Trading Deadline Nears...

Did you know that the trading deadline is nearing?

July 31st is the deadline for any trades that you complete and want the player to be able to compete this year.

I know...you think I am confusing baseball with marketing. Actually, the same strategy should apply to your institution, too!

Hmmm, you are saying.

OK, here is my thought...

Major league baseball sets a deadline for teams to determine their organizational strengths and weaknesses and decide if they need to add/delete/or change their team structure.

The same concept should apply to your marketing strategies. The marketing plan and organizational strategic plan that was created for this year may be out of date or misaligned...certainly this year, considering the shift in the economy and fallout from the mortgage crisis.

If you have not done it yet...re-examine your marketing plan, strategies, and tactics for this year-to-date and the course of action planned for the remainder of the year. In all reality, this analysis should be done on a monthly basis, but the variables of today's economy call for extra vigilance and review...especially at the mid-year point.

There is still plenty of time to change tactics, reallocate budgets, and correlate goals to action production levels. However, this has to be done organization-wide and with a goal in mind...clarity of priorities, plans and actions for the remainder of the year.

You may decide to "trade" one strategy for another...or "cut" a tactic altogether. Neither is right or wrong...the "best" solution is one that that properly applies to your organization.

Take the time...now...to review your strategies, take offers on trade's and make sure your run for the pennant is reasonable and supportable.

Keep in mind...however, that similar to baseball, there can be "horrific" trading deadline deals. Ones that are simply TOO short-term in thought and trade the long-term impact for too little. A key reminder...change tactics before changing strategies. And if you do change strategies, give your new strategy time to develop and mature...

So...study your plans, review your progress, take an honest evaluation of your position and make the changes (or trades) necessary to position you and the institution for a prosperous remainder of 2008 and a better position as we begin to plan for 2009!!

Thoughts? Post a comment...we would love to hear from you and I think your fellow marketer would, too!

Cheers!

Bruce

Marketing Mosaic

I have always thought that the title of "Marketing Director" could be replaced by "Fire Chief" in that it seems the best laid plans are always derailed by the most pressing "fire."

Recent events have added another alternative title to the list. I know also believe that "Marketing Director" can be called a "Mosaic Creator." Mosaic is the art of creating images with small pieces of color. When you look at mosaic art up close you will only see a bunch of colored pieces that look very abstract. It is only when you step back that the artwork comes into focus and the bigger picture is revealed.

Marketing plans work very much in the same way.

The ABA Marketing Conference is coming up and we have some exciting news...MarketMatch is sponsoring Erik Wahl...the artist, the inspiration, the motivator, the marketer. In his general session, Erik will be creating two works of art LIVE in front of our eyes that will illustrate how when we begin to think differently about our approach a much bigger picture will come into view.

The paintings will be on display in the MarketMatch booth where attendees can register to win them (including the shipping back to their office.)! Have questions? Check out the ABA Marketing Conference Program here.

Exciting times!!! And the conference is in my hometown...Can't wait to add 500 like minds to my community :)

See you there?

Jenna

Member FDIC

I have to be honest and tell you that I never expected to see the day when the sped-up disclosure at the end of a radio ad would actually be important to the customer. Member FDIC.

As bank marketers we are always making sure that our commercials and advertisements are compliant and include the necessary disclosures...cramming a billion words into the last 3.5 seconds of a 30 second spot. Nobody cares about that stuff anyway, right?! WRONG. Today, they care. Especially those customers of Indymac Bank.

Do your customers understand what FDIC insurance is and how it works for them? I'll bet that most of them know that you have it but don't know what it means. I will also bet that most of them have seen the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." On George and Mary's wedding day there was a run on the bank. George had to use all but $1 of the money for his honeymoon to his customers.

But it really is a wonderful life. You have the opportunity today to make your customers feel safe. Help them understand that their money is safe and that the bank isn't going anywhere. Take a moment to step back and evaluate what your customers NEED to hear in today's economy. A message of stability speaks volumes to the timid consumer.

Be extraordinary today.

Jenna

My Mac Genius and My Personal Banker

I have fallen completely in love with the Apple Store and all of the Mac Geniuses that work there. Then I found myself wondering why I don't feel that way about my bank (weird, I know, but I am always thinking of ways to make my bank and my clients even more successful!).

