Leveling up the bank marketing game

When it comes to marketing and banking, if you’re “good enough,” you’re failing.

Some “financial institutions are still settling for ‘good enough’ when it comes to marketing technology. This is a huge mistake,” said Preetha Pulusani, CEO and founder of DeepTarget. “Especially now, with data-driven engagement being so pivotal, these [financial institutions] are going to be highly compromised competitively if that is their ‘strategy’.”

Indeed, in this new world, where nimble competitors lurk at every turn, banks and credit unions have to up their marketing game, albeit strategically. “We see certain financial institutions that have made it a strategic imperative to invest in marketing technology for growth. It will be a massive competitive advantage that enables them to grow substantially,” said Pulusani, whose fintech firm develops an open, AI/ data-powered engagement and cross-selling platform for digital banking and other channels that is used by more than 200 financial institutions. “Undoubtedly, these FIs will be winners among their peers.”

Billboards, network commercials and home mailings will always have a role in marketing. But here are 10 tips to win in an increasingly digital world:

1. Think digital first. Marketing still needs to deliver results by using traditional rules of a strong offer, allowing enough time and budget for success. Now, however, there’s also the importance of offering a great online experience, said Martha Bartlett Piland, president of Banktastic, a financial brands marketing agency based in Topeka, Kansas. “The website or promotional landing page absolutely must be mobile friendly. Online account opening must be really fast and easy,” she said. “Forcing prospects through a highfriction experience will cause frustration and alienation.”

2. Drill down to hyper-local marketing. With the need for personalization, banks need to think local and targeted. In some ways, banks and credit unions have been doing hyper-local marketing for years: putting a branch in a high school or posting door hangers on homes in the neighborhood of a new branch, said Bartlett Piland.

However, the time has come for a modern twist. “With the addition of the digital tools available to them, it may make sense to geofence or use Google’s maps and ads to reach a specific audience,” she said. “It’s measurable and can be effective when done properly.”

3. Use personalization and automation. Financial institution digital marketing needs to change more often than those billboards of yesteryear. Banks should consistently ask, how well is data used to ensure campaign relevance? Is it refreshed at least every day? “Data that is used for targeting must be automatically refreshed,” Pulusani said. “People change, needs change and waiting for more than a day can result in inappropriate offers and messages rather than those that are meaningful and welcomed.”Indeed, “user experience expectations of consumers have risen rapidly, shaped by the digital environment we all live in,” Pulusani said. “They compare their digital experiences with those they receive from the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, etc. They say, ‘show me if you really know me.’”

4. Pursue personalization in programmatic with DCO (dynamic creative optimization). “With automation and AI continuing to get more sophisticated within programmatic advertising, DCO provides digital marketers the opportunity for micro-level personalization at a massive scale,” said Ryan Marosy, AVP, growth and marketing technologies at Affinity Federal Credit Union. “Leveraging real-time data to create individualized ads will not just be a benefit to improve engagement and ROI, but will be paramount to stay competitive within the financial services space.”

5. Rethink TikTok and Instagram as the new information sources. Google has long been a go-to search engine, but financial institutions need to branch out. “TikTok, specifically, has transitioned into a platform used for learning—from how-to videos to financial advice to other areas of educational content—and banks and credit unions need to adjust their marketing strategies to address this redefinition,” Marosy said. “Focusing more on social media SEO will be critical to engaging with audiences, as well as streamlining creation to keep up with the demand for content consumption.”

6. Understand the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Financial marketers have growing opportunities to use AI to make their jobs easier, said Bartlett Piland. Tools like ChatGPT and Bard are just a few of the great resources for generating ideas and content for social media posts, websites, presentations and more, she added. “With a caveat: They are tools. They are not a replacement for thoughtful, insightful content. At least not yet,” she added.

AI will “learn” what bankers want by giving feedback and having a two-way discussion, she continued. However, “it’s still ultimately the marketer’s job to take those starter ideas and re-craft them in a way that’s consistent with positioning and all other brand communications,” she said.

According to Pulusani, data is growing exponentially, and the volumes of data that will soon be accessible will be too much to make sense of. “Marketing tech that is not using AI/ML to leverage this data is already behind the times,” she warned.

7. Invest more dollars and resources in data science. “As the financial services space continues to see waves of uncertainty, it will be essential for banks and credit unions to invest in data modeling to help predict future outcomes, feed machine learning algorithms and better understand their audiences’ journeys,” said Marosy.

8. Invest in data clean rooms. As more U.S. states pass and explore privacy laws, banks and credit unions will need to develop more comprehensive privacy strategies, relying on technology services like data clean rooms to keep first-person user data private when interacting with ad-buying platforms, he said.

9. Respect the process of quantifying results. Marketers still need to show their value. “The analytics regarding campaign performance are a science by themselves with both breadth and depth. It’s simply not adequate to report on impressions and clicks,” Pulusani said. “We need campaign comparisons, channel comparisons and information on actual sales and revenue as all of these are consequential in determining campaign success and ROI.”

10. Break down silos. To be sure, the industry’s notorious silos—which become impediments anytime change is needed—remain an issue. “Great marketers use data,” Bartlett Piland said. “They make sure that back-office functions of the bank make things easy for customers. They have HR and training people who work with them to institute a special employer brand and deliver a branded customer experience.”

Building a marketing plan that reaches desired audience segments with information and offers they care about remains the industry’s gold standard. Now, however, bank and credit union marketers have far more tools—including faster ones—at their disposal. “That’s exciting and powerful if they maintain a strategic focus and don’t get mired in tactics,” Bartlett Piland pointed out.

In this exciting new world, good enough needs to be replaced with higher ambitions. According to Pulusani, banks should ask this question: “Is it best of breed or simply ‘good enough’? Best of breed implies a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.”

Dawn Wotapka is a BAI contributing writer.

Explore key topics you should be considering as you build your marketing plans for 2024 and beyond in the BAI Executive Report, “Marketing strategies for the digital age.”