“Turn your radio on . . .”

What started as a Pennsylvania bank’s blog
transformed with the twist of a dial.

We like blogs.
You wouldn’t be reading this if we didn’t.
But something caught our attention that’s worth sharing. It’s the story of how the idea for a blog became a radio show. And while the jury is still out on how much bounce Fidelity Deposit and Discount Bank in Dunmore, Pa., will get from its weekly “Fidelity Bank . . . On Business” broadcasts, it’s the kind of out-of-the-box idea that firms like ours –BankMarketingCenter.com – like to see.

It started out simply enough. The CEO wanted to launch a blog. Blogs require access to experts in various financial subjects. Banks are laden with – or at least have access to – scads of financial experts. The show features a segment with one of those experts talking his/her area of expertise – mortgages, investments, auto loans, debt reduction, savings. A “Big Idea” segment offers thoughts from a variety of sources. And the last segment features bank customers and their “secret sauce to success.”
What makes the program especially effective is that Fidelity’s show isn’t an infomercial on the bank’s products and services. Other topics – the importance of local businesses, cash flow, retirement planning, obtaining credit and fraud protection – have been featured. Customer “success stories” are also highlighted.

Joann Marsili, vice president and marketing and sales director at Fidelity and a faculty member of the ABA School of Bank Marketing said what started as a blog became so much more.
“The key to our success has been repurposing content, making use of our internal resources, but most of all, making sure we provide something of value to our marketplace,” she wrote. “So when is a radio show not just a radio show? When it helps create brand and add value.”
Using the show as a launching point, Marsili said, the bank created an integrated campaign to create brand value.

A few ways that the bank is using the show:
• Through value-added discussions with customers, the bank can expand its commercial and business initiatives.
• Bankers bring expertise to the table. Potential customers like to interact with people they like. The program helps foster those friendships. As we’ve said often – cultivating relationships is key.
• Sales outreach. Building off the show, the marketing department creates emails for wealth managers, branch managers, commercial and business bankers to send under their own cover to send to clients and prospects.
• Social media – notably Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – is used to post links to the show. Employees are encouraged to share posts on the show on their own pages as well.
• Website and blogs based on the radio show.
• And last, the radio show stands on its own.

To read the whole article, and link to the radio show and its blog, go to: http://ababankmarketing.com/insights/fidelity-bank-rocks-it-on-radio/

For more information on bank blogs, check this out:

A Bank Blog on Bank Blogs