BankMarketingCenter

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.

I found the recent article in American Banker, "2023 tech trends banks can't ignore," a pretty interesting read.  It talks about a few of the challenges that banks face and some of the tech solutions out there that can help them address those challenges. Among many take-aways, this occurred to me:  It’s not so much tech trends that banks can’t ignore.  It’s their customers that are feeling ignored.

“With the cost-of-living crisis and general economic uncertainty” says the article, “many consumers want their banks to offer them more financial advice. A 5,000-person survey by Personetics uncovered that 51% of consumers want more advice on managing their money and 66% want proactive insights from their bank. But, sadly, 63% say they have not received any advice or communications from their institution about their financial stresses.”

Now, you might be thinking, “well, we’re a community bank, of course we offer financial advice and, of course, our customers know that.” And, to some extent, you’d be right. But, as you can see from the stats above, you’d be missing the mark by almost 40%; that’s a pretty significant number of customers. American Banker goes onto say that “sitting back and waiting for customers to find your financial advice content or proactively reach out to a financial advisor means they likely won't.” This missed opportunity to show your support for customers during tough times, and to provide them with personal money management guidance, is a tremendous (and costly) miss for those bankers who aren’t getting that message out to their customers. And here’s another eye-opening (and a bit frightening) statistic. A JD Power satisfaction survey revealed that 63% of customers won't switch banks… as long as their bank supports them during challenging economic times. And only 44% say their institution is offering that support. You might want to ask yourself: “Are 40% of our customers thinking that we simply don’t care?  

The article goes on to suggest the use of one of the self-serve appointment scheduling tools that are out there. And, I think that’s good advice. Being a “marketing guy,” however, I wonder if that’s enough. After all, simply because one offers a product or service doesn’t mean people will be interested in it… or even know about it, for that matter.  This is where a bit of bank marketing can really come in handy.

“When something is easy, clients are more likely to do it—and more facetime with them will give them the peace of mind they need to weather the storm with your institution,” the article tells us in conclusion.  And I couldn’t agree more.  Now, go make it easy for your customers by reaching out and telling them that you’re here for them in tough 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 bank marketing campaigns designed to help community banks tout the fact that they offer personalized, money management guidance.

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 you all know, bankers are continually required to do more with less… and the management of their marketing programs is certainly no exception. Because BankMarketingCenter.com is a Florida Bankers Association endorsed partner, I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Hickey, who you all know of course, as the FBA’s Director of Partner Relations and Associate Membership.  We talked about some of the trends in banking and how members can make the most of our partnership.

Brian: Thanks for meeting with me, Neal. Let me begin this conversation by giving our members a bit of background. Now, for those association members who are not familiar with the process, this is important; our selection of endorsed partners is an on-going one. In other words, once selected, a vendor doesn’t simply enjoy permanent endorsed vendor status. As new suppliers and technologies appear, we know that we must continually review these partners and potential opportunities, to remain assured that they are, in fact, the best organizations in their field. And subsequently, that members receive the best services in the industry.

As your state banking association, we feel that it is always important to help keep you, our partner banks, abreast of the trends, developments, and new opportunities that present themselves in this fast and ever-evolving industry.  We’re taking this opportunity to update you on developments in the area of marketing, brought to you here by Neal Reynolds, founder and president of one of our endorsed marketing partners, BankMarketingCenter.com.

Reynolds: First off, thank you Brian, for giving me the opportunity to address your association banks. We are committed to bringing the FBA banks the best in marketing messaging, which is so critical, especially with the many challenges bankers now face. A top challenge, of course, is that banks are continually being asked to do more — regulation is a good example — and resources are stretched thin. The competition for customers has become incredibly tough with fintechs constantly entering the marketplace. Consequently, smart marketing is more critical than ever.

Brian:  You mentioned that resources are stretched thin and I’m pretty sure that all of our member banks would agree. Tell me, how can your service help banks stay on top of that all-important function, marketing, without, perhaps, staffing an entire department or hiring an expensive outside firm?

