OCTOBER 28, 2020
Holiday Campaigns Made Simple with DXP
With sweater weather in full swing, our superstar digital marketers are kicking their targeted holiday campaigns into high gear. With the ever-rising number of digital touch points to consider, the need for consistency combined with relevance across all digital platforms can create challenges for the modern marketer. Financial institutions need to put the customer experience first as they try to reach varying audiences across varying digital channels. The right Digital Experience Platform (DXP) can meet this need by delivering relevant, consistent communications across all digital channels to customers and members, which is especially helpful during the holiday season.
Customers of today expect optimal digital experiences that are unified across every touchpoint like those delivered by Netflix and Amazon. But what about financial institutions? The fact is that if community banks and credit unions are not focused on engaging their banking consumers in a similar manner, there are several upstarts and newer Fintechs like Rocket Mortgage, PayPal andVenmo who are. That’s an incredible loss of precious wallet share.
Digital marketing superstars are investing in a DXP which can deliver AI-powered financial stories. These stories apply to all digital channels and are smart, individualized, and relevant. These stories are ready to engage the banking consumer without seeming invasive or annoying. This balance is achieved by the AI's awareness of how the consumer is engaging so that future stories get even smarter. And, even more impressive, DXP is scalable meaning that thousands of communications are being delivered at any given moment.
It comes down to this: Either a financial institution has no idea about their consumers or they do. Those that have taken the time to really “know” individual account holders is evidenced by how they communicate to them across every digital touchpoint. FIs that are ready for this level of relevant communication will invest in a DXP experience, letting an integrated software solution enhance the customer experience with a click.
Just a simple look around demonstrates that expectations of digital customers are high. And these expectations will continue to evolve as the digital landscape changes. DXP orchestrates data-powered campaigns that you can Design Once, Engage Everywhere(TM) to ensure that the right campaigns and stories reach the right customers at the right time… every time. Retain and cross-sell to banking consumers by showing that you know them and care about them as individuals. Provide a deep, authentic and personal touch with tech that automates and powers your communications. Yes, it’s sophisticated technology, but it’s also easy and affordable by design. Even the smallest FI can acquire and implement it for that rich and relevant human-touch customer experience provides huge returns.
This holiday season, consider DeepTarget DXP for intelligent marketing and sales automation that make your holiday marketing a breeze. During this holiday season and beyond, our one-stop solution will deliver rich holiday content and the technology that creates unique and meaningful experiences for individual banking consumers. Grow deposits, increase loans, gain loyalty, and boost revenue with ease.
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SEPTEMBER 16, 2020
The Pumpkin Spice Effect
The pumpkin spice latte points to a bigger principle that can be applied to just about every industry to create loyalty and long-term customer relationships.
As the autumn season rolls in, it brings with it a cooler breeze, festive décor, and the now-expected annual “Pumpkin Spice” craze. The extreme popularity of this seasonal treat may cause you to ask “Why do we like pumpkin spice so much?” And you are not alone. In an NBC News article that discusses the popularity of this quintessentially fall beverage, Sensory Neuroscientist Dr. John McGann says that it’s all about connection. “Smell anatomically has a more direct connection to classical memory regions in the brain.” In other words, the taste and smell of pumpkin spice means more to us than the beverage itself. It connects us to nostalgic feelings of home, holidays, and happiness. That is a lot of cognitive work for one hot beverage to achieve!
The pumpkin spice latte points to a bigger principle that can be applied to just about every industry. In the nearly two decades since Starbucks first released this seasonal treat, it has become an identifier that many coffee drinkers want to align with because they see in it as a representation of an important part of themselves. A daily pumpkin spice latte may now be accompanied by a pumpkin spice mug, pumpkin spice tee shirt, even a pumpkin spice bumper sticker! This fierce sense of identity all started with an interesting principle…customization.
Gone are the days when a coffee shop sells just… well… coffee. Vanilla Latte. Caramel Cloud Macchiato. Caffe Mocha. The wide array of choices are all customizations of the central product of coffee. Sure, you can still get a good ole plain cup of joe, but with just a little customization – some syrup, some sugar, some milk – you can create a tailored experience for you that builds loyalty.
