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I was thinking… what better way to tell the “why ChatGPT” story than to, well, let ChatGPT’s AI-assisted writer tell you himself… or herself… not sure about this… maybe “itself”? Anyway, when I prompted the assistant to “write a 750-word article on how to get the most of out of using ChatGPT in writing marketing content,” this is what he/she/it came up with:

Title: Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT: Maximizing Marketing Content with AI

In the digital age, marketing content plays a pivotal role in capturing and retaining customers' attention. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), businesses have gained access to powerful tools that can revolutionize their marketing strategies. One such tool is ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. In this article, we will explore how marketers can leverage ChatGPT to get the most out of their marketing content, ensuring greater engagement, relevance, and impact.

Understanding ChatGPT's Capabilities:

To maximize the potential of ChatGPT, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of its capabilities. ChatGPT is a language model that has been trained on vast amounts of data to generate human-like text responses. It excels in understanding context, answering queries, and engaging in natural language conversations. By grasping these core features, marketers can harness ChatGPT's power to create compelling marketing content.

Embrace Personalization:

One of the key advantages of using ChatGPT is its ability to personalize content for customers. Leverage this feature by collecting and analyzing customer data to understand their preferences, interests, and needs. By tailoring content using ChatGPT, marketers can craft personalized messages, product recommendations, and offers that resonate with customers on an individual level. Personalization creates a stronger connection and increases the likelihood of customer engagement and conversion.

Enhance Customer Interactions:

ChatGPT can transform customer interactions by providing instant responses to inquiries and delivering real-time support. Integrate ChatGPT into your website or chatbot platforms to offer customers a seamless and efficient experience. Automate routine interactions, such as FAQs or basic queries, while ensuring a smooth transition to human agents when necessary. By optimizing customer interactions with ChatGPT, marketers can enhance customer satisfaction and build brand loyalty.

Refine Content Generation:

Writing persuasive marketing content can be a time-consuming task. ChatGPT can assist marketers by generating creative and engaging content ideas. Use ChatGPT to brainstorm headlines, taglines, blog topics, or social media captions. Simply provide the model with prompts, and it will generate a variety of options to choose from. This collaboration between human creativity and AI assistance can streamline content generation processes and inspire marketers to think outside the box.

Improve SEO Optimization:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for digital marketing success. ChatGPT can contribute significantly to optimizing marketing content for search engines. By training the language model on relevant industry-specific keywords and phrases, marketers can generate content that aligns with SEO best practices. ChatGPT can suggest appropriate keywords and provide insights on content structure, helping marketers create SEO-friendly content that ranks higher in search engine results.

Ensure Ethical Use of AI:

While AI tools like ChatGPT offer tremendous potential, it is essential to use them ethically. Be mindful of the limitations of AI and the potential biases it may exhibit. Review and curate the responses generated by ChatGPT to ensure accuracy, relevance, and alignment with your brand values. Human oversight and involvement are critical to maintaining the integrity and quality of the marketing content produced.

Continual Learning and Improvement:

AI models like ChatGPT continually learn from user interactions. To get the most out of ChatGPT, encourage customer feedback and evaluate the performance of generated content. Analyze customer responses and make adjustments as necessary. Iteratively refine the training data to improve the model's understanding and generation capabilities. This iterative learning process ensures that ChatGPT evolves with your business, producing more refined and tailored marketing content over time.

Conclusion:

Incorporating ChatGPT into marketing strategies opens up a world of possibilities for businesses seeking to create impactful content.

Okay, now back to the human writer! Not bad stuff, is it? Can our AI-assisted writer use a bit of help in bringing some personality to “their” writing?  Yes, and that’s important to keep in mind with tactics such as newsletters. As a community bank, you want to make sure that it communicates your brand as a personal one. Make sure you weave in that “local” messaging… such as charitable events you support, employee anniversaries and recognitions, for example. Now, if you’re creating a newsletter and need some copy around, say, how to improve your credit score or the advantages of a Roth IRA, that personalization isn’t really necessary, and ChatGPT will provide you with an admirable foundation.

The secret to using this tech is “prompting,” and here’s what I suggest. Coursera is currently offering a fabulous course through Vanderbilt University and it’s absolutely free. While it’s fun to play around with AI writing, it’s certainly more productive to know how to use it effectively.  Now, would ChatGPT recommend this course? I don’t know. I didn’t ask. But, take it from someone who does a fair bit of writing; an AI- assisted writer can be a great partner.  I just wouldn’t rely on him/her/it to do all the writing work!

About Bank Marketing Center 

Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, we do believe the ChatGPT AI-assisted writer when he/she/they say that “incorporating ChatGPT into marketing strategies opens up a world of possibilities for businesses seeking to create impactful content.” Which is why we’ve recently integrated ChatGPT into our marketing portal.  

We’re all about impactful content. Our goal is to help you with the topical, compelling communication – developed by banking industry marketing professionals – that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. With the addition of ChatGPT functionality, you have even more control over your content, customizing your layouts within minutes, and with just a few clicks.

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.

Looks like Citigroup wants their employees back in the office. Granted, not all, and not all the time. But still, the news is a bit of a tune change from June of 2021, when the company was trumpeting the fact that the flexible workplace was giving it an edge over its competitors.¹

The bank, which has stood out as one of the Wall Street firms most friendly to remote work, announced just a week or so ago that employees will face consequences if they do not meet the firm's three-day, in-office requirement. Compliance with the required three-days-in-the-office edict, staffers have been told, will be considered when rating performance and crafting pay packages. While the company is “committed to their hybrid work model and proud of the flexibility it provides, as necessary we will hold colleagues accountable for adhering to their in-office days.”²

The reason is that Jane Fraser, CEO, feels that the company’s flexible work policy has shown that, well, not all employees can make a go of working at home. As a result, the bank’s less productive colleagues are being called back into the office… for “coaching.” I think that in this instance, coaching probably means “oversight.” And, based on my own personal experience, I understand her concern. 