Neal: Good question, Brian. For starters, our web-based marketing portal gives your banks the ability to produce professionally designed, bank-branded marketing materials in a matter of seconds. It puts the user in complete control of the ad production process, saving valuable time and money. Our design interface is super user friendly, so no design skill is required, which is huge. Users log in, select an ad that most closely meets their needs, and then customize it with their desired images, brand colors, and copy; simply by dragging and dropping.  And they have unlimited access to thousands of layouts and millions of Getty photos and images.

Brian: I get it. I’ve been in your portal and seen the campaigns.  It looks like you offer everything from digital signs, direct mail, statement stuffers and social media posts to ads, flyers, and brochures.  Basically, well, everything a bank needs to market their products and services, honor holidays, build their brand, celebrate their employees… all kinds of things.

Neal:  Very true, Brian. And you’re making a very important point about our marketing messaging.  The content on our portal has been created by people who know the business and this is really critical. We have a team of financial industry marketing professionals who are constantly researching financial industry trends, products, and services. Then, using decades of marketing experience in the financial services space — community banking, in particular — they develop and add new, customizable creative to our library of ads almost every day. This is the major difference between our service and some of the template-driven applications out there, such as Canva. Like everything in life, you get what you pay for. Programs like Canva don’t apply the highly sophisticated principles of marketing that we do at Bankmarketincenter.com.

Brian:  Can you talk a bit more about how it works?

Neal:  Sure. Our portal can also, if the user wants it to, automatically insert their institution’s logo, address, and phone numbers into their ads. The portal then facilitates proofing of the ad, automatically routing it along a pre-determined, pre-arranged compliance approval path. Another very useful feature, and one that many overlook the importance of, is that each user has easy access to their order history, enabling them to track all the marketing materials that are produced. This is a huge benefit if and when, in a compliance review, they’re asked by regulators for access to their marketing materials.  No other web-based messaging portal does this.

Brian:  You mentioned images.  Millions of them?

Neal: Yes, roughly 9 million and that includes videos as well. And your members can use any of them without concerning themselves about the usage rights. Here’s an example of what I’ve actually been seeing; banks promoting their mobile banking with an image of an iPhone. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but, well, Apple thinks it is. Their Trademark Guidelines tell you that “Only Apple and its authorized resellers and licensees may use the Apple Logo in advertising, promotional, and sales materials.” Needless to say, the last thing your bank needs is a Cease-and-Desist letter from Apple’s legal department. 

Brian:  Thanks very much for your time, Neal. This has been great… very informative stuff.

Neal:  Thank you, Brian, for giving me this opportunity. I hope it helps you banks better understand what we can do for them.

As I’m sure many of you do, I often check in with the ICBA to see what’s “in the wind” for community banks. Many of the banks with whom BankMarketingCenter.com has partnered do business with local farmers or what most small banks call their “farm families.” So, I found what I learned about what farmers face and the actions being taken by the federal government not just interesting, but very relevant to what I do as a bank marketer.

It also took me back to my own days growing up on a farm, a small farm in LaFayette, AL. We had hogs, horses, and 120 head of cows. I took part in clubs like 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) and served as a member of the Livestock Judging Team. I know what hard work farming is. Believe me, cutting and baling hay in the Alabama heat is tough. I know the beating that sweaty hands will take repairing barbed wire fences in a sweltering Alabama August.  There’s the pain, too, of getting up before school, in winter darkness, to break the ice on the watering troughs. I know what it’s like, for instance, to plant seed and hope that it rains. That’s not just a matter of hard work… It's a matter of having faith, as well. Then, there was the worry that comes with running a small farm… my dad keeping track of the cost of feed, maintenance, and supplies, especially when the price of beef would drop. And, finally, yes, that’s me with my favorite steer after winning First Place in the State Showmanship competition.

