Focus ... Momentum ... RESULTS (Part 3)

Focus … Momentum … Results 

It’s not just our tag line … it’s our business model.

This week, we take the ultimate look behind the MarketMatch curtain.  A glimpse into our innermost workings.  The drivers behind everything that we do for your credit union or community bank.

This is part 3 of a 3 part series this week that will outline the simplest of strategic processes and the true value to how we partner with financial institutions to drive bottom line success.

Focus ... Momentum ... Results

RESULTS

Because of our ROI Guarantee and because it’s the right thing to do, we measure everything.  The challenge is knowing what to measure and when.

At it's base, ROI is:

Incremental Profit - Marketing Investment

Marketing Investment

But there's so much more to the equation:

• Would the community name you in the top 3 in an unaided awareness survey? Would they name you first?  How does that compare against a pre-campaign baseline? (This begins to measure that MOMENTUM that we talked about yesterday)
• Was there a sales lift over the months prior to a campaign?  How about the same months of the previous year?
• Did you hit your required sales lift?
• What might the results have been with a different offer?  What about no offer?
• What was the difference between increased applications and increased new accounts?
• Did growth come from existing customers or new?  Which did you want?
• Is your attrition decreasing? What accounts are experiencing the highest and lowest attrition?
• What branches or markets are growing the fastest/slowest?  Why?
• If your marketing is working, how can you make it better?  If it's not working, why?

Once you understand your objectives-driven FOCUS you'll know what to measure.

With constant monitoring and tweaking, you can more effectively build MOMENTUM. 

If you can benefit from some Focus ... Momentum ... Results, click here.

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With nearly than 160,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

The Art of War...and Marketing (Part 3)

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military document attributed to Sun Tzu a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician.  It is composed of 13 chapters, each devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly known to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics of its time. 

These writings have helped countless military leaders win land, riches and infamy … and in a wonderful twist of irony, we will focus on how it can help you win your customer’s hearts.

This is Part III in a series of blogs that breaks down each chapter.  The brief chapter summaries are from Wikipedia, but the marketing commentary is all MarketMatch!

To read Part 1, click here.

To read Part 2, click here. 

10. Situational Positioning looks at the general areas of resistance (distance, dangers, and barriers) and the types of ground positions that arise from them.

As you are continually measuring against your objectives, you may find that you are not tracking as well as you’d like.  What are the dangers and barriers to your success?

• Awareness: Are people aware that you exist, what you sell and what you stand for?
• Perception: Are you too small, too big or confusing to the market?  Does your brand align with market wants? 
• Access: Does your target pass several competitors to get to you? We have a client who is literally one block away from heavy traffic and has a hard time generating momentum.  What about your e-access?  If you have it, is it easy to use?  Do your customers know about it?
• Price: You don’t need to be the lowest price, but this is always a discussion criterion to consider and analyze.
• Attrition:Analyze the attrition of key products within each branch.  Are they new or old relationships that are leaving you? 

11. The Nine Situations describes the nine common situations (or stages) in a campaign, and the specific focus needed in order to successfully navigate them.

The 9 stages of a campaign as I see them are:

1. Set measurable objectives: Define what success will look like
2. Determine desired action: Know what you want your target to do.  What product, how quickly and what is the desired entry point?
3. Define target: Who best fits the mold for this product?  Be as specific as possible. Where do they live?  What do they want?  What do they think?
4. Determine how best to reach target: The goal is frequency, not necessarily reach.  How can you reach the best percentage of your target at least 3 times?
5. Create messaging: Be clear, stand out and differentiate.
6. Train staff:The worst thing that can happen is for an employee to hear about a new promotion from a customer.  Be sure that your team is aware of the message, what it promotes, who you’re targeting, what you expect and how they should communicate once the customer comes in or calls.
7. Launch: Make it happen
8. Measure: Don’t wait until the campaign is over to track.  By tracking progress along the way, you’ll know if you need to make any adjustments.
9. Adjust: If needed, tweak your approach.  Is a lower cost tactic pulling better than an expensive one?  Is the target misunderstanding the message?  Is the call to action clear?