Without getting too deep into details, in more than one instance, I’ve encountered a remote employee upon whom I simply could not depend. In those instances, these were individuals who were hard at work… not doing the job for which I’d hired them, but hard at work gaming the system. How? By attempting to work two jobs at the same time. I know this because I can actually “see” what they’re doing – and not doing — even though we’re not in the same office. What makes it possible? Technologies.

Let's face it, with the technologies available today, monitoring an employee’s behavior certainly doesn’t require being together in an office all day. Take Salesforce, for example. With it, one can view an employee’s activities over the course of the day; phone calls made, emails sent. And not just the dates and times of those correspondences, but content, as well. 

This is an age where employers can, and do, monitor screen times, count keystrokes, and can even know when an employee’s office chair is occupied and when it isn’t. (P.S.: There are probably other, more surreptitious ways of monitoring employee behavior of which I’m not aware). Unfortunately, employers have little choice because employees have set the ground rules. It’s unfortunate, too, that I’m reminded of that old adage that “it only takes a few to spoil it for everyone.”

Sure, bringing employees back into the office for “coaching” is a great way to make sure that they’re doing what they’re paid to do. But companies have other reasons to look at a return to in-office work. And not just for underperformers, but for everyone. After all, as amazing as some tech solutions are, employers understand that they can’t replace the experience (and the results) that can come from individuals working closely with each other. Here are just a few of the challenges faced by remote workers:

Collaboration is tough: the lack of face-to-face interaction can hinder collaboration and teamwork. Some projects and tasks require real-time brainstorming, problem-solving, and spontaneous exchanges that are simply impossible in a “borderless workplace” environment.

Blurred work-life boundaries: Flexible work (and hours) can contribute to a better balance between personal and work lives, but with no clear separation between office and home, employees can find it difficult to disconnect from work, leading to longer working hours and increased stress levels. Without social connections and impromptu interaction, productivity may increase, but so can employee burn-out and, potentially, increased attrition.

Limited access to resources: No matter how robust a company’s communication and information sharing technologies, remote workers still face limitations in accessing certain resources that would be much more readily available in a traditional office setting.

Reduced “chance encounters of the productive kind”: The absence of casual encounters and serendipitous conversations that often occur in physical workspaces limit opportunities for both innovation and, I think, personal growth. I know well from my agency days, when working remotely wasn’t an option, spontaneous interactions can spark new ideas and foster creativity. 

Learning and mentoring loss: Maybe I’m being Old School here, but much of what I learned was through the kind of personal interaction that simply isn’t possible in a remote workplace environment. Sure, you can have Zoom calls with mentors, take online skill-enhancement courses, and the like, but when it comes to learning, there is nothing like standing just a few feet away from someone who can truly teach you something. And that experience cannot be replicated in a Google meeting. Young people suffer most, of course; since they’re just starting out, they can really benefit from the in-office learning experience.

In summary…

Remote workers certainly have their share of challenges. Working remotely simply can’t present the kind of collaboration and development opportunities that employees need, nor the resources needed for optimizing efficiency. This can lead to job dissatisfaction and burn out. Meanwhile, employers have their challenges, chief among them being a potential talent loss. A move toward more days in the office means a shrinking talent pool. It also means risking the exodus of those top performers who are perfectly content with, and capable of, working remotely, and have no desire to return to the office.

What is the future of work? It’s a fascinating topic, and as always, I welcome your thoughts.

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. 

¹Bloomberg. Citigroup says flexible work gives it edge over competitors. June 2021.

²CNN Business. Wall Street’s biggest WFH advocate is bringing underperforming staff back into the office. January 2023

By that I mean Gen Z. Who are the Gen Z’ers? They’re the individuals born between 1997-2012, which makes them between the ages of 10 and 26 as of 2023. Right now, they account for about 40% of the U.S. population, numbering nearly 70 million. 

Growing up in an “age of technology,” these consumers exhibit very different behaviors than previous generations… much different. Especially when it comes to how and where they find information, as well as how they shop and purchase products and services. They do everything online, and they're doing it from anywhere. No longer confined by a home computer, they’re transacting business on their cellphones while in the car (sometimes even while driving), and even on their watches while running on a treadmill (I’ve actually experienced this. Perhaps, you have, too.)

And as we’ve all come to know, their expectations of a bank’s digital experience (that is, the service they get via online or through a mobile app) is far different from any previous generation. In fact, research has shown that to this generation, a bank’s digital experience is more important to them than the products and services that it offers.  So, what does that mean for your bank?

Well, for me, to answer that question I need to travel back to my soft drink marketing days. If I learned anything from building a beverage company’s market share, it’s this: Get ‘em while they’re young. Remember “Choice of a New Generation”? That Pepsi theme line cuts right to the quick of what drives a soft drink manufacturer’s growth. The key to success in marketing a cola is grabbing that young consumer as they’re making the transition from juices to soft drinks… if I recall, that’s at about age 12 or so… at least, that used to be the case.  I just did a bit of googling and learned this from “Made for Mums:” “Age 8 is when most people said they'd let their child have fizzy drinks.” Personally, I find that deeply disturbing, but… I digress.

