Know Your Audience Better

Our July 16th Brown Bag Lunch session on One-to-One Marketing talked about how useful certain tools like MCIF and CRM are. It also talked about the power of Claritas P$ycle data to better segment and understand who your target audience is, what they do, what media they use, and where they live.

Click here to learn more about our FREE Brown Bag sessions.

More importantly, we talked about how you can still have a robust one-to-one culture even without the tools in-house. That caused me to think, about how you can still have the power of P$ycle-style data on a more conservative budget. It is possible!

Though not as robust as P$ycle data and not as efficient to complete multiple segments, if you can identify a key strategic segment or two, you can collect your own lifestyle information through research. The key is to create a brief survey that touches on your target's hobbies, entertainment preferences, preferred media and financial goals.

Click Here For a Sample Survey.

You have several choices to collect this data. Since this does not, necessarily, have to be a blind survey, you can expect a better than average response rate from a phone survey. Of course, an email (like the above sample) would be faster and cheaper. You can also conduct branch intercepts or have a focus group to dig deeper into each question.

With this data, you can better create lifestyle or life stage marketing, or create a mirror modeling strategy to acquire more customers that resemble your best customer. You can be more strategic in your media buys and more targeted in your grassroots efforts. You'll also have relevant data on a strategic segment to have more intelligent one-to-one conversations about products and services that match their immediate financial goals.

MarketMatch has already made the investment into the Claritas ConsumerPoint system so that you can tap into the valuable data and also benefit from the expertise of our strategic team driving the process.

Of course, MarketMatch can be your resource for all of this. To learn more, email us at egagliano@marketmatch.com, or call 866-501-2233, ext 106.

Spend less, grow more.

Call it what you want: one-to-one marketing, segmentation, target marketing…

Regardless the terminology, with shrinking budgets and more savvy consumers, you need to focus your marketing efforts. The goal here is to: filter everyone “into” a group versus out of groups, to maximize response & activity and to get the highest ROI for the greatest impact.

MCIF, CRM and Claritas system can all definitely help here, but are certainly not the only answer.

You’ll want to base your segmentation, ultimately, on: your bank or credit union’s financial goals, your existing customer-base, any regional factors and what your competition is doing.

Certainly you want to be strategic in your planning, but don’t suffer from “Analysis Paralysis,” while you’re planning your attack (or picking up the phone to have us help you), here are some segments to consider approaching:

• Checking/debit card without online banking
• More than 5 POS activities with no loan
• 5 or more CDs with no investment services
• 2 or more installment loans with no LOC
• Installment loans maturing within 24 mos.
• Equity LOCs booked 5+ years ago
• Equity LOCs with more than $5K available
• Checking, Savings and no Money Market
• Checking, CD and no Money Market
• Homeowner with no HELOC
• HHs close to balance thresholds
• HHs with open LOC space
• Homeowner with no HELOC
• Grandparents/Parents/College grads (select any life-stage that generates specific financial needs)
• Small business without retail

Consider how you will approach these folks. What do they look like? What ultimately is motivating them to need your services? How aggressive should you be? Once they are in your front door, how will you identify them? What will you say? Will you have to offer them a special, or simply demonstrate how you can help them?

The bottom line is that smart, strategic, targeted marketing demands a larger investment of your time, but can save your budget and ultimately show better results.

Take care,
Eric

When the circus comes to town

Something a little fun for a Monday...

When the Circus Comes to Town

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday", that's advertising.

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town,
that's promotion.

If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity.

And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations.

If the elephant walks down neighborhoods with more children than the rest and a higher # of former circus attendees, that's segmentation.

If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths,
explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions
and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

And, if YOU planned the whole thing, that's MARKETING!

Advertising simply does not work as it used to anymore. It is an ever shrinking component of the marketing plan.

The consumer is frankly completely and totally overwhelmed. We have to be relevant, emotional and sustained!

I wish I could take credit for this masterpiece, but I can't. I don't know who wrote it - but the message is no less profound or true.

Today's Marketing Challenge: Is it worth it?

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: Is it worth it?

Today's solution covers a wide variety of marketing challenges: "I think we need a MCIF or CRM, but they won't put it in the budget." "We need more marketing resources, but how do I pay for it?" "My department simply isn't respected at my institution ... marketing is more than 'arts & crafts!'"

The solution? Measure your results (or expected results)!

The simple solution is to demonstrate the value (or anticipated value) of your marketing efforts through ROI.

Think like a marketer and understand that your CEO/COO/CFO/Board/etc. are your target audience. You have to speak your target's language ... numbers!

What's that? You "don't do numbers"? Here's a quick cheat sheet:

ROI = (Incremental Profit - Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment

The bottom line is:

• Define where you are at the start
• Determine the expected or actual outcome of your efforts
• Measure the financial outcome against your investment

What was your return? Can your CEO/Board get a better return by investing the bank's/CU's money in stocks, HR or IT?

ROI is simply the best way to brand marketing as much more than "arts & crafts." It's also the most logical way to justify your dream marketing budget and wish-list resources (like MarketMatch).

We have an in-depth Financial Impact Analysis form that we use to justify our ROI Guarantee. If interested, call me at 937-426-9848 or email egagliano@marketmatch.com.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do I get the most from email marketing?

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do I get the most from email marketing?

With marketing budgets getting tighter and younger demographics demanding an immediate response while constantly on the go, email marketing is quickly becoming one of the most sought after and frustrating marketing tools. Can it segment? How do I know it's effective? I only have email addresses for 10% of my customer-base. Sound familiar?

The solution? Diligence!

