When the economic seas get stormy, as they are at the moment, marketing departments often find themselves among the first to be tasked with belt tightening. In-house marketing teams typically face immediate budget cuts, followed closely by external marketing and advertising agencies. Having virtually grown up in the advertising world, I vividly remember the economic downturns and the subsequent agency layoffs that followed. It didn’t matter, either, which client was cutting their budget; anyone agency-wide was fair game for a layoff. This happened so frequently that we had a saying: You haven’t worked in advertising until you’ve been laid off.
But it doesn’t have to be this way anymore. In fact, it was this experience in my career that led me to creating Bank Marketing Center (BMC), a web-based platform designed to help banks manage their marketing needs efficiently and cost-effectively. For community banks, which rely heavily on consistent outreach to maintain customer relationships and promote services, this presents a significant value prop: effectively marketing their brand, goods, and services with a reduction in resources.
1. Maximize content creation efficiency
Content is still king - but you may not have an entire content or copywriting team at your fingertips to help you produce it when a new trend is hitting the newscycle or an observance is coming up.
BMC's platform provides access to a vast library of over 7,000 professionally designed marketing materials, including ads for various banking products and services, email templates, and social posts. This extensive content library enables banks to quickly customize and deploy marketing campaigns without the need for a large team or design resources.
Additionally, BMC integrates with both ChatGPT and Getty Images, providing users with endless copy and image options without ever needing to leave the platform. Whether you’re an experienced pro or a marketing novice, the easy-to-use interface is crucial for community banks operating with lean teams, as it allows for the rapid development and deployment of marketing materials without the need for specialized personnel.
2. Automate approvals
In the highly regulated banking industry, compliance is non-negotiable. However, you might be a marketing team of one and rely heavily on a cross-functional team to review your materials to make sure they are compliant.
BMC addresses this by incorporating an automated content approval routing system into its platform. As assets in the portal are created or updated, the portal automates all review and approval process notifications and reminders in sequence. With the archiving of all changes and notes, there is no need to try to manage approvals outside the system by, for instance, passing around files via email. This built-in feature not only safeguards the bank’s content, but also streamlines the approval process, saving time and money.
3. Simplify social media management
Are you currently managing all of that…plus social media? We get it. Bouncing around from platform to platform can be a challenge: sizing is different, platforms have varying guidelines, and your audience may expect unique content per platform. This can be a lot to expect from a small marketing team - much less a team of one!
Recognizing the growing importance of social media in customer engagement, BMC's Social+ platform empowers banks to manage their social media marketing effectively. Users can create, schedule, and publish content across multiple platforms from a single dashboard, ensuring consistent messaging and efficient use of resources.
- A user-friendly content creation tool: Easily create, schedule, and publish content across multiple social media platforms from a single dashboard; and do it in just minutes.
- Compliance management: Compliance with FFIEC, FDIC and FINRA guidelines made easy. Maintain a strong, cohesive brand presence and compelling social marketing messaging with features that ensure only approved content is posted and fully aligned with your brand and regulatory agency guidelines.
- Automated social media scheduling: Social+ also supports the scheduling of posts in advance, which is essential for community banks with limited staff, enabling them to plan content calendars well ahead of time.
- Intuitive analytics dashboard: Social+ offers in-depth analytics and KPI-tracking tools that help community bank marketers understand which types of content resonate best with their audience, as well as which platforms are performing best.
- Seamless collaboration: Many community banks operate with small marketing teams that wear multiple hats. Social+ makes collaboration more seamless, enabling the bank’s stakeholders to work together efficiently, even with limited resources. With features like role-based access, team members can be assigned different permissions and responsibilities. This functionality is particularly beneficial for banks that have multiple branches or teams that need access to the platform.
- Engagement monitoring: Brand reputation management is crucial. Tracking and analyzing mentions of your bank across your social platforms is essential to understanding public sentiment and addressing concerns. The Social+ monitoring feature automatically alerts your marketing team to mentions of your bank on your platforms, enhancing their ability to better understand public sentiment and promptly respond to customer feedback.
Predictable Costs with a Subscription Model
BMC's subscription-based pricing model offers financial predictability, a critical factor for banks navigating economic downturns. Our model eliminates the uncertainty of fluctuating marketing expenses, allowing banks to allocate resources more effectively and plan for the future with greater confidence. Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of BMC's services ensures that even with constrained budgets, community banks can continue to execute robust marketing strategies.
A strategic partner in these challenging times
At a time when bank marketers are tasked with “doing more with less,” a BMC partnership can help marketers meet the challenge. BMC’s comprehensive suite of marketing tools, combined with a focus on compliance and cost-effectiveness, empowers banks to better navigate tough economic times with fewer resources … and without compromising their marketing initiatives.
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center, the leading, subscription-based provider of automated marketing services to community banks. Our goal is to help bank marketers with topical, compelling communication with customers that builds trust, relationships, and revenue. And we do this through automating critical bank marketing functions, such as content creation, social media management and digital asset management, as well as regulatory and brand compliance.
We also want to share what we know – and learn along the way – with all our community banking friends. Whether it’s the latest on AI technology, suggestions on how to attract and retain top talent, or the importance of data protection, we’re here to make bank marketing the best that it can be.
Want to learn more about what we can do for your community bank and your marketing efforts? You can start by visiting bankmarketingcenter.com. Then, feel free to contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.