Anyway, my point is this:  Smart marketers work hard to earn customers early and work just as hard to keep them. That being because, as we all know, it’s something like seven times more costly to earn a customer than it is to keep one. Pepsi knows that they operate in a category where consumers are highly brand loyal, and that earning that customer at 11 or 12 pretty much ensures that they have that customer for life.  That’s just the way it is with soft drinks. Now, do banking customers exhibit that same kind of “my-brand-no-matter-what” loyalty?  Hard to say. I read this on lumindigital.com: 

“According to Foresight Research, 22% of users — or roughly 44 million people — considered leaving their old bank and starting over with a new primary financial institution. Of the consumers who “intend to leave their bank or credit union, almost 3 out of 4 are Gen Z or Millennials — the very block of business that drives the future of your financial institution.”

How do I interpret this?  I see it as an opportunity for banks. Right now, the GenZ banking customer is in the “consideration” stage of their buying journey. By that I mean that they’re just now reaching those milestones in life that will motivate them to choose a bank. They’re getting somewhat settled in their personal lives and career. It’s a time when they’re beginning to show interest in not just savings and checking accounts, but other products such as loans, mortgages, and investment products. It’s a perfect time for a community bank to earn their business. 

Granted, that business may not be record-setting right now, but that will change. With the oldest of the Gen Z population turning 26 in 2023, they’re still in the early stages of their careers. As they continue to grow in their careers, their income will continue to grow, as well. In a study done by Bank of America, Gen Z’s income is predicted to increase 5x to $33 trillion by 2030 and surpass Millennial’s income by 2031.

And here’s something else to consider; The Great Wealth Transfer, as it’s been called. It’s predicted that the Baby Boomer generation, the wealthiest of all generations in American history, will one day soon transfer its wealth to the next generation. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Not the “next generation,” but, supposedly, the one following it; i.e., Generation Z, the Baby Boomer grandchildren. The Great Wealth Transfer is estimated to be about $68 trillion. That’s a pretty hefty piece of change and any bank should want a piece of that.

So, what can you do to begin to earn the trust, and the business, of this coming generation?

Help educate them

The Gen Z consumer is hungry for information, especially when it comes to financial services.  They’re shopping for products and services and want to learn as much as they can about them. Now is a good time for you to position yourself as a Subject Matter Expert in the world of banking and financial management (which of course, you are) and begin building that personal, long-lasting relationship.

Reach them where they like to be

Gen Z is heavily influenced by social media. The social media channels they prefer are, by and large, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Twitter. Make sure that these platforms are an integral part of your social media marketing strategy.

Last but not least, deliver on their digital expectations

Remember. This generation of consumer has sky-high expectations and razor-thin patience. It’s great that you’re out there hyping your digital banking experience… just make sure that you live up to the expectations that you set.

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.

Last week, we talked about the critical role that social media should play in your marketing mix; in building customer loyalty, in particular. Making the most of your social platforms is, well, a great start. The fact is, like any marketing medium, social media messaging must be monitored. After all, how else do you know what’s working and what isn’t? Monitoring effectiveness will lead to better-informed, data-driven decisions, which can then lead to optimizing your social media marketing strategy.

 1. Start with a social calendar

No, not the one with the indecipherable notes scribbled in Sharpie® that helps you keep track of birthdays; the one that will help you create (and stick to) a posting plan. To make building your calendar a bit easier, Hootsuite will even provide you with a calendar template!  And while, like everything in life, it’s nice to prepare weeks in advance for something you know is going to happen, well, we know it just doesn’t work that way. If you can plan your posts a couple of months in advance, you’re doing pretty well.

How often should you post to social media? According to Hootsuite:

• On Instagram, post between 3-7 times per week
• On Facebook, post between 1 and 2 times a day
• On Twitter, post between 1 and 5 Tweets a day
• On LinkedIn, post between 1 and 5 times a dayz

2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals

Now, before diving into measuring social media effectiveness, it is important to establish clear objectives and goals. These objectives should align with your overall marketing and business objectives. For example, your goals could include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, or improving customer engagement. Defining specific and measurable goals will provide a framework for measuring your social media efforts effectively.

3. Monitor the big three: Engagement, Impressions, and Reach

Reach, impressions, and engagement metrics provide valuable insights into the visibility and impact of your social media content. Frequently used and often confused, impressions and reach are each an important metric to track. 

• Reach: tells you how many unique individuals your post reached.
• Impressions: tells you how many individuals saw your post times the number of instances each individual viewed your post.

And then there’s engagement, which tells you how actively involved your audience is with your content. Engaged viewers interact with messaging through likes, comments, clicks, and shares, providing a much more drilled-down view of how your audience is responding to your post. Also, every platform offers some sort of engagement metric. Tools like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and Instagram Insights provide detailed information on both reach and engagement.

4. Monitor page likes and follower growth

It’s nice to be liked, isn’t it? Well, you want your posts to enjoy that same feeling.  Put simply, the more your content is liked, the better. When it comes to Facebook, for example, “likes” are fairly simple. When someone likes a page, they're showing support for the page and its content. Facebook lets you track page likes easily through their Audience Insights Platform. With Twitter, you can simply click on any Tweet to get a detailed view of the number of retweets, replies, likes, follows, and clicks it receives. Twitter also offers an analytics tool, which you can access simply by logging into your account. Click on “Audiences” and you can view a complete report of your following over the last 28 days. Instagram, on the other hand, does not make social metrics easy. A third-party tool like Squarelovin can help.

