Advertising & Promotion Archives - Page 17 of 19

The CEO Spokesperson

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 10, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Email Marketing

You may have noticed the new Chrysler ads using former CEO Lee Iacocca. The company revived the 1980s ad campaign because it was so effective at the time. However, it takes an especially charismatic company leader to make a television pitch pay off. However, through email, all it takes is a good copywriter, a striking graphic or two, and an interesting message.

You have to be careful not to overuse this technique, but once a year or so, an email from the CEO/President could be an effective relationship-builder and marketing technique.

For example, today we received a message from the CEO of Network Solutions, the original domain-name registrar (click on the inset for a closeup). We’ve received hundreds of message from the company over the years, but don’t recall one from the CEO before. It got our attention and we looked at it long enough to determine it was selling services we weren’t interested in.

But the first goal of direct marketing is to gain attention, and this technique is a sure-fire method to do that.

—JB

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Loan Landing Page Design

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 28, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Forms & Loan Applications, Loans & Credit

Over the next few months, we will take a long look at the marketing of loans and credit lines online. The information will be summarized and analyzed in an Online Banking Report scheduled to be published in fourth quarter. However, as we find interesting examples, we’ll report them here first, along with links to the live sites.

The first example is a good one from HomeLoanCenter.com. We ran a search on Google for "home equity Washington DC." One of the two AdWords banners on the top (click on inset for a closeup) was titled "DC Home Equity."

Clicking on the link took us to the lender’s landing page (click on inset for closeup). Although, the page doesn’t reinforce the geographic element of our search, it otherwise does an excellent job in reassuring the user and leading them into the application process.

Along the left side are three important elements:

Third-party endorsement from CNBC
3-point "what happens next" instructions
Customer testimonials

The middle of the page includes a toll-free phone number, several brief benefits, and a prominent Start Here to begin the application process. Prospects are only asked to provide a few key data points:

name/email/phone
state
home value/mortgage balance/desired borrowing
self-evaluation of payment history from a drop-down list

The page contains virtually no clickable links. Other than the prominent Submit button, the only links offered are in fine print at the bottom (About Us, Contact Us, Business Hours, Our Guarantees, Tools & Resources, Privacy Policy). This is a good trade-off. You don’t want to lose loan prospects by distracting them with navigation choices, but you want to give those that need more information an outlet.

Overall score: A

—JB

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American Express Builds City Brands

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 22, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, American Express, Channel Integration, Credit/Debit Cards

Financial institutions have done amazing things with their websites since Bank of America launched the first major commercial banking site 11 years ago (Sept. 1994). However, other than single-market credit unions and community banks, there hasn’t been much attention paid to localizing the content to appeal to more narrow geographic segments, for example the customers in a single city or neighborhood.

Beginning a year ago, American Express began a campaign to bring specialized city-based cards to major metro areas. The cards are intended for the 25-to-35 year-old hip urbanites. The card design, marketing, and rewards all cater to the dining out, clubbing, and museum-going single scene.

The first card, IN:NYC <innyc.com> launched a year ago (30 Sep 2004) and was discussed in a front-page WSJ article today. The company won’t disclose any results, but did say that 90% of its customers have not previously owned an American Express card, an important statistic for a company worried about cannibalizing its other products.

The IN:NYC card has its own look, website, and rewards program focusing on unique beyond-the-velvet-rope experiences in local clubs and eateries. In an interesting viral marketing strategy, friends are able to pool points in order to qualify for bigger rewards, such as a VIP table in a hot club.

The key cardmember benefits include:

0% Introductory APR for 6 months on purchases and balance transfers
No annual fee
Option to carry a balance
One INSIDE Rewards point for every dollar spent
INSIDE Double points on City Essentials

The second city card was launched this month (19 Sep 2005) in Chicago. The IN:Chicago website is still a static billboard (see inset). Another card is in the works for Los Angeles, IN:LA, which is expected to launch later this year, although the company has yet to secure the rights to the website, inla.com.

Action Items
Many large banks alter their website content by state. However, the customization generally does not extend beyond minor pricing differences.

To better compete with local institutions, banks should use their websites to deliver highly-customized geographic content. Event calendars, discounts, and other local event marketing could create better brand recognition and more word-of-mouth advertising opportunities. It would also give local branch staff more ownership of "their" website. Banks could use an easily remembered URL such as <ny.wamu.com> to house their local versions.

