Community bankers face one of the harshest competitive environments in any industry. At times it can feel we’re adrift on a sea of sameness—in undersized vessels—while gigantic megabanks churn the waters around us.

It’s difficult. We struggle to differentiate ourselves from similarly-sized competitors while contrasting our value against larger banks.

But there’s an alarming trend that I’ve seen emerge from this. Community banks tend to be very insular and cagey against the competition. This is fine—excepting one thing: too many community bankers have never darkened the door of the competition. This leads to making uninformed claims about our own products and service.

We’re the friendliest bank.

Our service is the best.

We’re much more efficient.

But. Do you really know that?

As with anyone thrown on the waves of choppy water, it’s no wonder we cling to what feels safe.

Have you ever opened an account at a competing bank? Have you ever tried their products or services to make an unbiased comparison against yours?

I’m worried that too many of us will say “no.”

Now, this isn’t some kumbaya guide to getting along. Quite the opposite, actually.

You can look at it two ways:

You can pick either because both are true.

Perhaps you say, “We don’t cast ourselves against the competition. We do our own thing—our best every day.” That is a valid and admirable approach. But, again, it’s insular. 

You’re discounting the options from which a potential client must choose. I am not suggesting you advertise “Our bank is better than XYZ Bank.” You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) name the competition. But you can rest assured that clients will consider more than one bank when choosing their primary financial institution. It is your job to understand what your bank does better and make very certain a potential client knows.

I suggest that you can enhance how you serve clients and your community by understanding the offerings present in your bank’s footprint. Otherwise, how do you know what is missing from your bank’s offerings? From your client’s experience? What could you offer that no other bank brings to bear? These could be concrete concepts like products or abstract offerings like service and availability.

Perhaps it’s even simpler.

One day, a bank that serves small businesses will realize that the bank is only open during the entrepreneur’s busiest hours. That bank will shift its hours to 10am – 7pm to be available for that client base and will win business.

We tend to internalize that the grass is always browner on the competitor’s side. This is born from a sort of group egocentrism that “we” (wherever “we” might be) is best. Do you remember early in elementary school when you found out that the United States wasn’t the biggest country? Nor the most populous? There was no reason to have this belief. No one had told us that the US was larger.

We do not need to fall into a similar trap with our banks.

What if you find out the competition is actually super friendly? Or incredibly organized and efficient in processing loans? It probably makes you a bit sick at your stomach to consider that the competition is better in an area or two. Perhaps you find out that you kick THEIR tail.

Regardless, if you haven’t shopped the competition, you don’t know. And that’s dangerous.

I believe in this so much, I took $1,000 of my own money and handed it to Mabus Agency copywriter Riley Manning when he was relatively new to bank marketing. I told him to open 10 bank accounts at 10 banks. It was one of the best training exercises for Riley as he learned about banking. But it was also eye-opening as we engaged with several types of banks. We were constantly surprised about which one was really good (or really bad) in certain aspects of banking.

As you prepare to shop the banks with which you compete, I suggest you watch and listen to Riley as he recounts his adventures—and dig deeper into our special blogs that capture, in detail, what he discovered.

Learn from Riley’s direct experience, but also use our rubric in your approach and valuation of the competition. It’s worth the effort. And your grass will be greener because of it.

Where have all the cowboys gone? In her 1997 hit, Paula Cole laments the decline in down-to-earth, working-class, relatable romantic options.

Today we look at the loss of a cowboy in banking. Fintech startup Simple has been sent off along the old dusty trail by acquirer BBVA. As the sun sets on this tech-based maverick, we find some lessons for your human-centric community bank.

Simple was founded in 2009 and became one of the first fully-digital banking challengers to achieve any real traction, paving the way for the current generation of fintechs and neobanks.

Simple was conceived to simplify banking. In their words (from their site), Simple was the response to these questions:

• Why is banking so complicated?

• Can a bank exist to help people, not confuse them?

• What if banks didn’t charge so many ridiculous fees?

• What if your bank taught you to feel confident with money?

In 2014, BBVA purchased Simple to “accelerates its digital banking expansion,” according to a press release announcing the acquisition. The $117 million acquisition brought 100,000 customers. BBVA allowed Simple to function almost autonomously, until now.

From the bank-peer peanut gallery, there were cheers, and there were jeers. Simple’s original customer base cried foul.

The commentary fell into two categories:

1. I told you so! One group will have you believe they predicted this. They say the world never needed a Simple anyway—that any success it enjoyed was a fluke. In their eyes, Simple amounted to nothing more than a trendy, gimmicky, millennially frivolous competitor.
    
2. This is why we can’t have anything nice! Another group attributed Simple’s death to corporate greed crying, “the big guys will always crush the little guys. Customers will never get what they want!” BBVAs sunsetting of Simple was another example of classical corporate neglect of the client’s needs and experience.

I’d suggest the narrative isn’t so simple as big vs. small, the establishment vs. innovation, or the past vs. the future. This is not a conversation strictly between megabanks and fintechs. Nor does this event score points for the “See? No one wanted an online-only bank” crowd.

It might seem strange, but community banks have the most to learn here—why they should listen to their customers and why they must remain stalwart in maintaining independence.

First things first

This announcement is likely tied to another acquisition: PNC’s purchasing of BBVA’s US-based assets. If so, Simple’s shutdown is a byproduct of consolidation and the expected skinnying-up that comes with any acquisition—a cost-cutting measure to ensure profitability.

Even without this acquisition, one has to wonder how Simple looked on BBVA’s balance sheet. As of October 2020, more than 35.6 million of BBVA’s 56+ million active customer base were considered “digital customers.” Compared to Simple’s 100,000 customers, it’s pretty easy to build a speculative business case where Simple simply didn’t make sense.

For those who say, “…But Simple brings a better experience!” Well, that’s not the case. As of this writing, the Apple App store rating for Simple’s app is 4.6 stars while BBVA’s is 4.8 stars with 284.8 thousand reviews (more than 17-times Simple’s).

All of that being said, this is big-bank-scale stuff. No community bank I know would scoff at 100,000 customers. And according to the backlash following the announcement, they’re 100,000 loyal customers—not trend-chasing transients as popularly assumed about the digital sect.

It’s not about tech.

Simple grew from zero to 20,000 users between its founding in 2009 and 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, that number skyrocketed fivefold to 100,000 users.

Why?

Simple was pretty. Simple was focused. Simple was simple.

But most of all, Simple was different.

Being different isn’t enough. If they never told anyone—never got any press—it’s hard to believe they would have enjoyed the same growth.

Simple realized their difference and communicated this difference beautifully, clearly, and with an adequate budget.

Simple positioned themselves as the solution to well-known industry woes. These were tropes that clients and banks alike took as status quo and unchangeable.

This isn’t about creating a great app. It’s not even about scale. It’s about providing something your customers can’t get from megabanks.

Community banks have been doing this for years. They just forget to tell people.

Instead of comparing your community bank to a big bank, you must work to define your own metrics of success and reframe the customer’s perception to help them understand why your success is better for them than big bank success.

That’s what Simple did. Now, those who sought out Simple’s experience will be without a bank.

While you might not be a high-tech whiz-bang bank, you must consider Simple’s story as you consider your bank’s future.

You must consider this key question: If YOUR bank didn’t exist, what would my customers be missing?

Where have all the cowboys gone?

“Where have all the community banks gone?” might not cut as poignant a refrain, but remember, the cowboy didn’t go away due to our culture’s lack of love for the archetype.

The story of Simple turns on this question: Do enough people value what’s good over what’s expedient and widely available? 

The answer seems to be Yes.

Simple’s core group of customers—those who chose to leave other banks for Simple’s brand promise—are upset that the banking experience they specifically chose is going away.

“But BBVA’s app is better” isn’t stilling their anger.

“But Simple’s founders made a lot of money” isn’t consoling those people.

