Hey everyone, needing some creative help. I work in the financial and accounting industry doing marketing. I am trying to come up with some creative social media campaigns, but running into problems with 1. A “boring” industry, 2. A highly regulated industry, and 3. Lack of staff interaction. Looking forward any advice if you all have been in a creative rut- or how to get employee engagement. Thanks!

Need to know more about your objectives (engagement, awareness, leads.) In terms off content, it's important to understand the buyer persona and a good strategist will know how they think (or start beginning to) and their respective painpoints and that's where targeting comes very important. What channels are you thinking off? Social, Search or GDN (Google Display Network.) Is it going to be B2B? Or B2C? What is the customer experiences like and do others know in the company know off it? As you can start conversations from these experiences to obtain buy-in. Asking those questions cause it's important to a clear direction and vision off what you're looking to achieve and what success in this campaign means and finding the why. Otherwise it's going to be chopping and changing mid-campaign, generally lots of it.

Get employee engagement through employee spotlight stories—focus more on your people? Humanization is big right now, “your accountants are people too” type thing. From crunching numbers to playing catch in the backyard. Any philanthropic endeavers. Mix in DE&I efforts here too. Something like this would work for both B2B and B2C. Depending on client size, sounds like you should look into a an employee ambassador program—there are paid Platforms out there to help manage it. That’ll require some investment and coordination, but may be a good strategic move. Start chatting some internal HR/comms folks up, put a bug in thier ear around it. Whats hot right now? - First off you’re approaching tax season. Gotta be something there. In people interest, how many hours do accountants rEaLLy work during tax season? - Ride the 🚀 with GME. may be a good way to get a quick lift (more for B2C). But how are you taxed? At what rate? There’s more amateurs playing the market now, bring some awareness to their new found interest in personal wealth. Take advantage of the warmed up market. - retirement during COVId? Are we seeing rates go up/down, stories around that. Reference insurance commercials. With jake from State Farm always there. Or the farmers with the random weird cases they’ve seen. Your accountant should be like that too. That type of friendly, person next door, always there, type persona. Seen and been through everything. Heighten the relationship between an accountant and client. Go to great lengths. Hero persona. Relook at your brand pillars and persona. Think of a creative way to play up one of the pillars. Make sure you stay within your archetype tho. If your brand is more buttoned up, and that’s what your audience expect, “fun” may look a little different. Good luck!

Following/Curious! ☺️

Try something provocative. Spent spent a number of years marketing in FinTech and the success I found Is when I found something on the edge. For example the mortgage lending, the idea of a complete in the end e-signature mortgage is disruptive. Legislation is not clear and the ability for e-notary across the country is a debate. when you get people talking about what technology could do do you speed up the process or to solve a business problem, you then become the expert in the field as long as you’re leading the conversation and not just following someone else. Our campaign at the time included top that leaders from the e-signature‘s Labi act, top mortgage loan origination system leaders, and high-end consumers trying to buy multi million dollar homes. By putting these peoples thoughts on the market our brand took precedence in the space. After three years of this we were acquired. The strategy was connected to brand equity and increasing the value of our brand.

Head over to the pharma bowl and post this. We also work in a boring regulated industry that faces these same challenges

I had this problem when I worked in social for a finance company (3 total including banking, accounting, and investing) which are all boring and regulated... but unlike pharma, allow you to be interesting in how you explain things. You can explain a financial concept using beavers and baseball bats. But only if you know the concept like you went to school for it. Once I figured that out... it got nerdy but I had fun and the clients warmed up.

Would start with a people-led approach by activating leadership and employees as brand ambassadors

What drives your creative decisions now? How well do you know what resonates with your customers? Have any compelling data?

What is the primary goal for your campaign--gain followers, increase engagement, drive brand awareness? Can you share a bit more detail about what your company does? Do you sell a product or a service?

What is the business impact of the campaign and how does that support the goals of the staff you expect interaction from? There are no boring industries. Only limits on one's own creative capacity

Have you figured out who you are really speaking to, not who you think you’re speaking to? Then figure out how to speak to both of them? Also, on what channels?