—JB

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Improving Your Bank’s Desktop Marketing Presence with Widgets

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 16, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Desktop Presence

It’s been three years since our last report on improving your bank’s visibility on the PC desktop (Grabbing Desktop Mindshare, OBR 85). Back then, Google and eBay had just launched toolbars and we were advising banks to improve their desktop positioning through buttons, bars, and various browser plug-ins.

While there’s been less progress than we anticipated, several new services this year demonstrate the potential:

Southwest Airlines Ding service embodies much of what we envisioned
Billeo’s toolbar raised the bar (pun intended), in the bill payment arena
Apple’s widgets in its new OS X

If you are looking for inspiration, check out Yahoo’s Konfabulator, a program that lets Windows and Mac users add spiffy utilities to their PC desktop, such as a calendar or system performance monitor.

There are several widgets of interest to bankers. Two savings meters (see above and right) allow users to track progress towards savings goals. This would be a good way to support and add value to your deposit accounts.

—JB

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Marketing Bank Accounts to Students

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 29, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion

Although the profitability is marginal due to low balances and frequent transactions, we subscribe to the conventional wisdom that it is worth going after college student accounts for three reasons (in order of importance):

1. Cross-selling to the parents
2. Student loans and other credit products
3. Future business from the graduate

While your branches may want to use point-of-sale material targeted student traffic, online promotions should be pitched at parents who will likely make the banking decisions for incoming freshman.

To test our theories, we took a spin around the web to see assess the state of back-to-school bank marketing. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly of what we found.

Top 25 Banks
We took a look at the 25 largest U.S. retail banks, and surprisingly only Bank of America had a prominent promotion. Wells Fargo had a small banner running for student loans and Key Bank and M&T Bank each had text links to a student banking offer. The other 21, showed no special student banking copy or graphics on their homepages.

1. Bank of America www.bankamerica.com

Bank of America’s homepage (see inset), devotes most of its promotional real estate to a student banking promotion. The picture grabs your attention and the Learn More links drops visitors onto a landing page that does a good job selling the account benefits.

Grade: A

2. Wells Fargo www.wellsfargo.com

Wells Fargo doesn’t put near the emphasis on student banking as does Bank America. Instead, the bank uses one of its two small banners in the lower right to sell student loans (see inset). However, the banner is rotated with several other promotions, so it’s not always visible.

The graphic image isn’t particularly attractive, but the copy, Which Student Loan is Right for You? and Use our loan selector are good draws. However, upon clicking, users are forced into a selector tool with no option for general information first.

Grades:
B+ for the promotional graphics
C- for the landing page

3. Key Bank www.keybank.com

Key Bank uses its Highlights box in the lower right to promote student checking (click on inset for closeup). With many users trained to ignore banners, this is an excellent way to gain attention. After clicking through, the landing page does a good job of selling account benefits, although the initial headline about its ATM rebates, Get up to $6* back each month, strikes us as a confusing way to start things off. It would be more effective to highlight the key benefit, FREE, right at the outset.

Grades:
A for the homepage promotion
A- for the landing page

4. M & T Bank www.mandtbank.com

M&T’s approach is similar to Key Bank’s, a text link on the right of the homepage (see inset). It’s not quite as effective because the copy just floats on the page, there is no box to draw the eye to it. But with a relatively sparse homepage, the promotion should get noticed. The promised bonus should also improve click-throughs. However, the landing page needs to be reworked. Not only is there no mention of the promised free gift, there are too many navigational choices and no clear path for the user.

Grades:
B for homepage promotion
C for landing page

Outside the Top 25
Since we weren’t overly inspired by what we saw at the big banks, we decided to dig deeper in search of the ultimate back-to-school offer. Here’s what we found:

1. Tennessee State Bank www.tnstatebank.com

After a Google or two we ended up at Tennessee State Bank, a $480-million asset bank headquartered in Pigeon Forge, TN. The bank’s homepage (click on inset) is dominated by a back-to-school promotion with a picture of its checkbook cover in the foreground with textbooks, a tennis ball, and maybe an adding machine in the background.

Not a great photo, but acceptable.

However, the copy is terrible.

Textbooks, Folders, Pens, Pencils,

Floppy Disks and…

a FREE CHECKING account from

Tennessee State Bank!

The free checking will get the attention of parents, but folders and floppy disks? That’s so 1990s. How about laptops, cell phones, or DVD players? Better yet, remember the medium. How about instant online transfers, free online banking, and 24/7 online service?

