BankMarketingCenter

April is Financial Literacy Month. Why is that important to banks?  When most folks hear the phrase “financial literacy,” they often think of children.  And I understand that.  Money management is not a subject taught to young people; not until high school and not all high schools even offer money management courses.  And, as we all know, one’s ability to manage money is a life-long skill that has a tremendous impact on one’s future.

So, what is the importance of financial education programs for banks? For one, providing this personal guidance gives community banks a leg up on those online competitors that can’t offer it.  Secondly, it’s an opportunity to educate customers on investment products they may know little about.  Third, by educating younger customers, banks can over time increase their share of that customer’s wallet.  And lastly, offering personalized services helps to reinforce a brand image based on knowledge, personal service, and trust.

Something else to consider: Today’s banking consumer is much more often involved in day-to-day financial decisions. This requires a significantly stronger financial knowledge base, one that can inform sound financial decisions for their future. Do most people “know what they don’t know” about managing their money? I don’t think they do.

The timing is right

We all know that managing money is far from simple. And, in these post-pandemic times, with an uncertain economy ahead, many are finding it extremely hard to get a handle on their finances.  According to a Pew Research Center survey, one in ten people whose financial situation had gotten worse during the pandemic didn’t think their finances would ever recover. Among those who say their financial situation had gotten worse during the pandemic, 44% think it will take them three years or more to get back to where they were a year ago.

What are some of the topics you can share with your customers during April’s Financial Literacy Month?

 Educate your children

Studies show that most habits regarding money are in place by age 9, meaning it’s never too early to start introducing some money management skills to your children. There are a whole host of fun and engaging ways to do this… some are as easy as a trip to the grocery store!

Create a budget

Knowing how much you have coming in versus how much money you have going out can help you understand where you can make changes to your spending to put you in a better financial position.

Have a plan to pay off debt

There are a couple of ways to do this.  One is the snowball method, the other is the avalanche method.  With the snowball method, you pay off the smallest of all your loans as quickly as possible. Once that debt is paid, you take the money you were putting toward that payment and roll it onto the next-smallest debt owed. Using the avalanche method, you pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first.  Whichever you choose, this is what’s most important:  Stick to it!

Cut unnecessary expenses

“Pay yourself first,” as the old saying goes.  If that’s not possible, look to eliminate expenses that will enable you to do so. Contracts with providers, from auto insurance and cable to cell phone are surprisingly negotiable. Paying for five TV apps but only using two? It may be time to negotiate your subscriptions. Try to move that money to where it belongs to you and not someone e

See if you’re on track for your retirement goals

Once they begin working, most Americans begin adding to their 401k. However, the most important question is are they saving enough? What about CDs and IRAs? There are a whole host of retirement vehicles that are 1) available and 2) often a bit of a mystery to the average banking customer.

Check your credit score

Your credit score is an essential component of your credit profile and can play a major role in getting loans, housing, and more. Look into your credit score to see where you fall and if it’s not as high as you want it to be, work on a plan to improve it, like paying off some of your debt.

April is a perfect time to put your social media marketing to work.  Consider posting these tips on a regular basis over the course of the month and invite your audience to take advantage of your money management expertise… as well as those products that will help provide them with a sound financial future.

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. Like this campaign, for example, that banks can use to reach out to promote their financial education programs and investment products

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about the benefits of social media marketing and you can be sure that it won’t be the last.  Social media platforms have been the topic of many of our discussions. In a recent blog back in July, we talked about the benefits of platforms such as Facebook (now Meta, of course), YouTube, and TikTok. We didn’t talk about LinkedIn at the time. Why talk about LinkedIn today?  Because a trend that we talked about last December in our blog, “Small business is big business,” continues to be an issue with small banks. “According to the US Chamber of Commerce, 99% of all businesses in the U.S. – about 37 million – are Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs).  And, according to meridianlink, 39% of those small businesses say community banks don’t understand them.

What’s a community bank to do?  Make sure that your small business owners understand that you understand them!  And where is a good place to do that?  LinkedIn.

