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

Resolve to Work Smarter

As we approach the end of the year, a reflective tone on our past performance often resonates. We often compare our actual performance to the goals we had set out for ourselves to see how we measured up.

Reflecting on the past year’s performance of what we did well and what we could have done better leads us to the question, “how can we do it better in 2011?“ Lessons learned from 2010 can guide us in the right direction for working smarter in 2011. Working smarter is very relevant as we remain in an era of increasing responsibilities and minimal budgets.

Explore these ideas to discover ways you can work smarter in 2011…

• Acquire the market and industry intelligence in order to become a “smarter” when targeting prospective customers
• How can you package products or provide relationship benefits to better engage current and new customers in a broader relationship
• Review internal customer data in order to expand balances and services per household through better targeting and more innovative profiling
• Review operational communication messaging in order to maximize retention or expand relationships
• Ensure your products and customer service are better than the competition

Looking over 2010 with a critical eye is important to discover ways that you can continually grow and improve your marketing. Using this information to work smarter will help us to deliver the results we all need to keep growing and reaching our goals.

Resolve to work smarter this year!

Jamie

Forget What You Know…

If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we were to remember nothing.

-William James

This quote may come in handy when brainstorming new ideas. Certainly your experience is worth a great deal, but sometimes, when it comes to developing new, innovative ideas for promotions, product development, campaigns, or customer communication it helps to initially throw out “what you know.” Putting everything and anything on the table in a brainstorming session can be a great way to brainstorm new ideas.

Many times, we hear banks defending certain marketing tactics with the statement “this is how we have always done it.” Not a very compelling reason, is it? Customer and market perceptions are always changing, so even if you are considering to re-execute a past successful campaign, that doesn’t mean it will be successful when executing it in the future.

If you plan only to repeat successful promotions, you may be missing out on an idea that could be even more successful. Also, if you rule out all unsuccessful promotions, you may be ruling out a good idea that was poorly executed or a good idea that would have been more successful with different situational criteria.

In some scenarios, you can take your brainstorming a step further by removing resource restrictions. If money, supplies, people, and time weren’t limited, what would you do? The ideas you come up with might not be plausible, but they may cause you to uncover new ideas within your resource limits that can make a huge impact.

A healthy dose of “forgetting” is crucial for our ability to think big.

Happy brainstorming!

Jamie

Shop Around...

It’s the holiday season and everyone has shopping on the mind. But what about shopping your competition - have you shopped them lately?

Touching base with your immediate competition on their advertising, products, access, and customer service is something your financial institution should consistently be doing in order to ensure you are maintaining your competitive advantage.

It may be time to take a look at the competition and see how you stack up in the following areas:

• Advertising: What products/messages are your competition promoting and how does your financial institution stack up?
• Products: Do gaps exist in your competitions’ product lines or within product features?
• Access: What are the features of their websites and is the website interactive and resourceful? Also, what other technologies can customers/members use to interact with the bank/credit union or access their accounts?
• Customer Service: Communicate with your competition in a variety of ways (email, phone, in person, etc.) to see how they stack up. Are there ways that they excel or fall behind?

Competitive research equips you with the information that you’ll need to uncover where your financial institution excels and may lags behind. Once complete, you will better be able to identify your strengths, correct any weaknesses, and capitalize on opportunities!

Happy shopping!

Jamie

JD Powers: Brand Image Matters Most in Selecting a Retail Bank

JD Powers has spoken ... and the Brand gods are pleased!

On July 14, JD Powers released it's inaugural study on the bank shopping ad selection process.

Financial marketers get a sharp pencil and take note:

36% of a shopper’s selection decision is driven by the bank’s brand image, while branch proximity (21%) and products and services (14%) also considerably influence which bank shoppers ultimately choose

Branch employees can positively impact a bank’s brand image by providing personal service, communicating proactively and having a customer-driven focus.

Nearly 1/3 of customers who avoid considering a particular bank altogether do so because of a previous poor service experience with that bank

Banks can use visits by non-customers as an opportunity to showcase their services and improve consideration when these customers shop for a new bank

Recommendations—both positive and negative—account for 31 percent of importance weight in a bank’s brand awareness, while positive recommendations drive 36 percent of a shopper’s consideration of a bank

Satisfaction with the account initiation process increases considerably when bank employees perform simple actions to improve the service experience when opening a new account—including greeting the customer when entering the branch, keeping wait time to five minutes or less, calling the customer by name and providing the customer with a detailed needs assessment. Among the 19 percent of customers who experienced all these actions, satisfaction scores average 890 on a 1,000-point scale—84 points above the industry average. In addition, the percentage of customers who say they “definitely will” reuse the bank for future products and services increases to 66 percent, compared with an industry average of 47 percent.

The bottom line, a dollar spent in training will yield tremendous results.  In short, your entire institution philosophy should be to treat every visitor (regardless of their balance or need) as you would treat a guest in your home: Sincere greeting, hand shakes and eye contact, talk to by name, listen before you speak, escort from point-to-point, walk them to the door when leaving.

I hope this provides some support as you strive for a budget to train your staff.

