The forex industry often gets knocked for being a laggard when it comes to technology innovation. While on the outside this may appear to be true due to such a large percentage of brokers using similar technology like the MetaTrader 4 platform or Liquidity aggregation solutions that all appear the same, the reality is that there is lots of unique to forex innovation that often is overlooked.
In this regard, the forex industry is an innovator when it comes to social trading or providing retail customers with algorithmic trading solutions. On the institutional side, sophisticated solutions are needed to connect a fractured industry that consists of thousands of liquidity takers and receivers.
Regardless of the world’s opinion on the state of technology affairs of the industry, one area where no one argues that the forex is a leader, is the deployment of sophisticated marketing and sales solutions, specifically among retail brokers. As a result, many providers of marketing related and online advertising products have found both forex brokers and affiliates to be both an interested audience as well as knowledgeable customers for their wares.
Among firms providing solutions to the forex industry is Optimove, a provider of marketing and automated retention products. Written about in the past, the firm’s solutions are used by many brokers to gain better understanding of their customer’s habits, the sales funnel that drove them to open an account, and what type of marketing campaigns best trigger them to trade. Using this data, brokers are then able to customize marketing and trading campaign messages that they send their customers to best fit them.
Due to the success of their product in the industry, upon announcing performance figures for 2014, Optimove related to Finance Magnates that the forex sector was one of their better performers during the year. Overall in 2014, Optimove disclosed that revenues doubled, on client growth of 89% to 150. In regards to the forex industry, Optimove reported 103% growth, but as a private firm refrained from providing to Finance Magnates information on total revenues accrued from the industry, or its percentage of the company’s total operations.
Optimove offers forex companies a deep understanding of their traders, as well as the ability to cater to their affinities and behaviors - Pini Yakuel
Beyond the forex industry, the firm has a concentration of customers that face consumer audiences such as Zynga and 888. In terms of where they believe they provide immediate value to their forex customers, Optimove CEO Pini Yakuel explained to Finance Magnates that “Optimove offers forex companies a deep understanding of their traders, as well as the ability to cater to their affinities and behaviors. By delivering more targeted and personalized engagement messages, they can increase conversions, increase trader engagement, maximize trader spend and reduce churn.”
In addition, Yakuel explained that he believes the forex industry has been adopters of marketing related technology due to the competition in the sector as he stated “The forex and binary options industries were early adopters of marketing technologies because the competition in these spaces is so fierce and the marketers in these industries are so tech savvy.”