Now, if you’re looking to reach individual consumers, Facebook/Meta continues to dominate the social media landscape. Facebook currently boasts 2,900,000,000 users — and yes, that is the right number of zeroes. In comparison, LinkedIn currently boasts 810,000,000 users.

LinkedIn, however, is a platform that, as a community bank in search of SMB customers (and remember, there are about 37 million of them out there), provides some unique social platform benefits. Now, based on the user numbers above, you can see how LinkedIn might tend to get overlooked in the social media marketing world. Yes, LinkedIn is a great platform for (and is known for its power in) recruiting. But, its power goes well beyond that and now we’ll look at how.

Unlike every other platform, LinkedIn’s user base is comprised entirely of professionals and company accounts. For community banks, then, LinkedIn offers the unique opportunity to reach SMBs with messaging that is relevant and compelling to them in very specific ways; in marketing commercial deposit accounts, financing, and treasury services, for instance. 

By optimizing your presence on LinkedIn and providing informative material that will be valuable to a commercial audience, you can engage with these professionals to generate interest in your brand, promote your content, and build a new source of leads. Here are a few best practices to keep in minding when engaging a small business audience:

• Make the most of your profile page with detailed information about your bank, location information, open positions you may have, and a link to your website.
• Encourage your employees to actively engage with the platform. Encourage those who don’t have a presence to set up an account.  After all, your employees have networks of their own and their networks become your networks. Encourage them to be active, but to also be responsible. It’s best to have some guidelines in place that employees can be mindful of when they’re active on any social media platform.  For SMB’s, we all know that a personal relationship with their bank is critical to them. Your employees can use LinkedIn to give your bank that personal image with posts that celebrate anniversaries and promotions, community events, their own positive work experiences, etc.
• Promote your LinkedIn presence whenever and wherever you can. Make mention of your platform presence on your website, in emails, with in-branch signage… In short, market your LinkedIn presence the same way that you would market any other product or service to your customers.
• Connect with your SMB audience through groups. LinkedIn groups are easy to find… simply search for them!  Such a search can quickly yield the names of local business groups, professional associations, networking groups, for instance, and more. Joining these groups is like joining a club where its members all have similar goals and interests. What better way to connect with business owners than to join groups that they participate in?
• Forget about funny cat videos. Remember, LinkedIn is a B2B platform. Keep this in mind when creating content. Stay focused on those commercial customers who not only want and need commercial products, but also a trusted, personal relationship.
• Take advantage of the wide range of content options. Sure, you can post employee recognitions, anniversaries, etc, but LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to post product ads, educational videos, thought leadership articles, weekly/monthly newsletters geared toward small business, event/workshop/webinar promotions, and more. The more varied your content, the more likely that content is to engage your audience.  These tactics also enable you to gather information (such as contact information) about your audience… information that you can utilize later in more targeted marketing, such as email marketing or direct mail.
• Make the most of features such as LinkedIn Pulse, SlideShare, and Inmail. If you already post regularly on other social media accounts, like Facebook, you can post much of the same content and updates on LinkedIn. For example, if you posted a long-form article on your bank’s blog, you can also publish it on LinkedIn Pulse, a personalized business news digest that provides content for LinkedIn users’ homepage feed and through a weekly email digest.
  
  

  SlideShare is LinkedIn’s platform for infographics and presentations, enabling you to post PowerPoint or Google Slides presentations to your feed. SlideShare is incredibly easy to use and a great way to bring visual interest to your messaging. How interesting is it?  According to LinkedIn, SlideShare messaging gets nearly 4 million visits each day.

  And then there’s the Inmail feature. If you know someone who would benefit from a piece of content you’ve created, it might be appropriate to share it with them in a personalized direct message, instead of just hoping they’ll see it in your news feed. With InMail, you can see when or if someone has read your message. This is a casual way to discover the impact of your content sharing with individuals. If someone has read but not responded, you can follow up with them.
  
  
• Paid ads that target users by job title and industry. Here you can reach a very specific audience, not based simply on typical demographics such as age, location, and household income, but with the granularity of industry and job title. Now, you’re truly zeroing in on real prospects instead of taking a shotgun approach.

