Chase Bank is aggressively pushing its latest small biz initiative, Instant Storefront, billed as a way for old-school “9 to 5” businesses to sell online 24/7. Here’s where I ran across it last week:
- A radio ad a few days ago (in Seattle)
- Full-page ad in the San Francisco Business Times (p. 24 of March 25-31 issue)
- On the main account management page within online banking
- Small ad on Chase’s business banking public page today (see last screenshot, note 1)
- Email yesterday offering a $100 bonus to give it a try (see first screenshot, note 2).
The email is short and sweet with a good subject line and appealing design. The green button leads to a landing page with more info (second screenshot). The page includes an old-school, and very effective lead-gen technique, offering to email the $100 coupon to interested visitors (third screenshot).
The cost is $30 per month, and the bank throws in a $350 POS terminal and waives $150 in startup fees for new Chase Paymentech merchant customers.
To redeem the offer, customers must visit with a business banking specialist in a Chase Branch. Ecommerce website development seems like a bit of a stretch for a business banker to be conversant with, but hopefully it’s very turn-key. And I like how the service positions Chase as an online partner to small biz, so it may be a brilliant branding tool.
Using a browser with cookies removed (note 1), I don’t see any mention of the new service on Chase’s website and searching for “storefront” in its site search returns nothing (note 3). So Instant Storefront may be a western market test.
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Chase Bank email to business customers about Instant Storefront (30 March 2011)
Landing page for Instant Storefront (link)
Lead-gen page where users enter their email address to get the $100 coupon
Chase public business banking site (with Washington state customer cookie)
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Notes:
1. The ad appears only on the browser I use to access my Chase account. On browser with cookies disabled, I do not see the Instant Storefront ad.
2. The print and radio ads also offer the $100 bonus.
3. The bank uses the URL: chase.com/storefront in its radio ad.
4. For more info, see Online Banking Report: Micro- and Small Business Online Banking (published Oct. 2009)