Much like coffee, a customized banking experience can go a long way to creating a long-term relationship with your account holders. Slight variations to the traditional financial services can feel like so much more to the individual customer. You can get a checking account, or you can get a senior checking account, or a checkless checking account, or a student checking account. All these slight variations to a traditional account feel like a more personal product that is more closely aligned with one’s identity. Well, guess what, that’s because they ARE.
And loyalty is rewarding. By adding some banking “flavors” to your mix, you can create relationships that go far beyond a financial transaction to garner the kind of long-term customer connections that every industry envies. From seasonal promotions to targeted campaigns, relevant data-driven marketing offers a tailored user experience as specific to the needs of the individual as their favorite cup of joe.
DeepTarget enables financial institutions to plan and design data-powered campaigns one time and use them to engage their account holders in unique digital experiences across all digital app spaces. The COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed the need for digital engagement with customers. In June 2020, the DeepTarget Digital Experience Platform served up more than 260 million impressions to 1.93 million digital banking customers resulting in over 12,100 new deposits, loans, and card acquisitions and these statistics show a steady increase month-over-month, increasing customer engagement, loyalty and revenue.
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NOVEMBER 15, 2019
Three Thanksgiving Campaigns That Will Warm Your Heart
The only thing sweeter than sweet potato pies donning Thanksgiving spreads across the county are these sweet ideas for marketing campaigns to kick off your holiday season.
The only thing sweeter than sweet potato pies donning Thanksgiving spreads across the county are these sweet ideas for marketing campaigns to kick off your holiday season.
Banksgiving
When a Ally Bank representative asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” A customer replied, “A million dollars would be nice.” Ally’s human-centric culture responded by declaring “Banksgiving” and giving away gift cards (most totaling $25, not $1m but still!). More on Banksgiving here.
#MakeTodayMatter
Remember when TD Bank chose 24 of its customers and gave them 24 hours fund their holiday wishes for their community? From helping the homeless and assisting the elderly, TD Bank touched the hearts of thousands and funded an inspirational start to the season of giving! More on #MakeTodayMatter here.
Black Friday
Who says banks, credit unions, and financial institutions can’t jump on the Black Friday andCyber Monday bandwagon? First Montana Bank ran a Black Friday promotion starting the day with 1.5% on secured loans and 3.5% on unsecured loans, bumping up the rate every 30 minutes. Their promotion brought in over $2 million in new loans in just four hours. More on First Montana Bank’s Black Friday Campaign.
Feel inspired? Feel festive? Feel like planning a fourth quarter campaign that warms the heart of your customers? It’s not too late! DeepTarget’s smart, one-stop solution and holiday banner library allows our customers to plan their quarter, on average, in about two hours!
DeepTarget’s intelligent marketing and sales automation is ready to make your holiday marketing a breeze. DeepTarget is in use by hundreds of credit unions and banks of varying sizes across the country delivery relevant product offers and pinpointed one-to-one messaging to their banking customers through mobile banking, online banking, web, and email. This holiday season, engage your customers in a seamless communications experience, wherever, whenever and however they bank. Contact us at success@deeptarget.com.
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OCTOBER 30, 2018
DeepTarget “On Fire” Amazon Fire Giveaway
DeepTarget customers are prone to hit a hot streak – getting up to 40X industry standard response rates and 25% boosted cross-sell revenues. Smart software, smarter customers!
DeepTarget customers are prone to hit a hot streak – getting up to 40X industry standard response rates and 25% boosted cross-sell revenues. Smart software, smarter customers!
To celebrate them and to share their stories, we are hosting the DeepTarget “On Fire” giveaway from Friday, November 2 to Friday, November 16.
For a limited time, you and your coworkers will have a chance to win an Amazon’s #1 Bestseller, the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa.
Here’s how it works:
Facebook:
• For one entry: Like our Facebook page
• For two entries: Like our Facebook page and like a post in our On Fire album
• For additional entries: Like our Facebook page, like a post in our On Fire album, and tag a coworker(s) in the comment section (each tag is an additional entry)
Twitter:
• For one entry: follow us on Twitter
• For two entries: follow us on Twitter and like an On Fire post (On Fire posts will be labeled)
• For additional entries: follow us on Twitter, like an On Fire post (On Fire posts will be labeled), and tag a coworker(s) in the comment section OR retweet the post (each tag and retweet is an additional entry)
LinkedIn:
• For one entry: follow us on LinkedIn
• For two entries: follow us on LinkedIn and like an On Fire post (On Fire posts will be labeled)
• For additional entries: follow us on LinkedIn and like an On Fire post (On Fire posts will be labeled), and tag a coworker(s) in the comment section OR share the post (each tag and share is an additional entry)
You can enter across all three platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. The winner will be announced on all three channels on Saturday, November 17.
