Logging out from my Bank of America credit card account (both personal and business accounts), I was greeted with this pitch for the bank’s small business community (see first screenshot). The pitch is straightforward and emphasizes three benefits:
- Get answers to your business questions
- Exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs
- Free
Clicking the red Join Today button drops users onto the Forums page at the small business site (see second screenshot).
Bottom line: The logout effort is a good brand-building exercise for Bank of America, and it should drive much-needed traffic to the site. According to Compete (see chart below), in August the small business community site had an estimated 70,000 unique visitors, two-thirds more than the 40,000 a year ago. But traffic was down almost a third from the springtime peak.
Bank of America logout screen (23 Sep 2009, 4 PM Pacific)
Landing page (link)
Compete traffic estimates, Aug 2008 through Aug 2009 (link)