Tracking followers

When someone follows a page, it means they are open to receiving updates about that page in their news feed. While quantity alone is not the sole indicator of success, an increasing follower count signifies expanding brand reach and potential influence. Monitor follower growth over time to identify trends and understand the impact of your content and engagement strategies. Additionally, analyze the demographics of your followers to ensure your content resonates with your target audience.

 5. Monitor your site referral traffic

Using social to drive traffic to your website? Well, of course, you 'll want to know what platform is driving traffic and what messaging is doing it most effectively. A great way to effectively track website visits from your social campaigns across all channels is to develop custom UTMs which can then be tracked using Google Analytics. UTMs, or Urchin Tracking Modules, are a tracking device that can yield specific valuable information regarding site traffic visit sources. Simply put, UTM tracking involves adding unique codes to the URLs to which your posts link with a click through. If you aren’t familiar with UTM codes or aren’t sure how to set them up, you can find detailed guidance on Google’s Analytics Help page.

6. Utilize Social Listening Tools

Social listening tools allow you to monitor and analyze online conversations related to your brand, industry, or specific keywords. By tracking KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as mentions, sentiment, and engagement levels, you can gain valuable insights into the perception of your brand, product, and services on social media. These insights can then lead to a more insight-driven content strategy and help financial institutions identify opportunities to improve engagement, address customer concerns, and ultimately “fine tune” their product and service offerings. Again, HubSpot can be a great resource.  Here they list out the “best of the best” social listening tools, making it fairly easy for you to decide which listening tool is right for you.

Ready to get started?

Managing your bank’s social media marketing is not exactly a DIY project and this blog is by no means intended to serve as a comprehensive guide to social marketing analytics. Hopefully, it will get you excited about the possibilities that social media marketing analytics provide and inspires you to give analytics a try. If you decide that this is something you’d rather not take on yourself, don’t despair. There are a number of companies you can engage, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social, that offer highly sophisticated analytics reporting tools.

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.

We all know how social media has transformed the way we live, shop for products and services, make purchase decisions, share information, and much more. For businesses, the digital revolution has certainly changed, in monumental ways, how businesses interact with their customers. And the banking industry is certainly no exception.

Social media marketing offers banks a unique opportunity to engage with their customers on a more personal level, building strong relationships, and fostering the kind of customer loyalty that institutions need to compete and grow profitability. So, what are a few of the benefits that banks can reap from their social media marketing in attracting and retaining customers?

Enhancing customer engagement

Social media platforms serve as powerful tools for banks to engage with their customers in a real-time way. By actively participating in conversations, responding to queries, and sharing relevant content, banks can establish a trusted relationship… one built on approachability and accessibility. Regular interactions on social media platforms offer you the opportunity to humanize your brand, making customers (and future customers) feel valued and heard. This increased engagement creates the personalized customer experience that today’s consumer expects.

Providing timely and personalized customer service

Social media can also provide a direct channel for customers who are searching for assistance. Use your social media platforms to offer prompt and personalized customer service, addressing questions and concerns in a timely manner. By promptly resolving customer issues and providing accurate information, you’ll instill confidence in their customers, thereby strengthening loyalty. Additionally, social media – as a “conversational” medium – can provide valuable feedback from customers which, in turn, enables you to continuously improve your products and services based on customer preferences.

Building brand advocacy and trust

Social media platforms offer an ideal environment for your customers to express their satisfaction and share positive experiences with their personal networks. We all know how individuals love to share their experiences through their social media, and how important personal references have become. (Think “influencer”). By providing exceptional service and maintaining an active social media presence, you can encourage your customers to become “brand ambassadors.” When satisfied customers publicly endorse a bank's services, it not only boosts the bank's reputation but also helps in attracting new customers. Positive social proof through customer testimonials, reviews, and recommendations helps build trust, further solidifying customer loyalty.

Offering educational, informative content

People are hungry for financial guidance. Banks can leverage social media platforms to share educational and informative content, meeting the needs that customers have when it comes to financial needs and interests. By offering valuable insights, tips, and expert advice, your bank can position itself as a trusted source of information, reinforcing your brand as a valued member of the community and an expert in financial products and services. By consistently providing relevant, educational content, you can nurture long-term relationships with your customers and build both loyalty and retention.

But, “what about those negative reviews,” you ask?

A bit wary when it comes to social? Well, there’s a lot of truth to the old adage that you can’t make everyone happy all of the time, no matter what you do or how you do it. Taking this to heart, you can begin to understand that perhaps negative comments and reviews are not the worst thing in the world. In fact, they can actually work on your behalf. Why is that? Well, for starters, remember that social media is a conversation and for that reason, it’s an opportunity to hear what customers (and potential customers) think of who you are and what you offer.  It’s a great way to learn and, if and when needed, make refinements to products and services.

Be Proactive

Be proactive with our social media management.  That means staying ahead of potentially negative comments by “diffusing” them before they even appear.  This is accomplished through positive comments. Integral to your social messaging is the message that you welcome comments. Invitations such as “tell us about your experience,” and “don’t forget to mention your great experience on our social media,” will ideally keep the positive messages flowing on your social platforms. And, believe it not, a negative comment can even “add legitimacy” to your social messaging.  Sad to say, people tend to question the legitimacy of comments/reviews when they see only positives and no negatives.

Take the high road and take it quickly

Another step to take in keeping your platforms working for you is to always act promptly.  Individuals watching your social media are just as interested, if not more so, in how you respond to a negative comment than the comment itself. 

