Time flies, doesn’t it? It’s been almost two years to the day that we posted a blog about the importance of getting into the social game. Now, we’re back with a similar discussion. This time we’re posting a blog about, you guessed it, posting a blog! Why? Social media marketing has taken on an even greater importance over the last two years and, well, blogging has become an even more important component of social media marketing.
As we discussed back in January of 2020, the key to growing deposits, customers, and revenues is growing relationships. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way consumers behave, and at the heart of it, a watershed shift from in line to online.
Take customer service, for example. Customer service has always been an important component of a bank’s offerings, right? According to tech consulting firm CapTech, in their 2021 Innovations Study, communication with a company using online chat has increased 18%, from 28% in 2020 to 46% in 2021. Another statistic? 54% said they would always choose a chatbot over a human customer service rep if it saved them 10 minutes. Goodbye human being, hello chatbot. I’ve found that online chat customer service has come a long way over the last couple of years and I guess we have advancements in technologies such as AI and Machine Learning to thank for that. This is just one example of how critical your “digital presentation” is.
So, it’s no surprise that banks have been working hard over the last 2 years to execute against strategies that make social media marketing an integral part of their overall marketing. And blogging should be a major focus. Not only can blogging connect with your customers, build relationships, increase brand awareness, and generate sales leads, it’s efficient, effective, and measurable. Blogging facilitates interaction, interaction equals engagement, engagement equals relationship, and relationship equals loyalty and (ideally) increased revenue.
Blogging can put a face on your digital presence.
A website isn’t exactly the most personalized consumer touch point, is it? And we all know how important a personalized experience is to our customers. A blog can put a human face on your bank which, while it can’t take the place of a face-to-face, in-branch encounter, helps make your bank feel more personal, and more accessible.
Blogging helps people find you.
Start by thinking about the size of your website. How many pages are there? Probably not that many, right? And think about how often you refresh/update the content on those pages. Probably not that often. This is where your blog comes in. Every time you create and publish a blog post, search engines consider that yet another indexed page on your website. This means that with each blog, you’re creating one more opportunity for your site, through that blog post, to show up on the search engine results page (SERP) and drive traffic to your website in a prospect’s organic search.
Blog content can take many forms.
Obviously, your social media marketing consists of, well, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Every time you create and post a blog, you’re creating content that 1) you can share across your social platforms and 2) people who see it can share with each other. So, with blogging, you’re not only strengthening your social reach with the blog itself. You’re also creating a web of engagement points that connect with each other and ultimately lead everyone you’ve engaged right to your website.
Blogs can drive long-term results.
Hubspot says: “Imagine you sit down for an hour on Sunday to write and publish a blog post. Let’s say that blog post gets you 100 views and ten leads on Monday. You get another 50 views and five leads on Tuesday as a few more people find it through social media. But after a couple of days, most of the fanfare from that post dies down, and you've netted 150 views and 15 leads. It's not over.” Since that post is now ranking, it means that for days, weeks, months, and years to come, you can continue to get traffic from that blog post. That’s because a blog post can bring traffic to your site long after its first posted. In fact, according to Hubspot, “about 90% of the leads we generate every month come from blog posts published in previous months. Sometimes years ago.”
Is this a comprehensive treatise on blog posting? No. There are a number of additional benefits to blogging that we haven’t discussed here. And, there are a number of companies out there that can advise you on how to get the most of your blogging, from software and templates to guidance on creating a blogging editorial calendar. My hope here is that you’ve learned just enough about blogging “to be dangerous,” as the saying goes. It’s a terrific tool for engaging customers and generating leads, so get out there and give it a try! Oh, and by the way. We’ve been taking our own advice. By blogging and posting regularly, we now find ourselves on the first page in a “bank marketing” organic search. So, yes, it works!
About Bank Marketing Center
Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging that will help you build trust, relationships, and with them, your brand.
To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to in-branch brochures and signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com. Or, you can contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.