I Could Be Your Next Member/Customer!

Are you looking for new members or customers?

Now, I don’t want to brag … but on paper, I look like a pretty darn good member!!! 

And you know how many times I’ve heard from my credit union aside from my monthly statement?

Exactly never!

• No phone calls
• No "thank you" notes
• No product offers 

Why?  My best guess is one of two reasons:

1. I’m loyal and already have everything with them, so why waste the resources to communicate to me.
2. They’re so focused on growth and acquisition that they don’t even know how good they have it with me.

I can think of several reasons my credit union should treat me REALLY nice:

• I’ll be paying off one auto loan this summer
• The other auto loan is more than 3 years old
• I don’t have any CDs or Money Markets with them (they should assume that I have some somewhere)
• The summer “Honey Do” list includes several big ticket items
• And most importantly ….

The competition is calling!

Are you making the same mistakes?

• Do you know who your best customers/members are?
• Do you know where the opportunities are with them?
• How are you communicating to them?
• What are you doing to make sure they stay?

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MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM for your organization and demonstrate RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

Want to learn more?  Enroll in the MarketMatch eCollege!  Smart online sessions delivered with CFMP credits, tactical advice and a game plan for success!

Learn more about us here. (click)

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Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Lessons from Congress...

Well...today the stock market is taking a beating.  I usually don't make political comments in our blog...and this one is not a strict political commentary...but I must borrow from the recent political happenings surrounding the debt ceiling.

Congress toiled and toiled and bantered around a political hot potato that is the statutory debt ceiling for the United States.  Finally, at nearly the 11th hour, Congress ratified an agreement that in principle increased the debt ceiling and addressed several other key political points...however, they forgot to ask the rating agencies for their reviews. As you know, on Friday Standard and Poors downgraded the rating on US debt...creating the exact problem that Congress was trying to avoid!

The lesson here is that you MUST not only pay attention to the interested parties in your market (for us...our customers and potential customers) but LISTEN to what they have to say when you actually ASK them for their input.

The customer has keen insights and may see things differently than we do...like the rating agencies seeing things differently that Congress. 

You need to stop and engage your customer and marketplace to determine WHEN and IF the actions that you are considering are going to be accepted and if not...help to determine what you should do!

Far too often, as an industry, we have insulated ourselves in meeting rooms and have a false sense of the customer pulse...the only way to know it, is to take it yourself through customer interactions and asking tough questions.

So, learn the lesson that Congress has not yet learned...ask the questions and be ready to modify your answer or strategy based upon the feedback you receive....in the end, you will be miles ahead and dollars saved!

Cheers!

Bruce

Want to justify your Marketing budget?

A new J.D. Powers & Associates report on shopping and switching rates can not only justify your Marketing budget, but it should also put you on the offense ... and defense.

Here are the highlights:

• 8.7% of customers said that they switched their primary financial institution in the last year (up from 7.7% the previous year)
• Shoppers consider 1.9 banks while shopping (up from 1.6)
• The most common reason to switch is life circumstances
• Advertising/awareness & convenience drives their decision
• Less than half (43%) of customers who purchased an additional banking product did so with their PFI

So what does all this mean?

Go on the Offense

We've been saying it for about 2 years ... their is money in motion! People are switching financial institutions. You need to be in the 1.9 institutions that they consider.

Life Stages: You can differentiate your institution and speak directly to your customers needs through life stage messaging. Click here for more life stage information.

Get them to know you: Awareness drives consumer's decision ... and you're in the awareness business. Use your budget wisely and be on the radar of those folks most likely to be your best customers. Use segmentation and mirror modeling to locate your best opportunities - then focus your budget on them. You likely can't battle Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo and Bank of America dollar-for-dollar. It's not about getting EVERYONE to know you, it's about getting the right people to know you.

Go on the Defense

We can no longer assume that our PFI customers are safe or loyal. Assume that less than half of them will come to you for their next product and more than 8% of all your customers are looking to leave. Pretty scary stuff huh?

Focus on cross sells, strategically bundle your products and focus on your team's training - are they prepared to facilitate the customer conversation?

Not to be a fear-monger, but this report should both scare you, energize you and justify the importance of marketing now, more than ever. Share this with your management team and show up prepared with a plan based on ROI.

Good luck and take care,

Eric

Get Focused with Focus Groups

Our team just completed a week-long series of focus groups in Mississippi. We talked to both customers and prospects for a client in 3 different markets.

