Strategic Partnerships Are Where It's At

As my whole family prepares for our annual fall pilgrimage to the South Carolina coast for a week of relaxation and reconnecting, I began receiving information from our rental company that had nothing to do with the house rental.  These specially-tailored messages featured things like grocery discounts, bike, boat, and ski rentals, and this latest one…a complimentary beach photography package.

Walking you through the thought process of a consumer, hiring a photographer for our beach vacation wasn’t on our radar.  At all.  We have talked about having a family photo every Christmas probably for the past ten years, but it is something we’ve never been able to coordinate with our busy schedules during the holiday season.  But, after seeing this post on the rental agency’s Facebook page, I sent an email out to my family and we all agreed this would be a good idea.

This rental agency has formed strategic partnerships with nearby businesses of every stripe in order to add value to its relationships with customers of all interests.  And those partnerships are mutually beneficial for both companies.  The photography company sends business to the rental company as well through its website, storefront and social media pages. 

We are all in strategic planning mode for 2014, and I urge you, community banks and credit unions, to step back and take a look at the communities in which you do business.  Your greatest opportunity for growth lies there, but your opportunities for adding value to your customer and member relationships can be vast, which will only make the community corral around your financial institution even more.  And it not only stretches your marketing dollars, but gets your message in front of people who might not ordinarily see your message but are interested in your services.  Case in point: the photography business in Charleston, SC.

If your financial institution offers business services – loans and deposit products – there is an even greater opportunity to differentiate yourself within the market and add value to these banking relationships by finding mutually beneficial ways to partner and grow each others’ business.  These partnerships don’t have to be companies necessarily.  Niche markets within your communities like residents’ associations, special demographic groups, and interest groups can be incredible for your institution because these groups all have very specific needs that you could be perfectly positioned to serve.

Knowing your customer and member base would be a good place to start.  Where are they shopping and spending time locally?  Adding more value to your product offerings is all about looking in new and different directions.  And strategic partnerships would be a great benefit to your members and customers - and your local community as well – in 2014 and beyond.  Happy planning!

Amanda

We bring these philosophies to credit unions and community banks all over the country to help them with their strategic planning, marketing, and branding initiatives.  Contact me to learn more about how MarketMatch can help your financial institution define its "why" and achieve sustainable growth in the future.  Don't forget to ask about our ROI Guarantee - the only guarantee of its kind in the entire financial industry!

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Creating a YOUnique Marketing Plan

“It’s not a question about what you could do; it’s a question about what you should do to create the biggest impact.”  

-Bruce Clapp, MarketMatch’s President

You have a pile of money, directives to grow membership and loans, and need to implement a marketing plan over the next 12 months.  Writing a strategic marketing plan takes time and it is never too early to start planning for next year.  In fact, many financial marketers are already starting their plan for 2014. 

But there are so many things to consider when writing a good marketing plan that it can often be daunting even to marketing experts.  Here are some tried and true processes for writing a solid strategic marketing plan.