Simple succeeded because it clearly defined its purpose and why you should choose their experience. They went all-in on it. Simple made it clear what customers were choosing between. Have you done the same for your bank? Or do you believe that people should choose a community bank because they inherently know it’s better? Hint: they don’t.

Defining your bank’s edge

Couching your bank as “independent,” “service-oriented,” and “people-focused” doesn’t cut it. These are what we call Beneficial Features. They seem packed with meaning and sentiment, yet they don’t actually tell your customers anything on their own.

Go back to Simple. Simple, as a word, is a beneficial feature. Would you prefer a process to be difficult or simple? Would you rather hear a complicated explanation to a problem or a simple one? Those are clearly loaded with beneficial leaning. But would you rather have a gourmet meal with complex flavors or a simple hot dog? Would you rather be known as a dynamic thinker or simple-minded?

Most community banks overuse similar buzzwords because they come loaded with meaning but fail to connect that meaning with value. Every individual brings their own deeply personal associations to words like “family,” “community,” “success,” and “stability.” You don’t have to explain these concepts to them.

But you do have to explain how your bank embodies those concepts to provide value to the customer.

One reason you might make a clear, focused value proposition is you fear excluding potential clients who might have different definitions of value. Banks often fear lighting the beacon of their value because they fear it will repel others. Simple was willing to commit to its message, even if it meant passing up people who wanted the opposite, who wanted something complex. They knew some folks might not like what they had to offer. But 100,000 people did.

Additionally, defining success also defines failure. Once you make a promise to the customer, you must fulfill it. Banks fear overcommitting to a promise, but I’d caution that while murky water may obscure accountability, it also obscures direction.

These conversations are hard, and it’s tough to get everyone on the same page. In small banks, we all wear multiple hats. Creating a consistent customer experience is difficult. But you must identify what it looks like when your bank wins—when your team wows the customer. And you must determine how to make this a consistent experience and how to communicate this to potential customers. What are you doing better? How can you do that more?

Simple customers didn’t leave because it got bought by a big bank. They left because BBVA eliminated what they wanted. 

Your bank offers something your customers want. What is that thing? What would your customers miss if you were gone? 

More pointedly, Why do you not want to be bought?

I’ll tell you: because your customers will miss you when you’re gone. It’s up to community banks to make certain community banks continue to exist.

Your bank is unique because your people and your communities are unique. You put the customer first. That counts for a lot. You just have to tell people how. 

Features vs Benefits vs Beneficial Features

The battle of features versus benefits is as old as time—or at least as old as the advertising industry itself.

Features are the lifeless attributes of a product, service, or brand.

Benefits are the value a client should find in your product, service, or brand.

While most of us likely understand the difference and preference toward benefit, we rarely explore why benefits are better.

The core differentiator is around extrapolation—drawing conclusions. Benefits innately capture value. Some features might seem valuable (especially if you have a writer’s confirmation bias), but they require readers/listeners/viewers to apply their own experience.

Big is a feature. While “bigger is better” is a well-known phrase, we don’t all process “big” in the same way. For some, “big” can be overwhelming. For others, “big” is invigorating—a concept that brings options and potential to explore.

By simply saying “big,” you can’t expect a universal result. Therein lies the problem.

Benefits bridge the gap and make the intended connection for your audience.

This becomes into greater contrast in community bank marketing, though. Our features don’t necessarily evoke a natural benefit. We rarely have “big” at our disposal as community bankers. Instead, we must extoll the virtues of being small. We have to connect the dots for potential clients to understand why smaller is more accessible, nimble, and responsive.

There are added dangers. We can lean on words we often feel are naturally positive and beneficial.

Words like community, family, and personal permeate banking text. There’s nothing wrong with these words in and of themselves. But we must understand our perspective on these is not universal.

In the debate of features versus benefits, I call these words “beneficial features.”

They’re words loaded with meaning, but that meaning is not ubiquitous or universal.

We all understand the intent behind a word like “family.” It’s a single word that can communicate a tight-knit group who all act in one another’s interest—a loving group of people.

However, this isn’t the reality in all families. Not everyone experienced an idyllic version of family—for some, it is the opposite.

It can be the same with community. It’s not always a safe and positive environment. 

These words, whose truth we hold to be self-evident, often don’t communicate with the volume of meaning and positive we want to confer. At their core, they’re just features—even if their leaning is beneficial.

I’m not just being a semantic devil’s advocate. And I am certainly not saying to avoid positive words because they might be negative to a certain group. You just cannot rely solely on the positive intent of these words without connecting the dots for your audience. You must know these words do not communicate enough on their own. They’re still features (no matter how beneficial or positive). With any feature, you must connect the dots to the benefit for your audience.

When we use phrases like, “We’re a true community bank,” we must follow up with explanation and meaning for much of our audience—regardless of their feeling of the word “community.” We use the phrase universally within the industry, but our audience doesn’t inherently gather the benefit. It’s up to us to connect those dots.

If your bank truly provides a family-like atmosphere or is a true community partner, visitors to the branch or your social channels shouldn’t even have to be told “family” and “community.” They should see these concepts in the photos, comments, and experiences. But you must make certain these visitors understand why family and community are benefits.

We must remember that any feature requires some connecting of the dots. Don’t make your audience work to determine your meaning. Make it clear for them. It’s worth the extra words, and it’s worth the extra time.

Maximize Wins and Minimize Losses with a Healthy Advertising Mix

Your bank needs deposits. Everyone from the top down knows it. After a spirited ALCO meeting, the bank agrees to roll out a high-yield CD to bring in the bucks. You get a special budget to create a 90-day campaign with new creative. You pull off the miracle of launching the campaign in the nick of time.

Across town, a person is opening her newspaper, and your ad catches her eye. She’s looking for a new bank, after all. But…it’s for a CD. She owns a business and is looking for a place to move her operating account—that holds about $500,000 on average. Even though she’s unhappy with her current bank, she breezes right on past your ad because it doesn’t fit her need. You see, she needs a business bank.

What’s this? Your bank is also a commercial bank?

Of course, it is, but you missed the opportunity because the mandate was to advertise the high-yield CD. 

Ugh. It’s a bit of a gut punch, right?

It’s a mistake you might’ve made (and now you’re probably trying to think of how many times). The ad was too focused—when the business owner in question could’ve put a big dent in your deposit-raising goal with her operating account.

I don’t have a problem with CD ads. I don’t have a problem with product-based promotions. Each has its place in your marketing plan.

But this scenario reminds me of something I heard an old man relate once: “You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be at the airport when my ship comes in.”

It’s maddening to be given a great product, executed a campaign, and know you still might’ve missed the proverbial boat.

The scenario outlined above plays out at banks all across the country—multiple times every day.

 A person is looking for a mortgage when you’re running an ad for your new checking account.

 A student is looking for a new checking account and receives a digital ad for mortgage.

Your audience is simply bigger, broader, and more diverse than most banks’ ad campaigns. There is no way to match the perfect ad with precise timing to the exact needs of a potential client.

Don’t despair, though. There is a solution.

Turning Tears into Tiers

Before we dig into the “how,” you must distance yourself from two core fallacies that hold back banks:

❌ The only way to attract a person to a bank product is to advertise that bank product.

❌ You don’t have enough resources to do what you need to do.

You have the distinctly difficult task of promoting an incredibly complex product mix to an incredibly complex audience. If you approach the project head-on, you’ll wind up going in circles. I’m sure there are resources that claim to match exact need with a perfect ad*, but there’s a more reliable technique.

You have to divide your advertising into three tiers:

1. Brand

2. Transitional

3. Product

Tier One: Brand Advertising

The core of your advertising campaign must be based on your brand. Many times we commit 40% or more of an entire advertising budget to this portion. There are two facets to brand advertising: the message and the medium.

