When it comes to choosing a bank, today’s consumers have more options than ever before. Not only are traditional brick-and-mortar banks available in large numbers, but more and more online-only banks are entering the market — and attracting substantial shares of digital-savvy customers. And obviously, as the marketplace grows more crowded, the importance of effective marketing has increased for financial institutions looking to stay ahead of the mounting competition.
9 tips for marketing in the banking sector more effectively
Because banking and financial offerings can at times be — let’s face it — somewhat complicated/challenging topics for the average consumer, the marketing professionals at Brandon recommend leaning heavily (but not solely) on tactics geared toward educating consumers on your bank’s financial offerings. All the while, it’s important to ensure that you’re explaining any especially challenging concepts in everyday terms, while also clearly conveying how they can benefit consumers. As an added benefit, taking this approach can help your bank establish itself to consumers as a subject-matter expert, making it more likely that they’ll come to you when they have questions … and when they’re in the market for financial products and services. And of course, optimizing good customer service and a positive consumer experience at all touchpoints is another way to effectively set yourself apart from the competition.
Consider these nine tips — most of which can be used to incorporate the education- and service-focused strategies outlined above — for boosting consumer engagement and interest with your bank’s marketing efforts:
1. Boost your blogging efforts
Blogging is a highly effective way to educate consumers about sometimes tough-to-understand financial topics and offerings, and in the process, establish your bank as an expert in the area. To generate topics for your bank’s blog, consider the questions customers most frequently ask your bank’s team members, and turn each into an informative article. Another great way to identify topics that are likely to generate web traffic is to use keyword tools such as Google Trends and AnswerThePublic to find the finances-focused topics that consumers are searching for most frequently.
2. Create explainer videos
As mentioned earlier, financial offerings and concepts can sometimes be challenging for the average consumer to understand. And especially considering the consistent and growing popularity of online video content, creating short explainer videos is another highly effective way for banks to educate consumers on such challenging subject matter.
3. … and archive them on a YouTube channel
Ranking right behind Google, YouTube stands as the world’s second-most-popular search engine. And by creating a YouTube channel and putting its video content there, a bank can not only increase the video content’s chances of being found by consumers, but also simplify the sharing of the video content on social channels, in blog articles, etc. In addition, this is a great way to store all of the bank’s video content in a single, easy-to-access place.
4. Generate more social content
For any type of business in the digital age, having a social media presence is a must for attracting and engaging with customers, and financial institutions are certainly no exception. A key consideration for banks when employing social media, though, is to refrain from creating and posting only self-promotional content. While an occasional sales pitch for a service or offering is acceptable, the majority of a bank’s posts should aim to be educational, useful, relevant, engaging and shareable.
5. Make mobile a priority
A mobile-friendly website is another critical asset for any modern business, including banks. And today’s banking consumers have grown to expect their financial institutions to provide a highly functional mobile app, which can ease a range of banking transactions via mobile banking. If your bank is lagging in either of these categories, it is imperative that you make mobile a major focus right away — before your business falls farther behind the competition in these areas of increasing importance to 21st century consumers.
6. Elevate your email marketing efforts
On average, email marketing boasts a higher ROI than any other type of traditional or digital marketing. And especially when paired with CRM tools that allow banks to harvest and implement powerful data on customers, their habits and their needs, email campaigns can be made even more effective by segmenting audiences and serving them with the messaging and offers that are most likely to resonate with them.
7. Dive into the data
By implementing ways to expand on the data-harvesting efforts mentioned above, such as by employing customer surveys and simply requesting customer feedback, banks can gain powerful insights into their existing consumer base. And banks can leverage those insights to better serve their customers and employ targeted marketing campaigns to find more clients like them.
8. Leverage strategic partnerships
Using the insights discussed above, banks can identify the leading values of their customers, then seek out community organizations that share those values and form strategic partnerships with them. By pairing with such organizations and working with them to uplift the community, banks can differentiate themselves from competitors and foster positive sentiments among consumers.
9. Connect with the community through education
Most consumers trust their banks to assist them with managing their personal finances, and this can offer an opportunity to educate them and build stronger connections. Rather than simply providing pamphlets to deliver helpful information on personal finance-related topics, consider presenting regularly scheduled workshops on topics of interest to your consumers. In many cases, the subject matter can be the same as or very similar to some of the blog articles mentioned above. Examples of topics to cover can include topics such as how to start saving to buy a home, creating a college fund for the kids, creating a household budget and preparing for tax season.
Could your financial brand use expert help to boost the effectiveness of its marketing efforts? At Brandon, our team of seasoned, data-driven marketing professionals has years of experience helping banks and other financial institutions attract new customers, add new accounts — and boost their bottom lines. To get started with help ranging from a simple website analysis to a comprehensive strategy tailored to boost the performance of all of your marketing campaigns, contact us today.
Scott Brandon
Chief Executive Officer
Scott is the CEO of Brandon and currently leads the Financial Services Marketing Specialty Team focused on driving improved results in an ever-changing, digitally centric world. He serves clients on a wide-range of topics including brand strategy (he is a Certified Brand Strategist), digital transformation, digital strategy, implementation and optimization, product development, research, customer purchase path analysis and marketing programs that drive increased awareness, preference and conversion. He is a proven leader with deep experience in the Financial Services category. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of a publicly traded regional bank holding company and recently led the digital transformation of a large International financial services firm resulting in dramatically increased conversion rates and profitability. When not working, Scott is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys spending time with his family. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Brookgreen Gardens as well as three private company boards.