Monitor your platforms regularly

By keeping close tabs on the dialogue you’re having with your customers – and responding promptly and in a productive way – you’re creating personal relationships that can then become mutually-beneficial business relationships. You can learn from these social interactions. Perhaps many people are complaining about/commenting on a similar topic, service, or member of your team. Social media comments can help you gain insights into how customers, and potential customers, see your business; very useful information when you want them to do business with you!

Are you making the most of your social media?

Social media marketing has revolutionized the way you can connect with your customers, both building and maintaining a deeper sense of loyalty and trust. By actively engaging with customers, providing personalized customer service, building brand advocacy, and offering educational content, you can strengthen your relationships, drive customer loyalty, and grow share of wallet. However, it is crucial for banks to implement social media strategies that align with their brand values and customer preferences. With the right approach – that is, a message that aligns with your brand and compels your audience to act – social media can be a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.

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.

First came Budweiser. Then Target. Then Kohl’s. Am I missing anybody? I very well could be, since it’s almost impossible to keep up with the news of companies running afoul of consumers with their stance on “inclusivity.”

Please don’t get me wrong. I support companies that believe in, as Webster’s defines it, “the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those having physical or intellectual disabilities or belonging to other minority groups.”

Despite that fact, I guess that, just like millions of Americans at the moment, I’m still scratching my head a bit over this spate of what some are calling woke marketing, i.e., “wokeness” in corporate branding.

I’m sure that you, too, have been hearing and reading about it… and quite a lot lately. From alcoholic beverages and infant clothing lines to dating apps and detergents, brands galore are jumping (or at least making an attempt to jump) on the inclusivity bandwagon. The big news recently is that instead of getting ON the bandwagon, recent attempts seem to have landed brands UNDER the wagon. 

Why is inclusive marketing so important in 2023? Deloitte’s Authentically Inclusive Marketing tells us that “on a given day, up to 10,000 discrete advertisements bombard consumers during their waking hours. Consumers—especially the youngest generations—are expecting more from these messages than just details about the latest seasonal sale. Rather, they are questioning whether a brand supports diversity and inclusion both publicly and behind the camera—and this focus is becoming increasingly important to brands, as well.” 

How important? From Gallup’s US LGBT identification steady at 7.2%: “After showing perceptible increases in 2020 and 2021, U.S. adults’ identification as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual held steady in 2022, at 7.2%. The current percentage is double what it was when Gallup first measured LGBT identification a decade ago.”

It’s pretty clear that here in the U.S., our consumer population is growing increasingly diverse, whether we’re talking race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or even physical differences in ability. With that growth is an ever-increasing expectation—on the part of these consumers—that brands respond accordingly.

KPMG’s article, The Power of Inclusive Marketing and Why It Works makes, what I see, as the essential point here: “Inclusive marketing isn’t a tick-box exercise. Images of white people can’t be just switched with those of ethnic minorities, coloring packaging to pink won’t attract more female buyers, and rainbow flags pinned to a glossy campaign message won’t make them inclusive. So, what actions should brands take?” I’ll answer that question with a question of my own: At what point do brands take this too far in the other direction?

Fortunately, there are a few simple steps – so simple, in fact, that I can’t understand how Bud, Target, and Kohl’s missed them  – that marketers can take to develop their inclusive marketing campaigns.  

One, know your audience. As Shakespeare once said, “know thy audience.” Well, not really, but he sure was an expert marketer. When you’re developing your marketing message, do the research. Know your audience. I remember very well the focus groups, the 50-page consumer research decks, the commercial concept testing… There are a lot of ways to create and maintain a brand that is inclusive, and understanding your audience is a foundational step. I do think that, in some ways, “inclusivity” has almost become an approach to branding that is more fashion than fact. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in marketing to your audience, and again, in not marginalizing individuals. But I do question sometimes—when viewing a commercial, for instance—the necessity of an inclusivity subtext. It all goes back to research and “the numbers.” If the LGBTQ population is less than the 8% of the American populus, how will the other 92% respond to an LGBTQ lifestyle-focused message, i.e., one that doesn’t speak to them? Some will ignore it. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen recently, others will be angered by it. Angered enough to get on social media and push for boycotts, doing irreparable damage to the brand and often, the stock price.

Two, staff accordingly. Sure, the women in the shop could have been assigned to the motor oil account and the men assigned to women’s apparel, but that was never the case. When you see tone deaf marketing, it can very likely be traced back to the folks who created it not “being in touch.” Could you effectively convince a stranger, or even a friend, to purchase a product that you yourself never used? Probably not. At least, I wouldn’t put money on it.

Three, be authentic. This is critical and, of course, the most challenging. And that’s because in the end, (and we would see this when concept testing a commercial before it aired) people know when you’re not being authentic. Consumers can sense the difference between something you truly believe in and something that is merely an attempt at lip service.

So, as more and more consumers are looking to align where they spend their money with the brands that fit their values, it's smart to put an inclusive lens on your marketing… but keep in mind the three steps above. And let's face it, these steps aren’t important only in the context of inclusive marketing; they’re important in any of the marketing messaging you create.

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.

I just read in The Financial Times article, “Community banks fatten tech budgets to enhance CX,” that in its annual survey, Bank Director found that 81% of the respondents had boosted their 2022 tech budget, with the median increase being 11% from 2021. This is good news.