One final note: There is no hyperlink with the promotion. Neither the headline, photo or copy are clickable to another area to signup or even learn more.

Grades:
A for timeliness
D for execution

Update 9/1/05:

National City added a small banner on the right promoting free student checking accounts.
Citizens Bank (Royal Bank) is running a medium-sized banner in the lower portion of its homepage for student loans

—JB

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Netbank Wallflowers Concert Promotion

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 18, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, NetBank

Maybe I’m biased as a fan, but I think Netbank’s Concert Connection, sponsoring a free Wallflowers concert, is a great stunt. Especially if the bank can leverage it to gain exposure in more than just the Austin market.

Here’s the offer (click on inset below to see landing page): Customer’s who plunk down $500 into a new checking account, or $1500 into a CD or Money Market, get two free tickets to a private Wallflowers show in Austin, TX on Sept. 17. The money must be kept on deposit for at least 90 days or the bank will deduct $85 to cover the tickets.

The bank’s press release says it will be promoting the offer with a mobile vehicle along with billboards, print and radio ads. The concert venue holds 5,000, so Netbank can use the offer to attract a maximum of 2500 new accounts.

Analysis
This is an expensive promotion for a single market, with the concert alone cost an estimated $100,000 or more, not to mention the cost of promoting it in the Austin market. It might make more sense to sponsor an entire Wallflowers tour, providing tickets to new Netbank customers around the country. That would be even more costly, but would guarantee broad exposure to the offer.

Yet, we still like the Austin promotion for several reasons:
1. Free publicity: There’s nothing like a free event to garner media exposure.
2. Lasting brand impression: Unlike other media campaigns, this event should provide a more lasting brand impression, especially with the 25-35 crowd attracted to this music.
3. Dylan connection: The Wallflowers, led by lead singer Jakob Dylan, son of rock legend Bob Dylan, is an especially good choice for this promotion. Along with its younger fan base, the band will also attract attention from an older crowd that might drop $1500 into a CD to see if Jakob can carry on dad’s legacy.
4. Concert tie-ins: Even though the event is primarily oriented to Austin-area consumers, it will pull in business from Wallflowers fans all over Texas. But to reach beyond Texas, Netbank should consider negotiating rights to offer the concert as a free download for all its customers. Other tie-ins with merchandise, fan clubs, and so on are also possible.

The downsides:
1. Demographic mis-match: Alt-rock fans aren’t usually old enough or wealthy enough to be parking big cash piles in a bank. Many will deposit the bare minimum and pull it out after 90 days or when their CD matures.
2. High acquisition cost: As you can see by the mini-business case below, the acquisition costs are hefty. Assuming Netbank ends up with 500 new accounts that remain open after the 90-day minimum, the cost per new account is $2000 or more.
3. Extra customer service load: The first law of marketing applies here: for every customer delighted with your offer, another is mad because they missed out on it for some reason. We can already see brewing discontent on the Wallflowers bulletin board from rabid fans that don’t have the extra cash to plunk down into Netbank to earn the tickets (we have one word of advice for them: eBay). Also, there can always be headaches when third parties are involved. As we were researching this article, we noticed that the ticket fulfillment site, Tickets.com, was not functioning properly. We were able to download two Wallflower tickets without fulfilling the offer requirements. We notified Netbank right away who will likely have it fixed within hours. Now if we could only find a business reason to be in Austin on Sept. 17….

Back-of-the-envelope business case:
Cost = $150,000
$100,000 for the concert + $50,0000 out of pocket promotional expenses (assumes radio exposure is bartered for with free tickets)

Accounts generated initially: 1500 x $2000 average deposit = $3 million in deposits worth $30,000 to $60,000 per year assuming a 1% to 2% spread (will depend on deposit mix)

Long-term accounts generated: 750 assuming a 50% fallout after the first year

Acquisition cost: $150,000/750 = $2000 per long-term account

—JB

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Weird Offline Bank Promotions

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 28, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion

The title of this article Weird Offline Promotions, is not meant to be a negative. Weird marketing can be effective if it helps people remember your product in a positive light.

For online banking, it can be difficult to create offline promotions that drive people to your website. ING Direct is one company that has pulled it off. Both with their offline cafes in four U.S. cities and their innovative promotions blitzes when they kick off a city-wide awareness campaign. For example, in Washington D.C. they showed up one day at the Metro subway and paid for everyone’s morning commute. It was expensive, but the publicity was enormous.

