Eyes on Entrepreneurship

Renasant Bank is a community institution that was built from the ground up by dedicated entrepreneurs with a mission to support small businesses throughout the South. So, Renasant partnered with Rated Red to produce a documentary series that would shine a light on some of the entrepreneurs and startups with whom Renasant works. Since a documentary series would feel out of place on a banking website, Mabus Agency developed Renasant Nation—a stand-alone content publishing platform where we could share the series and also publish content related to banking products and services offered by Renasant.

Drawing a Crowd

Mabus Agency was tasked with transforming a simple video series into a holistic campaign that played a pivotal role in Renasant’s overall content marketing strategy. We needed to attract a diverse audience to what is ultimately a TV series aired on a banking website. Most importantly, we needed to drive that audience to Renasant’s main site where it could explore related banking products and open accounts.

Playing to Our Strengths

Clients don’t expect banks to advertise TV shows to them—especially shows produced by the bank itself. So it’s not hard to understand why some viewers might click away from it without a thought. Luckily for us, “Crafted” was a great show, one we knew Renasant’s audience would take interest in. It highlighted the DIY culture that’s so popular among 20- to 40-year-old Southerners right now. From a financial marketing perspective, this unique platform was easy to crosslink with other business banking content we generated for Renasant. Quality was on our side—we just needed to convince the audience to take a chance on us.

Meeting Clients Where They Are

Through multiple channels, we hoped to make our audiences aware of the “Crafted” brand. We started by designing a custom email template that promoted each episode of the show to current Renasant clients—we knew clients were more likely to share it with others. We also strategically placed geo-targeted ads that invited web users near Renasant branches to view the latest episode of “Crafted.”

Expanding the Story

The last piece of the puzzle was content. We knew that a single stand-alone video dropped on a webpage simply wasn’t good enough. So we created a detailed synopsis of each episode with catchy promotional copy that would boost search engine traffic from users researching the businesses profiled on “Crafted.” And, since we distributed content across a number of channels, there was a higher chance that users would encounter “Crafted” numerous times. Finally, a consistent release schedule that spanned multiple seasons kept interests piqued, and the results—well, they speak for themselves.

Doing the Unthinkable

We pulled in tens of thousands of page views for the series—the majority of which came from first-time Renasant Nation visitors. Our geo-targeted social and display ads boasted hefty clickthrough rates that further drove traffic to each episode, helping attract a consistent and engaged audience to a banking website, of all places.

Some of Our Best Results

When all was said and done, we successfully drove traffic to a branded website by presenting clients with engaging content they didn’t even know they wanted. To date, the traffic generated by the “Crafted” series accounts for nearly half of all traffic on Renasant Nation and continues to pull in page views on a daily basis. What could your bank do with an innovative content platform of its own?