12. The Attack by Fire explains the general use of weapons and the specific use of the environment as a weapon.

As a marketer, you have a lot of weapons at your disposal:

• Traditional: Newspaper, radio, TV – these are best used to build awareness with limited segmentation.  Usually your best cost-per-impression.
• Direct:Targeted direct mail, outbound calls, email, text – though more expensive per impression, these allow for a more one-on-one conversation.  By narrowing your target focus, you can speak to specific needs. Expect a higher response rate.
• Web-based: Pay per click SEO, web banners on partner sites, micro sites, QR codes – this category is evolving every day.  This allows for a more interactive experience.  Being electronic, this is typically also highly measurable.
• Guerrilla: This is where you can use the environment as a weapon. Guerrilla marketing hits the target when they are not expecting to be sold.  An example from the MarketMatch files is when we “lost” 100 wallets (in strategic locations) around a market.  In the wallets was a message to return the wallet to a given branch for a $20 reward.  The campaign was successful in driving new foot traffic, awareness and word-of-mouth.

An army of only tanks, though powerful, would not be successful.  For true success you need to control the air, the land and the sea.  Each tactic has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.  The magic is finding the right mix for the given target that fits your budget.

13. The Use of Intelligence focuses on the importance of developing good information sources.

We have talked a lot about the importance of measurement and analysis.  Where you obtain your data is as important as what you measure.  MCIF systems are very useful here, but not vital.  For most in-house data, you’ll want to buddy-up with IT and Finance.  Clearly define what it is that you want to measure and brainstorm with your team on how best to pull it.

Aside from in-house numbers, there are countless online resources and survey techniques to gather what you need.  The emphasis should be more on WHAT to measure than HOW.

Aside from basic growth numbers, you can also consider:branch-by-branch or market-by-market analysis, attrition in key products, accounts per customer/household, debit card usage, awareness/perception, product usage trends, percentage of referrals, web site usage/effectiveness, application-to-loan conversion ratios, profitability, media channel effectiveness, cross-sell per employee, referrals across business units.  The options are limitless and should be tied to completing your key objectives.  (See “What’s the Big R.O.Idea” for more info) 

There you have it ... how The Art of War can help you take over the marketing world.  Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.  I trust that you won’t go all Napoleon on us with this information!


With more than 130,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

What's The Big ROIdea?

Most of us know ROI as:

Return on Investment = (Incremental Profit - Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment

But you can take it soooo much further! 

I would argue that you can’t have a great ROI calculation without a great…

Results Oriented Idea … or ROIdea

So, how do you get a great ROIdea?

Objectives

Every Result Oriented Idea starts with desired RESULTS.  At MarketMatch, we always say that there are a thousand things you CAN be doing as a marketer … what are the handful of tactics you SHOULD be focused on?

(See Marketing Law #1 here) 

Cause & Effect:

Your work needs to make something happen to reach your objectives.  Make your target feel something.  Encourage them to interact with your brand and product.  Motivate them to make a decision and get off their couch.

Less You … More Them

Yes, your communications needs to be about your brand and product.  But more importantly, it should be about your audience.  If you want to cause momentum and generate results, you need to speak to your target’s needs, wants, desires and dreams … then tell them how your brand fits in.  This philosophy fits from ad messaging, to point-of-sale communication to staff training.

Scare the Hell Out of Them

In my ad agency days, we had a creative director that expected his team to, “Give ‘em one idea that will scare the hell out of them.”

Keep in mind, your audience will see more than 5,000 advertising messages today!  What will make YOUR’S stand out?

If it doesn’t scare you a little bit – it’s likely a cookie-cutter, boring, non-impactful idea … clearly not results oriented.

Measure, Measure, Measure

To be successful, all Results Oriented Ideas need … well … results.  Now is the time to see if you’ve impacted those objectives that you laid out earlier.

• Was there a sales lift over the months prior to the campaign?  How about the same months of the previous year?
• What was the difference between increased applications and increased new accounts?
• Did growth come from existing customers or new?  Which did you want?
• Would the community name you in the top 3 in an unaided awareness survey?  Would they name you first?  How does that compare against a pre-campaign baseline?

 At MarketMatch, we believe in ROIdeas so much that we offer an ROI Guarantee. 

I believe that outstanding results trump a shelf-full of awards.  When you sit down to plan your next big idea, make sure that it is a Results Oriented Idea.

With more than 127,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848