Ideas and strategies for helping community banks and credit unions differentiate themselves from competitors and acquire new customers.

1. How Can Community Banks Differentiate and Attract
New Customers?
increasingly necessary for branches to
strategize in order to attract the ideal client
for growing profitability. Having worked
with banks for almost 20 years in the retail
space creating digital displays, way finding,
wall signage and more, the Element Group
finds the biggest challenge facing bank
executives remains how to direct new
The Element Group’s Rudiger Merz,
customer’s in-branch. Marketing campaigns
former CMO for Nevada State Bank/
are ready and waiting to appeal to the senses
Zion Corporation but uncovering prospects to experience these
The average consumer is displays can be a bit trickier when everyone
overwhelmed with choices, filtering out is offering the same services.
thousands of advertising messages a day. It’s ! Understanding these challenges are
the same situation with banks, with paramount, The Element Group has
approximately 1000 households per identified some quick tips you can
institution and no differentiators, customers implement today in order to attract a greater
are essentially shopping for the best rate percentage of qualified leads for the long
instead of a long standing financial term. Divided into core segments, the plan
relationship. Therefore it’s becoming focuses on virtual marketing for an
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2. influential inbound lead generation delving into more behavioral analytics.
campaign with a goal to bring measurable Vendors such as Experian, ESRI, First Date,
and quantitative results to any branch or Raddon Group can be used as resources to
marketing program. assist in this first step.
Step One: Define your ‘right’ customer Understanding life situations will
greatly affect who you reach out to and how
The very first step to attracting new
you do so. Attracting customers is easy, but
clients, before you even send out that email
you want to find the right customer for better
campaign is to perform a thorough analysis
close rates. Here are some key factors to
of who are your most profitable and loyal
consider:
customers. These are the clients who
purchase the most products, maintain longer • How do your potential customers
tenure, and remain the most actively loyal. prefer to communicate with you?
We recommend reviewing your current
• What do you know about their life
database for these individuals and businesses
cycle stage? Discover where there
by overlaying behavioral data and
is inconsistency in data quality.
physiographical profiles to develop an
Therefore, investigate your current
essential personal file. Most banks have basic
database and see how deep your
customer data including a name, address,
demographic layers go. Perhaps you are
and age inference, but when it comes to
already on top of this first initial step, and
closing a deal and bringing a new customer
that’s great. But for many banks, while the
onboard, there remains a wide gap between
contacts are there, not much else is known
engaging beyond demographic data and
about these customers. We challenge you to
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3. take your existing list and really get to know During this step, question who your
the people behind the name and e-mail most profitable customers and what do you
address. How do you do this? Phone calls are know about their core characteristics in order
old school we suggest subscribing. It will be to overcome the data gap? By now you may
an expenditure but the ROI will be apparent be saying well that’s easy to say, but HOW
with your higher response rates not to do you identify and group these customers?
mention a much more tangible marketing There could be thousands of contacts within
message spread out across your various your database, and it’s anyone’s guess what
demographic groups. their greatest need is. This is the reason many
e-mail campaigns fail because they go out
Step Two: Identify your right prospects
blindly and have low success rates.
by minimizing your risk profiles
Score your consumer prospect list
Performing an accurate customer risk
with relevant credit information (i.e. credit
assessment will help the community bank
score, bankruptcy), according to your bank’s
acquire the most profitable consumers while
risk profile. There is nothing worse than
minimizing risk since every Prospect is not
sending out a credit card offer to a sub-prime
created equal.
prospect who would not qualify according to
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4. your risk profiles. Alternatively, for banks understand that so you can rightfully target
looking to acquire business customers, your audience and act on the information. If
determine which businesses are well- you have the insight and act on it, you will be
capitalized and financially suited for ahead of the competition.
customer acquisition. It is worth the
An example of randomness when it
investment to
comes to
have an
marketing are
enriched
hot money
customer
deals which
profile to
are often
better
conceived at
understand
the bank level
their needs
and appeal to
because you can then craft a different
the masses via billboard and radio spots. So
message for each group. For example, most
while the bank is receiving publicity there is
of the segmentations you will find are Gen Y,
a downside as your net interest margin (IM)
X, Baby Boomer, and the Retiree. Each of
goes down, and the campaign usually
these groups has very distinct needs when it
attracts disproportionate customers chasing
comes to their neighborhood bank. Some of
the best rate. No one wants low loyalty
these customers will prefer online and mobile
which is why identifying your ideal customer
banking, while others only trust transactions
and knowing where to find them is necessary
within the branch. The point is there are
to building customer relationships and not
various channels and you want to
just one off hot money places. When you take
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5. the time to invest in identifying the right 20 and beyond, especially for B2B customers.
customer, you are answering the question of Proximity is a major factor because once you
why they should bank with you, and very have the demographic profile you can start
few banks understand the why. The buying targeted lists through media, the post
opportunity for lower retention rates will office, and more at the block level. Once you
greatly improve when you know why a have established your immediacy, laser focus
customer chose your bank over another one. these clients by understanding their media
Visualize the segments, and capture more behavior, what kinds of places do they hang
data to expand to other branches. out so you can explore and create the
awareness to open an account with you.
