3 Trends in Bank Marketing from the ABA Conference
Posted on Mon, Oct 03, 2011 @ 01:43 PM
Two weeks ago, I joined bank marketing executives and agency partners for the annual American Bankers Association Marketing Conference in Baltimore. Presenters discussed more effective online programs, rolling out mobile projects and the bulls eye of ROI - growing customer profitability through retention and cross-sell initiatives. Here's my take on the top three trends...
#1 - It's the Right Time for Real-Time Services
It's no surprise that attendees talked about the boom in web, social media and mobile marketing. However the desire for a killer-looking Facebook page was not as important as measuring and increasing ROI from all online interactions with customers. Banks are looking for ways to identify best prospects for a specific product - from among the flood of web leads or site traffic. Marketing managers want to target customers intelligently and deliver relevant offers immediately. Real-time web services are an absolute must now. At Tranzact Information Services (TIS) we offer a real-time services suite, which can be used to append estimated credit score (TIS' Risk Insight) to web visitor or to create a customer profile. Using this profile information banks can offer financial products to those most likely to qualify. We've created several other scores that also work well in real-time, including Risk Insight, Wealth Insight, and Spending Insight. Plus TIS can append demographics, auto make/model, auto loan status, and property information in sub-second time. Research has shown that better targeting through real-time offer optimization, can increase response and ROI.
#2 - How to Increase Analysis but Reduce Analytic Expense
Bankers love "profitability" (as you would expect.) However the analytic cost to understand customer profiles and profitable behavior can chew up budget. Most bank marketers were surprised to learn that TIS will conduct analytics activities at low cost, as part of a larger marketing strategy. With our abundance of data, we can profile customers and uncover profitable opportunities.
#3 - Tools to Cut Attrition and Build Revenue
It was no surprise that Regional Banks are in the market for a strong retention and cross-sell program, at a reasonable cost. Along with our channel and advertising partners we presented Loyalty Assurance to several organizations. With our Loyalty Assurance product TIS hosts the bank's customer base and watches for customers' activity across all three credit bureaus. On a daily basis, TIS sends a file to the bank or marketing partner, with a list of which customers applied for an auto loan, mortgage, credit card, insurance or installment loan - with a competitor. We offer a no-cost analysis to see how many customers applied for loans in the last 30 days. This free offer was very popular at the show. Plus it uncovers a powerful way to cross-sell and retain customers.
Always Learning
As a final comment, we learned quite about the ABA's own educational initiatives. Its programs are first rate for building skills and relationships. Smarter marketers help their organizations grow faster.
How can you leverage the ideas in this article or other insights from the ABA show? Give me a call at 1-800-488-9113. I'd like to talk to you about the top trends in bank marketing. Or post a comment. We'd like to hear your takeaways from the recent event.