A couple of months ago, I wrote about a series of newspaper ads a credit union used that featured stories of members and offered fundraising opportunities for special projects.
I predicted the series of similar-looking ads would continue to appear the first week of the following months. That prediction came true, but I was surprised by another ad that popped (or hopped) into the picture. I’ll show you the ads and you judge which type you think will attract more business.
On October 7 and November 11, the fourth and fifth of the series of ads appeared in the newspaper. Like their predecessors, they featured a Member of the Month and a fundraising appeal. (Click on the images for a larger view.)
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Today, I’m showing you a set of print ads that give one financial institution the ability to gain readers — which can increase account openings.
Seeing how these ad techniques work might ignite a brainstorm in your mind and lead to your own improved marketing strategy.
Over the past three months, MembersOwn Credit Union has placed a set of ads in the local newspaper. They’re a similar style and each ad tells a story about the member pictured in the ad. (Click to enlarge.)
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You probably try to cross-sell your financial products and services to your customers or members. (If not, why not?) Simply making them aware of what you offer can significantly boost your business.
Typically, a cross-sell message arrives in a #10 envelope. Not unusual. I’ve written plenty myself for ACTON Marketing clients. But after you’ve used the same format for a while, you might want to introduce something new to generate more attention. Today, I’ll give you some ideas and show you an example.
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When does donated money become less about helping others and more about trying to burnish your own image?
In Tuesday’s blog I mentioned that during 2011 Bank of America donated $24.6 million dollars to nonprofit organizations in California.
How do I know this?
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If your bank or credit union has a few million dollars of extra funds in your marketing budget (don’t you wish) or if your board of directors wants to make a monetary commitment of considerable size, you can follow the trend that many banks seem to be taking — buy the rights to have your company’s name on a sports arena or similar venue.
No, I’m not really serious about the investment, but I saw the makings of a trend when I read a news report in the local paper about the bank that won the naming rights to our new hometown arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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When a mega-bank is found guilty of misdeeds and is fined in the millions of dollars, who actually pays the fine?
“Wells Fargo donates for winter shelters” reads the big bold headline in the Tuesday edition of The Sacramento Bee. Reading the article I learn that the wonderful, giving folks at Wells Fargo recently donated $75,000 to cover a shortfall in one of Sacramento’s homeless shelter programs.
On the surface, this is good news for the growing population of homeless folks living in the Sacramento area.
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Let’s be honest here – thanks to technology going back to the advent of the ATM in the early 1970s, consumer banking has become more impersonal.
Today it is not uncommon to hear people brag that they no longer go to into their local branch except on a rare occasion.
Generally, more impersonal means less brand loyalty. Less brand loyalty means less share of wallet.
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“I feel like if this could happen with Chase, then this could happen with another bank, too.”
That quote comes from an article in the November 2011 issue of the AARP Bulletin, a tabloid-size newspaper. It’s a summary of the feelings the family featured in the news story has after Chase “accidentally” froze all their bank accounts.
While Chase corrected what it called “confusing communications” and reimbursed the family for overdraft fees, those actions happened only after local media and federal regulators got involved. No formal apology came from the bank in the month after the incident, the time when the story was initially written.
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Take credit where credit is due!
Whenever I encounter a media story about some anonymous donor donating a huge sum of money to a school, charity, or hospital, one of the first things that comes to mind is the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
This question comes to my mind as I wonder why this person, or company, this “tree,” wouldn’t want to get credit for such a wonderful deed.
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Last week, I wrote about two groups that pay attention to the good deeds (corporate halo) businesses do and how these deeds help influence where consumers take their business.
We encourage our clients to include a corporate halo story, especially on their prospecting mail pieces. You can also use posters, print ads, and other media.
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You’re always looking for the best ways to spend your marketing dollars, so finding a technique that appeals to and attracts multiple consumer categories to your offer is a bonus.
According to a marketing survey conducted by a Boston consulting group, Gen Y members are more aware of cause marketing than other generations.
Let’s define what that means. Generation Y, or Millennials, were born between 1983 and 2001. They’re the youngest generation that has been labeled as a shorthand for media and marketing references.
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About 100,000 passengers on US Airways Shuttle flights were treated to a free lunch thanks to an innovative advertising idea. It’s the kind of idea that gets noticed and doesn’t make consumers feel it’s an intrusion.
Snack boxes, with printed advertising messages, were distributed for a few weeks during the summer on shuttle flights between Boston, New York, and Washington. These routes were chosen because many passengers were high-income business professionals, who are the advertiser’s target audience. (Sounds like direct marketing’s targeted list selection.)
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When more than one group of marketers or departments are involved in a promotion, there can be a joust over how the promotional space of a mail piece or print ad is used.
One ACTON Marketing client is running a promotion to get more Facebook followers. A contingent in the company wanted to replace the corporate halo story in the mail promotion with an ad for the institution’s Facebook page.
I thought the answer I wrote as an email response might help you if you have a similar situation with two sides tugging on you for limited ad space. It can apply to all sorts of product promotions, not just the Facebook issue mentioned here.
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Silly me…I thought the recent housing crash had finally brought an end to reckless mortgage lending and careless borrowing. But, obviously I was wrong.
What changed my mind was a credit union ad appearing in last week’s edition of the local alternative newspaper. It was the headline that caught my attention and dragged me into the copy.
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In the middle of the busy holiday weekend I didn’t expect to see a banking ad in the newspaper, but some banks took an alternate approach including a Free Friday promotion.
Millions of Americans, including some of my co-workers and our client contacts, started the Memorial Day Weekend on Friday, May 27. So I expected the Sunday newspaper to be free of financial institution advertising. Instead, I found three ads from three different banks.
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Fans. It’s a problem all marketers would like to have. Consumers who are avid about the product. These fans not only buy the merchandise, they advocate for it. They wear logo apparel and buy logo collectibles and doodads. They follow companies and brands on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
A recent survey shows luxury brands reward this fan loyalty by ignoring their followers. Yet an Adweek article based on the report says the top 100 luxury brands still have an average of 1.5 million online fans compared to popular brand companies that average 365,000.
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Joe’s excellent blog yesterday about the client debate over the cost of a postcard versus that of a self-mailer brought to mind the old British saying about being “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
Years ago I lost track of the number of marketing meetings where the discussion focused on the upfront cost of one particular mail format over another while the cost that really matters was totally ignored.
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What are your plans to replace the handful of checking accounts that were closed last week at each of your branches?
If you work at a typical bank or credit union, every year you struggle in your ongoing efforts to replace the approximately 20% of checking customers who close their accounts. If your goal is to grow your checking base, the struggle is even more difficult.
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Generally, when we think of a corporate halo, what immediately comes to mind are activities like charitable donations, food drives during the holidays, employees donating their time in the community, scholarships, and local sponsorships. A majority of these outreach activities involve helping those less fortunate living in our communities.
There is an activity which you can add to your corporate halo which not only has a much broader reach, it attracts traffic to your branches, and it helps address a growing problem affecting millions of Americans.
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Some financial institutions think it’s beneath their dignity to participate in “frivolous” community events — events that show the organization cares about the community. But I can give you examples of other “straight-laced” institutions that prove you don’t need to put on a stern face for the public.
What sort of organization or business would have a more solemn, upright and proper image than banking? How about a hospital? Or a funeral home?
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