It’s the time of year when thoughts turn to spring. Days are warming, plants are budding, and our minds turn to a good spring clean-up! It’s a good time to think about a little sprucing up of your marketing tools and initiatives as well – taking a look at those often overlooked details that need a good clearing, reevaluation or refresh. And we’ve got several tips that will improve your marketing, branding and culture at your bank.
#1: Take a fresh look at your customer experience
Customer experience is one of the most critical aspects of a bank’s marketing strategy. A positive customer experience can lead to increased brand loyalty, while a negative experience can quickly drive customers away.
Research is the key to gaining insight into your customer’s satisfaction with their experience both at the branch and online. And consistent surveys, secret shopping and monitoring of customer feedback on social media will provide a trendline to indicate improvement or decline.
Refresh your customer experience, review the data and trendline over one to three years and work with leadership to identify strategies for improvement – especially online as more customers turn to mobile and online banking to ensure the best experience possible.
#2: Conduct a culture check-up
Your bank’s culture can have a significant impact on your marketing strategy. A strong company culture can improve employee morale, reduce turnover, and attract top talent. It can also help you build a loyal customer base by demonstrating your commitment to values such as transparency, honesty, and accountability. And it certainly drives those positive customer experiences you want to create.
To refresh your company culture, you might want to focus on your bank’s core beliefs. For some companies, these are the “mission, vision and values.” For progressive banks utilizing our Live Your Brand discipline, these are the Brand Leadership Frames – a system of tools and mantras that guide brand strategy. Are your core beliefs vibrant and living standards that are talked about, understood, lived out and rewarded at your bank? Again, research can provide valuable insight and can be as simple as asking employees to list the core values or state the bank’s mission. If folks can’t provide quick, accurate responses to these simple questions, it’s time for a culture refresh for sure!
#3: Clean up your KPIs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critical metrics that can help you measure the success of your marketing efforts. Common marketing KPIs for banks include customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer satisfaction. By regularly monitoring your KPIs, you can make data-driven decisions about your marketing strategy, and track your progress over time.
To refresh your KPIs, consider adding new metrics that align with your marketing goals, such as website traffic, social media engagement, or email open rates. You can also use tools such as Google Analytics and customer feedback surveys to track your KPIs and measure the impact of your marketing efforts.
#4: Clean up that website
A website audit can help you to identify areas of your website that need improvement, and make changes that will improve user experience, drive traffic, and increase conversions. A comprehensive website audit should include a review of your website’s design, content, navigation, and functionality. Pay special attention to those pages that are receiving the highest traffic and those that are rarely hit as it may be time to trim the fat and simplify to improve the customer journey.
Ensure your website incorporates responsive design, making your website mobile-friendly, and improving the speed and loading time of your website. You can also update your website’s content to ensure it accurately reflects your mission and values, and use data-driven insights to optimize your website for search engines.
#5: Put fresh eyes on your communications to make sure they are on brand
With so many communications channels and so much content coming from your bank, it’s easy for your bank’s visual brand standards and voice to begin to get a little lost or fuzzy. A bank’s look, feel and positioning are major competitive weapons, so stay out front in maintaining your graphic identity and voice.
To refresh, conduct an audit of all print, paid, online and social media communications from the past six months, year or more. Notice where your message or visuals may be slipping. Pay special attention to your social media channels which can be cluttered with content that is off look and off brand message. Seek to bring all communications in line so that your bank projects a strong, identifiable image.
These tips are sure to brighten and focus your marketing efforts as you move into the second quarter ensuring that you have your marketing house in order and can expect sunny skies for your bank’s future!