“Nearly half of the banking executives in the Bank Director survey said their most significant concern is that their internal technology operation was not making effective use of existing data. They also worry to a similar degree about their team having an inadequate understanding of how emerging technology could impact the bank and about a reliance on outdated technology.” This is not-so-good news. So, what’s a bank to do? According to the article, and the survey, “align technology with strategy” and “collaborate with technology partners.”

This is good advice. Banks manage mountains of data, most of it unstructured. Not to say that this data is worthless but, well, it is.  Unless, of course, it can be transformed into the kind of information that can drive insights and inform decision making.

Luckily, the technologies that can enable a bank’s digital transformation are out there and leaders are smart to be investing in the opportunities. Here’s the rub, though. Making a technology purchase, and I know this from experience, is no simple task.

Here’s what I’ve learned when it comes to buying technology.

Leaders in banking are committed, and have been for some time, to a “digital transformation.” This means managing their information more efficiently, securing personal data, meeting compliance requirements, fending off competitors, and beefing up both their employee and customer experiences. Studies have shown, sadly, that very few feel that they’re making progress in getting there. 

And that’s because very few understand what “fattening a tech budget,” and driving profitability with technology, really entails.

First, technology adoption is not simply adopting technology. Strange as it may sound, when a bank is looking to enhance its tech stack with some new solution, they tend to look at the process as, well, buying technology. It’s not. That’s because it’s far easier to focus on tech than it is on people. Why people, you ask. Because buying technology is not just a technology purchase. It’s an organizational change.

So, before you run off and spend your new fattened budget with some vendor who you think can solve all of your challenges, do a few, relatively simple things.

Figure out who your stakeholders are and involve them

A common misperception concerning stakeholders is that stakeholders are users. They’re not. A stakeholder is anyone in your organization who will be impacted by your decision.  (Importantly, it's critical to remember that this is not “your” decision. It doesn’t belong to any one individual, and that is where a successful tech adoption starts.)

Engage all stakeholders in building solid user stories

Every individual will be impacted by the new technology in a different way.  Here, user stories can be quite effective as they 1) articulate in a simple way the “who, what, and why” of the desired outcome, and 2) guide the buying team along their journey toward choosing the right vendor partner.  User stories should take into account:

• Who: who are the various users and what are their unique needs?
• What: what needs to happen to achieve the desired outcome? What technical capabilities are required? What processes are needed, or need to be changed?
• Why: why is this change a priority? Why is it important to the business as a whole?

Engaging all stakeholders is critical here, as those who are not fully involved often fail to understand the importance of buying into the change or what their part should be in making the change successful. They simply understand that a change is happening “to them,” and not “with them.” Instead, they need to clearly understand the purpose of the investment, why change is necessary, how it aligns with your bank’s strategic business goals and how it will achieve an overall enterprise-wide, net-positive gain. 

Socialize the change with constant, consistent communication

Remember. An organizational transformation does not necessarily mean all those involved will benefit to the same degree. Some users will benefit, while others may not. This is further complicated by competing uses and priorities, varying degrees of technology knowledge, and differing views of the opportunities and risks. Socializing the change is not easy, but in the end, you’ll save time and money. It’s a known fact that adoption and productivity rates increase when employees are involved early on in the discovery and conceptualization phases of organizational change.

Make sure everyone is informed and aligned.

Failure to achieve alignment on goals – across the entire business – can lead to costly and disruptive missteps. For example, what happens when you introduce a content management system (CMS) for marketing only to discover later that it will not integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) function?

And that means alignment on measures of success.

Arbitrary definitions of success can and will hinder progress. What is considered a win? Automating a process by 50% could be deemed a success by some, while others were aiming for 80%. ROI, key to measuring the value of any tech implementation, is nearly impossible to calculate when stakeholders have varying definitions of success.

Avoid SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome)

It’s been called SOS and the cause is clear; breakthroughs in technology are occurring on an almost daily basis. Chasing bright shiny objects can lead to continual comparison and fear of missing out. What’s the best way to avoid SOS from the start? Set clear, measurable, agreed-upon, and achievable goals. Then, stick with them!

Put your user stories in front of tech vendors

Much can be learned from vendor collaboration, such as insights gained from past engagements. Ideation workshops, for example, can be useful; not only validating the vendor’s expertise, but also helping you to identify any unrealistic expectations or false assumptions. Now is the time to ask vendors to show you how their solutions deliver against your needs through detailed demonstrations, not simply answering “yes or no” questions.

Take the time you need to get it right

As financial institutions continue to accelerate their technology investments, it’s important to remember that purchasing technology requires a strategic, collaborative approach. Is it a bit time consuming and labor intensive?  Perhaps. But it is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to find the technology that is right for your bank and its digital transformation.

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.

Hello. If this blog was written by an AI-powered writing assistant instead of a real human being, would you know? And, more importantly, would it make a difference to you?

Back in January, someone here (not sure if it was me or my robot writer) penned a blog on AI-generated content. Of course, since then there’s been a whole lot of “chatGPT” (pun intended) about AI; some pointing out the potential world-ending danger of it, others pointing to the amazing feats it can perform.

The contradictory nature of any discussion about AI was reinforced for me by a recent issue of American Banker. It was a bit ironic — and not just a bit comical — that on the same page where I found the article titled “How would new regulations on advanced AI affect banks?,” there was a link to another article titled: “Regions Bank using IBM’s Watson to answer customer questions.”

Another irony, I thought, was the fact that IBM's chief privacy and trust officer, Christina Montgomery, was serving on the panel of experts that met with members of Congress in its hearing on regulating artificial intelligence, while Watson was just next door, so to speak, serving Regions Bank.