So, you can understand why I take such an interest in all things farming… including the legislation around this important way of life. It’s that interest that led me to do a bit of research around the all-important Farm Bill. A recent article on the ICBA website, I learned, provides a pretty thorough overview of the industry and what the upcoming Farm Bill will mean for farm families.  And, subsequently, how that piece of legislation will affect the many farming communities that are served by small, local banks.

First, a bit of history. Why a Farm Bill and why is it important? Sure, there are economic reasons, but for me, there are other reasons, as well. Farming is a centuries-old “tradition,” if you will, and in many ways epitomizes those traits that we want to associate most with being Americans:  Generosity, a huge work ethic, determination, and a love of this land, to name just a few.  So, to me, anyway, there’s more at stake here than simply supporting an industry; it’s about supporting our rural American families, as well as a way of life that is deeply ingrained in who we are as a people and a nation.  And Thomas Jefferson would agree with me.  After all, it was Jefferson who said: "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands."

It was 1862 when President Lincoln signed legislation establishing the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He called it "the people's department" since, at that time, 90 percent of Americans were farmers. The first Farm Bill was enacted during the 1930s as part of the New Deal and had three main goals: Keep food prices fair for farmers and consumers, ensure an adequate food supply, and protect and sustain the country’s vital natural resources.

Needless to say, the economics (and politics) of our agriculture industry have gotten far more complex since the New Deal. The basic tenets, however, do remain the same and it is upon those basic tenets that the new Congress is currently working to build the 2023 Farm Bill. Farm bill provisions are designed, at least in part, to provide lenders and farm families with a long-term policy framework for business and planning purposes, along with money that will help farming communities to thrive.  

As stated in the ICBA article, “the 2023 farm bill should continue to provide essential assistance to the farm sector and to rural America,” and fortunately, the ICBA has been extremely involved, and vocal, in ensuring that farming families continue to receive the assistance, and protections, that they need, including but not limited to:

• A strong crop insurance program
• USDA farm loan guarantees with increased loan limits
• Continued community bank market access provided by Farmer Mac
• Assistance with the high costs associated with inflationary times
• Climate change programs that do not cause economic burdens
• Agricultural export programs that support the industry
• Funding for university-led agricultural research

In conclusion, I applaud the ICBA which, back in 2018, worked tirelessly to help secure the futures of our farming families and is doing the same great work now. I applaud, too, all of America’s community banks that do the absolute best they can to support their farm families. Do I have a bit of a personal interest in this, as well as a professional one? I certainly do and you can bet the farm on that.

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 help community banks support their farming family 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.

Despite the fact that “digital transformation” has been with the banking industry since around 2011 and the need to achieve it has – for a host of reasons – become a necessity over the past two years, many banks are still far from achieving their planned digitization model. In fact, according to a study developed through a partnership between Adobe and Microsoft and reported in a November 22 Forbes article, roughly half (49%) of the over 600 senior digital and technology executives surveyed said that “their restructuring of workflows remains incomplete or unsatisfactory,” and nearly two-thirds (65%) of CIOs said “they’re now re-evaluating workflows to achieve higher operational excellence.” Why the re-evaluation, especially since many banks have been in digitization mode for several years now? That re-evaluation, I think, is largely due to what I’ll call “the four C’s,” the primary headwinds that are slowing banks in their quest to achieve that operational excellence.

Granted, banks are feeling pressure from all around, but based on what I’ve been reading, these are the challenges, I believe, that are causing bankers the most sleepless nights:

• Cybercrime – ever more sophisticated threats
• Customer Experience – demanding, digitally-savvy consumers
• Compliance – an evolving regulatory landscape
• Competition - loosely regulated fintechs constantly entering the marketplace

Given all of the above, what banks desperately need at the moment, in a nutshell, is automation. As mentioned earlier, yes, nearly half of surveyed tech execs feel that “their restructuring of workflows remains incomplete or unsatisfactory.” The good news, though, is that the other half doesn’t feel that way. Indeed, many banks are already implementing innovative, agile, and powerful technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning— driven solutions — and with them, discovering more efficient ways of working and addressing the challenges presented by the four “C’s”. And they're making progress despite the fact that many are working with legacy technologies — such as an aged core — that can make evolving one’s tech stack expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive.