In conclusion…

Social media platforms continue to evolve. The hot platform of today, may not be the hot platform of tomorrow. So, your choices, and use of those platforms in your social media marketing arsenal must evolve, as well. As HootSuite says in their article, 47 LinkedIn Statistics You Need To Know In 2023, “there’s no better place to connect with business professionals than on LinkedIn.”  And you know, they just may be right.

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. Like this campaign, for example, that banks can use to reach out to small business customers.

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

As a community bank in what is at the moment, challenging times, you’re no doubt getting the “marketing word” out there via social media, right? Good. Social media marketing has been proven to be pretty effective and easy to both implement and gauge effectiveness.

I’m guessing that much of your social media marketing is designed to yield site visits. After all, social media marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your website and take that potential customer further along your “buyer journey”, that is, from “awareness” to “consideration” to “decision making.”

I’m guessing, too, that you’re watching your site traffic, as well, watching your number of visits, pages visited, length of stay, etc. These KPIs (key performance indicators) are hugely helpful in understanding not only what a visitor does during their site visit, but also in providing insights into WHY they do what they do once there.

Of course, as you know, unfortunately, you’ll have quite a few visitors who stop by and then simply leave; no additional pages visited, no actions whatsoever taken. These are individuals who have, let’s face it, shown some interest in your products and services. After all, they wouldn’t have taken the time to visit your site if they weren’t, right? So, what do you do with this knowledge?

To use the retail store analogy, a potential customer enters your shop. They do a bit of browsing, then start heading for the door?  What do you do? Simply let them walk out?  No, you attempt to engage them before they leave, perhaps with a question like “can I help you?” or “are you looking for something in particular?”

Approaching that potential customer “as they head for the door,” and attempting to engage them is what is known in the digital marketing world as “remarketing.”  Think of it as getting a second chance to win that customer.

Remarketing is a tactic that involves showing ads to people who have visited your website or used your mobile app. This strategy is a particularly cost-effective way to increase your sales conversions because you’re reaching out to individuals who have already expressed interest in your products or services.

How does digital remarketing work?  It starts with “pixels” or “tags,” which are basically pieces of code. To target previous website visitors with remarketing ads, you need to insert that code in the back end of your website.

When someone visits your site, that pixel is placed on their browser, attaching a “cookie” to it. When the visitor leaves your site to surf the web and visit other sites, that cookie notifies retargeting platforms to serve specific ads based on the specific pages they visited on your website. Say, the visitor perused your page that spoke to the benefits of opening a HELOC. That visitor leaves your site and visits a site that sells, say, home improvement products. Thanks to the cookie, you can now place an ad on that home improvement site that encourages that visitor to learn more about your HELOC, with a link that will take them directly back to that page on your site.

You have other options, too. If a visitor does get a HELOC, and you’re interested in perhaps cross-promoting another product, such as a credit card, you could create an ad that targets them. Start by configuring your remarketing campaigns across various social networks as that’s where your possible target audience would be. Through remarketing, combined with customer purchase behavior data, you can re-engage a purchaser while they’re surfing the web. And, with an ad that targets that individual specifically; an ad, for example, that focuses on the benefits of your credit card. It’s all possible due to the magic of pixels!

Is remarketing effective? The numbers tell the story. Statistics show that people are 10 times more likely to click on a remarketing ad than a standard display ad, while some campaigns have reported a 128% increase in conversion rates through remarketing.  Who says there’s no such thing as a second chance at winning over a customer?  Remarketing is a relatively simple and cost-effective way to get that second chance. 

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. 

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

The second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history is raising concerns about whether other banks are inadequately managing interest rate risks, overexposed on uninsured deposits, or — as in the case of Silicon Valley Bank — both.  As of the fourth quarter of 2022, deposits that were under the $250,000 insurance limit accounted for just 2.7% of the bank's total deposits.

Ironically, only two months earlier, American Banker ran an article entitled, “Some banks will go to any lengths for deposits, even opening branches.” The “any lengths,” according to the article, “included building more branches in a bid to attract depositors.”