“Branding” as a verb is often misused (unless you’re talking about pressing a hot iron to a cow’s backside). Some purveyors of creativity try to convince an audience that a logo or brand can be so good that it “verbs” an audience in some ways. Make no mistake, though, the Nikes, Cokes, and Amazons of the world would still be stuck at the starting gates if not for an investment in advertising that promoted their brands. Neither would their names echo in the vaunted halls of branding if they didn’t spend BILLIONS backing their position. Sure, they’re great brands, but never forget that they bought the affinity they enjoy. 

Brand Messaging

You must commit to advertising that promotes your brand position. If you haven’t arrived at this position, check out this piece or just fast-forward and hire us.

The short version is this: your bank is very similar to 99% of the other 12,000-13,000 financial institutions also marketing to your audience. You must find that 1% and advertise the hell out of it.

Consider this Mabus Agency mantra: 

The role of advertising is to facilitate word of mouth in two ways:

1. To get people to talk

2. To tell them what to say

That’s the role of brand messaging. You want to make sure as many people as possible add something like this to their daily conversations: “Hey, have you heard of Strong Bank? Yeah, they’re strong. That’s why I do business with them.”

Brand Media

Once you’ve arrived at your message and committed to sharing it, you have to pick a media mix that fits. While there are no hard and fast rules, we do believe there are media that better lend themselves to certain areas of marketing. For brand, television, billboard, and other broadcast media often carry the biggest brand punch.

No one can choose your bank if they don’t know it exists. You must increase awareness of your brand name, and these agnostic, unfocused media are great tools in your arsenal to spread news of your name. Keep in mind, your brand messaging is only part of the whole. We’ll need to layer in other messaging and tactics.

Tier Two: Transitional Advertising

Being a middle child is tough. One exists as a comparison to older and younger siblings. So is the case with the middle child of our brand-tier approach. You probably can guess that Tier 3 (Product) will be pretty straightforward. Like the youngest sibling, Product is often the baby. And, as we’ve already covered, Brand is the eldest—guiding all our actions.

Transitional Messaging

Transitional is just what the name conveys: the space between the two. But it is definable. Transitional ads outline, with more depth, what type of bank you are.

This could be focused down a line of business:

We’re a commercial bank.

We’re a retail bank.

We’re a mortgage bank.

Perhaps it’s more philosophical:

We’re a community bank.

We’re a bank that crusades for a cause.

We’re a bank that supports our community.

Whatever your bank is, you need to communicate that to your audience early and often. 

Transitional ads translate what can be esoteric ideas into more digestible principles for your consumer.

And think of this generally—like the examples above. You can be multiple things in multiple media.

Transitional Media

Again, there are no hard and fast rules, but you can concentrate your Transitional messaging pretty easily. Magazines and specialty publications can be a great forum. If you’re an ag bank, look to your farming publications. Business journals can showcase your position as a business bank. While I’m not a huge fan of radio, there are opportunities (especially in ag territories) to match messaging with medium in powerful ways. Another often overlooked opportunity is events. You can sponsor focused events in agriculture, business, and real estate, or you can level up: make your own. It can be a bit tough to pull off, but there’s no replacement for building relationships. Instead of creating advertising to get someone to walk into your bank, create advertising to draw a farmer or business person to a low-commitment event with a highly valuable speaker. You’ll be thanked for your effort, and likely some of that appreciation will turn into business.

Tier Three: Product Advertising

You probably don’t need a lesson here. We’ve all done plenty of this. It’s the safe route. You’ll never get called on the carpet for promoting product. The only other safe option is putting bankers’ pictures in the paper, but we’re not even going to go there.

Product Messaging

As I said earlier, product advertising has its place. That place is using about 20-30% of your budget to sell a product directly. And when I say “direct,” I mean it.

When you have the properly tiered advertising strategy, you can go in hard on product messaging. You have to be a bit more clever than “Open a damn account now,” but not much. This is where you use your features (such as rate, cashback, etc.), but don’t forget to marry these with your brand benefit.

Product Media

You can advertise product in any almost any media, but you won’t be able to get everything you want in the proper mix. I would guess your biggest fear is how thin your budget is getting by Tier Three. Therefore, you must concentrate where you can.

At the end of the day, your success will likely be quantified in product conversions. To that end, pick media that are extremely conversion-centric. Think digital(ly). Digital display and pay-per-click are areas where you can concentrate strong, straightforward brand messaging. Beyond this, you must have landing pages that match the campaign creative, offer, and messaging. Don’t buy digital ads and drop them on your bank’s homepage. Don’t drop visitors on your standard account signup page. Create unique pages that provide continuity and context from the brand that intrigued the person to click.

Lean Into Your Audience’s Knowledge Understanding

Your audience doesn’t know how a bank works (as we explain here), but they do know what a bank does.

This is especially true of those whose need is the most critical. When a client needs a loan or a new checking account, they know they need a bank. And these are the people you need to attract most.

Think about it. When have you heard someone say, “I need a new checking account”?

It’s more like, “My bank’s app has been wonky for the past six weeks. I need a new bank.”

So which bank will they visit?

One Brand to Rule Them All

You must take a second, close your eyes (if you’re listening to the blogcast), and imagine with me: each of these items must be congruent in messaging, tone, personality, color, photography style—in short, brand. They must look alike. They must sound similar. They must match. Keep in mind, though, I said “congruent.” This means in harmony, but not exact. This is called “Brand-Tier.” Each tier must be ON brand, but you can also use the unique attributes of each medium to great effect.

Hyperfocused, Under-resourced, and Overreacting

All banks have limited resources. There never is enough budget to do everything you want. The result is usually a frantic catch-up game.

We need deposits! Marketing shifts all its focus, time, and money to deposits.

Holy cow! What happened to lending? We need loans! Marketing shifts all its focus, time, and money to loans.

God forbid another bank rolls out a competitive rate. Then you’ll chase them.

To stop, you need a plan, and the Brand-Tier approach is one way to do it. 

You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, chase.

Because when you’re chasing, you might not lose, but I can guarantee you won’t win.

 Footnote: Remember the lesson, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”)

Write to a person, not a crowd

Writing can be intimidating. Between the blinking cursor overlooking the blank page and plain old self-doubt, it’s tough to get started.

Here’s some good news: there are a few things that separate poor writing from mediocre writing. And one item that can boost mediocre writing to good, or even very good writing.

So, what’s the difference between poor writing and mediocre writing? Generally, it’s pretty simple: the technicals. Poor grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. 

For poor writing, there are easy fixes: 

• Run spellcheck. 
• Buy a subscription to Grammarly. 
• Write short, simple, clear sentences.

I’m serious. That’s it.

You can communicate the facts in an acceptable way with these rules. You may even surpass mediocrity. You can be funny, interesting, and even compelling. It worked for Ernest Hemingway—but I’m not promising anything more than decent.

Bank writing is full of long, meandering sentences and circuitous thoughts. It’s much better to get to the point with clarity and brevity. Most of the content you’ll write will communicate features of complex financial products in the simplest terms.

Try me out. Rewrite the sentence below using shorter, more direct, sentences.

To get the most out of your account, download our new mobile application and you’ll get all the features and benefits of a visit to the bank right in your hand.

So, now you’re ready to move from mediocre to good. Are you ready for that one tip?

Write to an individual instead of an audience.

Sometimes, it’s easy and overt:

Mediocre: Everyone will love XYZ Bank.

Good: You’ll love XYZ Bank.

It’s one a word change that makes a difference.

Other times, it’s a bit more nuanced:

Mediocre: We have banking solutions for every need!

Good: We specialize in enhancing your life with our products.

This change is more about tone. Again, it relies on simply using a second-person pronoun. And the second statement doesn’t sound like it’s being read from a stage.

Therein lies the difference. Too many folks sit down to write and imagine they’re walking up to a lectern on a huge stage, with blinding lights in their eyes—getting ready to deliver a masterpiece to throngs of people. You think of your advertising audience as a literal audience.

That just isn’t the case. While you might be writing to tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people, each one of those people will likely engage with your messaging individually.

