Did Your Marketing Department Approve That?

How to Leverage Your Monthly Statements for Marketing

You might not think too much about the monthly banking statements you send to your customers on a regular basis. Statements are straightforward documents, after all. But take a second to look at one and ask yourself these questions: Is it aesthetically appealing? Is it consistent with your brand? Does it serve any marketing purpose?

Most banks think of statements as being strictly transactional. But they’re one of the few communications your customers will expect to receive and read on a regular basis. Unlike emails or digital ads, statements aren’t perceived as promotional, which means your messaging has a better chance of getting through to the customer.

Chances are, you’ve outsourced your statements to a core provider such as Fiserv, Jack Henry, or FIS. It’s also likely that they send the statements directly to your customers. You’re not the only one operating like this—many financial institutions do the same. The problem with this system is that statements are one of the most consistent customer touchpoints, and if you’re not leveraging this to your advantage, you’re missing out.

If your statements feel outdated, colorless, and impersonal, then it’s time to evolve and turn your monthly statements into strategic marketing tools that increase customer engagement and promote your bank’s brand. Having your operations and marketing teams collaborate on statements might seem daunting, but it will pay dividends down the road.

Templates vs. Custom Branded Statements

Banking core providers use templates to improve efficiency. They are not, however, designed for engagement. Statement composition isn’t at the core of what core banking providers do. Statement templates from core providers often have the following characteristics:

• Grayscale color scheme and small fonts
• No visual hierarchy, which makes it difficult to locate information or skim
• A lack of branding, logos, or colors
• No promotional banners or offers

This might not matter as far as complying with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), but it matters if you want to elevate customer experience. And it certainly doesn’t support your marketing goals. When your statement looks like every other bank’s statement, you’re missing an opportunity to customize, personalize, and connect.

A custom-branded statement design gives you more than just a sleeker, more pleasing visual layout. It transforms your statements into marketing tools that promote your brand, products, and provide your customers with positive and helpful interactions on a regular basis.

Why Statements Are Prime Marketing Real Estate

Most of your customers likely receive a bank statement every month. Depending on how many accounts they have with your financial institution, they may receive additional monthly statements, quarterly statements, and year-end tax statements. Customers may receive printed statements in the mail or digital statements by email or online banking. Many of your customers will consistently read, review, and even file these statements. Even if they never open a printed statement received in their mailbox, even the outside of the envelope itself can be used for branding or marketing promotion.

So why do financial marketers allow these valuable touchpoints to be owned by some other department?

Redesigning your statements ensures that your customers don’t miss important information, product promotions, and brand messaging. It can also do the following:

• Increase engagement with digital banking tools
• Make calls-to-action more prominent and effective
• Reduce call center volume

By rethinking your statement design and incorporating banners, product suggestions, and streamlining your layout, you not only turn a statement into a marketing tool but enhance the operational aspects of the statement as well.

Staying Consistent Across Print and Digital Statements

About half of your customers likely opt for eStatements, both for ease of access and to save paper. For that reason, maintaining a consistent customer experience in both print and digital formats is important. Firms like PrintMail can help design and deliver statements that:

• Reflect your brand identity
• Provide consistent layouts and formatting across paper and PDF versions
• Include banner space for promotions, announcements, and other marketing purposes
• Feature modular content areas to promote customer choice, personalization, and segmentation
• Use creative marketing techniques such as inserting to drive engagement

Your customer’s experience should be the same whether they open their inbox or their mailbox. Your marketing strategy should account for the differences between print and digital to drive engagement across both platforms.

Marketing and Operations Working Hand-in-Hand

It can be difficult for banks to redesign their monthly statements. This isn’t a matter of creativity or will—these issues are usually organizational and logistical.

Marketing and Operations generally operate as two separate teams (and sometimes statements are outsourced altogether). Operations get the statements to the customers in order to remain compliant. Marketing teams focus on communication, messaging, and branding. Frequently, these teams don’t communicate with each other on customer statements: this is the main reason why most bank statements have remained stagnant for years.

This is also why banks have lost years of marketing opportunity.

If this describes you, then you should start thinking about statements as being part of your bigger marketing and engagement strategy. This means:

• The marketing team weighs in on the layout, tone, and messaging
• Employing third-party partners like PrintMail that can handle both the redesign and delivery demands
• Aligning statement content with brand imagery, marketing campaigns, and seasonal promotions

If your marketing and operations team work together, statements go from dry, informational documents to personalized, branded marketing material that drives customer action.

How Statements Drive Action

It isn’t just about aesthetics. Redesigning your statements can lead the customer’s eye to your desired promotions and calls-to-action. Working your marketing messaging into statements is a strategic way to build customer interest over time and personalize product recommendations. A thoughtful, redesigned statement can promote:

• Enrollment in online banking and eStatements
• Special interest rates or seasonal offers loans, accounts, and credit cards
• Digital wallet, contactless cards, and other digital tools
• New branch locations and personnel
• Customer success stories

Are you pushing HELOCs in the fall? Incorporate a banner and links into your September and October statements. Launching a new savings account? Catch your customers’ attention in their January statements, when they are more likely to be savings-minded.

Integrate Statements Into Your Current Marketing Campaign

Customers are savvier to marketing than in the past, and because of this, they are likely skeptical of unsolicited communication. Statements are different. They’re expected and reliable and likely to be read. This makes them invaluable to your current campaign.

Your marketing team is already shaping your brand image and messaging. Don’t let a boring template be the most frequent touchpoint with your customers. Redesigned statements let customers feel more engaged and connected—and more likely to interact.