For my birthday, I bought myself a Macbook laptop and am using it for everything. But that's not what this is about. When I made the purchase, I was given the option to also purchase 52 sessions of one-on-one "Personal Training" with a Mac Genius. It was $99 and I bought it. I am now able to go to the Apple Store once a week for a one-hour personal training session for A FULL YEAR to learn about everything from how to get started with my Macbook to how to take better digital pictures (and edit those no so great photos!).

It got me thinking about us bankers and the jargon we use. Do you really think that your typical consumer understands this conversation:

"Oh, you want a HELOC? Well, let's take a look at your LTV and see if we can't decrease the percentage first."

HUH? He-lock...Is that what you call the armed guard at the door? And LTV...I don't want an off road vehicle. And why on earth would I want to decrease anything at a bank...except a loan rate of course.

You and I have been doing this for a long time and understand the terminology. But do our customers understand it? NO. I would argue that most of our customers don't understand what we do outside of checking accounts, savings accounts and mortgages. And that's not even the cool stuff.

Many of you have staff whose title is "Personal Banker." But what does that mean? To me, that means that there is one guy claiming to be my account manager that I can ask for when I walk in the front door. He does not know my name and doesn't understand what I do because he doesn't ask.

So, as an industry, what if we got into personal training? Helping our customers understand what we do.

What if we committed one hour a week for a full year to each of our customers...or maybe just those who opted for it by purchasing the right account or paid for the service?

It should be by appointment only, and if you don't come this week, the session is lost...you can't get it back or come twice next week. It gives our customers a reason to be faithful, make better financial decisions, better understand their financial needs and set some longer term goals.

This could be the opportunity of a lifetime to create the perfect customer. It may seem like a huge undertaking, but really, many of you already have the staff in place with the appropriate titles. Why don't you make them live up to it?

Go to an Apple Store and ask them what they do. Ask about the Genius title and how they earned it. If the banks that experience the most success are modeling their service standards after Disney, Ritz-Carlton and Starbucks, why not consider the Apple Store as well?

Go for it. Take a risk, and improve financial literacy along the way!

Jenna

Using PURLs to Drive Subscription Sales at Arena Stage

It seems like the link to my article that I had posted here is no longer working, however Stage Directions Magazine published an article about the use of PURLs at Arena Stage. That can be found here: http://stage-directions.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=939&Itemid=39.

Attention to marketing detail

A few days ago I was sorting the mail into "yours" and "mine" piles when I came across an unexpected letter from Compass Bank (no sense in protecting their name in that they were comfortable enough to send these pieces to me in the mail!). Inside the envelope was a florescent-reddish, letter-sized paper with an equally bright lime-green piece inside of it (1/3 page to be specific). Seriously? Are those colors are good for communicating anything other than a garage sale, graduation party or family reunion?

The red page looked like it was created in a standard word processing program and included the headline, "Just imagine what you can do with the equity in your home." It had a good rate. I think the four very tiny-printed (I am guessing 10 point or smaller) paragraphs were probably supposed to entice me to call them ASAP. The typical rules, regulations, compliance, yadda yadda yadda, took up the bottom third of the page. I am a nerd for banking and actually read the disclosures. If I don't get it, the average homeowner won't either.

The funny thing is that there was a space that would probably be considered "white space" in an ordinary ad that had markings for something to be pasted in...about the size of a business card. Instead of pasting a business card to this letter, they simply typed, "Call Misty or Gina" and included a phone number. UGH!

As for the green piece, apparently Misty and Gina can't help me with anything else because Mark is the Mortgage Banking Officer that can save me $300 in closing costs. Here's a list of my rants about his piece:

1. It was 1/3 of a page and wasn't cut straight. If you want credibility, cut the paper straight. If that's too hard, you can always take it to a second grade classroom and ask them for help.
2. The text overlapped the border. If you use text boxes, make sure that when you print the document that ALL OF THE TEXT IS INSIDE THE BOX. Even the above mentioned second graders would notice that someone didn't "write inside the lines!"
3. The border was only on three sides of the piece. Seriously. I am guessing that one of two things happened. Either a.) it got cut off; or b.) the banker couldn't figure out how to make the border go around each of the bottom, middle and top thirds of the page and declared this to be "good enough."

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that there was some kind of internal challenge and incentive for the most HELOCs opened but there was no support from marketing. Maybe marketing didn't know the challenge had been given.

I know I am rambling a little, but here are my ponits:

1. Be involved in every product and service promotion your bank offers.
2. Ask your officers how you can help and what material you can provide.
3. Develop some brand standards and hold all staff accountable for them.

Take the time to make today an extraordinary day! Have a safe and exciting 4th of July!

Jenna