Financial Marketing and Cross Selling Blog
How Social Media is Changing Bank Marketing
Essentially, “Social Media” is really just a buzz word that has come to be used to describe the ever changing landscape of the internet that we’ve all grown to know so well. The phrase simply refers to all the social networks in existence and the way we, web users, customers, and brands interact with each other online today. Not only can a single social network be used as a marketing tool in itself, but integrating social media channels into your website gives you the power to leverage your website in ways that didn’t exist years ago. The difference between traditional websites and the ones within social media communities is the simple notion that traditional websites speak to a single customer at a time, where as social media sites allow everyone to have a voice. In this sense, social media is the catalyst that makes our everyday web experience so much more dynamic and it has opened the doors for individuals and brands to create their own unique online presence.
How to Restore Branch Profitability
Mary Beth Sullivan from Capital Performance Group, in her recent blog article The Future of Branches: Reinvention in the Banking Strategies section of the BAI website proposed an interesting solution to retail branch profitability. It’s called sales. She referenced a huge market that banks can own by leveraging their branch network. This market is people who are looking for advice. Martha Stewart realized this a long time ago and built a business around it. People want to be told what to do. It holds true in personal finances as well. People are looking for simple and easy to understand information and guidance from someone they trust. And they will do business with the one who is there to provide it. This includes the enormous baby boom generation that has been turned upside down by the Great Recession. They want to be told what to do as they face retirement – without the confusing jargon.
While WE are Cross Selling, THEY are Cross Buying
It is the classic battle between WE and THEY in the financial banking arena. You know your consumers (THEY) need the products and services that you offer but you struggle to find a process that effectively allows them to buy multiple products and services. How can you bridge the gap between WE and THEY and make it an US relationship?
In the May 2011 issue of Bank Investment Consultant, Elizabeth Wine brings up some very valid points about the importance of cross selling and the poor execution that is happening inside many financial institutions.
Managing the cross sell is a task that does not have an end. To do it well, you should never be ‘done’. The art of cross selling involves all parties within the financial institution to be working together. The same BIC article also stated that “ninety percent of a recent BIC survey respondents said the support of senior management was critical for the successful implementation of a cross sell program.” Read more >>
REWORK: Recommended Book For Bank Marketing and Management
How can a business book written by the founders of a small software development company be applicable to bank executive and marketing professionals? I asked myself the same question. REWORK was written by Jason Fried and David Heinemenier Hansson, the founders of 37Signals, a company that has created several products that help teams work together more effectively. For bankers, conventional ideas and methodologies aren’t what separate you from your competitors. Most often it’s your ability to be open-minded to new ways of thinking and putting them to work…or sometimes reworking them entirely.
Prior to reading REWORK, I was somewhat familiar with the company 37signals and the products they developed but never really knew their background. For most that have never heard of 37signals, they are a small software company that have developed a number of web-based apps for collaboration, information sharing and project management which are now used by millions around the world.
REWORK provides the reader with the insight into the attitudes of the founders and a basis for the reasons for their success. As a designer & developer myself, I wasn’t sure how their philosophies and ideas could really be applied to the large scale audience but they certainly managed to do so from my perspective. If you subscribe to conventional wisdom, this book may not be for you because the authors tend go against your experience and what has been instilled into you during your college and post-collegiate years. Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile book, for everyone from the single self-employed individual, the small business owner, all the way up to the larger institution management and marketing professionals.
Can a Bank’s Brand Image be a Trap?
Research will tell you that a bank brand attribute as a trusted institution is worth millions of dollars and the envy of so many other types of financial institutions (see recent article from The Financial Brand.)
The problem is breadth. Banks are seen too narrowly, as the place to go for deposits and loans; a place to go to transact. That’s fine if a bank is comfortable with a small share of their customer’s wallet (2 of 10) and are willing to watch other financial institutions earn more and more money by selling other products to their customers; products and services that can help people with other needs as they save for college tuition bills, save for retirement, and move into retirement and old age.
Is a bank’s brand image cast in stone? For the most part, the answer is “yes”. Think of this for a minute. You walk into your dentist’s office. This is the dentist that you have been seeing for several years. He suddenly says, “Take off your shoes and I’ll take a look at your feet, I’m also a podiatrist.” What do you think? “Oh no you’re not, you’re my dentist.” It doesn’t matter if a degree in podiatry hangs on the wall – you are in your dentist’s office and he is your dentist. An image cast in stone. If he really wanted to practice podiatry, he would be better off if you had no preconceived image of him as a dentist.
Banks are in the same trap. They want to take care of more of the needs of their customers but they are tapped by their image – a trusted place to go for deposits and loans.
