Rapid urbanization, increased awareness about financial markets and improved digital literacy have resulted in a steady growth of new investors entering the global trading scenario. When we mention trade, many think about the practice of investments flowing into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. While this is true, did you know there are trading environments that humble even the largest global stock exchanges in terms of transaction volume?
Yes, we are talking about the global Forex trading ecosystem. If we look at volumes, the average daily volume of transactions at the New York Stock Exchange, which is the world’s largest stock exchange, peaks at around USD 1.1 trillion. The global Forex trading market however sees an average daily volume of USD 6.6 trillion.
Even as the volume and size of the global Forex trade are significantly higher than other financial trading systems, it is also one of the most regulated and competitive environments for brokerage firms. This blog is for them, and how they can drive up their investor base.
Brokerage firms traditionally offer the platform on which expert traders, novice investors, and professionals looking to broaden their investment portfolios make investment bets on global currencies. This is where they conduct daily trade. With the rise of technology-driven platforms, online trading for Forex markets has now become a mainstay in all segments of the industry.
But strict regulatory monitoring, tough market competition, and dynamic market conditions often make it very challenging for brokerage firms to acquire customers with manageable costs. Certain markets even impose restrictions on the type of marketing or advertising themes that brokerage firms can deploy to acquire new customers. Additionally, the need to comply with transparency regulations adds more complexity to the programs they can use to attract existing customers to trade more. There is a challenge in terms of attracting new customers to the investment approach, acquiring investors from other brokerages, and making the investors on the platform trade more. After all, it’s only when the trading volumes pick up with the investors and the forex trading houses owning the platform make money!
So how can brokerage firms enable more cost-effective customer acquisition and also encourage existing customers to trade more on their brokering platforms?
The answer may lie in leveraging a completely new marketing/customer acquisition channel that taps the power of innovation to drive up the engagement of users.
Let us examine 4 ways in which the relationships between traders and a brokerage firm can be solidified with some fun and games along the way.
Kickstart Activity 
Gamification brings in a more emotionally rewarding experience for customers both new and existing when they explore more trading volumes within the brokering platform. For new beginners, brokerages can use a simulated environment to help customers experiment without risks and see how rewarding the experience can be. They can be given virtual funds which can be freely used to recreate a real-time trading experience. As they progress in their learning journey, customers will naturally feel the urge to try out the actual platform and see how well their trading skills have been honed from the trial or training sessions. This ensures newly acquired users stick around and become power users.
Foster better learning
By setting up a learn-to-win strategy on training sessions, brokerage firms can encourage customers to become more aware of trading best practices and winning shots by subscribing to learning programs. The milestones or goals of every lesson learned can be shared by customers on their social media accounts directly from the trading platform. By integrating social channels, gamification empowers social validation, a key behavioural trait that attracts more trading and learning activities on the brokering platform. This also brings in a much-needed element of virality across the social networks.
Promotes Competitive Progress
For existing users and customers on trial accounts, gamification can be used to create an engaging trading experience that rewards them for milestones, achievements, explorations, and much more. By creating a gamified version of the trading experience, customers are offered a highly competitive landscape where they are rewarded in the form of badges or certificates or virtual medals for every progressive action, and they are ranked on a leaderboard based on milestones or achievements that have been realized. This creates a highly competitive mindset for customers to learn more about trading practices from their dedicated training programs and explore more options with best practices to succeed in their trading bets. The scorecards or medal tally promotes healthy competition which is a win-win for both the brokerage firm as well as customers as they would focus more on diligently executing trading practices for guaranteed wins and a better position on the rankings.
Integrated Marketing
Forex marketing is a highly competitive and regulated industry, and brokers must comply with various laws and regulations to ensure fair and transparent trading practices. In addition to the engaging learning experiences that can be offered to customers, brokerage firms can ideate and launch more interactive sessions like competitive games or contests, social media partnered influencer sessions, etc. that help promote their trading platform to more customers by amplifying the visibility. Participation in these contests or influencer sessions can be rewarded and used as a lever to help customers move up their scoreboard or rankings.
Forex trading has a very huge impact in the global financial markets but very often brokerage firms find it challenging to channel this potential into customer-centric offerings and lure investors. It’s time to leave the old ways behind and explore new digital channels designed to appeal to the digital native of today. By bringing in a gamified approach to their brokerage platform, it becomes easier to lure potential traders as well as encourage existing traders to transact more. Brokerage firms need to pick the right gamification strategy and integrate the right tools to leverage this trend and improve their business prospects. Get in touch with us to explore more about driving gamified customer acquisition and business growth strategies to scale your Forex business without risks.
