Banks and their marketing departments are now finding both the need and opportunity to promote bank deposit products, after a hiatus of several years. The need arises in terms of retaining customers. According to the JP Powers research, the customers most likely to change banks are those under 40 and those in more vulnerable financial circumstances. Overall, people will move for higher rates, better rewards programs, and lower fees. The ongoing poor performance of major capital markets may also push consumers and small businesses to see zero-risk investments as a safer place for their money – like insured bank deposit products.
Take the First Step
Do you want to learn how these marketing best practices could specifically benefit your own bank? Please call Chris Abelt on (917) 592-4098 or e-mail [email protected] for your own complimentary bank deposit marketing consultation.
Our quick guide, “Money Talks: The Lost Art and Science of Deposit Product Marketing” can also be downloaded below.
The competitive landscape is also heating up from places like online banks and credit unions (including Alliant, Varo, Marcus and Ally) and fintech companies / neo banks (like Current and Chime) looking to buy their way into a market in turmoil. And technology focused banks are also more aggressively promoting their deposit products, like Capital One 360’s offerings.
The opportunity comes with the rising interest rate environment – which makes deposit products very attractive once again for both consumers and small businesses alike. But what can banks do when it comes to selling their deposit products beyond the rate of return being offered?
Deposit Product Marketing Best Practices
Smart bank marketing starts with identifying, segmenting, and targeting your best customers and prospects – in essence understanding who they are, and their motivations for choosing a local bank. For starters – It’s a good idea to use a customer relationship management tool (CRM) to help profile your current customers and when their timed-deposits are maturing. You can then target them with personalized marketing messages ahead of CD / IRA maturing dates.
Properly used, a CRM can also help track prospective customers and help your bank determine which marketing channels are working more efficiently than others – and help change your view of marketing from an expense to an investment that pays positive returns.
Product - features and benefits
Raising your deposit product rates is a simple way to be more competitive. This should be done in the context of benchmarking your local competition. You can also bundle your deposit products with other products, like interest bearing demand deposit accounts and offer premium deposit product rates for new customers who open a checking account.
It’s important these days to make sure your bank is easy to find online. This should start with simple SEO / search engine optimization that has accurate Google business page listings and some positive customer reviews. You might also try SEM / search engine marketing (paid search results) like PPC / pay-per-click using google ads to buy paid search results for terms like “High CD rates near me.”
Your Bank should also have a strong online banking experience – one that makes it easy to open accounts online and do business with the bank remotely. Your website should employ “responsive” design – which simply makes it look good on a mobile phone. You should also invest in a highly functional smart phone app that allows people to do things like deposit checks remotely.
Go Digital
You might try online digital display ads using targeted programmatic ads that are served to people based on their search engine history – like shopping for CD rates. Social media venues like Facebook and Instagram also provide a good place for bank marketing messages.
Smart banks deliver good customer service that is both friendly and educational. You obviously win people over with good service both in person, by phone or even by chat function online – the way that many younger consumers prefer to do business.
Consider leveraging your current customer base by incentivizing them to refer family, friends, and co-workers to your bank with a range a of cash incentives, prize drawings, gift cards or pre-paid VISA cards. Informational offers also work well – consider offering personal financial management tools like Quicken – focusing on savings goals.
Finally telling good stories is always a great way to market a bank. Invest in creating relevant financial literacy blog content for your bank’s website and social media posts. You could also consider creating customer testimonials.
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