Read more >>
A credit union connects with the local biking community
When it comes to content marketing techniques, one of the golden rules is to provide content that isn’t always tied to one of your products and services. You have to know when providing content for the pure sense of being informational to the end user is the right thing to do. For example, many banks and credit unions don’t offer health insurane but it may not be a bad idea if you dedicated some space for content related to the recent changes in health care on your website or in your next newsletter. You may not win new business directly from this approach but you will build your brand as a resource and not just a place to conduct daily banking transactions.
An example of this was well executed this past Friday when Salal Credit Union in Seattle, Washington decided to take advantage of the national Bike to Work Day to connect with the local biking community. The credit union had three what they called “commute stations” setup at various points in their community. They handed out ”refueling snacks” and drinks. The best give away were free bike lights, an important saftey item for those biking home in the dark, especially in a busy city. A tag line they used in their blog post that I thought was creative said “we care for your physical AND your fiscal saftey!”.
While the credit... Read More >>
Lost – A lesson in what NOT to do in customer service
The show Lost, which had its finale last night, provides us with some important lessons to be learned. Some scientific, some religious but for the purposes of this post, the lessons are about what NOT to do when approaching customer service at your bank or credit union.
There’s no denying that Lost was a successful show. With the first three seasons reaching an average of 15 million viewers per episode, countless number of fan base websites, forums and meet up groups, this show was a monster when it came to creating loyalty. But looking closer, you’ll realize how the producers went about creating this strong loyal following. In comparison between the producers strategy and the strategy of some of today’s banks, you can see some similarities. For example, they kept coming out with shiny new plot lines (products) for their loyal viewers (customers) to talk about, and just when a new plot line was getting old and losing its muster, the writers (product developers) would think of a new story to tell.
The problem with this model is that when the loyal customers come to you looking for solutions to issues they may have with past products or services the powers that be don’t even know the answer. They’re too busy working on the next new product instead of focusing on making changes to existing ones based on customer feedback.
Spoiler Alert
The finale of Lost has been seen as a let... Read More >>
Improving Your Bank’s Website By Adding Content Marketing
Web sites are not created in stone. There will come a time when “the old look” doesn’t work anymore or that your site isn’t effectively meeting its overall objectives. If your site looks outdated, you’re not communicating a clear message to potential customers and consequently your company’s value is diminished in their minds. Similarly, you’re not exemplifying a strong web presence if your website lacks the type of information that your customers are looking to you to provide. By implementing a content marketing strategy into your next redesign, the outcome can prove to be very rewarding and effective for your company’s growth.
What is Content Marketing?
You may be familiar with the phrase “content is king.” Without content and clear information, a website will lack an essential element of online marketing regardless of how nice or elegant the design of the site is. For instance, online customers are increasingly utilizing online content to make financial decisions. In a recent Forrester Research report entitled “Online-Influenced Sales Exceed Direct Sales In Financial Services“, it was found that “63% of US online adults who researched financial services products did so online.” Another study sponsored by Powered, found that online consumer education produces ROI nearly 300% higher than traditional campaigns. Can you really expect to attract customers to your site when... Read More >>
Interview with Newt Barrett, co-author of “Get Content, Get Customers”
In a recent post we discussed the concept behind Content Marketing. The approach is not necessarily new but with the technologies of today, mostly driven by the Internet, more and more companies can implement content marketing strategies without having to rely on the big media outlets like in years past. There are many individuals as well as companies that either use the same term or have another name for it such as Inbound Marketing. But a book that recently landed on our radar struck a chord here at Truebridge and we were lucky enough to have a chance to speak with one of the authors.
Newt Barrett, who co-authored the book Get Content, Get Customers with Joe Pulizzi, was gracious enough to spend some time talking with us about the future of marketing. Joe and Newt met while working together at Penton Publishing. But it wasn’t until after they had left and were out on their own that they decided to pull their experiences together to write about the direction or marketing and PR for B2B and B2C companies.
The beginning of our conversation started out with Newt getting a phone call from his realtor as he and his wife are in the process of selling their home. I was curious as to how... Read More >>
Examples of Content Marketing by banks and credit unions
There are some great examples of banks and credit unions that actively conduct a Content Marketing approach. I’ve chosen two for this post but we’ll continue to highlight the best in the industry on our blog.
Example #1: Affinity Federal Credit Union in Basking Ridge, NJ
When you visit Affinity Federal Credit Union’s website you are exposed to five main navigation choices – Personal, Business, Loans, Advice & Planning, About Us. My guess is four out five of those options are on just about every bank or credit union’s site. The one that’s not - Advice & Planning.
By making this a key area of their website, Affinity is building themselves as the “advice & planning” experts. If you go into this section you’ll find a wide range of topics that cover most of the services their credit union provides. You can find offers to download “Quick Guides” (downloadable PDF files) or to contact professionals who can help further.
Example #2: Nevada State Bank in Las Vegas, NV
Jeffrey Pilcher of The Financial Brand turned us on to the Nevada State Bank, who created an online content marketing strategy with their “Economic Forecast” section of their site. The site... Read More >>
Follow Us
-