New Ideas

Here’s one we’d never thought of, free parking for your clients. Apparently Lexus dealers in Georgia and southern Florida have pooled their money and arranged for the first 200 Lexus drivers to get preferred parking at Atlanta’s Turner Field and Sunrise, Florida’s Office Depot Center. Drivers still pay the going rate, but get the best spots. (Reference: BusinessWeek, July 18, 2005, p. 16). It may make more sense for a car dealer than an online bank, but you could tie it in to your auto lending program or some other VIP program.
Another auto-related effort that’s been going on for several years is HSBC’s Bank Cab promotion in New York City (click on thumbnail below to see an archived copy of the HSBC Bank Cab website from May 2004). In 2003 and 2004 the bank sponsored several promotions that included two distinct red-and-white Checker cabs that roamed NYC providing free rides to HSBC customers who could present a current HSBC ATM card. Again, there isn’t a direct correlation to online banking, but your ad agency could probably think of some good ideas along the lines of convenience (easy banking, easy rides) or free rides (free rides, free online bill pay), and so on.

We’ll continue this discussion in future articles.

—JB

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1.4 billion More Credit Card Mailers Hit the Recycle Bin

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 26, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Credit/Debit Cards, Metrics & Market Research

Some bad habits are harder to kick than others. In banking, the preapproved credit card mailing is apparently as addictive as nicotine. How else can you explain the record 1.4 billion solicitations mailed in Q1 2005 according to researcher Synovate? (">see previous article on 2004 mail volumes)

We can't speak for the economics of the recent mailings. On a macro level, things are going pretty well. Other than the sub-prime specialists, most credit card companies have weathered the economic slowdown of the past years admirably. However, we still think the online channel is vastly underused as a credit marketing vehicle.

Analysis
First, we'll crunch some numbers to compare traditional direct mail (DM) to online marketing (OM):

***DM***
1.5 billion pieces times $1 per piece = $1.5 billion in marketing
Fraud = 0.04% x 1.5 billion = 60,000 bad accounts x $2500 = $150 million
Teaser rate = 3% subsidy x $1.2 billion outstanding = $360,000 million
Total cost of program = $2 billion

===> Response = 0.4% times 1.5 billion = 600,000 good accounts

DM acquisition cost = $333 per good account

***OM***
30 million online banking households x $5 for 90-days of online credit offers = $150 million
Teaser rate = none
Fraud = 0.04% x 30 million = 12,000 bad accounts x $2500 = $30 million
Total cost of program = $180 million

===> Response = 30 million x 2% = 600,000 accounts

OM acquisition cost = $30 per good account

Implications
Depending on a multitude of factors, a credit card issuer can still make an account costing $333 profitable over its lifetime, but it's not going to be easy, especially with costly rewards programs demanded by most good customers these days.

Why not divert some of the direct mail budget to online marketing programs that eliminate the paper from the equation?

Every credit-worthy online banking customer should have preapproved credit available to them at all times. And it should be very visible when they are conducting activities that could indicate a potential need for extra cash, such as paying bills.

Alternatively, preapproved offers could be timed to appear at login when account balances dip below historical levels indicating potential cash flow difficulties for the consumer.

The beauty of this approach is that it's more about timing than price. Consumers needing $500 for the orthodontist today will be more concerned about a fast, convenient advance rather than playing the field to bag a 0% teaser rate and/or maximum rewards points.

The twin benefits of online credit marketing:

lower marketing expenses
less dependency on teaser rates and rewards programs

For an extended discussion of online credit card and loan originations, see:

Online Banking Report subscribers will receive updates to these reports this fall.

— JB

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Making Saving a (Grocery) Game

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 20, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs

Last year the savings rate in the U.S. dropped to 1.3% of disposable income (personal income less taxes), slightly lower than 2003’s 1.4%, and the lowest since the depression (1934). This is far below the 10% or higher level that most personal finance experts recommend. The last time the U.S. as a whole saved 10% was 1984, and that was no anomaly. In the 15-year period from 1971 to 1985, the U.S. saving rate dipped below 9% on only one occasion (8.7% in 1977). Even without considering inflation, the total amount saved during 2003 and 2004, $113 billion/year, was the lowest total since 1974. (Source: U.S. Commerce Dept: Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Banks are in a great position to help improve this situation by making savings easier and more interesting. Online services can be used to automate saving and provide continual detailed feedback. In next month’s Online Banking Report (#120), we’ll outline a number of techniques.

