Why Have a Bank or Credit Union Marketing Plan?
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Why Have a Bank or Credit Union Marketing Plan?
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail – John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach.”
It’s crucial to prepare and have the right plan if you want to be successful. This is especially important for bank marketing strategies, which can be a challenge for any type of bank or credit union.
For example, the industry is becoming more competitive with new players like Robo advisors including Betterment, and online brokerage firms such as Charles Schwab, that also offer banking services. Besides that, you must walk the fine line between being compliant and engaging your prospects.
Due to Covid-19, people are spending more time online, which makes having a marketing plan that incorporates digital marketing strategies imperative for reaching your business goals.
Establishing a solid bank marketing plan template can include various methods like content marketing, SEO, PPC ads, email automation, direct mail, and more. Before you start with these methods, be sure, to begin with, the end in mind. This means creating quantifiable goals for your bank or credit union. A simple example could be to increase digital deposits by 10% by the end of 2022.
From there, you’d drill down into your ideal customers to target. Knowing your ideal customers will help you develop effective marketing content that will have the relevant tones, voices, color schemes, and other important details. For example, a municipal bond ad that is meant for retirees would look completely different than a brochure enticing millennials to refinance their student loans.
You can also categorize goals into the short and long term. One tool that will help any bank or credit union marketing plan is the SMART acronym. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. A SMART goal could be “increase mortgage refinances by 15% among current mortgage customers in 2 years.”
Many novice bank marketers might be tempted to try everything and anything to achieve their business goals. However, this can lead to wasting time, money, and even burnout. It can be tempting to throw money into a strategy like PPC marketing (think Google or Facebook ads) without having a larger goal in mind. This can also be harmful if you don’t know the fundamentals behind each marketing strategy.
To have a real bank or credit union marketing plan, you must measure the results from each marketing strategy. Content marketing, which can include writing blog posts, can be helpful if you track the results. You can use analytics tools like Google Analytics to see what website pages your audience visits the most.
Besides Google Analytics, you can also use Ubersuggest to see trending keywords that might apply to your audience. From there, you can use these tools in tandem to create engaging content that draws targeted traffic to your site and solves their problems.
Per famous author, Simon Sinek, start with why. Knowing your why will let you see the big picture of your bank marketing plan.
One important aspect of this is your mission statement. The mission statement describes what your company is, how your company does it, and the why behind it.
Ameris Bank’s mission statement is “To be a major financial service provider through empowered employees creating a positive community impact and delivering a competitive shareholder return.” It describes what Ameris is, how it does it, and the why.
Like the mission statement, your company’s values are key to a successful marketing plan. Some values could include transparency, affordability, community, punctuality, etc. This can help you create marketing materials that express these values.