If you've never done focus groups before, they can be awfully handy! They allow you to dig into specific subjects in a way that you simply can't duplicate with quantitative research.

Do you want to know why someone chooses a checking account or who they'd go to first for a loan? What about price versus service? Would your market be willing to pay 10 basis points for the absolute best service in town? Great ... now how do they DEFINE service?!?! You can find it all out with focus groups.

Here area few tips:

• Conduct groups in all relevant markets. You'll likely find that perceptions and purchase criteria are different from market-to-market (and if they're consistent, that tells us something too!)
• Talk to both customers and prospects. Your customers will give you great insight into their experiences with you. Prospects can tell you why they're not currently banking with you.
• Be very targeted in what you want to learn. Identify 3-4 things that you MUST learn from the session and 2-3 other items that would be nice.
• Be very targeted in who you want to learn from. Do you need to focus efforts on a specific demographic? Recruit them. Want to learn what a specific competitor's customers think? Recruit them. Just note that the more narrow your target, the more expensive recruiting will likely be.
• Stay consistent. use a professional facilitator who can keep each session consistent so you can use data across all your markets.

Take care,

Eric

Think Inside the Box

Thinking INSIDE the box... that is where it is at!

Ever since I started MarketMatch, we have held a mantra of "thinking inside the box"... it is on our business cards, a crazy picture of me is on our website and it drives our fundamental approach to our clients.

So what IS thinking inside the box?
It is all about doing your homework on who currently does business with you and learning everything you can possibly know about the "who, what, where, how and why"...and then applying those learnings to your greater marketplace.

It is about...

• Analyzing buying patterns
• Visualizing where customers/members live that bank with you
• Recognizing the geographic/zip code/census tract patterns of your customers
• Seeing how your different markets react differently to your marketing messages

And most importantly DOING something with what you learn!

It does not take a sophisticated CRM (although it does help), a full time data analyst (although it makes it easier), or a PHD in statistics (wow...I feel a headache coming on!)

But it DOES take a serious focus on the info you ALREADY have available to you...and the creativity to look at it in a completely different viewpoint to see what it can tell you.  Look around-- you have the information assets around you right now...they just need to be turned into knowledge!  That is the key...having knowledge.  Knowledge is actionable information.  Data is in a binder, knowledge is in action!

You will be amazed what you already have available to you...and what secrets are sitting on the surface just waiting to be seen!

Need help?  Call us...we would be glad to pitch in and bring our ROI Guarantee along for the ride!

Cheers!

Bruce Clapp

October Doesn't Have to be Scary

October Doesn't Have to be Scary

Can you feel the chill in the air? The foreboding feeling of things to come? Yes, it's planning season...

But planning for 2011 doesn't have to be scary. Just take planning in bite-sized chunks.

1. Build a knowledge-base. I know you have a smart management team and Board. But unless your target is old dudes in suits, you may need to talk to your market before planning. This can be as fast and cheap as branch intercept surveys (you know, like the clip-board-toting folks at the mall) or as robust as statistically relevant, quantitative research that's cross tabulated across multiple data fields ... or anywhere in between. The key is to try to understand what you want/need to know and research accordingly. Click here for more information about research strategies.
2. Gather before you hunt. In many cases, the most prudent planning starts with your existing customers/members. Understand how your customers use you and why. What do your most profitable customers look like? Where do they live? What makes them profitable? We often recommend starting with customers with 2 or 3 products with you already (as opposed to targeting single-product households). These folks have started building a loyalty with you. Often times single-product customers are single-product for a reason and hard to convert. The bottom line is that you will get the biggest bang for your marketing buck if you focus on building share-of-wallet instead of acquiring new customers.
3. Don't forget your Halloween night strategies. When I was a kid, I had a 3-pronged approach to trick-or-treating: 1) First hit the houses that knew me. They were more likely to throw in a little extra. 2) Go to the bigger, more expensive neighborhoods, they usually had the full-sized candy bars (remember when people used to give those away?!?!) 3) Before calling it a night, hit the houses that knew me again - they often would dump whatever was left in my bag. Who knew, at 7 years old, what a great marketer I already was!?! 1) Target by proximity to those who are most likely to be aware of you and have a positive perception - they will be more open to your message. 2) Target those that have the highest propensity to be most profitable. In banking, this isn't always the biggest houses. You can analyze by census-tracts where the opportunity lies. (If you can't, we can do it for you!) 3) Keep talking to those that know you best. They're more likely to give you more.
4. Go into planning thinking about ROI. Too often, institutions only use ROI as a follow-up -- like a report card of sorts. It is a powerful planning and budgeting tool. Demonstrate how your department and your efforts will add to the bank/CU's bottom line.

