Marketing: Defining Your Role

What role does marketing play? This is a great question that can be applied to many areas of your bank or credit union. And you may come to find that depending on who you are asking the answer may be different.

This year your marketing department may be tasked with a variety of objectives that include forming and supporting your brand, generating traffic, establishing value, encouraging customer/member loyalty, creating effective communication, developing product … and the list goes on. What is the priority for your marketing department? Assuming that you can answer this question, would your CEO, CFO, CLO, and COO agree?

Ask your executive team how they view the role of marketing in your organization. Is it what you expected? Because let's face it, until we know the answer to this question, we can’t begin to define or measure what success for the marketing team looks like in 2011.

Best,

Jamie

Happy Black Friday

Well, the day after Thanksgiving can only mean one thing...

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!

Here's hoping you got a close enough parking spot, you found the deal you were looking for, you didn't cause a scene and you can really enjoy this holiday season.

Make it a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

Get Emotional

I was professionally raised in ad agencies and matured in financial marketing, so I know that I'm a bit too close ... but it seems to me that too many copywriters don't dig deep enough into their work.

If you want to make an impact with your ad copy, understand the unique features that you want to promote ... then determine how those feature will ultimately benefit your customer. Will it make their life easier? What can they do with the money that they'll save?

Now, you can stop at the benefit and be well ahead of most of your competition from a marketing perspective. But to really make an impact, generate some emotion. How does your target FEEL. Are they frustrated with your competition? Are they proud to be buying their first home?

Demonstrate that you understand who your target is and what they care about then back it up with the benefits that will fill their needs.

For example, you could promote your Wealth Management Department by saying that your bank "manages umpteen-million dollars in assets" or that Sally Wealth Management is "super trustworthy." Or you could say...

When "Daddy's Little Girl" became "Mommy," I knew I could help.

First I bought my new grandson a ball glove, then I called Sally at Wealth Management. She was so helpful with my retirement that I knew she could help me put something away for his college too. I know he'll be a shortstop!

Take care,

Eric

A Week of Thanks...

This week is Thanksgiving Week.  Hard to believe that its nearly December!

My blog post will simply be a Thank YOU....

• Thank You to my family...
• My friends...
• My co workers (the best in the world!)
• Our clients...
• And those that we meet in our work around the country and around the world!

Enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  Give thanks for your blessings and for those around the world that protect our freedoms each and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bruce

Gearing Up For BLACK FRIDAY...

Black Friday is almost here and whether you are someone who can’t wait to fight the crowds for a great deal or plan to avoid the commotion at all costs, Black Friday will mark shopping highlight of the year.

Many retailers have already crafted deals to drive sales and push their sales numbers into the black. And it’s time for credit unions and banks to get in on the action… here are a few ideas on how to get involved:

• Create Black Friday specials on mortgages, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. Consider extending a modified offer through the New Year.
• Promote your customers’ debit card usage through the holidays with a holiday drawing that requires a debit card swipe for every entry.
• Position your CDs or savings accounts as a holiday present. In the current economy, the gift of savings is most likely more useful than a sweater!
• Open early at 6:00 a.m. to accommodate shopper’s cash needs.

End this year in the black... and gain momentum to continue throughout 2011!

Best,

Jamie

Mission Completion

With the help of the entire team we can official say...5, 4, 3, 2, 1... blastoff!

The last 10 days have been non-stop business and now that Friday is coming to an end we can all high five each other for the hard work that has been done these last 2 weeks. It's amazing how well this team works together, each with different strengths. You put the team in a room together and watch out, what you will get is nothing short of amazing.

From the thought process, to the design, to the creative, to the buying, to the placing, to the research, to the writing and everything in between... MarketMatch covers all basis. With MarketMatch you get the whole package.

I am proud to work for a team who works so well together. Looking forward to what lies ahead.

Make it a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

Is it Time to Relook at Your Brand?

If you haven't reevaluated your brand in the last 24 month, it may be time ... and it doesn't have to eat up your budget.

It's no secret that banking consumers today are not the same as they were before the "banking crisis" (enter ominous music here). The truth is that, for whatever reason, national surveys show bank customer satisfaction with larger banks is down (and credit union's is up).

Thanks to the media, consumers as more educated about banking, their perceptions and expectations have changes, and they are more motivated to make a change (12% fewer customers said that they "definitely will not" switch this year vs. 2007).

You need to make sure your brand still aligns with what consumers know, how they feel, what they expect and what will motivate them to come to you -- all while holding true to your actual identity.

But you won't know what's going on in your market until you ask. I'm not saying that you need to rebrand - but I am saying that you should reevaluate and see if there is any tweaking to do to make you more competitive and a more likely consumer choice.

Take care,

Eric

Are Sales Campaigns Making You Pushy?

Internal Sales Campaigns are often a useful tool to provide focus for staff, track results, and manage progress toward strategic goals. However, when financial institutions create sales campaigns around a specific product or service, it is important that the sales staff don’t become so eager to meet a sales campaign goal that they sacrifice fulfilling customer/member needs.