One of the more novel approaches is to help coupon-clippers organize their assault on the grocery store by automating the process with online tools, tips, and links. Then as your customers chalk up savings at the grocery store, encourage them to deposit all or part of the windfall in a bank savings account. The growing balance will provide positive feedback for the disciplined approach to shopping.

For inspiration, take a look at one of the more established coupon services called The Grocery Game. The Southern California-based online service provides a weekly list of advertised and unadvertised grocery specials married to a database of recently published coupons. The end result is an editable list of major grocery bargains priced at a 40% to 70% discount from retail (click on inset to see a sample).

The company’s stated goal is to save a family of four $1000 off their grocery bill during the first 12 weeks. Cost is $10 every eight weeks, after a $1 four-week trial.

The Grocery Game says it has 30,000 users in 43 states. Other sites with similar services include, Cairo, ShopLocal, Puget Sound Grocery Guide (Seattle), and Coupon Queen (Cleveland).

Financial Institution Opportunities
Banks could leverage The Grocery Game in several ways:

By simply linking directly to the service
By explaining the strategy with articles and advice, but not producing weekly shopping lists
By partnering with The Grocery Game or others to produce a co-branded or private-branded version at the bank’s website
By creating a simpler version in-house: After the initial programming, we estimate it would take only a few hours per week to enter the data from the grocery circulars and match it with items from the coupon database

But unlike The Grocery Game, which has no ongoing tracking mechanism, banks would want to program an area for user’s to document their grocery savings, and designate a portion of the grocery savings be deposited into a bank savings account.

To encourage continued participation in "The Savings Game," customers could be rewarded with, what else, free groceries, when they hit savings milestones. Or rewards could be more interesting such as meals out or household items, something that would appeal to the coupon-clipping demographic.

For more info on The Grocery Game:

—JB

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eBay Motors’ FOR SALE Sign Direct Mail

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 13, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Ebay, Loans & Credit

Looking for a way to boost your market share in direct vehicle lending? Consider setting up an online used car emporium either using eBay as the transactional platform (recommended) or programming the site yourself.

Even though you could do it yourself, it would be difficult to match the auction giant’s powerful set of FREE buyer protections including (click on inset) including:

Purchase Protection: Reimburses up to $20,000 for fraud and material misrepresentation after a $100 deductible
30-day, 1000-mile Service Agreement: Provides a 30-day warranty on major breakdowns on most cars under nine years old after $500 deductible
Ebay Feedback Rating: Prospective buyers can review the seller’s track record via the eBay feedback system

In addition, users can review the vehicle’s history by searching Experian VIN # records via an online link. Cost is $7.99 for a single VIN # search, or $14.99 for up to 10 searches. Finally, buyers can order a pre-purchase inspection of the vehicle for $100.

Financial Institution Opportunities
Here’s how a financial institution virtual vehicle site could work:

Using eBay programming tools (eg. APIs), create a website that aggregates local vehicles listed on eBay.
Buyers would handle the transaction through normal eBay channels, but you would have the first chance to make the loan. In order to maximize the returns, it’s recommended that you allow buyers to make purchases from anyone. As you’ll see later, the eBay fraud protection programs mitigate much of your risk in making "person-to-person" auto loans.
To further boost volume, consider helping sellers market their vehicles in any of the following ways:

create downloadable FOR SALE signs complete with purchase details and/or referring potential buyers to the online auction (see inset for a version recently distributed by eBay in a direct mail program)
provide a customizable template for users to create their online auto listing
integrate customer listings with your own inventory of repossessed autos for sale
provide "incentive financing" programs that sellers could use
offer a wide variety of loan options for cars sold through the site

Analysis
The virtual auto emporium would have several marketing and promotional benefits:

Creates interest and publicity about your website
Drives traffic to your lending area
Increases vehicle loan volume
Creates an interesting program that could be featured in website, statement, and direct marketing campaigns (see eBay DM samples below)

Addendum: Ebay Direct Mail
Here are close-up views of the recent eBay direct mail received in early July. We may have been targeted due to recent activity, our second eBay Motors vehicle purchase.

This 9×12 inch cardboard sign looks very similar to a sign you might purchase at the local drugstore to stick inside the window to advertise a car for sale. The FOR SALE is in bright orange and includes references to the FREE $20,000 purchase protection and FREE 1,000 mile service agreement (not visible in this scan).