Successful email marketing begins with identifying the right email partner, but the true success is in your diligence:

• Select a system that can accommodate a variety of data fields and multiple audience lists. Use your core system, MCIF or imported email fields to segment and create individual audience lists for specific campaigns.
• Focus your message on value-added tips, but link to relevant products on your website. For example, "You can better manage your budget by using debit cards and online banking to track every dollar spent each month." Then link to your checking account or online banking page(s). If you start the hard-core selling on email, your customers will opt-out and you can no longer email to them.
• Diligently track, track, track. Most email responses will come in the first 3 days, but keep tracking for at least 1 week. Track who opens the email and what they clicked through to. Use the list of customers who clicked through to Online Banking, for example, for outbound sales calls to those folks to see if they had any questions when they clicked to your online banking page. You can provide your CSRs/MSRs with very targeted outbound lists of customers who have shown an interest in a product.
• Diligently track, track, track (part 2). Record the topics of each email you send with the percent of opens, percent of click-throughs and percent of opt-outs to gauge what topics are important to your market.
• Push hard to get your staff to diligently ask about email addresses at EVERY transaction - in the teller line, at the drive-thru, in the call center, heck - even in collections. If they talk to a customer, they should ask, "Can I please have an updated email address?"

Email marketing is a powerful, robust, trackable, cost-effective tool and it beats waiting two weeks for a mailing to print and mail.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: Keeping Social Media Fresh

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do you keep Social Media fresh and beneficial?

Who's in charge of updating your blogs, Facebook pages, emails, Tweets, Linked In, etc., etc., etc.?

If it's just one person, you may be missing an opportunity.

The solution? Build momentum!

The underlying strategic goal behind any social media effort is to position the bank or credit union as a financial expert and to ultimately build the relationship with your target in a value-added way.

That said, you can build momentum in your efforts by soliciting the efforts of your entire institution. Schedule specific times for key team members to post messages. "This week our lending VP focuses on mortgage issues, next week our Commercial VP talks about how Reg E will effect transactions at the point of sale. The week after that, our Wealth Management advisor will discuss the ebbs and flows of the market."

Here are some tips:

• Since you'll want to include managers from different business units (preferably even the CEO) and/or staff from different markets, schedule well in advance
• Be clear on exactly who is responsible and exactly what they are responsible for
• Provide recommended topic ideas and talking points. The more you can do for them up-front, the more likely they are to do it
• Be a classy-pest. Send nice reminders prior to their deadline (see if they would like your help)
• Set clear guidelines. Tweets should be short ... Blogs should be no more than XXX words ... Facebook should not be salesy .. etc.

If successful, you will enjoy the collective expertise of your entire institution, your team will begin to understand the value of social media, your customers will get to know more of your team, and you will position your bank or credit union as having a deep understanding of a variety of financial issues.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: Projects move too slowly, I have a marketing committee

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: Projects take too long because I have a marketing committee.

Whether it's a committee of Board members, senior management or other team members, all committees are started with good intentions. Where many committees go astray is when every member wants final say in every detail of every decision.

The solution? Focus!

The most logical solution to streamline any committee is to define roles. You need planners, checks and balances and finally - a "doer."

The committee should be involved in each of the roles EXCEPT the doer. In short, the committee should:

• Help outline and define the plan or marketing objectives
• Help outline and define the budget
• Confirm that the "doer" is acting in accordance with the stated objectives and staying on budget
• Provide insight into what they experience through customer feedback or personal experience in the branches

A committee should not:

• Be involved in the day-to-day tactics (they are not copy writers, designers or segmentation professionals -- heck in MOST cases, they are not the target audience, so their "personal opinion" on an ad can actually be detrimental)

With clear, well defined roles, a committee can help make your marketing stronger with regional feedback and checks and balances. If your current committee process is "gumming up the machine" however, it needs to be addressed quickly.

Remember: A compromise is an agreement whereby both parties get what neither of them wanted. ~Author Unknown

Take care,

Eric

Turning Problems into Positives

The "Happiest Place on Earth" may be in Florida, but there are no mice there.

To me, the happiest place on Earth is a little condo in Sarasota where my family and my sister-in-law's family get together every year for white sandy beaches, a calm pool, and a week of relaxation.

That is until this year ...

Don't get me wrong, my family still had the time of our lives, but my sister-in-law had a completely different experience ... two days without A/C in the June Florida heat.

Certainly, the blame is not on the condo, they didn't shut off the A/C on purpose. But the way the issue was handled may loose then a faithful, recurring customer. And there are lessons here for your branches. When it comes down to it, the condo's problem was a lack of leadership:

Accountability

No one accepted accountability for the A/C. What was experienced was a lot of finger pointing.

When an issue occurs at your branch, your team needs to own the problem. If the point of contact can't solve the issue, they need to work to find someone internally who can and stay with the issue until it's resolved. Do not say, "you need to talk to Sally and she's off until Tuesday."

Responsibility

What was forgotten is that the responsibility is to the customer not on the customer. Even if your institution is not at fault for the error - the perception is that you are. If the customer is unhappy, your entire team needs to work to make it better.

In the case of our condo, they expected the customer to talk directly to maintenance until the A/C was fixed.

Empowerment

Great leaders empower their team to make decisions. Otherwise, when the leader is not around, nothing gets done! Your team has to be comfortable doing what's right for the customer without the fear of second guessing. The more empowered your team, the faster customer issues will be be resolved and the better overall experience your customer will have.

The bottom line is that we can't control when the A/C will die. But we can demonstrate a sincere desire to solve our customer's problems. To me, customer issues are really customer opportunities. Some of the most memorable and positive experiences I've had with a company is when something goes wrong and the company goes above and beyond to make it right.