The impact of digital marketing in financial organizations in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The general indication from literature is that the effective application of digital marketing can lead to customer retention, customer loyalty and brand awareness. The major thrust of the study was to explore the effectiveness of digital marketing in financial organisation in improving brand awareness, fostering customer retention and cultivate customer loyalty with the case of financial organizations in Zimbabwe. The research was conducted in view of recommending measures for financial organisations to benefit from digital marketing. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews from the group’s employees and customers. Preliminary results show that financial organisations recently adopted the digital marketing concept but it’s not being fully utilised. Some reasons among them include no budgetary support. There is extensive use of traditional marketing methods in financial organisations. The study also indicated that there are two distinct groups of customers namely the X generation and the Y generation. The X generation are very loyal to the brand due to old age and because of this, the group’s market share is bound to decrease in the long run. The group should carry out a thorough market research to determine the level of awareness and the general perception on the market. Also, the group should hire a dedicated digital marketing manager so as to realise full benefits of digital marketing and incorporate digital marketing into the group’s strategic marketing communication. Most importantly the group should actively engage its clients using integrated marketing communication methods to increase the level of awareness. A good client relationship management system (CRM) should be in place together with very intelligent systems backed with modern, flexible and competitive products to cater for the generation Y so as to improve customer retention and loyalty