Take care,

Eric

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Question? Answer!!

Greetings and Happy Monday!!

Today is about asking questions and seeking the answers!

Most of you are in the Q&A portion of your year...

• What worked? 
• What didn't? 
• What budget do I have remaining?
• What is changing about our market?
• What new initiatives are coming down the path?

All great questions...and many answered by information that is within your grasp and some outside of your grasp.

The key?

Knowing what you DON'T know and what portion of that you NEED to find an answer.  You can spend all of your time finding answers to each and every question...but analysis paralysis will undoubtedly set in!

You need to know the GO-TO information factors that will drive you plan, your budget and your success!

What are they??  Great question!  The answer...it varies for each of you!!

Call us to find out... for your bank/CU!

We can provide the answer...and more importantly save you the time and effort!
Come on...give us a call! We can help...

Put in the work to win the race

In one month from today, I'll be running in my first ultra marathon - a 50K trail run in Michigan.

While on a training run last night, I got to thinking about how so many of the bankers I talk to are starting to talk about their upcoming planning sessions. As I was running through the woods, I started making comparisons to running.

When September 25th comes, the gun fire and the race begins ... the winner will not necessarily have that day's efforts to thank. Rather it's the hundreds of miles run the weeks and months leading up to the race that matter more. It's the hill repeats, the speed work and the long runs. It's the preparation!

The same goes for your planning. First, we need to scrap the phrase "Planning Session" and call it what it is, a PLANNING PROCESS. Planning should not begin and end at your retreat. You should be reviewing, working and improving your plan every day. The "session" should simply be a sanity check ... a report on progress and a group agreement to stay the course or tweak.

What are you doing now to make sure your 2011 planning is a success? Here are some thoughts:

• Make sure you have a thorough understanding of the competition: conduct secret shops, review their products, packaging and pricing. How are they doing in market share?
• Understand market trends. What do local consumers want (not necessarily what product, but what end result - lower monthly payments ... pay off debt faster ... just get by to my next paycheck?) What are their perceptions of your institution and the competition? (Primary research is best here, but if you don't have the time or budget, collect data wherever and however you can to make a informed decision)
• Analyze how your current product suite aligns with the competition and market trends.
• Analyze how your current sales process and external communications aligns with the competition and market trends.
• What are the current financial needs of your institution?
• do you have the right people in the right places to achieve what you need to?

Without some of these basic questions answered, I don't see how a strategic planning process can be very, well "strategic."

A little sweat during the preparation will make you more successful (at least that's what I'm counting on when race day rolls around!)

Take care,

Eric

2009 Resolutions

Well, we’re 14 days from “The big day.”  Then we have 5 December days that might as well not exist … then New Year’s Eve.  So I thought I’d take his time to skip straight to New Year’s Resolutions.

Among the office parties, branch parties, management lunches, friend’s gatherings and family get-togethers … consider some of the following resolutions for ’09:

 “In 2009, I resolve to…

• Measure ROI on all major campaigns and on my marketing efforts overall (at least monthly or quarterly)
  
• Write at least 3 personal note cards per week to key commercial prospects
  
•  Test variables (target, message, offer, mailer dimensions, etc.) on at least 2 direct mail campaigns
  
• Get an idea from at least one non-bank related retail example ... and use it
• Better use segmentation to stretch my marketing budget and increase results
  
• Conduct a benchmark awareness study in Q1 and a follow-up study in Q4 … and show a positive trend!
  
• Focus as much on the delivery of the promise (front line practices and sales techniques) as I do on the marketing message itself (external communication)
  
• Improve internal communication of bank objectives, goal progress and brand messaging/delivery
  
• Form a marketing advisory board of targeted customers to critique all messaging (ads, web site, direct mail, etc) from an outside, non-banking perspective
  
• Read/attend every trade pub, industry blog, and webinar that I can get my hands on to stay on top of the industry – and not just read the marketing articles.
  
• Read at least one non-industry related marketing book
  
• Attend the ABA School of Bank Marketing & Management … Get my CFMP certification
  
• Have more fun at my job because there’s nothing better than being a marketer!
  

Now, I need your help!  Please post a comment to this blog to add your own’09 resolution or to comment on any of the ones above.

Good luck making it through the next few weeks and enjoy the holidays.

Take care,

Eric