Do you wish your customers a happy birthday? It’s a chance to make a cross-sell offer and to strengthen the banking relationship with your bank customers or credit union members.
Obviously, your message shouldn’t be, “It’s your birthday, so open a new account.” No one appreciates such a blatant tactic.
So what should you do?
It’s been a standard rule of marketing for generations. I’ve made references to The Rule many times in my blog posts and when talking with clients. But is it time to revise The Rule, at least for financial services marketing?
I’m talking about the 40-40-20 Rule. You should know it well. It says every direct mail marketing promotion consists of… Read more…
As many of you faithful blog readers must know by now, I’m a bit skeptical about the virtues of cross-selling.
It has its purpose, it has its successful practitioners, and it has its success stories.
But it also has a long history of invoking the law of unintended consequences.
A direct marketing envelope package needs to grab attention between the mailbox and the kitchen table if it’s to get opened. Let’s examine a recent example of an envelope package that catches attention in a big way.
I really do mean big. The golden-brown colored envelope from The Mayo Clinic Health Letter is an oversize 14 x 9.75-inches. There’s little else in the daily mail that can compete with that look and size. My first thought when I saw the return address and the size was, “Are they sending me a set of x-rays?”
Today’s blog topic is about direct mail – the tangible paper marketing messages that continue arriving in your home mail box six days a week.
In spite of the rapid growth of email marketing and problems with the U.S. Postal Service, direct mail remains an extremely attractive and productive consumer marketing channel.
According to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2012 Response Rate Report, 4.4% is the average direct mail response rate versus a 0.12% rate for email marketing.
Have you ever given serious consideration about the need for cross-selling?
What does it really accomplish…if anything?
I suspect most bank and credit union customer-contact employees engage in cross-selling only after being urged or forced to do so by their managers.
Most people dislike selling or cross-selling. They hate the ongoing rejection that comes with selling. It’s tough to do well.
Have you ever thought about the answer to this question: Is there a perfect time to spend marketing dollars to grow your checking account base?
Or conversely, is there a perfect time when you shouldn’t spend marketing dollars trying to get more new checking account customers?
Apparently, most bankers have decided that now is the perfect time to avoid checking account campaigns. I’ve come to this conclusion because it’s been quite some time since I’ve encountered any meaningful marketing efforts focusing on attracting new checking customers. No newspaper ads, no billboards, no direct mail, no radio spots, no TV spots…nothing!
Now that the US Postal Service announced it will end Saturday delivery on August 1, all the predictors of doom (Mayans and non-Mayans) are crawling out of the woodwork.
I see electronic marketers rolling out the “direct mail is dead” bandwagon with shouts of joy as they advise advertisers to funnel all their ad budgets into (their) electronic media.
Let’s examine a few of these bogus arguments and see why you shouldn’t abandon anything.
Recently, I wrote about J Mail. It’s a plain white envelope with an apparent newspaper or magazine article badly torn from a periodical, with a handwritten note or a handwritten post-it note attached. You probably saw a sample of J Mail at some time, either at home or at the office.
As I often do in my blog posts, I was defining a well-known marketing technique that readers should know about. I’ve done the same by explaining the Johnson Box, lift letters, sidebars, copywriting techniques, and so on.
Lately, I’ve noticed two points about bank and credit union marketing.
I watch for financial institution print ads, direct mail, billboards, even outdoor banners and lesser media. That statement is no surprise if you’re a regular reader of this blog.
Here’s my first point. Banks and credit unions are advertising again. Remember what it was like just a few years ago? Advertising budgets were slashed. No institution wanted to advertise because of the financial crisis. News stories about the crisis hit the papers and broadcasts daily.
A few days ago, I wrote about an envelope package with a dime showing through the window. Today, I have more information about these coin-carrying promotions.
My original post about the March of Dimes solicitation that arrived early this month was titled, “Would a Financial Institution Give Away Real Money?” Before I answer that question, let’s examine the origin of these types of promotions.
The very first “Penny Mailing” came from Reader’s Digest as a way to turn prospects into new subscribers. Walter Weintz was the copywriter (and a recognized marketing master) who invented the brilliant, now often-copied technique. The magazine’s Penny Mailing first appeared in mailboxes in 1955.
It’s all about Popmoney.
Never heard of it? Neither had I.
It all started with an email marketing message that arrived in my inbox on Tuesday, November 20. This was my first touch-point.
And the proof that direct mail is still relevant arrived in the mail last Saturday. It was a simple postcard from my local credit union. It was my second touch-point.
Does your marketing strategy steal from one pocket to fill another?
I’ll approach the issue in terms of direct mail quantities, but the same principles apply to all your advertising.
1. Steal from one market and give to another. This typically happens when a new market opens or when one market is underperforming and needs a boost.
Do you plan to use a holiday shopping theme for your year-end promotions?
You see the same holiday themes all around you, even from unexpected businesses. The spa wants you to buy certificates as gifts. The pet store tells you to think of your “other” family members and put chew toys under the tree. The supermarket reminds you it has everything for your holiday celebrations.
But when people think of a bank or credit union, do they think of holiday shopping?
Even community banks and credit unions find they have branches that don’t open the expected number of new accounts. The numbers of customers/members who use the branch fall below expectations. Staff and resources are underutilized.
Bigger financial institutions almost certainly have branches like those described.
The other day while paging through one of the several neighborhood newspapers distributed in the greater Sacramento area, I came across a most unusual FSI or “free standing insert.”
Before the Internet, small FSIs were common in the local newspaper. They were used by both national and local businesses to reach a large audience. One reason for using them is that they could be selectively inserted by geographic area – even at the city level.
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.
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.
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.
One of the many things I enjoy about direct mail is the occasional surprise found in my mail box.
Two weeks ago we had the seven fruit trees in our side yard trimmed by a nationwide tree company with an office in Sacramento. My spouse had been hounding me about getting them trimmed for over 15 years. Yes, they were quite tall and bushy.
I finally gave in.