Take care,

Eric

The 2009 Retail Bank Shopping Study is based on responses from more than 7,500 consumers who shopped for a new banking account or new primary financial institution during the past 12 months. The study was fielded in February and March 2009, and includes 25 banks: Bank of America; Bank of the West; BBVA Compass; Branch Banking & Trust; Capital One; Chase; Citibank; Citizens Bank; Comerica; Fifth Third; HSBC; Huntington National Bank; KeyBank; M&T Bank; National City; PNC Bank; Regions Bank; Sovereign Bank; SunTrust; TD Bank; U.S. Bank; Union Bank of California; Wachovia; WaMu; and Wells Fargo.

Business Lessons Learned From the Triathlon

As I write this, I am 72 hours from competing in my first triathlon: 1,000 meter open water swim, 15 mile mountain bike and 5 mile trail run.

I consider myself a trail runner.  In fact, until a few months ago, I couldn’t swim more than 25 yards without being winded and I could count on my fingers the number of bike miles I had ridden in years.

But I was a good runner!   Not great, by any means - I hadn’t won a race since high school – but I regularly placed in my “past his prime” age group for my monthly trail series.

Now, I can swim over a mile without drowning and comfortable bike well enough to compete … but my running miles have significantly dropped off and I haven’t placed better than 4^th in my age group all year. 

The lesson: FOCUS!

Professionally, we are being asked to do much more with much less.  The choice we need to make is: Do we want to be outstanding in one area, or serviceable in many.

The answer my be different for each of us, but ask yourself what is best for you and what is best for your institution. 

Yes, there are those gifted few who either have the DNA or unlimited time to train for all three events and who can excel in all of them.  But the fact is that there are few world-class swimmers, bikers or runners who are also elite triathletes.  You don’t see Lance Armstrong, for instance, competing in the Ironman.

Those of us with limited resources are typically best served to stay focused and excel in one area.

My suggestion?  Focus on your existing customers.  They cost the least to sell to and there is likely a world of opportunity with those customers who have already walked into your doors to begin a relationship.

You can be good at acquiring new customers and furthering your brand, but if you excel in on-boarding and customer share-of-wallet, you'll make the largest splash for the bank or credit union with the budget you have.

As for me … I’ll try to survive the swim and not loose too much ground on the bike, so I can dominate on the run.

Take care,

Eric

6 Ways to Pinch Pennies and Grow

Don't let a tight budget stall your growth.

As marketing professionals, you're being expected - ney, demanded - to do more with less. The good news is that it simply takes some creativity ... and who has more creativity than us marketers?

Here are 6 ideas (some creative, some not) to help jump start the ol' mellon and get those neurons firing. Please, please, please feel free to add more by commenting to this blog.

6 Penny Pinching Ideas:

1. Create a referral program

OK, it's nothing new, but your existing customers can be your best asset. And let's face it, no matter how big you are - you have a lot of customers. It can be as easy (and cheap) as printing small, pocket-sized cards offering $5-$25 for the customer and their referred friend. Make sure you offer an incentive to both.

I've had success printing a brochure-sized piece with 4 business card sized offers of $10 to each - saying: Earn up to $40 by spreading the joy. Quarterly, I'd include it in newsletter mailings to all customers and watch the spike in new accounts.

The keys: Keep it easy, Keep it trackable, Make it fun.

2. Internal promotions

Don't want to incentivize your customers? Use your NEXT best asset - your staff. Make a game of which branch can recruit the most new customers. Offering incentives to a smaller group of people (or teams) will be easier on the budget.

3. Get out of the office

You should, of course, participate in the local Chambers - but how many bank/CU employees are out on your behalf? At a minimum, all senior management and board should be expected to be active in the community and promote the institution.  

The key: From church elder, to scout leader, to chamber committee member, there are plenty of opportunities to contribute - just make sure that promoting the bank/CU (elegantly) is also being done.

4. Bank@Work

Many credit unions have already mastered this - but, with a community charter focus and limited resources,  many more have forgotten this art.

Whether you call them SEGs or Commercial Clients, you have customers who have employees. And those employees are prospects. Find ways to communicate with them.

The key: Make sure your commercial staff teams up with your retail staff and vice versa.

5. PR - or "Image Management"

Your institution has a wealth of interesting stories that are likely overlooked because, since you see it everyday, you don't look at them as newsworthy. I'll bet your local news outlets (hungering for good news - especially from local financial institutions) would disagree.

• You mean banks ARE lending?!?!: Let them know how much you've lent to date. Even if it seems small by your standards, to "Tammy the teacher," it will seem huge.
• Case studies: Have you saved a family from foreclosure? Helped a kid go to college? Helped a student afford a trip overseas? Your staff do amazing things for customers everyday - it's the beauty of their job. Collect and share those stories.
• Share your expertise: Few understand finances better than bankers (at least lets hope so!). Be the local resource for sound financial guidance. In this economy, you may be able to work out a deal to author an ongoing "Smart Finances" section - aim high!

6. Fish where the fish are

Focus your budget on your existing customers, there are fewer hurdles - so it's the smart spend.

• Focus on customers with only 2 or 3 products: Single service customers are likely single service for a reason - build the relationship with those that have multiple, but few products.
• Look at depositors with no loans - especially mortgages. Don't reprice existing, but try to get customers with other institutions mortgages to refinance with you.
• What about depositors with no checking: Get them to view you as their primary financial institution.
• What unused HELOC balances are out there?  Go get 'em.

For at least the next six months or so, we will have to work a little harder to maximize our budgets. You don't necessarily have to spend a lot to gain a lot - you just need to be creative, utilize your entire staff and have fun.

Take care,

Eric