In the article chronicling the Congressional hearing, I read that “the hearing focused largely on the impacts of general-purpose AI on society at large, and risks associated with leveraging the technology to advance misinformation campaigns during elections, to manipulating or anticipating public opinion and the risks the technology poses to children.” By contrast, the Regions Bank article extolled the virtues of AI and how “an AI virtual assistant allows customers and agents to quickly find answers to 283,000 questions a month, with a 95% accuracy rate.”

Is it surprising, then, that Congress has no idea which end is up when it comes to AI?  Hardly. And not just Congress, either. Even the folks who supposedly “invented” AI don’t really know 1) how it happened 2) what it does, and 3) what the future benefits and/or dangers of this technology really are.

Amidst all the confusion, what does this have to do with me as a bank marketer, you ask. Well, it has a lot to do with your content which, in turn, has a lot to do with building your brand, staying competitive, and keeping customers. In short, growing revenue.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as you know, now plays a more critical role than ever in the marketing content that you create. And Google, as you also know, plays a critical role in determining how and when that customer engages with it. It’s important, then, to keep an eye on Google and keep abreast of the changes they may be making to how they rank content in user searches.

If you’re a content marketer — and you better be — those changes involve algorithms, which have a profound impact on the type of content you distribute and how it is viewed. For years, and Google would be the first to admit it, their content ranking algorithm was less than perfect and, as a result, fairly forgiving. As a result, when it came to optimizing content such as web sites and web-based articles, blogs, white papers, infographics, and ebooks, etcetera, marketing content developers could get away with things. They’ve been able, for instance, to get away with optimization tactics such as keyword stuffing and link farming (a set of web pages created with the sole aim of linking to a target page, in an attempt to improve that page's search engine ranking). In short, writing to the search engines instead of the human being. As of this year, however, the ability to get away with “faking” SEO is no longer an option. This is good news for bank marketers who adapt, bad news for those who don’t. And, not surprisingly, Google continues to get smarter over time; artificial intelligence can do that.

Banks need to keep getting smarter, too; about creating optimized content that can truly leverage what Google is prioritizing when it comes to the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and the recent algorithm updates. This one in particular: The Helpful Content Update or HCU.

Here is what Google’s HCU is intended to do; validate and rank content with a greater emphasis on author authority… and trust. And they’re doing this not only by validating the trustworthiness of sources/authors. So, moving forward as a content marketer developing content for the web, Google suggests that, in order for that content (site page, ebook, whatever) to be recognized as valued content, you should position your author as a subject matter expert, ideally linking the blog to their LinkedIn page where the reader can learn more about the author’s experience and industry credentials.

Google is also concerned about the growing popularity of  AI generated content, via providers such as Chat GPT and Longshot. Industry experts theorize that it won’t be long (potentially) before the internet is flooded with AI content, i.e., websites and blogs crafted by writing “bots.” Google’s updates are the company’s way of protecting what it views as legitimate content, making sure that the content it ranks high in SERPs is developed by individuals who are truly qualified to do so; subject matter experts in their field and not “AI writing assistants.” Google even offers an “AI content detector,” a Chrome extension called CopyLeaks®, that can “verify what content was written by a human or an AI chatbot.”

So, as you move forward with content creation — keeping in mind that SEO plays a critical role in the effectiveness of that content — it will pay to also keep in mind that Google has an ever-watchful eye on the web.  Remember: How, when, and even IF your content will be viewed online is in Google’s hands, not yours. 

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.

Let me start by saying, simply, WOW. This article, late last month in MONEY, is downright scary. “Study Finds Twitter Chatter Fueled SVB Collapse — and Other Banks Are at Risk.”  Like many of you, I’ve been in this industry for quite a long time, so, I don’t scare easily. But the SVB collapse, which has now earned the title of “the first Twitter-driven bank run” gave me chills. In the “good old days,” like when George Bailey ran the Bedford Falls-based Bailey Bros. Building & Loan, you knew a bank was in trouble when customers lined up at the door to withdraw their cash; the longer the line, the deeper the trouble. Nowadays, withdrawing money — along with a host of other transactions, of course — doesn’t require standing in line. In fact, it doesn’t even require visiting a brick-and-mortar branch.  As we all know, for better or worse, today’s banking transactions are routinely made from a mobile phone… and in less than a minute.

It seems that SVB went bankrupt the same way that Ernest Hemingway’s character “Mike” did in The Sun Also Rises. When asked how it happened, Mike responds: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

What caused the “gradually” in SVB’s collapse? With Federal Reserve interest rate hikes — 10 of them since the start of 2022 — a chilly environment for IPOs, and a tough economic climate, many of SVB's startup and tech industry customers were already motivated to withdraw needed funds. Then came the “suddenly.”

On Wednesday, March 8th, Silicon Valley Bank was a well-capitalized institution seeking to raise some funds. Within 48 hours of announcing to investors that it needed to raise $2.25 billion to shore up its balance sheet, a panic ensued — induced, some claim, by the very venture capital community that SVB had served — which led to the 40-year-old institution’s demise. Just a short time ago, when only two US banks had collapsed (now there are three), CNBC reported that “even now, as the dust begins to settle on the second bank wind-down announced this week, members of the VC community are lamenting the role that other investors played in SVB’s demise.”¹

What role was that? Numerous VC funds, including major players like Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures, Pear VC, and Coatue Management, had advised companies in their portfolios to move their funds out of SVB “to avoid the risk of being caught up in the potential failure of the bank. In light of the situation with SVB that we are sure all of you are watching unfold, we wanted to reach out and recommend that you move any cash deposits you may have with SVB to another banking platform,” said Anna Nitschke, Pear’s chief financial officer, in an email to founders obtained by CNBC.”²

Bad news coming from VC firms in the tech capital of the U.S. travels fast and that news quickly snowballed into a stock rout, sending customers scrambling for their mobile apps and the “withdraw” button. Of course, the bank was then forced to sell investments to cover the demand... and, at a tremendous loss. Now, here is the kicker. “Word of those losses traveled quickly,” according to Reuters, “and spooked depositors withdrew $42 billion from the bank in just 24 hours. Many blamed the speed and intensity of online chatter about SVB’s weakness for the bank’s swift demise.”  Talk about “speed and intensity” … just multiply that by 450 million Twitter users.

