We all remember the great musical Fiddler on the Roof, and the lyrics from one of its best-loved tunes:
“Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
Catch me a catch,
Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match!”
In marketing community banks and credit unions, one of the critical components of the mission is to pair customers with the right product. The ability to know the financial needs and dreams of our customer is one of the best traits of smaller financial institutions, which rightly celebrate the fact that we know our customers as more than an account number.
A recent column on cbinsight.com by strategic planner Mark Arnold hits the mark when it comes to marketing and truly knowing our customers.
“In an effort to be all things to all people, too many banks attempt to shove every product and service they have down the throat of every consumer, Arnold writes. “This doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons. And it certainly is costing you money and market share.”
Arnold argues that instead of throwing every brochure at every customer who enters, bankers need to ask the right questions to mine what’s special and unique about every customer. Failing to do this costs time and money, and does a disservice to customers.
As we have said time and again at BankMarketingCenter.com, successful community bank and credit union marketing has to concentrate on building relationships.
Arnold offers some good ideas including:
- And by training, this is not simply sales cross-training, but full-blown customer engagement training.
“This training goes far beyond the simply surface-level interaction with customers and encourages and teaches your staff on how to more intimately connect with them.” He added, “Engagement training delves deeply into your bank’s unique brand and how employees can use it to help empower their search to find the right product for the right customer.”
- A full-scale marketing audit. Get an outside party to look at all your marketing materials, print, broadcast and digital. Have them dive deep to determine what works and what doesn’t. Find out what’s profitable and what’s a loser. And, find out the products and services your customers want, but that you don’t offer.
- And last and most important, take the time to know your customer. An email, phone call or visit to a branch tells you nothing about who they are. Take the time to get to know them and their financial lifestyle before pitching products.
Arnold closes his piece with a great line: Until you figure those things out by more aggressively pursuing consumer engagement training and diving into a marketing audit, your community bank is really just trying to sell a tiny clown car to a sumo wrestler.”
Like the Matchmaker, find your customers the perfect match.
Read the entire article HERE.
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