This eBay version is intended to be displayed within the car and highlights the eBay listing number for more information. The back of the sign (click on the image below for a close-up), lists the features and benefits of selling your car through the auction site. It also includes an offer to return the $40 listing fee if the vehicle doesn’t sell. Sellers also pay a $40 flat transaction fee ($80 in total) if the vehicle sells.

—JB

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Holiday Bank Marketing – Fourth of July

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 2, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Strategies

Before we head out for the long holiday weekend, we took a quick tour of the top 50 U.S. consumer banks and found only a handful taking advantage of Independence Day to give their website a patriotic theme.

Washington Mutual was the only mega-bank using the 4th of July in a homepage promotion, a clever "Home of the Free" pitch for its free checking account (click on the inset to view screenshot).

Other banks with patriotic window dressing included: Hudson City Bank, MBNA, USAA, and Zions Bank (click on thumbnails below to see full screenshot).

Analysis
For U.S. banks, there couldn’t be a better holiday to associate with, "banking, apple pie, and the Fourth of July." As we mentioned in our original holiday marketing post, we think it shows savvy on your part to tweak your design around the holidays. However, it doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. Just flying the flag, like ING Direct, shows you are actively managing your online presence.

Want more ideas for your holiday marketing? Check out the Interactive Financial Marketing Database from our sister publication, the Online Banking Report.

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Debunking Search Marketing Myths in Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on June 30, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Metrics & Market Research, Search Engine Marketing

Contributed by Mike Bailey, Compete, Inc.

Every day millions of consumers use the internet to search for new deposit accounts, loans, and credit cards. As a financial marketer you understand connecting to the growing online demand for financial products and services is a competitive necessity.

But what is the most effective way to understand and even predict how a potential customer thinks and behaves online? What search strategies will be most effective to allow you to tap into an online community of potential customers?

To find the answers, Yahoo! Search Marketing sponsored a study, conducted by Compete, Inc., a predictive analytics firm specializing in the financial services industry. The results provide some surprising insights that can dramatically influence your success in attracting and retaining customers.

First let’s look at two of the search “myths” we uncovered:

Myth #1 – People searching for credit online are not good prospects

The first thing we discovered is that consumers who use search to research deposit, loan and credit card products are affluent, have great credit and have a higher likelihood of applying for the products they have searched for than consumers who use other channels for their research. With 49% having an average annual income of more than $60,000, these prospects are 67% more likely to start an application than a typical online shopper and loan searchers are 59% more likely to apply.

Myth #2 – Brand names are not relevant in search marketing because those searching for specific banking institutions must already be customers there

As it turns out, searchers who type in a specific retail bank name are not just looking to log in to their existing accounts. A full 30% are potential new customers researching new accounts. And of those 30%, about 80% are looking for an alternative financial institution. So in search marketing, your brand and the terms associated with it provide three opportunities:

Service your own customers
Acquire new customers looking for specific services
Access competitors’ customers

Most financial institutions have worked hard and spent marketing dollars to build a brand with positive and credible attributes. The good news, as our study shows, is that consumers looking for deposit and loan services hold brands in high regard. Consumers searching for particular brands make more than two-thirds of the search-generated deposit applications in a typical month. And a hefty 80% of credit card shoppers start their online searches with brand names, including the highly advertised brand names that you would expect, as well as partner and affinity cards, such as “air miles card.”

So how do you achieve better results with your online marketing? We recommend three strategies:

Establish a balanced portfolio of terms. We have seen that deposit and loan searchers balance the types of terms they use. Credit card searchers, on the other hand, are inclined to research brand-related terms, including partner cards and affinity relationships. As a marketer you will need to adjust your portfolio of keywords and terms to make sure you have as broad access as possible to all potential customers.
Leverage brand terms to attract deposit customers. Consumers who look online for major retail bank brands are most interested in deposits and cards and least interested in loans. Create copy that reflects this insight and tailor your incentives toward what your customers want.
Measure and reflect offline conversions in search marketing ROI calculations. Without measurement how will you know how effective your efforts are and how to make adjustments? At least 50% of conversion volume occurs offline at a branch or call center, but the bank, product or service was researched online first – so tie your offline transactions to search.

Online search is a powerful consumer tool allowing people to easily find the information they need to make decisions about banking and financial products. As a marketer, make sure to do the research and analysis so you can create the most effective multi-channel and measurable marketing programs.

Mike Bailey is Managing Director of the Financial Services Practice at Compete, Inc., headquartered in Boston

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