Being a marketing guy, I always see challenges and solutions through a marketing lens. And, for this reason, I always view marketing as a bank’s most critical function. Not to say that the other “C’s” aren’t important. A customer experience that will earn and keep customers is certainly important.  So is the threat of cybercrime, along with what seems to be a regulatory minefield that gets continually difficult to navigate. But in my mind, fending off the competition is the most important of the C’s. Automation technologies can certainly help in these areas, and it can help in a huge way when it comes to a bank’s marketing function, as well.

What, exactly, is marketing automation?  Salesforce defines it this way: “In its most basic form, marketing automation is a set of tools designed to streamline and simplify some of the most time-consuming responsibilities of the modern marketing and sales roles. Automation is all about simplifying a business world that is growing far too complex, much too quickly.”

And what is one of the most costly, time-consuming functions of marketing? Creating the message.

Banks have a couple of options here. They can hire an outside firm, which can often be expensive and time consuming, i.e., “It would be quicker and easier if I did it myself!” They can maintain an internal marketing staff, which can be a challenge when banks are looking to maintain a slim headcount. Or, they can utilize some of the marketing automation technologies that are out there. Yes, there are any number of automation tools out there that can assist in functions such as targeting the right audiences, testing a marketing message, and supplying the key performance data that enables the marketer to refine a message based on customer engagement across any number of channels.

But, there’s one important function that most marketing automation platforms cannot address; and that’s the all-important process of developing a marketing message that is not only creative, but always relevant and engaging. And that’s where we can help, with a solution that blends the speed and ease of automation with the creative thinking of a team of financial industry marketing professionals. Now, your messaging can not only be developed quickly by an individual on staff (no design experience necessary), but also impact your audience, build your brand, and enhance your bottom line.

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.

You know better than I do that there’s a lot of controversial “stuff” going on right now (and for quite some time, actually) that has (and will) have a profound impact on community banks. One thing, however, that I think we can all agree on is this: Bankers deserve a break.

Just a short time ago, we talked about this; the fact that protecting PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is becoming nearly impossible, that customers want more and more in terms of a digital experience, that competition for banks is coming from everywhere, that compliance is becoming increasingly challenging and costly, that it’s time for banks to replace their core systems… the list goes on and on.

The latest “warning” seems to be about climate regulation, although this really is nothing new. I believe that the notion that climate change could trigger a worldwide financial crisis has been circulating for nearly a decade.  [“Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, warned of financial risks from climate change as long ago as 2015”, according to a September 2021 article in The Economist: “Could climate change trigger a financial crisis?”]

Why, then, are some folks in the banking industry talking about this as if it were something new and, well, fearful, for community banks?  Granted, there’s quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding climate change. But, not so much about whether or not it exists — although there are still some out there that think it’s a figment of our collective imaginations — but the ramifications of it.  

The 2017 TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure) Report says this: “One of the most significant, and perhaps most misunderstood, risks that organizations face today relates to climate change. While it is widely recognized that continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming of the planet and this warming could lead to damaging economic and social consequences, the exact timing and severity of physical effects are difficult to estimate.” Which, I believe, is why the financial services industry has been talking about this for years. And instead of making what seems to be concrete progress toward addressing the situation, simply fretting over the impact that the risk management framework may or may not have on a bank’s bottom line.

Sure, there will be costs associated with responding to the challenges that a changing climate poses to individuals, businesses, and markets. But sitting back and predicting doom and gloom doesn’t seem, to me anyway, particularly helpful.

