Banks and credit unions alike need to put a greater focus on reaching the existing customer or member, especially considering that almost 80 percent of bank customers say they would switch to a different financial institution for a better customer experience. While it can be tempting to focus digital marketing and advertising dollars on attracting new customers, financial institutions actually need to focus more on retention – fostering and growing superior customer or member experiences.
With an increased emphasis on targeted marketing and effective customer retention plans, financial institutions will discover greater profitability within their existing customer/member base. Personalized digital marketing, using digital technologies, the Internet, mobile phones, email and other digital media ensures messages are reaching customers and members where they bank. Smart digital marketing utilizes targeted communication to support six main goals critical to financial institutions.
Goal 1: Better Customer Service is Key
To achieve high quality customer and member service, marketing is an essential part of the equation. According to PaymentsJournal, “Customization is the essence of modern business, which means you need to learn even the smallest details of your client’s banking requirements. Who is this person? What does she/he expect from you?” It’s details like these that help financial institutions offer tailored services and solutions to their customers and deepen their overall relationships.
Utilizing the data and business intelligence that your financial institution already owns strengthens your overall marketing strategy by promoting the right products to the right people in a targeted, personalized way. Regular, relevant communications like these show your consumers that you care about them and have their best interest in mind, which in turn builds a sense of trust and loyalty and meets or exceeds consumer expectations.
Goal 2: Cross-Selling Helps Retain Customers
There’s no doubt that cross-selling is an important part of bringing in more deposits and increasing income; however, cross-selling can actually help retain customers or members, too. The biggest mistake is blasting the same ad to everyone who crosses your path – different people need different solutions. That’s why the key to cross selling is relevance. Financial institutions need to cross-sell to consumers by offering relevant products to each individual customer or member, and today’s technology not only makes that possible, but it makes it easier to cross-sell than ever before.
Utilizing marketing technology that allows your community bank or credit union to pick a display banner, customize the message and reach each customer or member in real-time helps your institution fine-tune your cross-selling ability. This ensures that your customers or members are benefiting from more of your products and ultimately, become more loyal.
Goal 3: Customer Loyalty Goes A Long Way
Loyal customers or members are most likely going to be your most profitable customers. If you are lucky, maybe they’ll even be a lifelong customer or member. Plus, there are no acquisition costs, they tend to buy more products and services and they are more likely to try out new ones. Your financial institution will probably become their first choice when they are ready for a new loan or need to open another account. But, how do I gain customer loyalty?
The problem is one-third of customers explain that they often receive irrelevant banking information while almost two-thirds explain that they’d be open to receiving more marketing communications from their financial institution if it was tailored for their needs, according to MarketingCharts.com. There’s nothing worse than a poorly timed message, and nothing more helpful than a relevant one.
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To combat this challenge, financial Institutions should use marketing software that integrates into its digital banking capabilities to closely monitor customer behavior and develop insights. Then, the institution can target the right customer segment with a relevant, compelling offer at a time when the customer or member is most open to receiving the message.
While many banks and credit unions focus on attracting new customers or members, generating new income from existing ones can increase profitability. Not to mention, the longer you keep and connect with your existing customers or members, the more profitable they become as they buy more products and services. Their growing numbers become an annuity. There is strong evidence that retention increases in direct proportion with the number of products held by a customer or member. Focusing on these existing customers or members helps you see things from their perspective and gives you the opportunity to create better services and products to help them – achieving the best engagement and the best results of your marketing initiatives.
Goal 4: Get to Know Your Customers Better
Having a deeper understanding of your customers or members allows your financial institution to more effectively target the right prospect for the right promotion at the right time using the right channels. Using the right technology can help generate real-time reports to adjust your messages and campaigns as you go.
Additionally, management tools and reporting systems can display the true ROI of your marketing strategy, explaining the connection between your marketing campaigns and initiatives to the performance of the overall strategy. This also reports which marketing campaigns or initiatives are working and how well they are performing, which ultimately helps the institution make better marketing decisions down the line and helps them understand what resonates with customers or members.
Goal 5: Meet Them Where They Are
A good marketing strategy is more than knowing your customers and targeting the right message to the right person. It’s also about reaching your customers or members where they are – using the channels they are already using. There is an undeniable and measurable shift occurring in terms of where your customers or members are spending the most time. For this reason, the web, email and mobile channels must get a larger share of advertising dollars, particularly as their use is growing significantly and they can be more cost effective than other consumer touch points including brick and mortar branches or call centers.
Online and mobile banking provide institutions with the opportunity to market additional financial products and increase engagement with your customers or members. For example, marketing tools can connect with your online banking to help your institution captivate your intended audience, build a trusted relationship, capture their time and attention, generate personalized communication, promote relevant products and grow your number of users.
Goal 6: Eliminate Marketing Silos
Lastly, financial institutions need to remove marketing silos by engaging a multi-channel product that integrates with its digital banking capabilities. Finding the right technology that gives institutions the ability to engage banking customers and members as well as cross-sell to them 24/7 with personalized and targeted product offers and pinpointed one-to-one messaging makes all the difference in a bank or credit unions overall marketing strategy.
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