an online business card about your locations (including ITMs) and your financial professionals. They help potential and existing customers 1. Find you and 2. Choose to do business with you.

(Remember, these listings receive 2.7x more views than your brand's website. They're critical to the customer journey as people read reviews, investigate FAQs, and look through financial education material or products before going into a store or talking to a financial professional.)

Your listings also provide you with valuable insights. In July 2022, Google updated what can be tracked on Google Business Profiles. Below are some of the new key performance indicators from Google:

• Business Conversations - The number of message conversations received on the business profile.

• Business Bookings - The number of bookings received from the business profile.

• Search Keywords - The search keywords used to find your business in Google search or maps.

Google also updated other parameters such as map views, search views, website actions, phone actions, and driving direction actions. All of these can help businesses gain a more holistic view of how customers are interacting with their business online.

How financial services and insurance companies should manage their listings

To get granular on the "how to," here are tips for financial services institutions looking to get the most out of their listings.

1. Manage all of your entities.

The more entities you manage — i.e., the more robust and accurate information you can provide for your customers – the better. Entities for financial services that can be managed include:

Locations

• Branches

• ATMs, ITMs, and Kiosks

Financial Professionals

• Mortgage Loan Officers

• Wealth Advisors

• Business Bankers

• Insurance Agents

2. Claim and update your business profile for locations and people to make sure they are accurate, complete, and engaging

• Keep store hours up-to-date

• Manage and respond to reviews.

• Add photos

• Add in-store products and services

• Add relevant attributes for your entity and industry.

These "relevant attributes" include:

• Service Options: how customers can receive products and services

• Highlights: interesting details about the business

• Page Url: where the customers can start or complete transactions

• Accessibility: accommodations for shoppers with accessibility needs

• Dining Options: many banks do have cafes

• Amenities: Features for your business such as wifi, coffee, cookies, water, etc

• Payments: how customers can pay for products and services

• About this person: information about financial professionals

• Offerings: details about the products and services

3. Leverage posts to communicate with your customers

Google Posts allow you to communicate directly with your customers in a place where they are already looking for information. Here are some ideas for posts:

• Exciting updates: customer testimonials, case studies, industry news

• Photos of financial professionals or community events

• Be an authority on your industry: include tips and best practices like "6 steps to finding your perfect house"

• Calls to actions (like a call to follow the bank on social media, etc)

Finally, make sure that the page that your listing drives to is optimized for search using schema, fast page loads, 1st party reviews, clear call to actions, and lots of information relevant to the entity. Creating optimized local landing pages for your website actually helps your listings perform better too.

By adopting a listings management strategy, financial services and insurance companies can more effectively blend the digital and physical worlds, deliver a better customer experience, and improve their search ranking to win more customers.

Ready to learn more? Click here to discover how you can drive more traffic with Find a Financial Professional.

*Internal Yext data 2021