Among the foremost ongoing considerations within the retail FX and binary options sales business is the increasingly challenging aspect of client acquisition and retention.
A great many companies commit tremendous resources toward attracting a consistent stream of new business within an industry sector which is reliant on continual renewal of business, not on a day to day basis, but a minute by minute basis.
The need to remain abreast of competition and generate new custom has given rise to some ingenious and innovative methodologies, one of which is Toonimo, which brings custom animation to the websites of retail firms, with FX and binary options being an area of concentration.
Based in Israel, home to a disproportionately large number of highly advanced and forward thinking technology companies which have given the world many innovations across all sectors of industry, Toonimo’s ethos is in making websites more engaging and lucrative by adding custom animations.
The company gained a $2.5 million venture capital investment in July this year, in a round of funding that was led by Tuvia Barak who is associated with the Carlyle group.
LeapRate today spoke to the company’s Director of Partnerships & Sales Neil Amrani, and Marketing Director Eran Dangot in order to discuss the methodology behind Toonimo, and how it aims to reshape the way by which retail clients engage with FX firms.
Mr. Amrani explained that thus far, Toonimo has been on boarded by eToro, BTG Options, and 99 binary with South African FX firm ACM Gold going live shortly, as well as being in advanced discussions with FinFX.
“We wanted to create a means by which FX firms can send a targeted message to visitors to their sites, where they want to say it and when they want to say it. FX companies are spending so much money to get people to come to their sites, they have their very similar actions such as “open a demo account,” however one of the main barriers is that there is no real engagement” explained Mr. Amrani.
“Our differentiating factor is that we can engage the client through behavioral triggered media display, press and play, disappearing animation, time delay as well as what is most important in this vertical is an exit strategy. If clients are engaged, and they are being greeted as if they are on the other side of the desk, this makes the entire marketing and client onboarding process much softer, reduces the bounce rate, points and guide clients to the site navigation and calls to action, thus conversion is much higher” he continued.
Mr. Dangot confirmed to LeapRate that “We are seeing very good results, especially with eToro. To me it’s a no brainer, the goal of the FX industry is to collect a lead and have the sales team contact them. If we can guide them, then we can impact the visitor with a personal theme when they come to a site.”
In terms of customer support, Toonimo considers it important to reduce phone calls. With its solution, animated characters pop out when needed and explain specific items. “Most marketing efforts are centered around company websites with similar tag lines such as “deposit now”, which are all the same and aggressive. We have the tools to achieve same objective but less aggressively, and in a fun way. We have a full suite which measures conversions, physical lead count, how to monitor success of each campaign” stated Mr. Amrani.
“I think that the goal to understand here is that companies are spending so much money just to get clients to deposit. They need a way to engage people when potential clients get to the site. If we can get them interested and generate initial interest, then that is also good. Companies can then monitor engagement level thereafter using our tools” Mr. Dangot enthused.
When discussing with LeapRate the factors which led to the development of this ingenious methodology, Mr. Amrani explained “Forex by nature is similar to gaming. People are hesitant to take the next step, clients don’t like to reach into their pockets. We decided to create a soft engagement, which reduces the barriers to break down the walls and make it easier for the clients to accept the contact when the sales team calls. Animations can all be customized to suit, and every script is different.”
“I always think of a scenario which is relevant here- When someone comes to the site, there is really only 7 to 15 seconds before that potential client closes the site and moves on. What I ask when looking at a site I am visiting is “what’s your elevator pitch here? Win me over!” I’d say 90% of the people as a target audience do not reflect what is on company websites. On the landing pages, when looking at main messages, companies post claims such as almost 20,000 accounts already opened! This limits companies. With animations you are not limiting anything as this can underline the call to action and make it personalized. This has led to a 27% average increase in conversion to these companies” he continued.
Mr. Dangot added “We can guide the customer through an entire process. For example, the automated software which has become very widely used in FX. With Toonimo companies can guide customers through aspects relating to Expert Advisors, copy trading systems, automated strategies and further complexities which are not always understandable immediately on first glance. Toonimo will explain how to get started, and what specific points mean with much less text and much more voice, explanation and visual elements.
He concluded by explaining that “Many companies in the FX industry are willing to try different things in order to acquire clients, however some methods such as live chat have still led to the same difficulties. If that only shows 1.8% Engagement at its highest level, what about the other 98%? Potential clients are still hesitant to engage. The key here is to ensure most prospects are hearing the message. When animation comes up, the client takes notice.”
A visual demonstration of the Toonimo solution can be viewed below