Financial Marketing and Cross Selling Blog
Creating customer impulse decisions at a bank
We all know what target campaigns are. This is where you pull out all your weapons (CRM, MCIF, etc.) to develop the perfect segmentation of your customer base. Knowing who to target when, where and how. And with the technology that’s out there today, the possibilities to create such a perfect list are more realistic then five or ten years ago.
But what about the customers being targeted. How do we (marketers) know that it’s 100% the right time to deliver a specific message? The answer, we don’t. And unless someone finds a loop hole for the legal right to place hidden cameras in their customer’s homes to listen in on family dinner time or during private gatherings, there will never be a magic solution to this old marketing dilemma.
The only true way to ensure your marketing messages are touching your customers at the right time is by positioning your institution as place to get answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In today’s information rich culture where over 72% of our population (United States) has access to the Internet, people are taking it upon themselves to find answers to their questions. If you’re not taking the steps to position your bank or credit union as a place to go to find answers, then you’re behind in the new age of marketing. Gone are the days of product marketing. In are the days of education marketing.
When you focus on developing good, easy to read education that helps your customers with their financial questions, you set yourself up for impulse decision making. Unlike impulse buying at the mall, the impulse decision in the financial world may be a customer willing to download a helpful guide on how to send their kids to college. It may be a customer willing to submit their name to one of your professionals who’s offering up free advice. The impulse customer is not always ready to buy, but we’re also not talking about the latest Britney Spears album. We’re talking about complex products and services such as investments, insurance, trust and lending services. These are tough decisions that need careful consideration. However, by positioning the education first instead of the product, you’re ahead of the game in winning a new relationship.
This doesn’t mean that you should throw target marketing out the window. In fact, you should leverage your target and segmented list to create the impulse mindset. Next time you create a targeted campaign, think about the message you’re using. Are you talking up your latest products? Or are you setting the stage for your institution as a place to go to get answers?
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Learn more about using customer education marketing in banks
What does “Best Banking Experience” mean to you?
I was reading the recent ABA Bank Marketing magazine and there was a section interviewing a marketing manager at a small community bank in Pennsylvania. One question asked was, “In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge marketers will face in the year ahead?” Her response, “Maintaining customer’s trust and belief that our bank will succeed and we will provide them with the best banking experience!”
As I read this statement it hit me that this simple statement holds a lot of weight. I started to think about my own banking experience. I’m of the Gen X group so I have a tendency to be an online banking advocate, which is helpful since my bank is based out of Texas and has zero branches or ATMs in the Boston, let alone the north Atlantic region. I can even cash my checks using the scanner here at work. I’m a frequent online billpayer as well. So you could say my banking experience is one of transactions.
But I have yet to buy my first home, get married, have kids or own a small business. So my needs don’t line up much further past the typical transaction based services provided by my bank.
But what about everyone else. What about those who are married, have kids and are homeowners. Do they also see their banking experience as transaction based? Since we grow up, like I, with an experience heavily weighed towards transactions, does this carry over into our more needs based years?
If the answer to this question is yes, then I would argue that the biggest challenge facing banks isn’t whether they’re providing customers with the best banking experience. It’s being able to determine what a true banking experience is in the eyes of their customers. If all customers see is a place to make deposits and loans, then chances of survival in a competitive marketplace is slim to none.
If there’s a necessary change in bank marketing that will lead banks away from this transaction mindset and more into a complete financial provider, it’s moving from a product based marketing approach to a customer education based marketing approach. The more often banks are in front of their customers to answer questions relevant to their life stages (married, kids, retirement, etc.), the more likely their customers will relate “banking experience” with “financial answers”.
Penguin releases “Idiots Guide to Financial Crisis” online series
We talk a lot about how important it is to make financial content easy to read and understand when presenting it to your clients. That’s why the recent announcement of the “Idiots Guide to the Financial Crisis” by Penguin is so important.
Those of us in the financial industry have most likely been asked by our friends and family to help explain how the current financial crisis came to be. This is no easy task. Instead of trying to explain it myself, I’ve even steered people to an online video that was developed by an art design major in California called “The Crisis of Credit”. It’s a great visual aid to telling the story of how it all came to be. Watch the “The Crisis of Credit” now.
But for those looking for more in depth analysis of the crisis, this Penguin series sounds like a great read.
Learn more at Penguin.com and share with your friends, family, or clients.
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