For instance, if a prospect walks into your branch during a sales campaign, would your front line staff immediately discuss the campaign product with them, or would they talk to the prospect about their needs and make the best recommendation for their life? Talking about the campaign might have an immediate positive impact on your campaign results, but will likely cause a higher risk of attrition if the prospects needs aren’t being met. Clearly, if your sales staff has a discussion to create a customized solution for their prospect, the prospect will have a more positive experience and be more likely to remain a customer/member overtime.

Therefore, it’s important to keep sales delivery a priority during your sales campaign, here’s how...

• Training – Provide sales training focused around customer life stages. When you roll out a campaign, clearly communicate that the sales delivery must be maintained.
• Set Appropriate Goals – Ensure that your goals are not counter-productive to customer needs. Keeping goals specific to new households, cross-sell ratios, or general product lines will provide your staff the flexibility of choosing products that are the right fit for customers/members and also counting towards a campaign.
• Prequalify – Continue to have conversations during a campaign around your product, but make sure to prequalify customers. You can prequalify customers through an MCIF system, core system, or simply through a discussion.

Campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, but when you’re determining your campaign specifics, make sure that campaign goals will not be met at the expense of customer/member needs. Doing what is right for the customer will help to strengthen your relationship and increase retention.

Best,

Jamie

Think Inside the Box

Thinking INSIDE the box... that is where it is at!

Ever since I started MarketMatch, we have held a mantra of "thinking inside the box"... it is on our business cards, a crazy picture of me is on our website and it drives our fundamental approach to our clients.

So what IS thinking inside the box?
It is all about doing your homework on who currently does business with you and learning everything you can possibly know about the "who, what, where, how and why"...and then applying those learnings to your greater marketplace.

It is about...

• Analyzing buying patterns
• Visualizing where customers/members live that bank with you
• Recognizing the geographic/zip code/census tract patterns of your customers
• Seeing how your different markets react differently to your marketing messages

And most importantly DOING something with what you learn!

It does not take a sophisticated CRM (although it does help), a full time data analyst (although it makes it easier), or a PHD in statistics (wow...I feel a headache coming on!)

But it DOES take a serious focus on the info you ALREADY have available to you...and the creativity to look at it in a completely different viewpoint to see what it can tell you.  Look around-- you have the information assets around you right now...they just need to be turned into knowledge!  That is the key...having knowledge.  Knowledge is actionable information.  Data is in a binder, knowledge is in action!

You will be amazed what you already have available to you...and what secrets are sitting on the surface just waiting to be seen!

Need help?  Call us...we would be glad to pitch in and bring our ROI Guarantee along for the ride!

Cheers!

Bruce Clapp

Crazy, Busy

Wow, what a week. Talk about being crazy busy, it has been a crazy week at work and a crazy week at home. We are on the downward slide of Friday and I can't wait to kick off my shoes, sit on the couch, possibly with a nice cold beverage and just unwind.

I will use this weekend to regroup and re-energize for what I will tackle next week. I am thankful everyday for my family, my job, my life. I am truly livin' the dream.

Make it a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

Dip your toe before you jump in

We have a client who's opening a new branch in an existing market and using this opportunity to test some new marketing strategies.

Looking into the future, I'll bet you have some great ideas that you'd like to try:

• Edgier look
• New products
• New packaging
• Bundling products
• Relationship pricing
• New sales delivery
• Refined message
• Tweaked pricing
• Unique customer segmentation
• Guerilla marketing

With our help, our client is trying all of this out in one of their markets. When successful, they plan to roll it out on a larger scale.

If you have big dreams but are challenged by budget or approval constraints, try the "dip your toe" strategy. Test out your ideas in a market that makes the most sense. Then take the best of what works and expand it out. The risk will be diminished and the rewards will be great!

Referrals: Don't Forget to Ask!

Obtaining referrals is not only simple, it’s cost effective! Plus, it can be a great addition to an ongoing marketing strategy for your relationship managers. All you have to do is ask customers, members, peers, or associates to recommend you. So why do so many bankers fail at this tactic?

Many people believe that doing a good job is all that’s necessary to generate referrals. However, business owners, professionals, customers/members, etc. have other things on their minds than rewarding your service when you are meeting with them. Simply put, you need to speak up!

Here are 4 simple tips to help increase success of your referrals:

It’s not about the size of the prize. Few people refer to get a reward. On the contrary they may like to be viewed as the person who is “connected.” Save the $20 referral reward and invest in your customer/member relationship by taking them to lunch instead.

Wait until customers/members are happy. After you go the extra mile for a client… then ask. They will be so happy with you, they will want to return the favor.

Don’t worry about rejection. – If someone doesn’t know anyone they could refer you to, they’ll tell you. But if they don’t give you a referral, that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t in the future. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Simplify the process. Whether you decided to ask for a referral using an email, mail, or in person, make it a seamless part of your marketing plan. Automate the process or putting tools in place for relationship managers to refer can help you in the long run.

