How to Engage Lending and Credit Card Users in Every Stage of the Customer Journey

Credit Card and Lending Demands Are On the Rise

As 2025 continues to unfold, it’s clear that a shifting economy can create uncertainty and make people more cautious about the future. While this isn’t stopping credit card and lending activity from increasing, the way customers use these tools is certainly changing.

For example, more than half of credit card customers are now seeking cashback rather than travel or entertainment rewards. At the same time, a shifting economy is widening the behavioral gap between higher- and lower-income customers. Bigger spenders prioritize convenience, while cost-conscious users rely on credit cards only for the essentials. Meanwhile, 48% of lending customers encounter digital friction when opening up their online accounts, causing brands to lose out on more prospects than they should.

Solving customers’ common issues and incorporating trending insights into your marketing strategy will be essential for success. By following these four steps centered on clarity, convenience, and personalization, you’ll drive lasting engagement and strong loyalty for credit card and lending services.

Make Onboarding Easy for Credit Card Users

Customers have an overwhelming number of credit card options, each with its own rules, benefits, and best practices. To avoid losing nearly half of customers during the early stages of your relationship due to digital friction or confusing financial language, provide a crystal-clear onboarding process. This will strengthen your relationship with customers while highlighting key benefits to maximize card usage and support long-term retention.

‍Tide made onboarding a breeze with their data visualization email. Using five different data points, the email automatically updated every time the customer finished an onboarding action and highlighted the steps left to complete. Customers appreciated the clarity and convenience, leading to a 69% increase in click-through rate.

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Highlight Benefits for Credit Card Engagement

The work doesn’t stop once customers commit to your brand. To nurture a strong relationship, one where customers are open to upgrades and cross-sells, marketers must reinforce the value customers have gained and highlight the benefits still ahead.

‍Tesco Ireland fostered their ClubCard customers with a mid-year check-in email that drove a 16% lift in click-through rate. Using a data rich internal API and CSV data source, they highlighted individual stats like the total ClubCard points and vouchers collected, savings from ClubCard prices, and the customer’s top three products of the year. To finish off the email, customers had the opportunity to share their member summary to social media for a chance to win additional ClubCard points. 

Tesco Ireland’s in-depth email resonated with customers, with 91% expressing interest in receiving this type of email every 3-6 months.

Tailor Content for New Lenders

The financial industry sees a 76% abandonment rate during online applications. To avoid this common scenario, marketers need to use acquisition messaging that has a personal touch. Every new customer is at a different point in their financial journey and creating tailored messaging can go a long way. 

‍Virgin Money accomplished this by adding a poll asking customers about their financial goals to help them take full advantage of their new account. By understanding customers' current financial goals, they provided relevant, product-related content in their second-touch email. Giving customers the content they needed was a huge success with Virgin Money’s audience, resulting in a 245% increase in click-through rate.

Drive Lender Loyalty With Every Send

Marketers often separate communications into acquisition, engagement, and loyalty. However, every campaign offers an opportunity to strengthen loyalty and build up customers’ financial health. Marketers should capitalize on this by weaving loyalty efforts into everything they do. After all, 79% of financially healthy lending customers return to the same brand—and loyal,returning customers are well-known to drive more revenue than new business.

‍Afterpay emphasized loyalty in their email campaigns by creating an evergreen banner that reflected customers’ current status with the brand. Not only did it celebrate customers’ current accomplishments, it visualized how close they were to the next tier with a whole new set of benefits.

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You’re Ready to Enhance Financial Services Messaging

Focusing on clear communication and an effortless customer experience in your personalized marketing content will help you engage your customers at every stage of their journey. 

Discover what else is on the horizon for financial services marketing by exploring the related resources below.