Get a marketing strategy for your bank that meets changing customer expectations.
The way customers engage with banks has changed. It’s never been easier to exchange and transfer funds online—and many consumers now manage their finances almost exclusively online. The rise of digital-only banks offers checking accounts free from physical branches.
Non-traditional players have also become a viable threat in the financial industry. Digitally driven tech companies often target profitable areas in financial services and pose an existential threat to traditional organizations.
You don’t need to become the next fintech company win over customers. But you do need to keep up with bank marketing trends to remain competitive.
Optimize your website around end users.
Banks aren’t going anywhere. Instead, finance marketers can learn a trick or two from fintech companies by merging technology and customer service. Your desktop and mobile experiences should reinforce—not compete with—your brand identity.
Optimizing your website for end users means that prospects know exactly where to find information they need. Easy-to-find information on products and services is the start of a fruitful consumer-bank relationship.
The content of your website must align with what your end users are searching for on search engines. Digital marketing makes data-backed recommendations on how to marry website content and brand identify with user needs.
What questions can great data help you answer?
Prospects search for information across various platforms and devices—and may interact with your brand across myriad channels. A workplace search may lead to follow-up mobile phone visit and, later, a click on a paid ad.
It’s up to you to deliver a unified, seamless experience.
Staying competitive starts with insights. The more you uncover through data on customer interactions, the more responsive—and effective—your marketing strategies will be.
Tell a consistent, persuasive story with paid bank marketing.
Financial teams are in a unique position. Data is baked into workflows. You have a holistic picture of consumer spending habits, which opens the door to hyper-targeted bank marketing campaigns.
Whether you’re marketing a regional credit union or a national bank, customers want personalized, meaningful experiences across all their devices. Investing in paid marketing can help you control your messaging across search, social media, and display advertising platforms.
Digital marketing helps you identify the right content for that messaging, by combining your data with campaign data to lead to smarter marketing decisions. Banks that run data-driven marketing campaigns will be there for customers at the right time with the right offer.
What does a data-backed marketing campaign look like in the wild?
What about unique challenges for bank marketers—like compliance?
Compliance is essential to any bank’s underlying operations—and an ongoing challenge for the last decade or so. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the banking industry faced an increase in regulatory standards. Financial teams must now balance regulatory laws with excellent customer experiences.
The new laws are designed largely to protect consumer privacy and information. For example, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in 2010, overhauled financial regulation in the wake of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect in 2020, provided California residents with the most comprehensive data protection in the United States. Virginia followed suit in 2021, and several other states are considering similar laws. It's only a matter of time before protections like the CCPA become the standard.
Compliance often feels like a burden, but it can build trust with a bank. In fact, SEO and compliance are two sides of the same coin—both help users find exactly what they’re looking for. By remaining compliant and transparent about how you’re using customer data, and making information easily accessible, you create new levels of confidence.
Manage mergers and acquisitions with paid advertising.
As fintech startups and other non-traditional players continue to raise the proverbial digital bar, many financial institutions have sought outside partnerships or acquisitions.
When handled properly, mergers create huge opportunities for community and regional banks—no matter which side of the table you’re on. In fact, research shows that the overall value of both the acquiring and acquired companies increased.
By improving access to new resources, capital, and digital capabilities, community banks can benefit from being acquired by a larger company. On the same token, when two regional banks merge, they can increase each other’s footprint in new geographic locations, which can increase new customers.
Retain existing customers and attract new prospects with digital marketing for banks.
Digital marketing helps teams navigate a bank merger or acquisition. For example, paid search advertising helps banks control their messaging across touchpoints, channels, and product lines.
Paid marketing can deliver customized campaigns to customers in new locations. It can also help avoid any confusion that may result from a name change or branch update.
Build a bank marketing strategy on solid data.
Digital marketing helps banks and credit unions provide a unified brand experience. It can help you navigate a dynamic landscape that includes changing compliance rules and, quite often, shifting brand identity and geographic reach.
Which digital marketing services make the most sense for your financial organization? Contact us below to get a personalized assessment of your organic and paid marketing campaigns.