• Before you begin writing the plan, keep a folder and, throughout the year as you see ideas and articles that inspire you, put these into the folder for safekeeping as you gather your thoughts.
• Perform an audit of previous marketing plans.  What worked well?  What didn’t, and why?  Make note of what didn’t work and remember not to include it in next year’s plan…your budget is precious!
• What are your credit union or bank’s overall organizational goals?  Make sure that your marketing plan is aligned with and supports the overall goals for your financial institution.  Create SMART goals for each one of the targets on which you are focusing your marketing. 
• Determine your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and develop a regular tracking mechanism for each one.  If membership growth is a top organizational goal, set a benchmark and then regularly measure this metric to make sure you are meeting or exceeding the goal.  Measurement on a continuous basis allows you to make adjustments to your strategy if the numbers aren’t meeting expectations. 
• What is your financial institution’s culture?
• Vision statement
• Core values/brand values
• Brand attributes
• Business philosophy and brand promise
• Unique selling proposition (what makes your financial institution truly different) 
• These act as the compass for your organization’s strategic goals, and having these in place will help you to deliver that YOUnique experience to your members and customers through your marketing and branding efforts.   Your brand elements will also help set your messaging themes.
• Determine your budget.  Before you get into outlining tactics and individual strategies to meet the goals outlined above, you need to have a solid marketing budget in place to invest for the kind of returns you want.  For example, we recommend that our credit union and community banks earmark at least 0.1% of assets for marketing use.  This number also depends on a lot of other factors including the size of your footprint, your awareness/perception in the market, how narrow you can define a target, media costs in your community, etc.  Does this budget include community sponsorships?  What about any operational costs from executing elements of the plan? Make sure you are knowledgeable about and clear on what your budget does and does not include. 
• Going from your KPI and organizational goals above, what products and services are you going to market, and how are you going to do that?  This is where individual campaign development will take shape.  
• Who is/are your target market(s)?  If you write “everyone” here, we need to talk.  There is a difference between a target customer/member and the RIGHT customer/member for your institution.  If you have a solid brand strategy in place, then defining your target market should come more naturally as you know who is best-suited for your financial institution and who you are best-suited to serve. 
• How are you going to tell the story and reach the right people at the right time?  Your budget will dictate what you can do, but the delivery strategies you implement here, if chosen correctly, will be what will move the KPIs.  Think strategically about the best methods for communicating to your target market, and remember that looking outside of the financial industry could give you some great ideas!
• Get buy-in from staff at all levels of your financial institution before the plan is complete.  Many times, people in my credit union would come to me with great ideas they’d been sitting on for months because they were afraid it would get shot down or be unsuccessful.  But they often turned out to get great results and there was more ownership of the marketing program because their voices were being heard.  Once you have buy-in, give everyone a 30,000-foot version of the marketing plan that highlights the overall strategies and reasoning behind the plan.  Then, communicate it and communicate it again through your employee intranet site, internal newsletter, staff meetings, and in other creative ways to make sure that everyone knows they are a marketer of your financial institution. 

Your completed plan will tie together all of these elements in a perfect way unique to your own financial institution.  However, remember that writing one is only half the battle.  It is only through consistent execution and measurement that you will achieve results. 

Good marketing is all about having a well-thought-out strategy and a plan of attack.  The more research you do, metrics you have, and buy-in from all levels of your organization, the better your plan and the better your results at the end of the year.  

Amanda

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact me for details.

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It's a Numbers Game...

Throughout this year you will send multiple messages to customers or members utilizing various mediums. So how can you increase your response to each of these marketing messages? … get a better list!

Remember better doesn’t always mean bigger! Simply updating your list with correct customer or member information can go a long way to expanding your reach.

This year, try starting off the year with a campaign or sales initiative to grow your database. Starting with a clean database help to make the rest of your 2011 campaigns/marketing initiatives a success. Whether it’s emails, addresses, phone numbers, followers, or facebook friends, the larger your list, the more people you will reach. And, of course, the more people you reach, the greater response you will receive!

Best,

Jamie

Referrals: Don't Forget to Ask!

Obtaining referrals is not only simple, it’s cost effective! Plus, it can be a great addition to an ongoing marketing strategy for your relationship managers. All you have to do is ask customers, members, peers, or associates to recommend you. So why do so many bankers fail at this tactic?

Many people believe that doing a good job is all that’s necessary to generate referrals. However, business owners, professionals, customers/members, etc. have other things on their minds than rewarding your service when you are meeting with them. Simply put, you need to speak up!

Here are 4 simple tips to help increase success of your referrals:

It’s not about the size of the prize. Few people refer to get a reward. On the contrary they may like to be viewed as the person who is “connected.” Save the $20 referral reward and invest in your customer/member relationship by taking them to lunch instead.

Wait until customers/members are happy. After you go the extra mile for a client… then ask. They will be so happy with you, they will want to return the favor.

Don’t worry about rejection. – If someone doesn’t know anyone they could refer you to, they’ll tell you. But if they don’t give you a referral, that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t in the future. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Simplify the process. Whether you decided to ask for a referral using an email, mail, or in person, make it a seamless part of your marketing plan. Automate the process or putting tools in place for relationship managers to refer can help you in the long run.

And while I’m at it… if you are happy with the knowledge MarketMatch provides and you know someone who could benefit from our services, please give us a call our drop us a line.

Best,

Jamie