Good luck! Here’s hoping you experience the same kind of hot streak our customers do!
Only U.S. entries qualify to win.
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OCTOBER 8, 2018
Fall Campaigns Raise Revenues
Football, pumpkin spice, scarves and sweaters, crisp clean air… while surveys vary from 27-45 percent year to year, one thing is clear: Fall reigns supreme as the favored season of American consumers.
Football, pumpkin spice, scarves and sweaters, crisp clean air… while surveys vary from 27-45 percent year to year, one thing is clear: Fall reigns supreme as the favored season of American consumers.
Every season has its own unique identity with distinctive pastimes, events, and holidays that literally cause consumers to feel differently from season to season. These seasonal moods are prime opportunities for the resourceful marketer. Recognizing the feelings and fun of a season can greatly enhance a consumer’s experience and thus their likeliness to buy. And the best part? Most seasonal campaigns can be done in a relatively short time span and small budget.
Don’t have specialized autumn marketing plans for your bank or credit union? Don’t worry! There is still time. Take a look at these three steps for creating fall campaigns that observe and remind your account holders of the best feelings of this season.
1. Make a plan.
Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday need to be marked on your social media calendar and shared with your team. This calendar needs to include campaign wording as well as where and how often it will be shared with your customers.
Remember that a campaign does not necessarily have to expensive or extensive to be effective. For example, this bank shared through their social media channels that one customer’s child would win the “Home Loan Halloween Costume Contest.” Contest entry was just bringing their child in costume to visit their branch on Halloween. They shared photos of the costumed kids on social media and the photo with the most likes was announced as the winner on November
2. Create a meaningful attraction and let it do the work
The easiest way to break through all the holiday marketing “noise” is to offer a seasonal promotion that is meaningful for your consumers. No decorations necessary, simply choose what product(s) you will offer at an attractive discount, then share this limited time offer consistently across OLB, mobile, and in your branch locations.
Platforms like DeepTarget make this simple, as you easily create an ad campaign once and share it to your target audience across all digital channels, ensuring maximum exposure, thereby increasing likelihood of related sales. Plus, the easy interface makes designing an ad that features a seasonal hot cup of joe or falling leaves against an autumn palette is as easy as a drag and drop.
3. Throw in a gift
Let’s face it. Who isn’t swayed by a bonus gift, no matter how small? And the great news here is that the giveaway possibilities are literally endless: Fall feature collections from local boutiques, jewelry stores, or outdoor stores; tickets for a local fall festival or pumpkin patch, a catered Thanksgiving Day meal, a cash prize, you name it – the list goes on and on. A small investment can fetch great returns. It’s even better that you are investing in your local community!
And you can REALLY sweeten the deal by jumpstarting the season of giving, partnering with a local nonprofit for a cash donation or a dollar matching program allowing your customers that feeling of personal satisfaction when they are giving back to their community or those in need.
While the autumn months fall in the third quarter of the calendar, for many they usher in a feeling of new beginnings. As the temperatures and colors outdoor change, consumers feelings do too. Connecting your customers with the products that help them achieve their new beginnings at this time of year is mutually beneficial.
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SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
17 Facts About Mobile You May Not Know
Mobile marketing is here to stay. Financial Institutions who wait to adopt mobile marketing strategies will find it harder to reach and grow their audience. Here are seventeen facts about mobile that every marketing manager needs to know (but may not) to motivate marketing on mobile today.
Mobile marketing is here to stay. Financial Institutions who wait to adopt mobile marketing strategies will find it harder to reach and grow their audience. Here are seventeen facts about mobile that every marketing manager needs to know (but may not) to motivate marketing on mobile today.
• Mobile devices have altered the way consumers access their bank.
• Web psychologist Liraz Margalit says that smart phones, mobile access, and the vast amounts of information on the internet have “changed wiring” of our brains as it feeds the human need for control.
