Alternate Blog Title ... "3 is a Magic Number"
The average day in the life of a financial marketer (the way many people see us):
- Get the newsletter written
- Plan a customer appreciation day
- Build a float for the parade
Is this time well spent? The answers may vary.
A friend in Maryland made me aware of a great article on The Financial Brand titled, Marketing’s (Only) Three Challenges, written by Ron Shevlin.
Ron’s Take
There are three – and only three – challenges that Marketing faces:
- Acquiring the right customers
- Retaining the right customers
- Growing the relationship with the right customers
Everything is related to one of these three challenges.
I purposefully did not label the challenges with numbers, because the priorities may differ based on your institution’s current performance and business objectives. But that’s it. That’s all you have to do. It’s that easy!
Alright, so you could argue that the newsletter builds relationships and Customer Appreciation Day helps retention and the Parade Float drives acquisition. Again, is this time well spent? It all comes down to resources and priorities…
The MarketMatch Client Mantra
There are a thousand things you COULD be doing …
what are the 3 things you SHOULD be doing?
Resources
We all have limited resources. And it is very likely that, for your department, time is at a higher premium than even your limited budget. Since you only have so many hours in a day and so many dollars in your GL, you need to focus on priorities and make a strategic decision to let some things simply not get done.
Prioritize
- You should have a business plan to work from. Of your Business Objectives, what is mandatory? In short, if your institution only accomplishes 3 things this year – what should those 3 things be?
- In order to accomplish those 3 Business Objectives, what are the top 3 Marketing Strategies for each Objective? Now prioritize your 9 total strategies.
- What are the 3 most impactful Marketing Tacticsyou can do to support each of your 9 Strategies – think on-going processes as well as short-term campaigns.
With this exercise, you now have 27 of the most impactful tactics, prioritized, to meet your bank or credit union’s key objectives. That averages 2.25 tactics per month and should definitely help you to maximize your time and monetary resources. If you can’t get to all 27, use your prioritization to identify what to do now and what to put in next year’s plan (or simply partner with someone like me).
Now that we have YOURresponsibilities identified, lets apply the “Power of 3” to those who approve your work.
If we can assume that your department is the expert and is focused on Acquisition, Retention and Penetration. And if we also assume that, as marketers, you are the most qualified person in your institution to understand customer segmentation/needs and competitive messaging/differentiation – then we can make creative approval easy!
The only 3 things that anyone approving your work needs be concerned with are:
- Is the information accurate and compliant?
- Does the offer address a strategic need of the institution?
- Does the message fit the bank or credit union brand?
I've been on your side of the desk and, yes, I know that Ron and I have over-simplified life quite a bit. But, have we really? I truly believe that aside from your top strategies & tactics and the above 3 approval requirements, everything else is a distraction. That's not to say that other tactics don't need to get done, but they are certainly "back-burner" items.
Hopefully I've struck a nerve or two and lit a few fires. Share your thoughts below.
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