Bank Marketing Strategy + Ideas

Banking has changed a lot in the last few years – and so has bank advertising and marketing.

Advertising budgets have been slashed and marketing departments have been cut. In response, banks and credit unions are getting creative with their marketing and looking for innovative ways to create professional ads and marketing materials without hiring high priced agencies, freelancers or in-house creative teams.

One trend we are seeing is the use of web-based marketing portals like BankMarketingCenter.com that enable banks to create high quality marketing materials at a fraction of the costs associated with traditional agencies or even freelancers.

Through a personalized portal, employees across all branches have access to over two million stock photos and 1,000 professional marketing materials including print ads, flyers, statement stuffers, brochures, posters, e-mail campaigns and digital signs. Salespeople, customer care reps and mortgage brokers can now create one-to-one marketing materials by simply inserting a name and photo into targeted marketing pieces.

This is great for local banks with multiple locations that need a quick, painless, inexpensive way to create customized advertising and promotional materials for different branches, events and publications.

Not only do these customized portals save financial institutions thousands in advertising production costs (the cost is typically just a few hundred dollars a month), but the “order history” section keeps track of all dollars spent on advertising and archives all produced materials for regulators to review. To learn more, check out www.BankMarketingCenter.com.

Over the next several weeks, we will use this blog as a forum to share ideas on how to capitalize on current trends in banking, including remote capture, e-statements and online bill pay. We’ll show you how to leverage your marketing efforts with timely tips and ideas – all without breaking the bank!

-Neal Reynolds

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.

Corn Dogs Anyone?

Photo by emdot

I love county fairs and state fairs. I think I set a record for state fair attendance at the 1998 Indiana State Fair. I probably set another record for the most corn dogs consumed in one week.

Thinking about that got me thinking about social media marketing for banks. Actually it was the other way around.

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Originally uploaded by Darin Barry

If you look at your bank’s website what do you see?

Information about checking account and savings products? A place to log in to your online banking account? In other words, stuff that’s all about the bank.

That’s all important content. But it’s content that can be found on any community bank’s website.

Community banking is competitive. And to win, you have to do something better than the competition. So why not start with a website that’s as much about the community as it is about the bank?

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Bank of America. Wells Fargo. Numerous credit unions. These are the financial institutions that are finding their way onto Twitter and connecting with Twitter users. Who’ll be next? Your bank? Or the community bank or credit union across the street? And has someone already “Twitter-jacked your brand?”

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