Why is most bank marketing so dull?There are several reasons.
The best marketing differentiates: Banking is heavily regulated, so most banks offer pretty much the same services and products. And that shows in conventional bank marketing.
The law of supply and demand influences the level of excitement any company can generate: How many banks are within a five mile radius of your business or home? How many more can you access and utilize on the Web? So much for being the only game in town.
Marketing for which you could swap out one company's name and replace it with another's is lame. But banks do it every single day, because it is genuinely hard to say something unique.
It doesn't have to be this way. Here are tips for better bank marketing in 2012...
•Speaking the truth about what people and businesses are facing, what they need and what really matters in their banking relationships can indeed help.
•Researching customer and non-customer needs and impressions of your bank is well worth your while.
•Having the nerve to confront your competitors' missteps (charging for debit card use is a great example) is worth considering. Their mistake... your benefit.
•Being upfront and out-front about what actually differentiates your bank matters. To go a step farther, make some changes that DO differentiate your bank. Stay open late! Offer personal and private banking. Help customers avoid fees. Provide out-of-the box products - it IS possible even within the bounds of this regulatory climate.
•Focus your messaging more than ever before. Katelyn and Justin, age 26 and newly living together have different wants and needs than Esther, 69 and on her own for the first time ever. Or John, saving for his daughter's education and hos own retirement... while paying two mortgages. Or Charlene, striving to grow her software development start-up. These differences call you to use micro-marketing including new methods of interactive and social media outreach to speak WITH your prospects and customers in an authentic voice. And to hear what they have to say as well.
•Newspaper ads and stuffers may be fun, but are not the way most new customers will be won. Not anymore. See above.
•Use your online banking portal to cross-market, but don't go overboard. When people want to pay a bill online and are deluged with less-than-relevant pop-up ads or in-portal "personal" emails that turn out to be globally issued sales messages, they turn off.
•Most of all, banks must SERVE a new world. Sorry to bring this up, but banks, especially large ones, have lost the public's trust and need to regain it. Walk the walk, providing the services customers need and the honesty they deserve. Then talk about what you do - and your customers and influentials will too.
