Gen Z is emerging as a significant force in the marketplace. As digital natives, their preferences, behaviors, and expectations are shaping the future of financial services. For financial institutions, engaging this tech-savvy and socially conscious generation requires innovative, thoughtful, and out-of-the-box strategies. Here are some strategies and channels that financial institutions can tap into to start to cultivate relationships with the next generation of their potential customers.
Embrace Digital Transformation
Financial institutions must prioritize digital transformation to meet Gen Z’s expectations for seamless digital experiences. Develop and enhance mobile applications that offer a wide range of functionalities, from account management and payments to financial planning and investment options. Leverage AI and machine learning to offer personalized financial advice, detect fraudulent activities, and improve customer service through chatbots and virtual assistants, which can help tailor experiences to individual needs. Finally, invest in advanced cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive data and build trust with this tech-savvy generation. These investments can demonstrate that your institution is forward-thinking and innovative, which is enticing to teenagers as they enter adulthood.
Foster Financial Literacy
Gen Z values education and seeks to make informed financial decisions. The challenge is that they’re often confronted with misleading messaging or conflicting advice from different sources, so they don’t know who to trust. Financial institutions can build trust and engagement by offering research-backed and compelling resources and tools that enhance financial literacy. Partnerships with schools through an education provider like EVERFI can help ensure that digital financial literacy content is tailored to the needs and interests of Gen Z students, because of the trust we’ve built with school districts.
Promote Social Responsibility
Gen Z is highly motivated by social and environmental causes. Financial institutions can attract and retain these customers by demonstrating a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Engage with local communities through volunteer programs, sponsorships, and charitable initiatives. You can then highlight these efforts in marketing campaigns to showcase the institution’s commitment to positive social impact. Regularly report on CSR initiatives and their outcomes and be accountable for any shortcomings or areas for improvement. This kind of transparency is appealing to young people and plays a large role in their decision-making as it relates to the brands they currently, and will in the future, attach themselves to.
Offer Innovative Financial Products
Gen Z is open to exploring new and innovative financial products that cater to their unique needs and preferences. Offer digital-only banking options with features such as no-fee accounts, high-interest savings, and instant transfers. Ensure these accounts are easy to open and manage online. Develop micro-investing and savings tools that allow customers to invest small amounts of money with ease. Additionally, find opportunities to get parents involved in their children’s banking experience by letting them transfer allowance money into a savings account or being able to oversee that account themselves.
Cultivate In-Person Connections
It’s one thing to provide helpful resources and services that young people can leverage on their own time or in a controlled setting, but it’s another to connect with them directly. Finding opportunities to foster relationships with Gen Z, whether 1:1 or through an organized event, can help connect the dots on financial concepts and help build trust. EVERFI has witnessed this first hand seeing our partners volunteer in schools through events cultivated via the Classroom Connect teacher hand-raiser tool. When volunteers from financial institutions come into the classroom, they not only breathe life into digital financial literacy courses, making them more easily digestible, but they can also introduce students to an institution’s services, scholarships, and mentorship opportunities. These events are very strategic in that they help create human connections, which is vital for building long-term relationships with financial institutions.
Have an Investment in Financial Education in Schools be Your Strategy
Reaching future Gen Z customers requires financial institutions to adapt and innovate continuously. Those institutions that proactively address their needs and preferences will be well-positioned for success. Sponsoring financial education in schools is an actionable, strategic, a unique way to reach the next generation of potential customers in a trusted and controlled setting. Learn how a partnership with EVERFI can be an impactful step towards achieving your institution’s goals by going to everfi.com/sponsorship.