Just recently, we talked a bit about the benefits that bank marketers can realize by utilizing Bank Marketing Center’s (BMC) professionally designed templates versus the generic templates offered by other platforms such as Canva. Today, I’d like to tell you about the process, and just how easy it is to create compliant content, whether it’s a newsletter, banner ad, brochure, or social media post.
We all know that for community bank marketers, speed matters. Whether promoting a new checking account, advertising a mortgage special, announcing a community event, or getting the word out about changing holiday hours, marketing campaigns often need to be developed and distributed quickly. Yet every communication must also meet strict brand standards and regulatory requirements before it reaches the public. Sound complicated and time consuming? It doesn’t have to be.
To illustrate how quick and easy the process can be when using BMC’s web-based platform, let's walk through the development of a social media post from start to finish.
Step 1: Start with a professionally designed layout
Instead of opening a graphic design program or building artwork from a blank page, the BMC platform user starts by browsing a library of thousands of professionally designed layouts organized by campaign type. The user then selects the appropriate social media template from the library, or they may also select a previously approved content piece, which the platform archives for easy access and editing.
Step 2: Personalize your marketing message
Once a layout has been selected, it's easy to customize it. Instead of editing dozens of design elements, the user updates only the fields intended for customization. These might include:
- Imagery - users have access to millions of royalty-free Getty images
- Promotional headline - ChatGPT functionality can help in developing content ideas
- Offer description
- Interest rate or product information
- Call to action
- Campaign dates
- Website or contact information
With many fields already in place at the start, the user can focus entirely on creating a clear, compelling message. And the interface is so intuitive that no design skill is needed.
Step 3: Consistent branding is automatic
Since resources are often lean, one of the greatest challenges faced by community banks is maintaining consistent branding across every marketing channel, along with staying within regulatory guardrails. When multiple employees are tasked with creating marketing materials, which is sometimes the case with smaller banks, it's easy for outdated logos, incorrect colors, or unapproved graphic elements to find their way into customer communications.
BMC's templates eliminate much of that risk by automatically applying the bank's approved visual identity. Rather than asking users to search for logos or select brand colors manually, the platform automatically inserts approved graphic elements into the template. The result? A finished social media post that reflects the institution's established brand standards; without the worry of stepping outside brand guidelines.
Step 4: Compliance safeguards are always in place
Financial marketing is unlike that of most other industries; every advertisement must comply with applicable laws and regulations. That means strict adherence to required disclosures, logos (FDIC, for example), and regulatory agency language.
The federal banking agencies and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have consistently stressed the importance of consumer communications oversight, especially as AI continues to play a greater role in the process. With BMC’s platform, those required elements are already, and always, in place. Bank marketers can rest easy knowing that the required disclosures or approved logos will not be accidentally removed or modified.
Step 5: Automated review
Once the content creator finishes customizing the layout, there's no need to email PDFs back and forth or wonder who still needs to review the campaign. Instead, the content is submitted into an automated, custom-designed approval workflow. The platform ensures that the completed marketing piece is routed to all of the bank's designated reviewers. That may include:
- Marketing leadership
- Compliance
- Legal
- Product managers
- Executive leadership
Each reviewer evaluates the same version of the content, helping eliminate version control problems that commonly occur when approvals are managed through email across multiple stakeholders.
Step 6: Publish without worry
After all of the required individuals have approved the content, the post is ready for distribution. At this point, the user knows the communication:
- Follows approved brand standards
- Includes required compliance elements
- Has been reviewed by the appropriate departments
- Has received documented approval
- Can be readily accessed in an audit
- Can be scheduled up to months in advance
Why it matters
Many marketing platforms focus primarily on helping users create attractive graphics. BMC's platform puts the focus on something more important: creating an efficient, repeatable, compliance-focused and well-documented process. By combining professionally designed banking-focused templates, automatic branding, embedded compliance safeguards, and workflow-driven approvals, the platform helps community banks reduce production time without sacrificing quality or governance.
For lean marketing departments, that means less time spent managing files, coordinating approvals, or correcting branding issues, and more time developing campaigns that engage customers and support growth.
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center, the leading subscription-based, automated marketing platform designed especially for community banks. We are presently helping the bank marketing professionals at over 300 institutions craft and distribute topical, compelling marketing communication that builds trust in their brand, deepens customer relationships, and grows revenue.
We do this by automating the essential marketing functions banks rely upon; content creation, social media scheduling and monitoring, digital asset management, compliance routing, and more.
We also believe in sharing what we know and learn. Whether it’s insights on the latest AI tools, tips for attracting and retaining top talent, a webinar on operational efficiency, or what experts are saying about the future of banking, we’re committed to helping community banks thrive.
By working with our partner banks, along with having spent collective decades in financial services marketing, we know what works and what doesn’t. We know what community bankers need. We see the trends daily and are constantly adding new content to the portal to meet those needs.
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.
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