The speed and intensity of the news around SVB’s collapse is, understandably, a concern. In mid-April,  a group of university professors co-authored “Social Media as a Bank Run Catalyst,” a treatise on the cause and effect of social media in the case of SVB that argues that greater exposure to social media amplifies bank run risk and warning that other banks could face similar risks. Here’s the first sentence in the Abstract: “Social media fueled a bank run on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and the effects were felt broadly in the U.S. banking industry.”³ As I said in the beginning… scary stuff. 

Of course, during all the media hype and excitement about how this failure portends a global financial crisis, few were paying attention to the more reasonable voices in the banking industry. Their voices were all drowned out by those millions of Tweets spreading fear. 

As Alexander Yokum, an equity research analyst at CFRA Research, warned in the MONEY article, “the fact that people can communicate so much more quickly has changed the dynamic of bank runs and perhaps changed the way we have to think about liquidity risk management. The number one driver right now is fear, not fundamentals.”

And that fear seems to continue to hang over the banking sector like a dark cloud… at least, for now. Over a month after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, some mid-size bank shares lost half their value, others were down well into double digits. A few share prices soared recently, then collapsed again. Great if you love roller coasters.  And this is at a time when, with rising interest rates, banking sector investors were anticipating a pretty good return.  Why the rough waters? “We believe regional banks are suffering from a GameStop-like moment where misinformation circulating on social media is fueling stock price declines that threaten funding and solvency,” Jaret Seiberg, financial services analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group.⁴ There it is again. Social media.  If only positive and accurate information traveled as fast as the negative, inaccurate stuff.  Until that happens, we ride that roller coaster. Buckle your seatbelt and hold on tight.

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.

¹CNBC. Here’s how the second-biggest bank collapse in U.S. history happened in just 48 hours. March 10, 2023

²CNBC. VCs urge startups to withdraw funds.  March 10, 2023

³Cookson, J. Anthony and Fox, Corbin and Gil-Bazo, Javier and Imbet, Juan Felipe and Schiller, Christoph, Social Media as a Bank Run Catalyst April 18, 2023

⁴CNN Business. Why bank stocks are so unstable. May 9, 2023

Newly released Federal Trade Commission data shows that consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30% over the previous year. Who are some of the most inventive fraudsters? P2P payment scammers. 

Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services and money transfer apps like Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle, are becoming more popular because of their convenience and, for the most part, their reliability. Users can add funds to their account by linking it to an existing checking account or debit card. This allows funds to be transferred directly to the user’s bank account. It also allows funds from the user’s bank account to be transferred to their payment app. Today, according to LendingTree®, more than 8 in 10 consumers have used a P2P payment service to make a financial transaction.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, not always. With more than 2 billion people worldwide using P2P payment services, cyber criminals have developed plenty of ingenious ways to profit through scams. Here are a few of the more popular ones making their way around P2P services:

• Posing as customer support: Scammers take advantage of users by posing as employees and reaching out via direct message or phone.
• Offering expensive goods: Scammers offer expensive — but fictitious — goods or services in return for payment. It’s a scam.
• Random deposits: You wake up to find an unexpected deposit in your account and the sender, who sent it by accident, would simply like it returned. This, too, is a scam.
• Claim your prize: Users may be contacted with claims of fabulous cash prizes. But in order to receive the prize, they must first send money. Guess what? Scam.
• SSN request: Anyone asking for a user’s Social Security number is almost certainly a scammer. Never give anyone your SSN.
• Government relief payments:  Scammers pose as government agents, offering the promise of cash in the form of a government grant or relief program. This type of scam can look quite legitimate. A dead giveaway?  You’ll be asked for personal banking information.
• Cash flippers: Scammer claims to be able to “flip” your funds. Cash flipping scammers will usually ask for a small sum, something to the tune of $5 or $10, which they will claim they can flip into multiple times the amount. Of course, they never do.
• Bad romance: Scammer reaches out with romantic promises of expensive dates and lavish gifts, but there’s a catch. You have to send money first. Maybe for plane fare to meet in person. In any event, it never happens.
• Phishing emails: A classic scam, phishing scammers will send a legitimate-looking email to trick you into verifying your login credentials or to click a malicious link that steals your information.
• Fake security alerts: Similar to phishing emails, some scammers may send a fraudulent email claiming that your account was compromised, and your personal information has been leaked. Scammers often include links to fake websites in emails that prompt you to change your login credentials. Never share your login credentials.

Unfortunately, P2P scams are on the rise and they’re hard to stop. And there’s a very good chance that many of your customers aren’t fully aware of the dangers; which is why we’ve created these Scam Alert campaigns. Use your social media platforms to get the message out to your customers that scams are very real, very dangerous and, if they become a victim of one, very expensive.

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 would love your thoughts on the subject.