If you’ve been in the industry long enough you’ve likely come across some forex marketing fails. Maybe you’ve made some yourself. But fails, slips and misses are an opportunity to learn and become a better forex marketer. Forex marketing departments come under intense pressure to deliver campaigns that are exciting, localised and compliant. Producing a slew of content, ensuring internal stakeholders are happy and getting campaigns out quickly is the perfect environment for mistakes to happen. And these can lead to wasted resources, damage to your brand and even regulatory trouble. We’re taking a look at some of the most common forex marketing fails and how to avoid them.
#1 Using a Cold Email List
We’re coming out of the starting blocks with a big no-no, buying cold email lists. These lists are usually outdated, not targeted and usually without consent.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Poor engagement: We all hate receiving unsolicited emails. They clog up our inbox and waste our time. You also get low open and conversion rates. With today’s advanced spam filters, your email probably won’t even get seen.
- Regulatory risks: Laws like GDPR require consent of the recipient to have their data on your database.
- Bad look: As well as damaging your reputation you might get your domain blacklisted.
A better approach is to build your own organic email list by creating value-added content. This might be a trading eBook or specialised market report which is downloaded after subscribing. Using permission-based strategies like webinars and educational resources means you can attract a targeted and interested crowd.
#2 Overspending Without Proper Targeting
One of the worst things you can hear as a marketer on asking ‘who is your target market’, is “everyone”. Unless you have the deep pockets of the Coca-Cola Company chances are you won’t be able to reach everyone. The good thing is that you don’t need to.
When it come to your Google advertising, without proper targeting you might as well take a match to your budget. And when management start asking about ROAS, you might as well start packing.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Paying for clicks that don’t convert: Without precision targeting your customer acquisition costs will skyrocket.
- Wasteful: You have a limited budget, ads seen by an irrelevant audience are a waste of money.
- Regulatory risk: Showing ads that don’t comply to local regulations can lead to fines.
What you can do instead is adopt a data-driven approach to segmenting your audience and delivering appropriate ads. You can continue to optimise the creatives and landing pages to increase conversions. Ensure you have clearly defined KPIs and are regularly analysing campaign performance.
#3 Spamming People with Trading Charts
There might be a very small percentage of technical traders that love to look at charts. But these traders will look at them in their trading platform, not on your Facebook feed. Typical traders and newbies are left cold with images of charts on their social feeds and emails. Yes, a chart can deliver a lot of information succinctly but that doesn’t equate to more engagement.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Complicated: To beginner traders, charts are daunting and difficult to understand. The message you are trying to convey may be missed without further context.
- Low engagement: Technical analysis without actionable insights means low user interaction.
- Cheapens your brand: If your social walls and feeds are full of charts it conveys lazy marketing.
You can show trade charts, just be sure to include explanations of what is going on. Mix up your text with infographics or videos. Simplify the complexity of the data and make it more accessible with curated insights.
#4 Being Non-Compliant for Short-Term Wins
Ahh the good old days of showing off images like this one below. This is a surefire forex marketing fail.
Making promises of riches or running aggressive contests and bonuses in an attempt to attract traders has been restricted by regulators for many years now. While in some regions, these tactics might still work in the short term, they can lead to unwanted consequences.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Brand damage: Even if you operate in non-regulated regions, this approach cheapens your brand.
- Regulatory fines: ASIC, FCA, CySEC and most other financial authorities are likely to come down hard on these campaigns.
- Low-value traders: If you attract people to your brand that are looking for a cheap deal, then you end up with poor quality leads. If they convert, you can expect low deposits and poor retention.
By focusing on value-driven marketing through educational content or loyalty programmes, you can build a trusted and credible brand. Be sure to follow regulatory guidelines when designing promotions and play the long-game.
#5 Copying Other Brokers’ Content
Plagiarising content from other brokers is a bad route to take. There are thousands of brokers worldwide and their assets and trading offerings often overlap. You need to carve out a unique identity for your brand.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Bad for SEO: Duplicate content is penalised by Google impacting your ranking.
- No brand identity: Your website is your opportunity to stand out. Copying competitors is a missed opportunity and leads to users questioning your credibility.
- Legal implications: Copyright infringement of text, images and videos can lead to legal consequences.
Creating high-quality, unique content means you can customise it to your target audience. Develop your branded tone of voice (TOV) and messaging strategy and invest your own thought leadership strategy.
Need help developing strategic, unique content that is aligned with your brand and audience? Speak to the team at Contentworks Agency for a free consultation.
#7 Making a Podcast Without Planning
Podcasts can be a great way to engage traders, but launching one without a clear plan often leads to inconsistency, low listenership, and wasted resources.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Inefficient: A successful podcast needs careful planning, scripting, recording and editing. Then you have to promote it. You can’t skip any of these steps, especially the planning.
- No targeting: Defining your audience will help you decide on the correct content, duration and timing of your podcast, as well as how to promote it.
- Not standing out: It’s a competitive market for financial podcasts. You need a solid plan to differentiate and give compelling reasons to attract your audience. You also need charismatic, intelligent and entertaining presenters with great podcast voices who will commit to your podcast for the duration. All this is not as easy as sit sounds.
To create a successful podcast you need to research your audience, the market and competitors before you get started. Invest in good equipment and develop a content calendar. And ensure you have enough resources to promote it.
#8 Not Optimising for Mobile
20% of trades by US retail traders are conducted on mobile. If your website and trading platform are not optimised for different screens, then you risk losing clients.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Bad UX: Poor user experience leads to high bounce rates and low conversions.
- SEO penalties: Mobile friendly sites are prioritised by Google.
- Loss of customers: 20% is a significant portion of traders to miss out on!
Being able to offer a seamless trading experience across devices is the gold standard for forex brokers. Ensure all your touchpoints are mobile-optimised. This includes your website, landing pages and emails.
#9 Forgetting That Customer Support is a Marketing Tool
You spent a lot of money attracting and acquiring clients. Retention and increased Life-Time Value (LTV) are what all brokers are striving for.
Not convinced? Here are some quick acquisition vs retention stats you need to know:
- It can cost 5-25% more to acquire a new client than retain an existing one.
- Your current clients are 50% more likely to try new products and 31% spend more on average than new clients.
- Retained clients generate 65% of your company’s value, while new clients generate only 35%.
- By increasing your retention by 5%, you can increase profits 25-95%.
Your number one asset to retaining clients is your customer support. From your bots to your talented team of humans. Ignoring them is one of the massive forex marketing fails.
Why It’s a Fail:
- Negative reputation: Nothing is going to drive your disgruntled trader to a forum to complain faster than bad customer support.
- Lower retention: Rude, untrained or uninformed customer support leads to high churn rates.
- Missed referrals: Happy clients are more likely to refer others to your broker.
Make sure you invest in training and supporting your own customer support team. Use a mix of chatbots for round-the clock and straightforward FAQs, with your live team for more personalised and complex issues. Aim to service traders in the time zones they are in and the languages they speak. Continue to improve by gathering, and acting on, customer feedback to improve your service.
Let’s Improve Your Forex Marketing
In a busy forex marketing department, mistakes can happen. Avoiding some of the most common forex marketing fails means you can build a credible, trusted brand and maintain long-term growth. Avoid shortcuts, and focus on delivering value, being compliant and prioritising customer experience.
Are you guilty of any of these forex marketing fails? We won’t judge! Speak to Contentworks Agency about your forex marketing.