A new study that looks at our emotional relationship to money and how banks can capitalize on this, published by Cognizant (based on research conducted by Cognizant and ReD Associates), advises banks to better understand their customers’ relationship to money and focus on where those needs are not being met. Excerpts:

“Philippe Dintrans agrees that ‘the profusion of products and services being offered certainly add to the stress.’ But he points out that fintechs have been more successful in providing solutions for what he calls, ‘quick money.’ Quick money is the type of payments you make every day — paying the bills and buying the groceries. ‘Slow money,’ in contrast, is the kind of planned money transactions you make, be it retirement, college, or home buying. Fintechs, like Mint or Acorn, he says, have moved the dial for providing better quick money solutions.
‘The least digital progress has been made for the types of money that require the most assistance,’ says the study. The opportunity for banks and fintech is to look towards helping customers with more personalized experiences.

AI and other emerging technologies from both fintechs and traditional banks will make a more personalized environment for saving and investing, but the gig economy, health insurance uncertainties will continue to add a level of stress to slow money savings.”

The first thing you need to do is determine which roles your marketing efforts will require this year.

Some roles from last year might no longer apply if you found that they were ineffective for your strategy, and other roles might be added, depending on where you saw gaps.

Based off of previous marketing years, ask yourself these questions:

Answering these questions will help you determine which positions are going to be necessary for your marketing strategy and which you can do away with.

Every business will have different experiences with different marketing tactics, so don’t bank on someone else’s claims. Instead, analyze your last few years and ruthlessly determine what drove revenue, what didn’t, and how you can exploit both.

In the end, you’ll need to put together a detailed hierarchy of the positions you’ve decided are necessary for 2018. It might look something like this. Whatever the case, define your necessary positions with excruciating detail.

You’ll fill some of these positions with experts that you’ll hire, and you’ll fill others with current employs. You’ll probably cut some previous positions altogether, which will reorient people or outright downsize the company.

The important thing is this: iterate upon last year’s failures and successes to build a better strategy this coming year. And to do that, you need to determine which positions are going to take you to the top.

If you really plan to create a marketing dream team — if you’re here, you do — then you need to aim for the stars with who you hire and get rid of anyone who doesn’t meet your high standards.

This might sound harsh. And to be honest, it is.

It’s harsh because you’re not trying to build a mediocre marketing team. You’re not trying to build a C, B, or D-team. You’re trying to build an A-team. And to do that, you need to have high expectations.

To find extraordinary people, you need to have extraordinary standards.

The other benefit to having high expectations is that, if you’re vocal about them, your standards will separate the wheat from the chaff. That is, people who don’t have the necessary qualifications will be intimidated by your expectations and probably not even apply.

Who will apply?

The people who are completely confident in their ability to do the job and do it well.

High standards act as a gate to lousy workers.

Here’s a job description for a copywriter that does a nice job of raising the bar.