One person at a time sees a digital ad on his/her phone. If you don’t think that is a personal experience, try grabbing a stranger’s phone, or peeking over a stranger’s shoulder to read the ads as they scroll.

Even a more public medium like a billboard is more personal than you think. Most reactions happen internally. It’s the voice in your head that says, “Hm. It might be a good idea to switch banks.”

Your audience is not gathered in one place, holding similar beliefs, or even thinking alike. You must write your ad copy, blogs, social text, etc., as though you’re talking to another individual, looking her/him in the eyes.

Again, sometimes this is in the basic wording. In many cases, it’s all in your approach—how you visualize your audience when you write.

So, the next time you sit down to write, imagine the person you really want to convince. The words might not come easily, but the message will be better once it emerges.

Mabus Agency’s Guide to Getting Ahead While Remaining Relevant Online

Let’s set the scene. You walk into your bank on Monday morning, and suddenly you remember you have to coordinate all the social media posts for the upcoming week.

If your plan is to create one social post for every workday of the year, that’s 260 posts (5 posts/week x 52 weeks). And, quite honestly, that isn’t enough. At Mabus, we have a quota of 15 (gasp!) posts per day. The reason? I think we do at least that many noteworthy things. Between multiple offices and several dozen ridiculously talented coworkers and clients, we have plenty to talk about.

I know what you’re thinking: “Easy for an agency to say! What about my bank?!”

Ok, so you might not have 15 things to talk about in a single day, and right now, 260 posts a year just sounds outrageous. This is probably true, especially if you treat your social accounts like most do—by starting the day with a blank slate and a few vague ideas of what to post about.

Speaking of vague ideas, poor planning is the most common denominator in subpar social media management. Don’t get me wrong: Planning is tough. In the creative world, a blank canvas is the most intimidating thing we face … and a social media calendar feels like 260 blank canvases.

But wait—there is good news! You don’t have to (and you shouldn’t) start with a blank canvas. You actually have a third of your content already planned (and you probably didn’t even realize it.)

Now I have you asking the important questions— “Where?” and “How?” Let’s answer “How?”  first:

We’ve adopted a three-column approach to planning.  To follow this approach, simply create a planning document with three columns and give them these headings:

1. The World
2. The Bank
3. The Day

Odd titles? Maybe, but they’ll make sense in a bit.

The World

The World has already dictated a ton of your content. This portion primarily addresses official holidays and other noteworthy days. It’s everything from Christmas to Veterans Day to International Sandwich Day. One of the biggest pitfalls is letting these days sneak up on you. We’ve all forgotten an obvious holiday, but it’s avoidable with our three-column system.

None of these World events move more than a few days year-to-year, so you already know when they’re going to happen. The first step is filling out this column.  Start with the days your bank will be closed. Craft those messages in advance, build the posts, and save them. If you don’t have time to do the whole year now, set calendar alerts two or three weeks ahead to allow yourself time to build the posts.

Next, list all the other non-bank holidays and “national” days you want to commemorate. Not all of these events will resonate with your brand and its culture. We recommend paying close attention to the following:

• Community Banking Month
• National Savings Day
• National Retirement Security Week
• National Financial Awareness Day
• International Women’s Day
• Small Business Saturday
• National Computer Security Day

In addition to the more relevant holidays, there are several fun days, like Pi Day (March 14), named after the number used in circular equations (3.14). There’s Star Wars Day (May the Fourth Be With You) and a ton of other fun days that can help anchor your calendar with ready-made ideas.

Whether or not you can create all of the content to support these days, there’s a day for everyone. Go ahead and mark these on your calendar.

The Bank

The second pitfall we see is only using these noteworthy World days. It’s a tempting pitfall because it’s so easy—but all this approach accomplishes is adding another drop into the sea of sameness. Change your questioning from, “How can my bank participate?” to “What can my bank add to the conversation?”

To fill out your calendar less blandly, we must look at the items your bank creates—specifically, those you know about in advance. We know a lot of things seem last-minute when it comes to bank marketing, but more often than not, this happens because you’re busy and planned events creep up on you.

I’m talking:

• Shred-a-Thon
• Habitat for Humanity build day
• Bank-sponsored 5K
• Fall festival fundraiser
• Community chili cook-off

You know about these events in advance, and it’s vital to maintaining your sanity that you pre-plan social media for them. Since most of you will be pulling double (or triple) duty in promoting and running these events, do yourself a favor and have some of the social media work done before each big day.

Be diligent about adding these to your schedule, or they’ll sneak up on you like President’s Day.

Go ahead and work out the copy and graphics to have these ready. Pre-promote these events in advance. And be sure to follow up afterwards, reporting such results as turnout numbers, funds raised, and total volunteer hours.

And, of course, post pictures from the day of the event—which brings us to our last column.

The Day

As you might’ve surmised, the other two columns are about freeing up time for reporting the news—your news—as it happens. All of your postings cannot be conceived, produced, written, designed, proofed, and reviewed by compliance in one day.

There are plenty of fun and/or interesting things that happen at your bank each day. But they’re easy to miss when you’re researching the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day for what seems like the 60th time to make sure Monday’s post is correct.

Preplanning posts around official holidays and bank-created events is the only way to free up the time necessary to find the interesting things in day-to-day life. But these day-to-day stories are the ones that set your bank apart, because they’re what actually make your bank different—the people, the relationships, and the level of service.

Maybe it’s Mr. Jones, who always visits the drive-thru with his loyal golden retriever, or the kids showing up from Mrs. Smith’s second-grade class to learn about money. Maybe it’s Darryl from IT who volunteers every weekend, or Tammy, who’s been bringing donuts on Fridays since she started at the bank in 2003.

A lot of people struggle to post these details because they seem mundane—but really, they only seem that way to you because they represent your daily experience. Just because you’ve seen Mr. Jones’ dog 100 times doesn’t mean your social followers have.

To plan well and free up the time you need to create these day-of stories, you’re going to need some tools.

The Where

After filling out your three planning columns, what do you do with all of this information? Whether you want to stick to planning the work or make the content in advance and automate the posting, you’ll need some tools.

If you’re going the pure planning route, I suggest Airtable. It’s a great platform with a ton of flexibility that lets you look at the same information in many views. You can convert your content list to a calendar view with a click of a button. For all you project managers, you can also use a Kanban view to push a project through stages, such as design, proofing, and compliance review. The best part: Airtable is free for the core functionality, and the free version should cover almost all your needs.

Airtable is especially handy for collaborating with people across multiple locations. You could use Excel, but emailing one file around gets cumbersome and dangerous, as it can change with each hand through which it passes.

When you’re ready to start scheduling posts, we recommend starting with HootSuite because it’s the gold standard for starting out in this activity and also offers a free plan (i.e., three accounts and 30 scheduled messages with one user, as of the publication of this column). This approach lets you get your feet wet without too much of a commitment. If you don’t like HootSuite, Buffer also has a free plan, and Sendible has affordable plans that include some more robust features we enjoy.

Or, if all of this is totally overwhelming, you can jump into a truly managed experience with Social Assurance. It’s a fantastic company that specializes in helping banks run their social media at many levels.

Plan, Plan, Plan

While the need to plan might not be a groundbreaking insight, we have seen the three-column categorization really help planners put their calendars into perspective. Not being overwhelmed or missing opportunities is all about breaking down the year into smaller bites.

Start with big holidays. Then overlay your bank’s event calendar. Once your social calendar is two-thirds full, you will find it much easier to identify and post the interesting day-to-day activities that set your bank apart.

Consumers don’t think about banking.

As bold as that statement might be, it probably doesn’t really rattle your cage. Now think about how you talk about your clients with your peers—within the bank. 

“Earn up to half a basis point more on our demand deposit product by meeting four of our seven simple qualifying criteria.”

But consumers don’t think about banking. Bankers think about banking.

Now that doesn’t mean that consumers’ minds aren’t on financial topics. They just don’t think about it like you and I do. They’ve never studied the Truth in Lending Act and certainly don’t know the difference between an investment advisor and a fiduciary—or even that interest is cool because it compounds. 