I get the impression that some in the financial services industry see TCFD risk management framework compliance as a time-consuming, error-prone, heavily manual, and therefore extremely costly process. Given that view, I imagine that those individuals must be picturing that compliance as teams of expensive individuals doing massive amounts of research, filling out spreadsheets, and sharing them via the U.S. mail.

That is so 1980.

Here’s a thought. Technology. Let’s instead look to the future with optimism, instead of trepidation. Technology can do that for us. Using 21st Century tech such as AI, ML, AR/VR, banks can lead the way in ensuring that the concerns that were, frankly, raised nearly ten years ago, never become our reality.  Instead of assuming that the TCFD’s framework will be onerous, disruptive, and expensive, let’s continue to keep open minds and look to a future that, at the moment unfortunately, some seem unable to imagine; a future driven by the developments we’re seeing in technology.

The kind of efficiencies that these technologies bring to the gathering, analysis, and validation of data are at this very moment revolutionizing the way banks work. “Scenario analysis”?  With AI/ML, a piece of cake.

The tech that is out there right now can make it entirely possible (and let’s face it, this is going to happen whether banks want it or not) for banks to meet the TCFD compliance framework requirements quickly, easily, and cost effectively. And I don’t pretend to have a crystal ball with Fortune Teller powers to see the future. The Task Force said this nearly six years ago: “Improved practices and techniques, including data analytics, should further improve the quality of climate-related financial disclosures and, ultimately, support more appropriate pricing of risks and allocation of capital in the global economy.” And companies like UK-based Risilience are already making it happen.

Well, that’s my (and the Task Force’s) vision of the future. As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

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.

SEO, as you know, now plays a more critical role than ever in the marketing content that you create to engage your customer. 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. Today, we’re going to talk briefly about the content trends driven by the late-last-year algorithm changes at Google; the “Helpful Content Update” and the “Spam Update.”

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.

Not surprisingly, Google continues to get smarter over time; artificial intelligence can do that.

It’s time for banks to become smarter about creating search engine 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.

Why bother with algorithm updates, you ask? Well, Google is a business, too, and the path to growing their business is to serve their users the best possible content as quickly as possible.  The Helpful Content Update (HCU) and the Spam Update will both enable Google to enhance the search engine’s ability to offer users the best content quickly and, in the end, increase their revenue.

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.”

This is where the Spam Update comes into play. The update is designed to determine whether the content was, in fact, created by a trusted, expert source.  If not, the algorithm will identify the content as spam. So, tempting as it may be to use an AI platform such as Chat GPT or Longshot to generate your blogs instead of a trained writer with industry expertise and credibility, you may want to resist that temptation… or, face the wrath of Google’s algorithm updates.

In addition to the steps that Google is taking to validate content, the company is also taking a less favorable view of “all text content.” In Google’s opinion, there’s much more to content than text… and it’s true. The manner in which people consume information has been changing for quite some time and Google has been watching very closely. Specifically, they’re watching YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. And, the fact that all-text content engagement is on the slide while short-format video engagement is on the rise; and the numbers prove it. Fun fact: There are roughly 250 million hours of video viewed on YouTube every day and last year, young people globally spent 56 minutes a day on YouTube. According to Forbes, “YouTube Shorts now claims 1.5 billion monthly viewers — more than TikTok has at 1 billion viewers a month — and gets 30 billion views a day.” Instagram Reels has proven to be a powerhouse player as well. “In an October earnings call, Meta reported that Reels gets 140 billion plays a day across Instagram and Facebook.¹ As you look to create engaging content that Google will crawl and rank highly on its SERPs, consider short videos, either standalone or embedded in your text content.

So, as you move forward with content creation — keeping in mind that Search Engine Optimization 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.