Banks, of course, need depositors, and opening branches is a way to attract them… especially in a down economy and an environment where loan-to-deposit ratios are pushing 120%. (PS: Back in 2017, the ideal loan-to-deposit ratio for the industry was 60.2%.) They do need to be wary, it appears, of uninsured deposit overexposure. In the case of SVB, many of those deposits were far in excess of the $250,000 insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Even more ironic, one of the banks mentioned in the article was Signature Bank of Arkansas. “That's been the case at White River Bancshares in Fayetteville, Arkansas,” says the article. “The $983 million-asset holding company for Signature Bank of Arkansas, White River has opened three locations since December 2021, and White River bankers are not shy about asking prospective clients to move all their cash into Signature Bank of Arkansas.” 

Understandably, Signature Bank of Arkansas, immediately went into crisis management mode, declaring that it is in no way associated with Signature Bank of NY. A banner of the bank’s website makes this very clear:

“We are not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with the various “Signature Bank” brands independently headquartered in Chicago, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Texas, the Signature Bank National Associations of both Ohio and Texas, Signature Bank of Georgia, or any of their subsidiaries or their affiliates. You may rest assured that your community bank, Signature Bank of Arkansas, is not associated or affiliated with a similarly named organization that you may see mentioned in the news.”

Instead of taking the issue head-on, it has been suggested by some that community banks simply put their heads in the sand and, well, pretend that nothing happened. Robert Bolton, president of bank investor Iron Bay Capital is one of them. “Small banks don't really know anything more about all of this than the rest of us — other than it's not a problem of their making," he said. "So while they are scratching their heads, wondering what to do next, it makes sense for most of them to stay out of the spotlight."

In my opinion, the smart banks are the ones that have taken action, instead of “staying out of the spotlight.” If, as a community bank, you have a story to tell, especially in the wake of a crisis of confidence in the banking system, tell it. I’m with Signature Bank of Arkansas and those small banks that are taking action, distancing themselves from the failures and marketing their trustworthiness. It’s called risk management and sometimes, unfortunately, it simply can’t be avoided. And this is one of those times.

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. Like these campaigns designed to assure your customers that their funds are “safe and sound.”

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

Sustainability. To most, the word connotes “going green” by choosing paper over plastic, recycling rather than committing trash to a landfill, or driving fewer miles. In other words, modifying consumption behaviors in order to reduce the human carbon footprint on Mother Earth. For community banks, that notion of sustainability barely scratches the surface. Granted, sustainable business practices have always played a role in banking operations and profitability but, today, those practices play an even greater role. Why?  With growing pressure from customers, employees, the federal government, and a wide range of both state and federal regulatory agencies, it has become more critical than ever for banks to have a performance-based strategy in place for addressing what is known as the “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) – people, planet, and profit.

What is sustainability in banking?

So, if not a commitment to moving from paper-based processes to digital information management, or keeping the thermostat set to 67 degrees in the winter months, what does sustainability mean in banking? Sustainable banking practices center on the strategic planning and execution of banking operations and business activities – with a goal, of course, of optimizing profitability – while taking into account their environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact.

It is widely believed that banks are poised to play a major role in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as “a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. These goals suggest a comprehensive strategy for sustainability, which includes all aspects - the biosphere, the society, and the economy.”¹ It is also widely believed that through setting net-zero goals via finance offers, loans and investment schemes for green projects, and subsequently, supporting those individuals and companies that are taking the path toward sustainability, financial institutions can “lead the charge” in achieving SDG goals.

Going green is on the rise

Despite the headwinds, top banks have begun to commit to sustainability. For example, investments in sectors that are harmful to the environment, such as mining, are being reduced while the commitment to sectors producing or consuming alternative energy are increasing. In addition, green finance is on a high-growth trajectory and includes investments in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure finance. Banks are offering, and taking advantage of, a growing menu of sustainable financing opportunities that include green bonds, sustainability bonds, transition bonds, and social bonds, as well as green loans and clean-energy project financing.