• With over 60% of e-commerce starting on a mobile device, your customers realize the banking potential they hold in their hands.
• In the past five years, the number of people accessing their bank account and financial services has more than doubled, now reaching 61%. The majority of these users are millennials.
• Nearly 59% of 18-to-34-year-old American mobile phone users will access their bank, credit union, credit card or brokerage account via mobile browser, app or SMS on their phones at least monthly.
• 32% of American digital banking users are willing to leave their current banking relationship for a better digital experience.
• Mobile device adoption rates are increasing at an incredible rate, surpassing 80% in recent years.
• 73% of U.S. adults now own desktop or laptop computers, while roughly 53% now own a tablet. In fact, the number of mobile devices has outpaced the global population!
• Pew Research Center shares that the number of Americans who own smartphones is now 77%, up from just 35% from their first survey of smartphone ownership conducted just seven years ago.
• Average smartphone conversion rates are up to 64% compared to the average desktop conversion rates.
• Americans spend an average of 10 hours per day on mobile devices. This means that the average American spends over 500 hours per year communicating via mobile technology, including navigating website.
• Phones are carried with people all the time, and checked on average about 74 times per day.
• An ever increasing number of Gen Z and Millennial consumers no longer use desktops and laptops on a consistent basis. If fact, some of them use mobile devices exclusively.
• Many large-scale businesses have shifted to digital marketing.
• World-wide, the push to “mobilize” banking is in full swing, attracting not only major banks but community banks and credit unions as well.
• If banking customers utilize mobile banking for account transactions and check deposits, the overall number of visits to brick-and-mortar branches decreases by 33%.
• Financial institutions that digitize the most important consumer journeys can increase revenues up to 20%and reduce costs by up to 25%.
DeepTarget digital marketing solutions are in use by hundreds of credit unions and banks across the country. DeepTarget’s open, enabling platform easily integrates and already works within multiple mobile banking systems. Automating the use of customer information it delivers relevant product offers and pinpointed one-to-one messaging to their banking customers through mobile banking and other channels such as online banking, web, and email all the while engaging them in a seamless communications experience, wherever, whenever and however they bank.
Want to know more? Download your FREE copy of DeepTarget’s eBook “10 Reasons To Make Mobile Marketing A Priority For Your Bank Or Credit Union”
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AUGUST 6, 2018
Five Financial Generation Segments And How To Reach Each
Banks and credit unions own a wealth of information about their account-holders, enabling the ability to create a communication plan to reach every account holder – collectively and individually.
Banks and credit unions own a wealth of information about their account-holders, enabling the ability to create a communication plan to reach every account holder – collectively and individually. Instead of mass marketing, the time is now to use this customer information carefully and intelligently to communicate with them in a targeted and personalized manner.
Generational segmentation is one of the simplest yet most effective methods for communicating products and services to your overall audience. A generation comprises a group of people born within a similar span of time (about 15 years) who share a comparable age and life stage and who were shaped by a particular time span’s events, trends and developments.By using generation as a basis for segmentation, we can target certain patterns that are driven from generational differences. Generational marketing is an approach to communication that recognizes and utilizes generational archetypes, patterns or paradigms.
While not the most sophisticated form of targeting, it is a simple and straightforward way to get started as you begin to effectively utilize customer data to move away from traditional mass, “shot-gun” marketing. Results have shown that members of a particular generational group do have much in common and respond well to messages that target them. Translating generations to relevant communication implies the use of images, messages and offers that would resonate with that particular group.
Financial marketing primarily focuses on five generational segments:
The Silent Generation (1928 – 1945)
While some of the Silent Generation use the Internet and social media, they also still like to be reached via traditional media such as direct mail. It is important that the same message, visuals and offers be presented on both digital and traditional marketing channels.
What appeals to them?
• Family values, a sense of family and belonging
• Savings and financial security, leaving a legacy
• Simple layouts and direct messaging
Baby Boomers (1946 – 1964)
Baby Boomers prefer stability to change and tend to be very loyal to brands that build trust over the years. A bank or credit union that utilizes consistent messaging and value propositions generally performs well with this generation.
What appeals to them?