¹Forbes. “In the age of TikTok, YouTube Shorts is a Platform in Limbo. December 22, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2022/12/20/youtube-shorts-monetization-multiformat/?sh=6ffc04116f41

If you’re anything like me and try to stay abreast of the latest bank marketing “happenings,” innovations, trends, etcetera, you’re probably just as tired as I am of reading about “digital transformation” and all that comes with it. You know, I get it.

I get that we in the banking community need to worry about cyberattacks; that the compliance landscape is changing every day; that we need to improve our “omnichannel customer experience;” that we’ll surely go out of business if we don’t figure of out how to compete with our digitally-savvy, loosely regulated nonbank competitors. And that is just the tip of the “innovate now or die” iceberg of threats that face financial institutions, especially smaller, local community banks.

Sure, tech innovations are hard. They’re also costly, time consuming, and disruptive. But, they’re also necessary. Finding the right tech partner and a solution that will solve at least some of the challenges banks now face is not easy. It’s certainly challenging to address a more demanding online customer, the growing threat of ransomware cyberattacks, costly data breaches, and building a “digital CX” that can compete with not just nonbanks and neobanks, but retailers, as well.  And how do you get everyone to agree on what your tech stack needs, especially when technologies, the marketplace, the regulatory requirements, and the threats to personal customer data are not only growing every day, but evolving, as well?

My point is this: Given all of the hullabaloo about digital transformation and all of above, it’s easy to lose sight of what I think is the big picture. I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “you cannot see the forest for the trees.” It means that a person or organization cannot see the big picture because the focus is too much on the details. I’m starting to think that, perhaps, we’re losing sight of the forest because we’re too focused on the trees. What is “the forest” here? For community banks, it is their brand, their reputation, their USP (Unique Selling Proposition, in marketing terms). The “trees” are the tech-driven “enhancements” we are told banks need to invest in in order to survive. The result? Community banks are forgetting that, at the end of the day, they are about community.

When it comes to leveraging that USP, in my mind no bank does it better than Citizens Bank of Edmond. Is this surprising to many (or frankly, any) of you? Probably not. Citizens Bank of Edmond has been on stage for quite a while now, due in no small part, as you know, to the leadership of Jill Castilla. This from the bank’s website and it’s absolutely true: “Under Jill's leadership, the one-branch community bank in an Oklahoma City suburb became a major player on the national stage and now sits alongside banking industry heavyweights.”

Now, I have no intention of diving deeply into what makes Citizens the community bank to emulate. There are probably a number of reasons and I’m not going to go into them here. What I do want to focus on is the bank’s “community-ness.”  Go to their website (click here), but please come back after your visit!  What do you see, first thing?  “Citizens Bank of Edmond Celebrates 120 Years of Serving the Edmond Community.”  Scroll down the home page and you’ll learn about the events that the bank supports, the community organizations, as well as the local businesses it supports. Ironically, and quite sensibly in my opinion, you actually need to do a bit of surfing around to learn about their products and services.

Now, I’m not suggesting that banks ignore their need to “transform” digitally. It needs to happen. But, with tech decisions being hard to make, and often — subsequently — taking a fair amount of time, banks should not lose sight of the transformation (if needed) that they can make right now.  And that is to take full advantage of what makes them unique… and valuable; their community-ness. Of course, we’re always here to help, with campaigns like this one that will remind your customers, and potential customers, that banking locally is what it’s all about.

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.

You’re sending out emails.  But, are you really getting the response and the return that you want and deserve? Even if you’ve been in the bank marketing business for a relatively short time, you probably understand the power of marketing automation. And when it comes to automating marketing processes (for me, anyway), there’s nothing like using automation to supercharge your email marketing.

Are you still taking a manual, hands-on approach to your email marketing?  If so, it’s time to stop. With ongoing developments in AI (Artificial Intelligence), and ML (Machine-Learning), marketing automation has taken quantum leaps forward in its ability to dramatically enhance certain marketing processes; email marketing, in particular.