Step Three: Determine your best offer
Step Four: Initiate Lead Generation and
Not everyone is in the market for a
Repeat the Process
banking product so understanding who is
more likely to buy certain products or who is At this point you have an understanding of
in the market for them. Achieve step three your most profitable customer, you know
using data augmentation and scoring tools to their likes and dislikes when it comes to
determine the most likely prospects to buy media marketing, and you understand why
specific products to optimize your order.
Once you understand who your ideal
customers are and how to communicate
through emotional and product triggers, it’s
time to think about owning the mile around
your bank. Perhaps your mile will actually be
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6. they need your banking services. Now it’s Y, and Baby Boomer group separately
time to be relevant and remarkable. With including variable incentives. Automated e-
your demographic data in hand, it’s time to mail campaigns either through a third party
process leads through the engagement loop marketing service, ad agency, or CRM
and establish a sales funnel with upper, platform can help you achieve conditional
middle, and lower level strategies. There are messages.
two ways of thinking of lead generation; one
Social media is a bank’s friend
is classic
because this is
push
where
marketing
conversations
which
can be
includes
initiated to
direct mail
support search
with an
engine
offer and
optimization
certain
(SEO). Quality
calls to action. The downside of push
content will appeal to the crawlers and
marketing is the constant clutter, low
allows your bank to turn up high in Internet
response rate, and higher frequency
rankings. So when your Gen X and Y
requirements. Then there is contextual
customers log on line to search interest rates
marketing which must occur to capture
on a new home, your bank will turn up first.
someone’s mind set. This is where you create
Content can include social media sites,
split messages which funnel out to the Gen X,
blogging, and turning up fresh website
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7. content in the form of white papers, articles, and create ongoing communication so the
and free information. There are two ways to client returns to that home equity page for
do this as we mentioned – go directly to a example. Your marketing partner will have
CRM company, or partner with a third party the chance to witness client behavior through
agency. The benefit of working with a third their keystrokes which are tracked with
party is they will research the right solutions cookies, and develop a plan to better
for your bank and not try to outsell your understand where these leads are in the sales
needs. This partner will also manage the funnel. Knowing the exact landing pages
entire project, from writing e-mails, blogs, visited, what forms are being downloaded,
and social media posts to analyzing the data and loan information being reviewed will
and reporting back on an action plan. leave you ready to bring a much more
concrete offer to these candidates.
Repeat the process
So, when thinking about lead generation,
In order to have a successful lead generation
be relevant toward the products and
program, your bank needs to be repetitive.
standing out. Talk to your customer, address
The typical consumer gets between 3,000 to
them, and get to know them so they see you
5,000 brand messages every day.
as a likeminded person.
Subconsciously we filter much of this
information out of our brains so it becomes Step Five: Measure and optimize
very challenging to cut through the clutter
Go beyond the call center or your
and make sure your message makes it
website when it comes to customer
beyond the recycle bin. When it comes to
conversion. Highlight the preferred means of
lead generation you want to build dialogue
communication and appeal to all channels.
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8. For example if a client starts engaging staff to ask how their clients heard about the
digitally through blogs, remain with their bank.
digital medium. Then, track their response
When opportunities come online, be
rate using core metrics, testing, and optimize
ready to track behavior. Landing pages are
great for directing customers to a particular
site designed just for them, but many people
leave and don’t fill out an application
completely. We recommend establishing a
good process for collecting information with
follow up messaging such as, “Sorry we
missed you….” People get stuck and they
the approaches that work. If they don’t will on your website, so be sure to optimize
respond you look at behavior and go back the web design with additional customer
with more information for an ongoing service elements. Offer online chat if people
dialogue. get stuck, display a 1-800 number, or call to
connect feature and let the customer know
Convenient, Easy, and Enjoyable
they will get a call back within 15 seconds.
In addition to being virtually
You want to do everything humanly possible
accessible, be prepared to merchandise, talk,
for them not to leave the page. The abandon
track and convey your bank brand across all
rate is super high.
branches. You want to meet the customer
Develop a partnership
expectation of being easy to do business with
and enjoyable at the same time. Train the
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9. ! Partnering with a provider, we
encourage our customer to consider three
major aspects:
• Understand who are the right
customers with regard to
segmentation and profitability
• What is the response to your
brand story and how do you ?
• How to engage. Making sure to
open the door as wide open as
possible – eliminate all the
hurdles along the way by meeting
customer needs.
• Making it easy and make it
enjoyable.
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