• A loyalty program that keeps them engaged
• An institution that offers multiple banking products
• Products that offer cash-back incentives
Generation X (1965 – 1979)
Many of this generation are not saving for their retirement or children’s college education as they had planned so programs and incentives to save are appreciated. Gen-X loves to support a cause so share your institution’s charitable outreach with Gen-X account holders.
What appeals to them?
• Savings and coupons
• Contributing to a worthy cause
• Lifestyle nurture programs (messaging like “We’ve been with you all along”)
Generation Y / Millennials (1980 – 1994)
While this generation is very nimble and searches many options before making a decision, they are also drawn to rewards programs. 77% of millennials participate or are willing to participate in rewards or loyalty programs.
What appeals to them?
• Focus on innovation and stay on trend
• Offer and emphasize reviews to show reliability and trustworthiness
• Provide social media incentives
• Offer rewards or loyalty programs
Generation Z / The Net Generation (1995 – Present)
This generation’s buying power is a massive $44 billion and growing. Gen Z is tech savvy across all digital channels. Messaging must be quantitative, quick, and authentic in “snack-able” content that captures their attention and proves the value added.
What appeals to them?
• Use quantitative data
• Reviews and testimonials resonate
• Provide a unified user experience across all digital channels
• Messaging should be to-the-point
While each individual has their own unique personality and responses will not be uniform; responses rates will certainly be far better than a non-targeted, mass marketing approach that tries to show all products to all users despite differences in life stage, finances, and product preferences characterized by generational preference.
Let DeepTarget help your bank or credit union begin communicating with a data-driven strategy today!
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JULY 5, 2018
Your Website Is Your Digital Billboard: Is It Appealing To Your Traffic?
51% of U.S. adults bank online. That is 61% of Internet users. Additionally, 32 % of U.S. adults, or 35% of cell phone owners bank using their mobile phones. This means that, along with being a hub for your product information, your bank or credit union’s website is one of your most important marketing assets. For better or for worse, Paul Cookson said it best:
“Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.”
Let’s discuss the five factors that make a great financial website.
1. Convenience
Your customers are busy. They do not want to spend time searching your entire website for what they need. A good website provides quick and easy access to a website visitor. Ensure that your website is organized with the target audience in mind. This includes simple navigation with prominent links and services located at the top and a logical progression to secondary services. Items like “Open An Account” or “Check Our Rates” should be easily seen at a glance.
Quick tip: Test your websites structure with a “3 Click Quiz” by trying to navigate to any service or product within just three clicks from the home page.
With so many customers accessing your website from mobile devices, make sure your website uses responsive programming so that the design and menu easily adapt to smaller screens.
When all else fails, a handy dandy search bar can be a great tool for your customers to find what they need quickly.
2. Content
The content on your website needs to be straight forward and easy to read. Especially on a mobile device, webpages with paragraphs of content can be frustrating so try to be as concise as possible, offering website visitors useful information and linking helpful tools or resources they may need. Your message needs to be simple and written with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind so that keywords are prominent and easily searchable.
Quick tip: Test your content on your personal mobile device to ensure that it is easily to scan from a small screen.
3. Community
The way your website looks is a testament to your bank or credit union. The design needs to be simple and striking, as well as consistent with your brand. Additionally, the design needs to connect with your community. Be visually consistent with your geographical area and demographics of your target audience to communicate your bank’s connection with the community.
Quick Tip: Consider hiring a professional, local photographer to capture high resolution, horizontal, beautiful photos that can be used for your websites home page, page headers, backgrounds, and reused for your other marketing materials.
One way to capture this and create lifelong loyal customers, is to photograph your customers: A farmer who received an agriculture loan, a mortgage customer next to their SOLD sign, a business loan customer outside their café, etc.
4. Contact
Even with the move to digital in recent years, it is still important to offer a personal touch for banks and credit unions. One way to offer achieve this is to feature your organization’s executives and staff on a team page. For local institutions, this may include everyone on staff; larger organizations may want to feature officers of their departments with simple contact numbers or emails. This feature may seem easy to exclude, but offers a very “human” touch that is important to some customers.
Secondly, ensure that your website offers correct and easy to understand map and directions for your location. Especially for organizations with multiple branches, having a map with locations, directions, and a contact number is key to keeping customers happy.