Today’s AI-powered emailing is far more effective and efficient than it was just a year or so ago! Automation has taken email from a cost-effective means of getting your message out there into a cost-effective means of carrying on a very personal, timely conversation with both customers and prospects alike.

Unfortunately, here's what many community banks are still doing… and need to stop doing.

1. A staffer manually creates customer and potential customer records/lists from a variety of data sources, often in different formats
2. Using an email program that enables the building and sending of emails, each email is created and manually sent
3. KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) such as bounce and open rate are available, but no real, actionable insights. The assumption is that an “open” signals interest, so follow-up emails are then sent to those individuals. Again manually.
4. The follow-up emails are not specific to the recipient’s wants or needs because that data is not available to the email program. In all likelihood, response is low as it isn’t possible to align an offer, product, or service to a recipient’s need

And here is a great example, courtesy of 360view.com, of the difference that automation can make to email marketing:

“Southside Bank in Tyler Texas remembers their days before marketing automation. Gone are the days where a marketing campaign looked like this: we decide to promote auto loans, we get a list of all our customers, we send them an email, we celebrate that we sent them an email, and that’s it. Now we strategically build each campaign specific to a customer group and track what happens after the campaign—night and day difference.”

When you add the power of the marketing automation tool to your email messaging, you now have the ability to talk to your recipients about products and services that matter to them most at a particular time in their “purchase path” or “customer journey.” AI-powered emailing solutions can tell you when it’s a customer’s anniversary, when they purchased their last vehicle or their current home, the credit cards they use and their payment history… and all of it stored where you can access it quickly and easily… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Just think about how much more personal, and effective, your conversations with customers can be, when you not only know their interests and behaviors, but you also having that information right at your fingertips… right in your email marketing service’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database.  Direct access to this kind of recipient data and preferences enables you to create a true “nurture” marketing campaign; one that truly nurtures your relationship by meeting your customer with the right message, in the right place, at the right time…. every time. How? With the help of “triggers.”

HubSpot does a pretty good job of going into detail on trigger marketing here. The short of it is this: “Trigger marketing refers to the use of marketing automation software to perform a task as a result of an event, often an action taken by a prospect or customer. Couple multiple data points through analytics and it increases the precision of your campaign.” For example, lifecycle campaigns might include triggering a communication when a customer reaches a certain age, since different types of accounts are more beneficial at different ages. Couple the age profile with wealth and demographic data, and you can more successfully offer retirement planning or life insurance products. Another example is a balance trigger; it might involve a customer reaching an account balance over $100K, which could indicate that the customer might be interested in a different type of account, such as an investment product that they don’t currently participate in.

Email marketing automation allows you to automatically generate more leads, increase revenue, and retain customers without manually managing your email marketing program. Enhanced analytics will provide you with greater insights into your audience and their needs. Automated tasks will free up your marketing resources. You’ll now be reaching your customers, and potential customers with the right message in the right place at the right time, and more.  In short, you’ll finally be getting the response and the return from your email marketing that you want and deserve.

Lastly, when you’re ready to begin looking at what’s out there in terms of an email marketing tool, there are many, many to choose from — each offering a unique set of features and benefits — at a wide range of price points.  I found this to be a good place to start; ventureharbour.com. Happy hunting!

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 that every company in every industry faces the prospect of a cyberattack that poses a threat to their data security. And we all know that the likelihood of an attack — ever more sophisticated attacks, too — is growing every day. Banks, of course, are high value targets for cybercriminals; one, they gather and manage tremendous amounts of customer personal data and two, in the event of a ransomware attack, banks have the wherewithal to meet a cybercriminal’s ransom demands.

The epic problem that cybercrime poses to banks, and their customers, couldn’t have been made more clear than by an article I read (and you probably did, too) just a week or so ago in American Banker. The article reported on the 10 biggest financial data breaches of 2022. This year, apparently (and frighteningly) the number of consumer records leaked in breaches globally exceeded 254 million, 9.5 million of which were reported by U.S.-based financial institutions. Flagstar Bank is one institution that made the list and is now facing multiple class actions lawsuits as a result of more than 1.5 million customers’ names and social security numbers being exposed.