Banking consumers want green banks

Regulations are not the only motivators in banking’s move to sustainability. Banking leaders understand that customers are vocal about ESG and that they must address the expectations of those consumers, and employees, who prefer to do business with institutions that commit to sustainable practices. According to McKinsey, “one analysis found that social-related shareholder proposals rose 37 percent in the 2021 proxy season compared with the previous year.”² Bankers understand that, in the long-term, sustainable banking will help create the perception of a responsible business and create new business opportunities. 

It’s not easy being green, but it’s a competitive advantage

Policies and procedures for risk management and regulatory reporting will become necessities. More importantly, for community banks, sustainability can enhance a brand’s marketability. Yes, regulators take a great interest in a bank’s sustainability mission and achievements.  But, so do employees and banking services consumers, as they become increasingly mindful of the social responsibility that institutions take on. If you’re not doing so already, get involved in “green” community activities, and get the message out that sustainability is important to your institution… and your employees.

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. Like these campaigns designed to tell your “green” story to your customers.

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

Sources

¹United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development. “The 17 Goals.” https://sdgs.un.org/goals

²McKinsey & Company, August 2022. “Does ESG really matter and why.” https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/does-esg-really-matter-and-why

Triangles are the building blocks on which solid marketing is founded. Why are triangles important to bank marketers?  First, triangles help marketers develop the emotion-based messaging that resonates most with consumers. Then, triangles help bank marketers determine at what point in the buyer journey it makes the most sense to get that message out into the marketplace.

Triangle #1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Who was Maslow?  Maslow was a 20th Century psychologist who figured out that each person has five levels of needs. He called this his “hierarchy of needs.” To illustrate this, he built a triangle. At the bottom of the triangle was the need for basics such as food and clothing. In the middle were safety and friendship. At the top was self-actualization. Why is this important to marketers?

Laddering up the Needs.

Marketers in every industry use Maslow's triangle because it helps us remember that when we're talking to potential customers about products and services, we have to talk to them not about how our product meets a basic need, but how it meets a need that's very important to them; an emotional need. What are some of those needs when we’re talking about banking products and potential banking customers?  You could say that a checking account meets the need of having to pay bills from a distance.  Or, that a savings account is a way to put money where you won’t be tempted to spend it. Instead, we want to talk about how these products meet those “higher” needs, such as comfort, security, and peace of mind. This is also what marketers call taking a “user focused” approach to messaging, instead of a “product focused” approach.  In other words, you’re focusing on how your product meets a consumer’s emotional need, as opposed to how it works and what it does.

Triangle #2. Meeting the prospect where they are

Now we take you on a little journey…the buyer journey. The buyer journey is basically the path that a consumer, (who we have now identified through research and persona mapping), takes when making a purchase and importantly the mindset that accompanies each step they take on that path.  It’s often expressed visually as an upside-down triangle (often referred to as the “marketing funnel”) and as a three-step journey:  Awareness is at the top, Consideration in the middle, and Decision/Consideration at the bottom.

If the consumer is at the start of that journey and knows nothing about your products, they’re at the top of the funnel.  Here’s where you give the consumer more information than they need… blog posts, social media, direct mail, for example, are good for the Awareness stage.  These are thought leadership pieces, focusing on industry trends and needs and, in general, how your products/services meet those needs. An article on why now is a good time to buy a CD, for instance, or an article on the importance of money management. Post them on your website and use social posts to guide readers to them. Selling product is not the goal here; that comes further down the funnel. Showing potential customers that you know the industry… that is your top-of-the-funnel goal.

As our consumer moves down into the Consideration stage, (mid-funnel) our messaging gets more product focused, with emails, case studies, and newsletters. When our prospect reaches the bottom of the funnel, (now at its narrowest point) we’re ready to start talking product details and benefits with highly targeted tactics, such as webinars, product demos, and product brochures.

Using triangles, right-side up and upside-down, can guide you in developing your marketing messaging. Not just messaging that may, perhaps, fall on deaf ears, but strategic, emotional messaging that will resonate with your target reader at just the right moment, move that reader to act and, with that, grow your share of wallet.

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. 

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.