Quick Tip: Don’t forget to test your maps and directions to ensure that first time customers can easily use the directions provided on your website to find your location.
5. Consistency
Your website is the central hub for all your product and service information, and needs to be the landing spot for all your marketing communications. Having the same, targeted ads found on your website that are also in mobile and email communications create a consistency that reinforces your message and builds trust. With a software like DeepTarget Web it can be effortless for you to display banner ads that promote your brand and your products to your website visitors. A web channel that is fully integrated with our omni-channel platform provides intelligent banner ad delivery for the website of your financial institution.
DeepTarget can enhance your website by offering a powerful, enabling communications platform to showcase new products or campaigns, use the banners to inform and educate, and of course to build and promote the brand of your financial institution. There is a solution focused on leveraging the websites of financial institutions to engage visitors called DeepTarget Web. We hope you check it out. This can be yet another tool in your digital arsenal to engage your customers and visitors who you should work to turn into customers.
Let’s get started! Connect with and engage your website visitors every day, 24/7 with DeepTarget.
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JUNE 15, 2018
Five Keys to Craft Your Message
DeepTarget’s goal is to help financial institutions effectively and affordably engage with their customers using personalized and relevant messaging with digital marketing technology. To do this, we offer our comprehensive communication platform which intelligently sorts and filters your customers’ data to easily provide targeted and personalized offers to individuals through digital channels such as online banking, mobile banking, email and web. But that’s not all we offer! Our experts are here to help you determine the best methods and messages to reach your customers and members. In addition to providing the initial messaging for your first campaigns, we have five key tips to crafting your message that we have gathered over our years of experience:
1. Be Thoughtful
The age-old adage “Think before you speak” comes to mind. Consumers are receiving tons of information on a daily basis across every channel they interact with. Organizations must think before they start talking to ensure that they are connecting and resonating instead of just adding more “noise” to these conversations.
2. Be Positive
Your brand needs to be a reflection of your mission and company culture. Stay positive, informative, helpful, and avoid your communications becoming a platform for negativity or complaining.
3. Be Authentic
Have a genuine desire to connect with individuals. You need to believe in your organization and services before sharing them with others. Once you are excited to share your products, reach out in an authentic manner. Many organizations are using video to make this happen. Even with traditional advertising, your messages can resonate by using lay terms and using images of everyday people and situations that your customers can relate to.
4. Be Consistent
Being consistent with brand, tone, and offers across platforms builds momentum, trust and recognition.
5. Be Smart
Every business has to determine the most efficient way to use their time and resources to communicate. It’s important that you measure the success of every campaign to determine what works best for your customers and your business. In this age of digital marketing, not using analytics is not an option! In addition, mobile and other digital communications are surpassing all other marketing methods for reaching your targeted audiences as increasingly more people rely on consistent Internet access through smartphones and hand-held devices.
With these five guidelines, your financial institutions communications are more likely to succeed. Paired with our technology, it is a recipe for success. DeepTarget customers – hundreds of credit unions and banks of various sizes – achieve record levels of high quality leads each month, as much as seven times the industry standard, by using automated data intelligence to deliver timely, valuable offers.
DeepTarget is a simpler, faster way to accomplish more with less. What are you waiting for? Contact us today.
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APRIL 25, 2018
Anatomy of an Ad
With warmer weather, green grass and blooming flowers, we know summer is quickly approaching. And with summer comes a whole new blitz of summer-oriented ads. With the warmth of summer come outdoor activities, family beach trips and summer vacations so, of course, it’s great for advertisements to capture that sunny spirit of summer. As new ad campaigns are gearing up for the changing season, we’ll dive into the anatomy of a good ad to help your financial institution market and communicate effectively to capture your customers’ interest and prompt them to act.
A Good Ad Connects With Its Audience
Connection with the viewer needs to be accomplished within just a few seconds. Jamie Turner writes in an article for the 60 Second Marketer that the average viewer looks at an ad for only two seconds: 1.5 seconds in observing the visuals with just 0.5 seconds in looking at your copy. His advice? Hook the reader within those two seconds. Research across many advertising platforms show that viewers have a 26 percent higher recall of photographs than of artwork. In this annually awaited season, choose vibrant photographs that capture summer nostalgia and evoke emotions to promote products that appeal to different individuals – everything from photos of a sports car with the top down on a warm day, to a walk on the beach at sunset.
