As explained in an earlier blog post, we’re following our colleague Natalie Schneider and her teammates on the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team at the 2012 London Paralympics Games.
The US team has played its first two games, the first on Thursday and the second finishing shortly before this post. The US women split with their opponents.
To a large degree, cross-sell marketing efforts and new customer acquisition campaigns are mutually exclusive. They target different audiences.
But, like all things in life, there are always exceptions.
In the case of bank and credit union marketing, one of the exceptions is seminars, webinars, and workshops – particularly in-person seminars and workshops.
Debating cash incentives versus premiums? Here’s a story that might influence you.
It comes from Christy Heinzmann, ACTON Marketing’s Training Specialist. She was teaching at one of our client banks and reached the topic of incentives, Tell-A-Friends, and so on. Christy’s class told her this story.
Months earlier, we prepared a direct mail marketing promotion for the bank’s acquisition campaign where the premium offer was a powerful LED lantern.
The CD rate ad from AAA immediately caught my attention as I was paging through the just-arrived September-October issue of via magazine from AAA. If you’re not familiar with the AAA, it was founded as the American Automobile Association on March 4, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois.
If you own and drive a car or truck, odds are you are an AAA member…carrying your card wherever you go just in case you need roadside assistance. I’ve been a member since 1984.
Typically, when you talk about versions for a marketing campaign, you’re referring to a direct mail campaign. However, the practice can also apply to print ads and even broadcast spots.
For simplicity, let’s assume you have a targeted direct mail marketing campaign and you wonder if or why you should have versions of the mail piece. I’ll give you some examples of when different versions can be used.
One of today’s hot bank marketing opportunities is auto loans…auto loans that bring new customers to your bank or credit union.
The secret to success with auto loan marketing is to identify the hottest prospects and find the most effective way of making them an offer.
Using the same marketing strategies and tactics as your competition isn’t the answer.
You probably think the 2012 Summer Olympic Games ended with the August 12 closing ceremonies. You’d be wrong.
The Games pick up again August 29, when the 2012 Paralympic Games begin in the same venues in London. Those of us here at ACTON Marketing have a vested interest in the Games because one of our own, Natalie Schneider, is playing for the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team.
Reducing attrition, attracting new customers, while serving the underbanked are three hot topics in banking today.
All three of these goals share two words in common – FREE CHECKING.
Yes, FREE CHECKING.
In the last two days I’ve encountered two stories that couldn’t be more different. The first was about the uncaring staffers at United Airlines who lost a 10-year-old unaccompanied minor. The second was about a New Hampshire Panera Bread employee who went out of her way to make soup for a customer who was passing soon from cancer.
Over-the-top customer service stories aren’t told much in the banking industry and they certainly aren’t often told publicly. Every week I hear conversations from bankers and bank marketers about social media strategies – or more accurately put “gimmicks” – for increasing engagement – or more accurately put “likes” – and I swear I can hear the Internet weep a bit. Giving away $1 to a charity in exchange for a like isn’t exactly at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And where does pushing this factoid out to your 233 fans fit into the grand scheme of things?
Today’s young adults don’t realize that there was a time when going to the local bank branch was fun. It was an adventure – especially for kids.
In some respects, technology has changed consumer banking for the worst.
It’s now mostly a very impersonal activity experienced primarily online and via mobile phones.
I’ve seen it happen to dozens of financial institution marketing promotions. The bank or credit union tries to squeeze as many product promotions as possible into one mail piece.
That’s not only wrong, it’s ineffective.
I suppose there are plenty of reasons mixed messages happen: Office politics (“Their product line gets a promotion and we don’t!”), or an attempt to save money (“If we put everything in this one mailer we can eliminate the other three!”), or even inexperience, as well as others.
If in the near future I find myself in need of new or used car financing I’m going to one place…and one place only.
That place is the Golden1 Credit Union in Sacramento.
Why?
For the past couple of years Golden1 has focused its marketing effort almost exclusively on low-cost auto loans. And I don’t mean sporadically – I mean every day.
It’s ironic. A bank releases a video promo about a bomb plot and the campaign blows up in the marketer’s face.
You may already have heard or read about Commonwealth Bank’s YouTube video where one of its marketing campaign mascots in the story tries to smuggle a bomb into an Olympic venue.
Let’s all say it. “What were they thinking?”
When the corporate marketing department controls every dollar of the marketing budget and dictates every marketing program, some branches benefit more than others.
The reason for this is simple – branches vary in a number of ways including the market area being served. Some branches are in great locations while others struggle in less desirable locations.
Some branches are located in highly trafficked areas while others are not. While one branch may find itself located near a very busy supermarket, another branch may be located in a struggling strip mall.
What do you do if you have an underperforming branch and your corporate marketing efforts aren’t helping? Short of closing the branch, you can test different products and offers.
If you use direct mail marketing promotions, you should regularly test elements of your campaigns to see if any changes will boost results. Typically, you test one element at a time, rather than wholesale changes. You want to be able to point to the specific change that made a difference in responses instead of guessing which of multiple elements might have influenced prospects.
Here’s how testing methods might help that problem branch.
Having a familiar “brand” helps make new customer acquisition easier.
Fortunately, there are a wide assortment of strategies and tactics to create brand awareness for your bank or credit union.
One of my favorite strategies has a very long history – it’s the ubiquitous outdoor sign. Over the centuries, signs have evolved from simple placards on trees and poles and in windows to today’s large billboards visible almost everywhere.
More and more I see financial marketing professionals omit a premium offer from their promotions. I think it happens for a few common reasons.
While saving money is at the top of the list, by addressing the second point I think I can show the fallacy of the first.
Here’s an opportunity to learn from experts about an important marketing topic, and you can do it without leaving your office. You can even have colleagues join you.
The Five Key Elements to a Successful Customer Acquisition Strategy is a free webinar scheduled for Wednesday, August 8, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
The agenda includes these timely and important topics. Read more…
If your only source of news is from the mainstream media, by now you must believe that the U.S. Postal Service is about to go under. Take a look at this “fear mongering” headline from an article appearing in the July 31, 2012 issue of The Sacramento Bee.