Consumers think about…

Making ends meet.

Can I afford a new house for when the baby comes?

Am I going to be able to retire?

How do I save more money?

Or even more simply:

How do I take care of my family?

Can I avoid being a financial screwup?

Most of us meet those questions with bank speak: “Earn 1.23% APY With a Flexible Savings Account.” 

Or even worse, a robot impersonating a human: “I Can Bank While I Wait in Line at the Food Truck.”

Yes, those are real examples, and not just special cases. We see a lot of similar ads. 

In the financial industry, we think about banking. In the real world, people just think about money.

For most Americans, their bank is just where their money is deposited. A vast majority (82 percent) of US workers have their paychecks direct deposited*—pretty impressive adoption seeing as how almost 7 percent of households don’t even have bank accounts. Their money goes into an account, they check the balance online, and they use a debit card to spend the money. 

Other than a random fee, promotional email, or account hiccup, most Americans don’t think about their bank or banking at all. And there is no more brand loyalty associated with banks (the institutions most Americans trust with their entire net worth) than any other retail category. In fact, eight in 10 millennials would switch banks for better rewards.** Sure, millennials have lower brand loyalty than other generations, but not by much.

But they worry about money a lot. We’ve all heard the stats:

• 43 percent of people with student loans aren’t making payments on those loans.
• One-third of Americans haven’t saved a single cent for retirement.
• Two-thirds of Americans couldn’t pass a very simple financial literacy test. 

One reason people don’t think about banking is because they don’t understand it. I have a brain, and I’m very invested in the health of my brain, but I don’t think about neuroscience too often, because I just don’t understand it. 

Your clients don’t understand finances, but they do have to use them every day. That’s incredibly frustrating, and leads to an incredibly striking stat: more than half of Americans have cried about money.

Why?

Maybe it’s because I could rock the Pythagorean theorem by 9th grade but didn’t know how to use a check register until I was in my 20s. Was it the school’s fault? Maybe. My parents? They tried—trust me. Some of my friends’ parents never mentioned money, though—because they didn’t understand it either.

But there’s a difference between fault and responsibility.

Maybe it’s no one’s fault—and by that logic, everyone’s fault. But let’s not assign blame. Let’s talk about responsibility and, even more than that, opportunity.

Your bank can take responsibility for your clients’ financial fitness, and in return, you can reap the rewards of having more financially literate clients. 

I don’t think bankers intentionally do a poor job of explaining banking to their clients. 

I suspect it’s much more innocuous than that.

Our minds are on banking—so much—all day, we simply forget that the consumer doesn’t think about money in our terms.

Bankers, like everyone in business, think, “I know my customers because they’re like me.” But that’s just not true, because you are a banker and your clients aren’t bankers. 

My boss will often compare it to hunting ducks. When you hunt ducks, you probably quack like a duck and put decoys out to look like a duck, but your role is not to be a duck. You may understand ducks very well, but the moment you become a duck, the very nature of the transaction changes.

You have to remember that you are not the client. The client is not you. You’re there to serve the client—and it’s better for everyone when you serve on the clients’ terms. 

And your clients and prospective clients need to know how banking works. Or you at least have to translate banking enough so the client can understand his/her role. And if you can tell them, you will forever be the easy and approachable bank in their mind. And the earlier you start, the more your bank will benefit.

Imagine this scenario. You explain the basics of automatic savings products, the way compounding interest works in your IRA accounts, and the benefits of having a checking account with FDIC insurance to a recent high school graduate who is about to start a summer job before going off to college. If that student takes any of your teachings to heart, they’re going to graduate from college with a little money and a good idea of how to stretch their new big-boy salary a little further. 

That client is likely going to meet someone, fall in love, get a promotion, get married, buy a house, have some kids, buy a bigger house, open a college savings account, take out a HELOC, double down on retirement, open a trust account, and the list goes on. 

Where do you think they’re going to open those accounts? At the bank that taught them how money works—the bank that related to them on their terms.

That is, if they know how banking and money work. Otherwise, they’ll open a checking account, leave a few hundred dollars in it each month, live paycheck to paycheck, and never really learn how to grow their wealth. 

Most bank products were created to meet a client’s needs. But bankers accidentally explain those products with bankerly jargon. So opening their eyes to the possibilities offered by a wider range of financial products brings your clients value—if you can connect on the clients’ terms. It empowers your client while increasing your bank’s share of wallet. 

(Side note: FDIC is a real big “duh” for us bankers, but most bank clients have no idea what it means—no matter how many tiny logos we put on ads or obscure plaques are displayed in our lobbies. Tide has been reminding Americans for more than half a decade that “Tide cleans clothes.” Duh, it’s clothing detergent. But they’re beating their competition. Be the only bank in America that truly reminds clients that their money is insured. Who cares if your competitors think it’s silly?)

Community banks are here to help the community. Let’s help them—first by helping them understand.

So you’re asking, “But, JB, it’s so complex—where do we even start?”

Well, the foremost experts in banking in your community are at your bank. Start with your clients. They’ll be so happy they’ll tell their friends. So then explain banking to your clients’ friends. After that, go to the young families in your community (they’re probably applying for homes with your mortgage department). Visit the schools (there are plenty of financial literacy packages to sponsor and/or use outright). Write about it on your website—nothing too fancy. 

Tell them how banking works. Help them protect their finances and plan to grow their wealth. They’ll remember you for it.

*Nacha (The Electronic Payments Association)

**https://thefinancialbrand.com/64222/millennial-switching-banking-marketing-checking-accounts/ 

Just because we’re not hearing about big data every day doesn’t mean it was a fad. Its importance has faded exactly as much as that of social media or millennials—which is to say, not at all.

The only problem is that a lot of bank marketers still feel too small to take on big data—because big data is a hell of an undertaking.

But not all data projects have to be big. You can start small.

We’re going to give you four small bites you can take out of your bank’s big data that will yield obvious results. They’re actionable items anyone can handle without having to bring an extra data person on staff or enlist a third-party vendor.

And while each piece of data is important on its own, when compared with one another, these data points can feel like cheat codes.

Even better, these data points can easily help you spend your marketing budget on much more targeted efforts.

If you already have a handle on these data points, great. You’re a lot further along than a lot of your peers. And if you don’t, that’s fine, too. But in that case, it’s time to get started—and we’re going to help.

1.  How many clients do you actually have?

If you don’t know, you’re not alone. It’s a statistic so obvious that it’s often overlooked. But knowing the number of total clients your bank serves fills in a huge piece of the puzzle for your bank, your budget, and your marketing strategy.

If you’re ever in a room where this question is asked, you have to be the one to answer it.

Conventional wisdom says more is more when it comes to attracting new clients. New accounts mean new deposits, new loans, and so on—and that’s true. But it’s not the whole truth. Deepening relationships with existing clients by suggesting additional (and helpful) bank products, providing financial education, and encouraging engagement with your bank can cement customer loyalty and increase wallet share.

Tackling data-driven marketing is like eating an elephant. It seems overwhelming at the outset, but the only way to do it is one bite at a time. That’s why most banks simply don’t make the effort. Knowing your total number of clients amounts to taking the first bite.

• Data Point: Number of existing clients
• Action Item: This is the beginning of your MCIF (Marketing Customer Information File). It’s your master file that tells you everything you know about every customer you have. You don’t even need a fancy system to track this, just an Excel document. And as simple as it seems, this data is key for comparison to everything else.
• Next Steps: You have a list of all your clients. Now begin putting them into buckets. Sort them by data point—for example, customer type (e.g., business, personal, wealth, etc.), product type, and age group.

2.  What accounts can customers open with your bank?

Can you list each account category and product your bank offers, complete with a brief description? Sure, you have access to the information, but do you know the products off the top of your head?

You offer personal checking, but how many different types of accounts? And I’m not just talking about the ones you’re currently promoting. Can you name all the checking accounts that are holdovers from mergers? What about each offering in your treasury management suite?

