The Financial Marketing Institute’s Digital Marketing of Financial Services research initiative has empowered financial marketing executives with critical data and insights since 2010. It represents the most comprehensive research conducted in digital marketing and media for several major sectors of the financial services industry: Asset Management, Wealth Management, Life Insurance, P&C Insurance, Retail Banking and Credit Unions. The research is designed to equip Financial Services firms with the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding their investment in digital marketing and media, and to benchmark a firm’s performance against competitors in the industry.
There are three major components of the 2024 FMI Research Initiative:
Digital Engagement Benchmarks
The Financial Marketing Institute has created industry benchmarks based on over 20 influential digital engagement metrics. Industry insights are also given across several financial services verticals, including: Wealth Management, Asset Management, Life Insurance, P&C Insurance, Retail Bankingand Credit Unions. All benchmarks will be accessible online via a dynamic, web-enabled dashboard by our sponsor participant companies.
Company-Specific Benchmarks are provided for the top 100 companies in all verticals analyzed in five key channels of digital engagement.
- Social Media: Engagement rate, Conversation rate, and more on 5 different social platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Instagram & YouTube
- Website: Pages per visit, Average visit duration, Bounce rate, and more from 7 different traffic sources
- Mobile App: Open rate, Monthly active users, Session per user, etc.
- Display Ads: Cost per click, Conversion rate, Bounce rate, etc.
- Email: Open rate, Click-Through-Rate, Conversion rate, etc.
Quantitative Digital Experience Models & Benchmarks
The Financial Marketing Institute has developed rigorous, proprietary Digital Experience Models by which we Evaluate, Score, Rank and Analyze the top 100 firms in the U.S. in : (1) Asset Management, (2) Wealth Management, (3) Life Insurance,(4) P&C Insurance, (5) Retail Banking and (6) Commercial Banking.
The five Digital Experience Models by which each firm is evaluated, scored, ranked and analyzed are:
- 1. Website Experience Model
- 2. Social Media Experience Model
- 3. Mobile Experience Model
- 4. Customer Experience Model
- 5. Brand Experience Model [NEW in 2025]
Financial Services Industry Surveys & Benchmarks
The Financial Marketing Institute conducts focus groups, in-depth interviews and field six surveys to the following groups and generating invaluable industry benchmarks:
- 1. Financial Marketers: Organizational Dynamics, Budget Allocation, Digital Agency/Vendor Procurement, Digital Media Usage, Digital Content Distribution, CX Management, Key Digital Metrics and Measurement, AgileMarketing, Marketing Technology Usage and Practices
- 2. Financial Intermediaries: Digital Platform Usage & Importance, Digital Tools, Digital Analytics, Digital Prospecting, Digital Content Distribution, Mobile Usage, Blog Consumption & Usage, Compliance, Robo-Advisor Trends and Usage, Customer Experience
- 3. Individual Retail Investors: Financial Advisor Relationship, Digital Self-Service, Digital Investor Support, Financial Content Importance & Consumption, Usage of Mobile Devices and Apps, Digital Advertising Effectiveness, Digital Media Usage
- 4. Institutional Investors: Provider Satisfaction, Investment Tools/Information, Primary Communication Channels with Provider, Digital Content Consumption, Outside Custodial Firms and Third-Party Administrators, Information Sources, Blog Consumption, Social Media/Video Sharing Sites, Usage and Importance of Mobile Devices
- 5. Employee Plan Sponsors: Provider Satisfaction, Sponsor Benefits Selection Criteria, Preferred Communication Channels, Digital Triggers prompting Plan Sponsor Engagement, Benefit Plan Related Content (Frequency, Preferred Channels, etc.), Online Advertising by Providers
- 6. P&C Insurance Consumers: Triggers for Switching Providers, Preferred Digital Communications Channels, Communication Frequency with Agent/Broker, Digital Insurance-Related Activities, Insurance Website Engagement, Digital Customer Service, Online Advertising Consumption, Digital Media Usage, Sources for Insurance -Related Information, Prioritization of Insurance Topics
The 2024 research initiative will also be expanded to include focus on 11 additional key and interrelated areas of importance for Financial Marketing Leaders:
- Talent, Organization and Culture
- Strategy and Planning
- Agile Marketing
- Data, AI and MarTech
- Legal and Compliance
- Product and Service Innovation
- Strategic Partnerships & Growth
- Digital Media
- Customer Experience Innovation
- Dynamic Pricing
- Analytics, Measurement and Optimization