The record stores have long since closed their doors; most movie rental stores, like Blockbuster, have gone or are going out of business; and now book stores like Borders are taking a major hit.

At first glance, it might seem that people are no longer listening to music, renting movies, or reading books – but we all know that’s not the case.

The truth is, these familiar stores are being driven out by online companies like Amazon.com, iTunes and NetFlix, which are thriving by delivering books, music and movies over the web. They are serving customers and building a loyal brand – all while saving millions on “sticks and bricks” storefronts.

The sale and marketing of pharmaceuticals over the internet is also growing tremendously. Last year, Johnson & Johnson executives revealed that their company would be shifting away from pitching to primary care doctors in their offices and instead connecting with those physicians over the web.

So what does this mean for the banking industry? Are the same people who are buying and paying for their books, music, movies and medicine over the internet going to look online for all of their banking needs?

To answer that question, all you have to do is look around at all of the people on their phones. We have produced a whole generation of people who don’t do anything without first checking their iPhone!

Even though I grew up with a #2 pencil and a simple notepad, I now use my iPhone’s text feature to check bank balances, debits and deposits. I just type “last” and instantly get a full report on what has transpired in my checking account. I can buy almost anything and pay for it within seconds – all just by using my phone.

So what are these “land-locked” banks going to do? The way I see it, they only have two choices. They either have to go with the flow and embrace internet banking, remote capture and online bill pay, or they’ll need to find creative ways to get their customers and prospects into their buildings.

If they elect to stay in their buildings, they’ll need to offer more than just the traditional banking services. They’ll need to get into the content and education business and find ways to engage and interact with their customers.

Maybe offer classes on a variety of subjects from buying stocks and real estate to choosing insurance and retirement plans. Banks could even teach customers how to research and buy these items online.

Banks need to become the go-to place before anyone invests in anything.

Most banks already have the physical space and every town in America has business experts who would love to share their knowledge and network with other people in the community. And most would do it for free!

Banks need to look at things differently and take action. I had a professor in college many years ago who once said, “Be aware or Beware.”

That bit of wisdom still applies today!

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Neal Reynolds has worked with hundreds of banks and credit unions around the country helping them to grow core deposits and market share without growing their marketing budgets. Contact him at nreynolds@eadshop.com.

In addition to dealing with bad real estate loans and rising FDIC fees, banks are now watching as brokerage and mutual fund firms introduce online bill pay, free checking accounts, and high yield saving accounts.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal last week, several companies offering new banking services were mentioned. TD Ameritrade has introduced online bill pay and ATM rebates, while TIAA-CREF is offering multiple banking services including free checking and high yield savings accounts through its new internet bank, TIAA Direct.

Charles Schwab is also targeting its brokerage clients with no-fee checking accounts and offering FDIC-insured savings accounts through its Charles Schwab Bank.

Fidelity Investments is offering a Fidelity Cash Management Account with many of the same services as the other brokerage companies. The only difference is Fidelity keeps its deposits in traditional banks.

They are also offering free trades to customers with higher levels of deposits.

With all of this competition, community banks have to start marketing their services.

For many banks, success in the past has been credited to location, location, location. But now, with the internet and all of this new competition, banks will have to concentrate on service, service, service!

They’ll need to get aggressive with their marketing and advertising and win the customer over with wonderful customer service.

When was the last time you called your customers on their birthdays or sent them a birthday card? Even my dentist does that. When was the last time you picked up the phone and thanked a customer for his or her business? Have you ever clipped out an article about a local business person from the newspaper and mailed it to them with a hand written note?  Or, more likely, was an overdraft notice the last thing your customers received from you?

Last week, my son put in a contract to buy a foreclosed home from Bank of America. One of the requirements was that he had to be pre-approved by their bank. Since there are three Bank of America’s between his work and his apartment, he stopped at one to meet with a customer service rep.

