Financial Marketing and Cross Selling Blog
Helpful content marketing techniques from SunTrust’s retirement section
I was reminded of the LiveSolid.com website during a recent conversations with Jeff Pilcher of The Financial Brand. The site was built by SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a big blue site that unless you look carefully you’d never know it was created by SunTrust. Why a bank wouldn’t want to make it clear that they were associated with such helpful content is beyond me.
But then I took a further look at their own website at www.suntrust.com. As I dug into the retirement section I stumbled upon their retirement microsite. This site is very well put together and is a great lesson in how to create compelling online content that pulls your audience in and eventually can lead them to wanting to meet with one of your professionals.
Lets take a look at what happens when we first enter the site. At first we are met with four personas:
Two surveys confirm Americans still ill prepared for retirement years
If you had any doubts about the average American consumer knowing what direction they should take after retirement, two recent surveys conducted by Putnam and Prudential should help shed some light.
In the Putnam survey they found that 52% of respondents were in need of a better understanding of how much income they would need to maintain their lifestyle in retirement. As for the Prudential survey, one figure showed that 47% of those enrolled in 401k plans said they were unsure as to what types of investments are best to generate income in retirement.
Learn more about these two surveys at Financial Advisor
This reinforces the opportunity that banks and credit unions have to help their customer base become more knowledgeable on financial topics. They should be making this type of information easy and readily accessible at all of their touch points – website, branches, email, mail. Those who are their first to help these individuals understand their options without putting product first will be the one who wins over their relationship.... Read More >>
What product line presents the greatest cross selling opportunity for banks?
In a recent poll posted by the BAI Community, members were asked, “What area presents the greatest cross selling opportunity for banks?” I answered by selecting “retirement”. And I wasn’t the only one. The percentage was heavily weighed towards retirement. Another poll asked if retirement products were a priority moving forward. As of today, fifty percent said “yes, definitely a priority” while the other fifty said, “yes, but other products take precedence”.
So it’s clear that banks see an opportunity with respect to retirement. And they’re not the only ones. In 2007, a study was released by the BAI and Mercatus LLC done in conjunction with Deluxe of 2,977 mass affluent US consumers (35-75 years of age with $50,0000-$2 million in investable assets). It was conducted to help banks figure out the best way to compete for retirement assets. The study grouped people into attitudinal segments to identify which segments are most likely to deal with a bank for their retirement savings. According to the study, “mass affluent consumers who are generally less confident about retirement, and who are worried they lack sufficient assets to retire, are the most receptive to bank messages.” The study also indicated that this group was relatively large “representing 69% of the mass affluent investable assets exceeding $370,000.”
So what does it take to win over retirement assets? I direct your intention to one of the leading institutions with respect to retirement assets, Fidelity. Recently, they developed a new website. It’s currently active but... Read More >>