This can be a lot of information to grasp. But failing to grasp it is a big mistake we see banks make. If you lack a fundamental understanding of what products your clients have with your bank, it will be impossible to market to them in any effective way. If you take a more analytical approach to this data point, you can find gaps in the products and services you offer. Maybe something is missing in your product line that your clients would like to see, or perhaps it’s time to retire that holiday savings account that no one uses.

Additionally, banks that have gone through mergers can have an overwhelming number of account types. And chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve gone through a merger. (According to the FDIC, 91% of merger participants are community banks, and community banks make up 92% of all institutions.) This means that most banks are offering duplicate accounts, or similar accounts with different levels of profitability.

Community banks are often unwilling to upset the apple cart. You have an opportunity here. Look at those accounts to find which ones are more profitable.

• Data Point: List of current products and services
• Action Item: You probably know most of your products, but dig deep and find all of them—even the leftover legacy accounts from the acquisition your bank went through in 1997. Put them down on a spreadsheet, and group them by like type or department.
• Next Steps: Analyze each account and grouping. Compare offerings to see where you have redundancies, opportunities for increased profit, or products that are losing the bank money. Analysis is a big concept that’s way simpler in practice. Maybe you have an account type that’s costing the bank money or is only used by five clients.

3.  How many clients are coming into the branch?

If you can understand how people are originating business with your bank (i.e., how many clients are opening accounts in branch versus online or on mobile?), you can focus on optimizing the experience for each of your clients.

This also helps you set realistic goals for your campaigns and better track your results. If you want to increase online account openings, it’s good to know how many people are opening accounts online currently.

Knowing this will also help you understand whether you’re simply spending marketing dollars to cannibalize the clients you were already getting. If your online account openings go up, but your in-branch numbers drop by a comparable amount, you may just be moving clients instead of attracting new ones.

Listen to your clients, and speak to them in the marketing channels where they are more attuned to hear from you. Otherwise, you might be tossing your marketing dollars into the void.

• Data Point: Number of clients who originate business in branch, online, or on mobile
• Action Item: Track movement of your clients across your platforms over time.
• Next Step: Begin to compare your data month by month with your starting point.

4.  How are your individual web pages performing?

Take a deep dive into your website’s analytics to follow the different paths that your clients are taking. The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the overwhelming majority of your traffic is logging into your online banking portal.

Where are these clients entering? Where are they exiting? What are they trying to gain from your site? If you see an upward trend of visitors to a product page, be sure that page clearly explains the product’s benefits (as opposed to providing nothing more than dry bank jargon with rates and fees).

How users navigate your website can tell you a lot about what you’re doing well and what you’re not. Understanding this navigation creates an opportunity to fine-tune your highest performing pages—and to find ways to keep users engaged on the pages they’re currently leaving.

• Data Point: Number of page visits for each page on your site.
• Action Item: Categorize each of your pages by performance. What are your 10 lowest performing pages, and what are your 10 highest?
• Next Steps: Compare the low- and high-performing pages. Are the low-performing pages doing poorly for a reason? Do your high-performing pages have something in common? Of course, every site has to have a least-visited page, and if your safe deposit box page is the one getting the fewest visits, you probably don’t have to do anything. But if your flagship checking account page is low, you need to assess SEO, click path, and layout.

Four ways to combine the data you’ve gathered for quick wins.

As obvious as these data points may seem, now that you have them collected (and hopefully top of mind), you can combine them to return results that are far greater than the sum of their parts.

1. Heavy Is the Relationship That Holds the Checking Account.

Let’s start simply. How many customers do you have, and how many checking account customers do you have?

A Bankrate survey shows the average American holds onto a checking account for almost 16 years. Think of all the other bank products a client will need over the course of 16 years. The bank that holds a client’s checking account is likely to be top of mind when that client seeks new services.

You should have all of your clients’ mailing and email addresses. So send out a special promotion to your bank’s clients who don’t already have an active checking account.

2. The Savings Gap Is Larger than You Think.

Similarly, you can compare your clients who have checking accounts with those who have savings accounts. Then advertise a special promotion to those who don’t have a checking account with your bank. You may even be able to set those clients up with automatic monthly transfers to the savings accounts.

3. Who’s Ready for a HELOC?

A HELOC has one basic universal requirement—a home with a decent amount of equity. Do you know who has a list of most of your customers who meet that requirement and are already acquainted with your bank? Your mortgage department.

4. Use Traffic to Generate Online Account Openings.

How many of your top 15 web pages have online-account-opening prompts? If your answer is “fewer than 15,” you have an opportunity. Your top-performing pages, especially if they advertise an account that can be opened online, must prompt visitors to open a new account.

Better Data Should Equal Better Service

You have an opportunity to make the banking experience better for your clients. The more you know about them, the more you can provide them with the services they need to grow and protect their money. And the great thing about banking is that client success often directly correlates with institutional success.

The good news is that your bank probably already has lots of data on each client. You just have to figure out how you want to use it.

Don’t feel overwhelmed by the prospect of starting all at once. Work your way through this list, and then you’ll begin to understand how to use the data you have to suit your bank’s specific needs.

Before you know it, your easy wins will turn to big wins, and your clients will be better for it.

BONUS: What’s the abandonment rate of your online application?

Now that you’ve got some easy wins under your belt, here’s a bonus data point that’s a little trickier, but still very doable for most bank marketers.

It’s time to find out how many prospects drop out during the middle of an online application—and to figure out why they’re dropping out.

Some of you may not have an online application to drop out of. That doesn’t mean you get to skip this step. EVERY bank should have an online application. (If you aren’t convinced, read Josh Mabus’ article on digital adoption, Dive Into the Digital Deep End. If you don’t have online and mobile account opening, your homework is to make that happen.)

By the time a potential client begins filling out an online application, you’ve already got him or her—hook, line, and sinker. If the prospect drops out during the application process, it’s because you’re doing something wrong.

Your goal should be to make the path to purchase as short and seamless as possible. In spite of this, opening an account online can often take more than 15 minutes. Because today’s digital-first consumer won’t settle for anything less than simple and streamlined, abandonment rates for online applications are staggeringly high—upwards of 40%. And 34% of consumers reported they would have gone elsewhere if they’d known in advance how hard/long the online account opening process would be, according to a study from Deloitte.

However, if you know where in the process these prospects are dropping out, you’ll have a better understanding of why—and can adjust your application accordingly to drive more conversions.

• Data Point: Online application abandonment rate.
• Action Item: Look not only at how often a client abandons one of your online applications, but at where in the process such clients are dropping out.
•  Next Step: Work with your core or third-party provider to streamline your application process or update some of the steps based on your abandonment data.

Your client visits your website looking for a mortgage, but has no idea which product fits.

You help them out with a decisioning tool.

A client needs a new checking account and your bank was the first hit on Google (congrats!). Does the Super Saver account fit better? Or the Free Checking plus?

Again, a decisioning tool can help direct this person to the right product. 

Decisioning tools are great, helpful components of bank websites. Bank marketers, product developers, and other team members spend incredible amounts of time creating proper flow, question syntax, and scoring to ensure the right outcomes are reached.

There are dozens of third-party consultants who specialize in helping banks set up decisioning tools.

But there’s a problem—a big one—when we focus so much on the decisioning tool as a component of a website.

I see bankers spend an unbalanced amount of time deciphering customer flow through a component of the website without spending that same time and effort on the website itself.

You see, your website is a decisioning tool.

You might spend weeks tweaking your mortgage tool to help someone pick the right product, but how much time did you spend ensuring a potential client reached the mortgage page quickly and efficiently?

Decisioning tools are great. We build them. We even use them. They help your customers find the right loan or choose the perfect checking account for their life stage—but we forget that websites, by their very nature, are a decisioning tool. A decisioning tool shouldn’t just be a plug-in on your website. Your website is a decisioning tool.  And while a decisioning tool is usually just an option, your website is the path. It’s encompassing of every option your bank offers.