When he was finally able to meet with someone after waiting in line for almost 30 minutes, they took him into an empty office, dialed a 1-800 number, and handed him the phone.

This was his first visit to a Bank of America and it will be his last.

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Neal Reynolds has worked with hundreds of banks and credit unions around the country helping them to grow core deposits and market share without growing their marketing budgets. Contact him at nreynolds@eadshop.com.

The reason is this: most banks and credit unions have never had to worry about selling anything. They opened a branch and people just walked in and opened an account.

But as we all know, those days are over.

Today, even people who have bank accounts are starting to use PayPal or Google Wallet to make their purchases and commercial accounts are finding alternate forms of financing.

I’m now getting letters every week from Chase and Bank of America offering me “promotional rate checks” to use anyway I want. I can buy anything I want and pay 0% interest for 12 months. The only cost is a 2% transaction fee.

That’s cheap money – and I don’t even have to leave my office to talk to a salesperson at a bank or credit union!

In order for banks and credit unions to grow, they will have to hire or develop a sales force. And they’ll have to train them because most financial sales folks have never had to make a cold call.

They’ll need to find a good business development expert, like Rick Wemmers at Bank Marketing Pros, or find sales training materials online. I recently came across a very good and inexpensive sales training course at: http://training.sales-getters.com.

The author, Louie Bernstein, used lessons that he personally learned while making millions of dollars in sales. His materials teach you how to prospect and how to turn cold calls into warm calls. He’ll even give you the exact written words to use for every objection.

There are no excuses for not having a trained sales staff. It’s time to get going before your competition does!

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Neal Reynolds has worked with hundreds of banks and credit unions around the country helping them to grow core deposits and market share without growing their marketing budgets. Contact him at nreynolds@eadshop.com.

Marketers of these financial institutions are charged with creatively generating revenue and exploring untapped markets for new customers – all with fewer resources.

To make the most of their marketing dollars, many banks and credit unions are looking to online tools and web-based marketing portals, which offer professionally-created marketing materials for a fraction of the costs associated with outside agencies or in-house creative teams.

One credit union – Texas-based Mobiloil Federal Credit Union (MOFCU) – credits online marketing portal CUMarketingCenter.com with increasing its assets from $260 million to more than $405 million, largely through enabling them to quickly and easily advertise to new markets.

“When we started with CUMarketingCenter.com, we had $260 million in assets. Today, we are at $405 million. This growth comes from putting ads out in the field in places where people have never seen credit union marketing before,” said George Perrett, MOFCU’s vice president of marketing. “The process is fast, intuitive, and you can make modifications to generate professional-looking ads in less than an hour.”

Read the full case study here.

CUMarketingCenter.com has over one thousand professionally-created layouts for everything from ads to direct mail pieces, digital signs and more.

Credit unions can join for just a few hundred dollars a month for unlimited access to the full catalog, which can be customized with a credit union’s contact information, logos and personalized copy. They also have access to the site’s library of more than two million stock photos in addition to the option of uploading their own.

Once materials are created, they are immediately ready to download and print. The whole process takes just minutes.

Community banks all over the country are using a similar site – BankMarketingCenter.com – in a similar way.

“BankMarketingCenter.com is a great tool – particularly for community banks that want a nice, consistent look and feel to their marketing materials,” said Andrea Johnson, Bank of Tucson’s SVP director of retail banking. “I came from a big commercial bank with a large marketing department, but community banks often don’t have this luxury. With BankMarketingCenter.com, it’s like having a marketing department without really having a marketing department.”

To learn more about how Bank of Tucson found success with BankMarketingCenter.com, click here to read the full case study.

Just as banks and credit unions are now offering online banking for their customers and members, the successful ones are using online tools to grow revenue and cut overhead.

Has your financial institution found other effective tools to help you produce professional marketing materials?

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Neal Reynolds has worked with hundreds of banks and credit unions around the country helping them to grow core deposits and market share without growing their marketing budgets. Contact him at nreynolds@eadshop.com.