And while I’m at it… if you are happy with the knowledge MarketMatch provides and you know someone who could benefit from our services, please give us a call our drop us a line.

Best,

Jamie

Map it...

I am beginning a series on helpful strategic planning exercises.

The initial topic... mapping your customers.  We help banks and credit unions all over the country with strategic planning and thoughtful tactical delivery and love doing it!

One of the first questions we ask?  Have you mapped your customers?

Why?

Because typically we learn a lot by seeing neighborhood patterns, location gaps and when we add the layers of "deposit customers", "loan customers", "investment customers", "commercial customers", etc. as different pushpins...we also see visually the opportunity for organic growth!

Its easy...mapping software is available and inexpensive.  And all you need is the address for your customers!  You can get more sophisticated as you go...and we can help!

Cheers!

Bruce

How can you get 25 hours of work into a 24 hour day?

Have you ever wondered how to get 25 hours of work into a 24 hour day?

Well it all starts with focus. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, winners use them wisely!

No matter how many great ideas you have, you only have 24 hours in a day. The key is focus. Save precious minutes throughout the day and you will become more efficient and productive.

Here are a few points to help you stay focused and effective...

• Prioritize your day, starting with the highest impact first
• Focus on one activity at a time to be more productive
• Keep a journal, jot ideas down when you think of them
• Clear the clutter, clean off your desk and any other horizontal surfaces
• Make the most of meetings with an agenda and a time frame
• Minimize interruptions, it's okay to not answer a ringing telephone or cellphone
• Check your email at designated times throughout the day

Be a winner, try one of the above points and see how it frees up your time during the day. Once you have mastered one point move on to another one.

Make it a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

We all know that what you see visually has an effect on how you feel and what you get out of a message. Guess what - its not just the imagery or the graphic layout of a subject that portrays that feeling, but also your choice of typeface.

Your copy has a huge impact on the emotion and content of a piece. Not just what it says but how it says it. Having the wrong typeface on the headline of an ad could cause readers to just pass it by in a magazine. Having body copy on your website that seems like it’s too type heavy, cumbersome or the font is hard to read, will get ignored. Too much copy or too many variations of fonts, or colors in a single piece will be overlooked. Type to close to an edge or outside of a margin looks “forced” and crammed in.



The qualities and feeling of a typeface can all be attributed to its size, character build, and overall shape, but it can also be in its spacing, alignment or even case. Sometimes you don’t even need a graphic element when designing; you can get away with the type as a graphic element alone. There are literally millions of typefaces and each one has its own unique personality. A few examples that you can portray just about visual connection you want with them:




There is a lot that goes into selecting the right typeface and setting that selection to compliment your brand, to make that ad feel a special way or to make your website more legible. So remember - Don’t forget the type.

Try this…

Many financial institutions claim to have the “best” product or service over the competition. But with all of the claims being made in your market, how can a consumer tell what is really “the best?”

One tactic we have found to be successful is to create trial of the point of difference. Creating trial allows the consumer to use the product or experience the service over a defined period of time and then opt in or out, without incurring any fees or charges. This gives consumers the ability to test you out and decide for themselves if you live up to your hype before they make the switch.

You can also make the trial more compelling by adding a guarantee, which would require you to provide an offer to consumers if you don’t deliver on your promise. If communicated correctly, encouraging trial can be faster, cheaper, and more effective than trying to talk someone into switching financial institutions.

However, once you have persuaded a new consumer to give you a try, then it is up to you convert them into customers/members. Therefore, it is important to also include the consumers that are “giving you a try” in an On Boarding Program. Communicating to these customers early and often is the key to conversion and retention.

Best,

Jamie

The world is changing...

I get interviewed a lot... and I love offering my thoughts and comments on all things banking.  One interview I had on Friday was inquiring on Ohio banks and how the majority of them had not yet repaid the TARP money. 

My comment...no incentive to pay it back early, you have to be clearly profitable, and the emphasis on the TARP issue has largely been swept away.

However, in thinking about the larger question, in my mind at least, is what has and what must change in our industry to ensure longevity and success.

Here is my top 5 list...

1. Banker's must adapt to clearly seeing the world from the consumer's perspective and not the banker.  Is your bank ready to put on your "consumer glasses?
2. The customer will choose two options going forward...an online partner and an off-line partner. They could be the same...but they WILL have these...are you ready to be them both?
3. The industry will forever be different in terms of start-ups... denovo's will be a different breed and many will simply buy an institution and work to change it, vs. start new.
4. Regulators will swing back...but it will be a LONG and tiring process...be ready to invest in compliance and legal staff that can help you shorten that curve.
5. The business owner and retail consumer will merge closer than ever and we have to be ready...
   is your focus on meeting both needs?

 Think about each of these five (5) items...kick them around in your head, analyze the impact, think about your institution's readiness...

and then set a meeting within your bank/CU to discuss them.

I think they are game changers...and most certainly HOW we play-the-game-changers!

Cheers...

Bruce Clapp