Where your clients click, when they scroll, when they go back to previous pages—all these decisions are data points that reveal their thinking. Your bank’s entire website is (or should be) helping someone make a decision—from the layout of the pages to the language used to describe products, to the design of the sitemap. 

Website Vs. Interactive Brochure

The most common sin we see on bank websites is they’re simply an interactive brochure for the bank. I would wager that more time is spent scrutinizing where the online banking login portal is placed (because Lord knows if you move it 10 pixels to the left, you’ll be inundated with complaints) while the other page flow was just picked up from the last site layout.

Using a website as an interactive brochure is a missed opportunity because the great thing about a website is that it can be nearly anything. It’s a platform from which we can tell potential clients anything, in any way. But most every bank chooses to use a slider featuring the exact same images and text as the brochure or poster next to teller row. Products are listed in typical banker parlance instead of considering how clients think about their banking needs. 

We forget that clients don’t seek out bank products based on the product’s name or category. We ignore that clients don’t think about banking products like bankers do.

Clients think in terms of the problems they’re trying to resolve. Your clients don’t want a mortgage, they want a house, and they want help figuring out how to afford one. Your clients don’t know the terms IRA, 401(k), or superannuation (I swear to you this was a top-level navigation item on a website I recently visited). They do, however, want to retire one day, and are terrified of how behind they are in preparing for that eventuality. 

Treasury management is the most beneficial and underutilized area of business banking for this very reason. Most small businesses could use cash flow help, but almost none of them are seeking “treasury management” help. 

Your website can be anything. Don’t settle for the limitations of a clickable brochure. Create an experience that actually helps your clients.

Click Path Matters

When planning out a website, most bank marketers think about the website in a sitemap—which is technically how websites are organized. But, in looking at a sitemap, it’s key to think about a click path. A click path is the journey a client takes to find the information he/she is seeking.

How does a client get to the information they want? 

Examining possible paths a client might take is a valuable opportunity to introduce products while providing clients more value. Sure, fewer clicks between the home page and the information they need is a good policy, but never forget you have the ability to create a journey for your client. 

Think about a grocery store. You know where the milk is, and it’s easy to get there, but it’s not the first thing you see, and the store’s management has laid out a series of items for you to see on your way. Some of those items are “have you thought about getting one of these” items and don’t necessarily go with milk while others are a no-brainer, “while you’re getting milk you should probably grab some of these” items, like cereal, or Oreos. 

The real missed opportunity is when we forget to use click path data to inform future decisions and future journeys. 

For instance, when a potential client visits your site for the first time, we don’t know anything about them, so we should probably just show them the more popular products and enticing offers. Now, if that potential client selects the business checking page, we can safely assume this person has a business or manages a business’s finances and then serve them content about some of our related bank products, like cash flow assistance or sweeps accounts. 

The paths we create for clients to follow are key to the success of our website, and thanks to the speed with which web technology has developed, it’s easier than ever to monitor traffic and serve clients more meaningful content.

Inverse Content Triangles

Now that we’re creating a journey for a client, we must remember that some people will be convinced quickly while others want to do extensive research. If someone is ready to make a decision immediately, we need to give them the option. At the same time, we need to answer all of the questions a more curious prospect may have. 

As the audience dives deeper into your site, it shrinks in size. This shrinking audience seeks broader and more specific information as they dig.

We visualize this with the inverse triangles of content. The largest number of people will visit your home page. A lesser amount of people wants deeper information. Too many marketers short-circuit this system by putting everything (and the kitchen sink) at the top of a product’s landing page. Once you understand that an audience culls itself as it seeks more specific information, you can organize your information in a more valuable flow.

Your first layer of information is striking, engaging, and relatively shallow. You must quickly engage your visitors by confirming they’ve reached the right place. Some of your audience will sign up right there—at the top level. A smaller amount needs more information. As they drill down, you can offer more information. Your second level explains the variety of checking products. Your third level can give detail on the offerings of each.

How can you create a system that wins in both scenarios (and the spectrum in between)? This has a lot to do with the previous section—click path—as well as content structuring and page layout. 

By leading with the most compelling and concise information, we can not only cater to the larger number of people reading but also attract more readers to the page. Leading with a more compelling benefit compels the reader to continue engaging with the product. Those who need the most information will expend the extra effort to continue clicking, but only if it is apparent that the information expands as they click.

Always Give a Way Out

No matter how valuable of a journey you create on your bank’s website, someone will want to navigate at their own pace. You must provide visitors with a way to navigate through your bank’s product pages, content, and portals at their own pace—even if you’ve created a superior decisioning experience. They also need to be able to move laterally through your designed click path. Maybe they want to see something again on a previous page. Maybe they want to skip ahead to make sure this is the right path for them.

We call this “healthy redundancy”—having many entrances and exits from each page, especially with a mind toward related content. No matter how good your designed journey is, be sure to give your clients freedom to create their own journey, too. 

Get Started (Challenge)

Before you can begin the process of designing an intentional customer journey through your website, you need to account for what your website experience looks like now. Try this:

Find a mind-mapping software you like (we like the free account at Lucid Charts and the paid account at Miro) or grab a really big whiteboard with lots of colored markers. 

Map your website out by hierarchy of information—like a family tree. Your home page should be in a box at the top of the page, on a line by itself. From there you may diverge into personal or business pages. It varies from site to site. Most banks have sitemaps that are considerably wider than they are tall, but the goal is for your sitemap to look a little more like a Christmas tree. And within that Christmas tree, you want to have pages that work as a shortcut from the top to the bottom or from the far left to the far right. 

1. Draw out your current sitemap. Does it offer a narrative path, or is it simply a collection of loosely related pages? 
2. Can you think of ways to begin grouping pages and products that will make your website easier for a consumer to navigate?
3. Instead of grouping your products by department or product types, draw a hypothetical sitemap that takes clients through the page according to their life stage. 

Each click, scroll, and pause is a decision—a decision to stay, leave, or go deeper into your website. You’ll never help a client pick the right mortgage if you can’t get them to the mortgage page. Your website IS a decisioning tool. Make sure you build it so clients decide to stay.

A Rebrand Strategy That Won’t Leave You Reeling

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There are two kinds of banks: those who get to rebrand and those who don’t. For those who get to initiate a new brand, it’s one of the most exhilarating (and scary) projects you’ll undertake. The entire future of an institution is your responsibility and there are only two options as to how it will turn out: great or terrible. There is no middle ground.

If things go well, you might be looking at a promotion (or another bank looking to snatch you up to help them rebrand). If things go poorly? Well. You might be getting the boot.

There’s a bigger problem, though: It’s almost impossible to immediately determine which way it will go.

Rebranding has an almost supernatural reputation. We talk about capturing the essence of an organization or the spirit of the brand. It’s intimidating. It sounds like you need a medium or a spirit guide, or at least, an Ouija board.

For most, any rebrand is their first.

We want to help you through all the prognostication and soul searching, but we’ll skip the Ouija board and hopefully demystify the process.

That doesn’t mean we can remove the fear. The best analogy I can give for your first rebrand is a bit like skydiving. If you go on a legit excursion, the instructors will spend far more time on the ground training you than actually plummeting from the sky. All of that instruction doesn’t keep you from being scared when you poke your head through the door and see 13,000 feet of nothing separating you from the ground. Having a qualified expert strapped to your back doesn’t keep your heart from racing. But, at some point, you have to jump. When you have to take that leap, we want to make rebranding a little less nerve-wracking.

START WITH THE WHY

Everyone, including wet-behind-the-ears interns, quotes from the gospel of Simon Sinek. Common knowledge doesn’t make it bad knowledge. And that’s the case with Sinek’s number one commandment: Start with the why. So let’s start there. Why rebrand?

The two most common and pragmatic reasons banks rebrand are geographic expansion and mergers.¹

The First Bank of Smith County doesn’t make much sense when you expand into Carrol County.

