The financial services industry faces many challenges when it comes to creating and maintaining a consistent brand. Given the strict legal and compliance guidelines, how can organizations develop a marketing strategy that can engages their community and supports scalable growth?

On September 29th, Adobe Workfront sponsored Transforming Financial Services Internal Processes For Engagement at Scale , a thought leadership discussion featuring industry experts to talk through their experiences growing a creative team that can maintain a heavy workload while also reinventing their company’s brand image to better engage with new and existing customers.

Here are a few key takeaways from our conversation:

1. Follow the data

Nicole Oliha from City National Bank believes in the power of data to inform brand strategy. “Creative is so subjective,” she said, “[but] brand is not what we say it is. It’s what our clients say it is.”

A data-driven strategy is key to increasing engagement with consumers. Data can challenge creative’s assumptions when they’re faced with decisions, and it provides evidence of behaviors that can drive strategy going forward.

2. Content is king

“I think one of the hallmarks of the age we live in is that we are all… huge consumers of content,” said Chris O’Neal of Workfront. Demand for content seems higher than it ever has been before, so how do you get eyes on the content you’re creating?

Content needs to be specific, with a unique point-of-view, to stand out from the crowd, so finding your brand’s voice (and determining your target audience) is important to building engagement.

3. Sometimes, less is more

Content is often free and accessible, so marketing leaders need to be considerate with what they put in front of consumers to keep the audience from disengaging.

“One of our weaknesses as a firm was just sending too many emails,” said Matt Coyleof Purpose Financial. “We were actually having people unsubscribe [due to the sheer volume].” Less frequent, but more impactful, content is a more powerful approach in this crowded digital landscape.

4. Create a north star

Nicole Oliha discovered on her first day of her new job that no one on her design team was creating work they were proud of or would include in their portfolio. “We needed a north star,” she said.

She hired a team to find their brand positioning and help establish a guiding brand voice, which not only guides the creative team, but the entire bank’s mission. Without brand focus and direction, it’s much harder to develop cohesive and effective creative strategy.

5. Manage your team’s burnout

In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to fight against burnout across your organization. In a remote office environment, it’s harder to stay aware of how many hours employees are working, if they’re maintaining a healthy work-life balance, etc.

Matt Coyle described the challenges of giving his team time off. “When the lines are blurred between work and home, what is and isn’t a vacation?” He recently implemented a policy of additional standardized days off as well as an unlimited vacation day policy to combat stress and burnout.

Want to hear more about managing creatives in finance? Access the full event content by filling out the form at the top of this page.