The bank is, in response, “offering complimentary credit monitoring services.” I remember receiving a similar offer when an institution with which I’d been doing business notified me that some of my PII (Personally Identifiable Information) had been exposed in a security breach. I can’t say I was very pleased when I was told that I now qualified for one year (imagine that, a whole year!) of free credit reporting so that, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I could check on my credit report regularly in order to spot any “irregularities.” Needless to say, I have bid a not-so-fond farewell to that provider, never to return again.

I know that protecting people’s personal information is hard. But, let’s face it, there are lots of steps that organizations that handle PII can do to make sure that it stays secure. Some are even fairly easy and inexpensive to take.

For one, be careful about email. Why? Because most banking data breaches can be attributed to an email or “social engineering” attack that involves ransomware or malware. In a social engineering attack, the hacker uses email to “phish” for information from employees by fooling them into providing proprietary information such as network login credentials. They do this by creating emails that look official, replicating the exact format of the emails that employees regularly send and receive. Often the email will come from (or seem to, anyway) an individual within the company with some authority, lending even more credibility to it.

There’s a reason why phishing and social engineering are as prevalent as they are — they work. Whether it is the use of stolen credentials, phishing, misuse, or simply an error, people continue to play a very large role in incidents and breaches alike. In fact, the World Economic Forum Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022 points out that a staggering 95% of data breaches are due to human error. What can banks do — at least as a relatively easy step — that can prevent the kind of cyberattack that leads to significant penalties, customer loss, and brand damage?  For starters, educate your employees, create and maintain a culture built around security, and lastly, put into place the processes that can help eliminate the likelihood of human error.

Of course, external bad actors and human error aren’t the only factors that contribute to data security risks. The infrastructure of today’s bank hinges upon a hybrid workforce across various locations, as well as cloud solutions such as DropBox® and OneDrive™. These quick-and-easy-to-implement solutions were largely put into place during the pandemic and were intended to help a virtual workforce communicate, organize, and stay productive — which they did. The unintended consequence, however, is that these individual locations, devices, and applications have exposed the bank’s data to even greater security and compliance risks by creating a multitude of “endpoints.” Each virtual office location and user constitutes an endpoint, with each endpoint serving as a “doorway” through which employees access corporate data. Unfortunately, these endpoints also serve as doorways through which cybercriminals can enter the institution’s network and steal customer data. For this reason, employees must be judicious in their use of unsecured applications or personal devices that fall outside the purview of the organization’s IT department.

As cyberattacks grow in volume and complexity, banks must give serious consideration to the new breed of cybersecurity technologies available to them, such as those powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). AI and ML are now, for many institutions, playing an increasingly critical role in securing data by facilitating the detection, protection, and response time to a cyberthreat. The reason is simple: AI technologies can either augment or supplant the “human touch” that can often be the cause of a data breach. For example, say your entire team is logging into the network for some type of online event or session. Sessions like these can be “hijacked” by a cybercriminal using stolen credentials. Not with AI, however. By supplementing the human verification process with AI-powered behavioral biometrics, each network user’s level of risk can be more accurately, and efficiently, assessed, and if needed, additional verification steps can be taken to secure the session. AI is beneficial in other ways as well. In the event of a successful attack, for instance, AI-powered solutions can significantly reduce identification and containment times, both of which cause costly downtime.

There is no doubt that cybercrime is with us for the long term, (which is why we’ve created a campaign focused on the upcoming Data Privacy Day on January 28). Securing data must be a priority for banks, and it can start very simply… with culture and training. Since the vast majority of data breaches can be attributed to human error, keeping your employees vigilant could save you from high-ticket fines, lost customers, and irreparable damage to your reputation.

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 thought on the subject.