It gets a bit more complex with mergers and acquisitions. Sometimes banks find that their name conflicts in a newly expanded footprint, or you run into the same geographic issues mentioned above. Other times, banks take advantage of the upheaval to create a stronger name or identity.

If this is your “why,” it’s tempting to react with a simple modification. We are now the First Bank of Smith and Carrol Counties. That’s not getting anyone into the branding hall of fame.

Perhaps everyone finally noticed (and agreed) that your colors are outdated or your logo is just ugly. Then your “why” might be aesthetically based. In this case, the easy part is agreeing to change. The hard part is when someone wants to pay homage to the old brand—worried that the audience won’t recognize you. This is a valid fear, one that should be explored, but too much energy can easily be expended on this effort. Too many banks wind up compromising. This is when First Bank of Smith County becomes FBSC.

Let me be clear. This is a bad idea. Please do not be tempted to go into the middle ground of abbreviations. These attempts to hold on to the past (that your clients probably don’t even care about) normally leave you with no brand name at all. Sure, you can cite UPS, GEICO, or AT&T as examples of successfully abbreviated companies, but I doubt your bank wants to spend the BILLIONS of dollars each of those brands spent over years to attain their status. These examples only prove that one can be successful with an abbreviated name. It doesn’t mean you should.

When you rebrand, you can be anything. In the earlier example, the initials FBSC don’t communicate anything. There are many clever ways to uphold existing brand equity and pay homage without reducing yourself to a set of letters that can’t recall any connection to their roots. Want to test it? Without internet search, can you immediately recall what UPS, GEICO, and AT&T abbreviate. Even if you got them right, do you associate their expanded names with what makes these companies successful?

Often your reasons for rebranding are most important to you and your colleagues and often less relevant to your audience and clients. Your reason for rebranding should help inform your rebrand strategy, but it should not necessarily be your rebranding strategy.

Your true “why” has to be deeper.

No matter the predicating factors, you should be rebranding to make a stronger identity. Brand is the foundation of all marketing efforts that will follow. Brand is the fulcrum that helps you with all the heavy lifting to come. If your name and logo are unique and memorable, earning name ID and top-of-mind awareness will be easier and cheaper. A strong brand message can reduce your advertising cost because word of mouth will be easier to create.

Brand strength is your goal. It’s your why. Now you’re asking “how!?” We’ll get there, but we have to ask “who?” next.

WHO IS THE BRAND FOR?

Everything in branding comes back to audience. The better you understand your Who (your audience) the stronger and more successful your rebrand will be. Think about who your rebrand is for. The good news is that most marketers overcomplicate audience. We’re going to help you simplify it.

Before you dig deeper, you need to pick between two audiences. Are you rebranding for your current clients or potential clients? It’s never an equal split between both. And, spoiler alert, it should lean toward potential clients.

Can you rebrand for new clients without alienating your constituents? Yes.

And the answer is so easy we’re not going to expound very much: Just communicate with them. Unless you drastically changed your core offerings, how you do business, or moved a headquarters, you’re probably not going to lose clients—if you communicate the changes with them.

Now that we know there are two groups, let’s add a bit more detail to help guide your efforts.

• Ugly/Outdated Brand — Gone are the days of one community bank competing with another. Even if you’re one of two or three banks in town, you’re competing with national sentiment. In other words, if your brand doesn’t look like it could compete with a national brand, it could be diminished in your audience’s perception. Potential clients will judge your ability to fulfill a mortgage by the intelligence and sophistication of your marketing, and that is based on your brand.²
• Forgettable/Confusing Brand — This is similar to the example above. More than two-thirds of banks share a similar name. This similarity comes from shared mundane terms such as Citizens, Farmers, First, National, etc. There’s a lot of competition for your clients’ headspace; if they don’t remember your brand, you’re not going to convert them.
• Misleading/Alienating Brand — Do you ever wonder why certain clients only have one product with your bank? It could be because they think of your shop as a business bank/ag bank/retail bank, instead of a full-service financial institution. You don’t want to spend money perpetuating that to a broader audience. Perhaps your name is too rural, urban, traditional, modern, etc., so potential clients assume it is not for them. It’s hard to be surprised when Merchants & Farmers is not raking in the retail DDAs when no one refers to themselves as merchants and you already have all the farmers’ business.

“Why” and “who” combine to make up the foundation of a great brand, but we have a few other questions to consider.

What . . . ?

What are we even doing? What’s on the table? What about the logo? What about the name, tag-line, and market position?

It might sound ridiculous, but I can speak from experience: I’ve seen rebrands fail due to the fact that no one agreed on which component could (or should) change.

When there’s a sacred cow—i.e., “the logo is off-limits, but change everything else”—it’s usually due to internal politics. Other times, it’s lack of communication.

Go back to the why and be brave enough to make a firm decision. Let that inform the rest of the process. When someone is stuck on brand equity of a generic name or says, “we can’t touch the logo,” it might be time to hang up the process. A 60 percent rebrand doesn’t yield 60 percent of the results. In fact, it usually has negative returns.

WHEN ARE WE READY TO ROCK AND ROLL?

After everyone gets on board with the process, a sort of euphoria takes over and “brand-launch fever” starts to spread. The symptoms are shortened timelines, heightened expectations, and general lack of awareness.

One of the worst things you can do is shortchange your rebrand timeline.

Start with your launch date and work backwards. Make certain to give enough time for each aspect of the process. Work with your rebrand firm to understand their timeline. Build in time for reviews (remember, your board is going to want to sign off on this). Look at major events on the calendar. Don’t launch your brand in the middle of other large news events such as major elections, local events, or other distractions.

Also, don’t overlook internal buy-in. Schedule an internal launch well in advance of your external unveil. If your employees aren’t on board, it’ll be that much harder to establish your brand in the communities you serve.

All of these meetings and events can be difficult to schedule. Weeks become months. And the best of timelines go bust in a hurry.

And we haven’t even mentioned the other items tied to this: new website, signage, etc. There are many moving parts and your best friends will be a cautious outlook and a comprehensive calendar.

WHERE DOES MY REBRAND LIVE?

There are a lot of existential, highfalutin, and heady elements to doing a rebrand.

Who is my bank? What’s our authentic self? If my bank were a dog, would it be Doberman, a golden retriever, or an Airedale? Conceptual is good, but being grounded in reality will help guide your rebrand from little baby idea to grown-ass rebrand for the real world. Hold your agency and your internal constituents accountable.

The big questions to help ground your rebrand are around where it will live. Think through how your current clients and potential clients will experience the new brand. Are you going to do a big rollout event and announce it? Are you buying media to do a campaign around the rebrand? If so, what type of media do you typically buy and is it appropriate for a rebrand announcement?

Probably the biggest “where’s it going to live” question is about how the new brand will be represented in branches. Are you going to redesign branches? New signage? New paint? These details will help inform your rebrand strategy and make it most effective for the medium where you’ll primarily communicate it. They will also affect your timeline, so proceed with caution.

A REBRAND REALLY IS FIGHT OR FLIGHT

Rebrands are the coolest, hardest, most dynamic, rewarding challenges a marketing team can undertake. Even the smoothest rebrand will push you and your team to articulate your authentic self, simplify complex ideas, and challenge long-held assumptions about your institution. It’s a big, big undertaking to say the least.

It really can feel like launching yourself from a perfectly safe airplane at 13,000 feet. But the reality of rebranding, like the reality of skydiving, is once you’re in a position to do it, there’s really no turning back. You’re prepared. Now jump and enjoy the excitement.

¹Is this true? Probably. We did a quick vote around the Mabus office and most people agreed with me, which they don’t normally do.

²Bank embarrassment most often manifests when clients are out to dinner and split the check. Everyone throws their credit cards on the table, and your poor, loyal client has to defend this ridiculously designed card that looks like it was created with MS Paint in the early ’90s.