Once a strong photo has been chosen, turn your attention to choosing the right headline. Moz reports, “80% of readers never make it past the headline.” Digital advertisers must remember to capture the attention of the reader. While months or years are spent developing the product, mere weeks or even days are spent creating the communications – whether it is a webpage or marketing collateral materials to support that product. Sometimes, it’s even ignored that it comes down to the strength of the ad headline to determine whether or not people care to learn more about the product you have invested so much in. A good headline is short, memorable, and evokes an emotion in the reader. Using clear wording surrounded by “white space” is effective, too, so the reader is not confused by the message nor need to hunt for relevant information. Effective advertising does not fill up every area of an ad; rather it allows room for the message to connect.
This limited time and space may encourage the notion that the ad or commercial must be full to the brim with information. This is misleading, and merely creates a cluttered, schizophrenic ad that becomes lost among similar amateur efforts. It is far more effective to develop a concise, coherent ad that appeals well to its audience.
-Agama Advertising
Speaking of “audience,” it’s important to clarify that the audience is not one mass market but instead is made up of diverse individuals of different demographics, needs, and wishes. So, one ad headline will not appeal to everyone. Each individual or category of individuals deserves their own thoughtful headline that appeals to them and evokes emotion. That may seem like a lot of work, but that’s what data-driven marketing is all about. More work perhaps, but significantly better results and returns on that investment for sure! More on this later.
A Good Ad Clearly Directs To The Next Step
Even with a memorable image and catchy headline, without detailing the next step the viewer should take, your advertisement will not get the results you want. A call to action is the incentive for the viewer to act immediately. Your ad’s call to action needs to be thoughtfully created to maximize clicks. Unbouce recommends that you call the viewer to action by using practical language and active verbs. By avoiding jargon and industry terms, you are creating a customer-focused strategy that keeps their need at the forefront of the ad. Tell the reader what to do with words like “Act,” “Apply,” “Check,” “Learn”, “Click,” “Contact,” “Discover,” “Save,” or short phrases like “Don’t miss,” “Don’t wait,” “Find out” to engage the reader and create a sense of urgency. This call to action also needs to be visible and not surrounded by clutter. While many organizations feel the need to give details of the product, remember that the ultimate goal of the ad is to convert viewers to act, so less is indeed more.
A good ad is one that is written and designed to emotionally connect with its target audience. Once connected, your ad’s rhetoric strongly persuades its consumer to want the product or service. The individual recognizes a need for it and feels a sense of urgency until the purchase is made.
-Epic Marketing
A Good Ad Is Targeted To Its Audience
While the average bank or credit union offers more than twenty financial products at a minimum, the average consumer holds an average of 7.4 banking products across all their various relationships, excluding investments. This demonstrates an important fact that many financial institutions miss in their marketing: not all products are a good fit for all customers. An effective ad is targeted to the audience that will find it most relevant. The Small Business Chronicles says, “A big part of developing an effective advertising campaign is knowing exactly who your target audience is. Chances are the product or service you offer will not appeal to everyone, so it is important to identify the segment of the population that is most likely to need what you have to offer.”
DeepTarget’s powerful platform enables the automation of targeted offers by mining your data for the perfect consumer product/service mix and using smart rules to deliver the right message every time. For example, a targeted offer sent to a group of people identified to be appropriate recipients because of their stage in life, might say “Your dream home is just a click away with our home equity line of credit rate of just 3.75%.” Even more impressive, DeepTarget can send personalized offers unique to the recipient in that it can contain their name and an offer that is specific and customized to them, such as “Craig, you have $25,000 available at 2.75% on your home equity line of credit.”
To understand its power and the results that our customers are seeing, you only have to review a few of the testimonials that we have received from our financial institution clients, such as this one:
“We are extremely happy with the way DeepTarget supports our Digital Marketing Strategy! DeepTarget allows us to engage our members in our online and mobile channels, targeting each generation with relevant products at their best financial time. We have been able to easily implement our own creative graphics and messaging into DeepTarget’s campaign engine and the analytics show our results have been outstanding!”
-Ashley Baldeon, Marketing Creative Manager, Andrews Federal Credit Union
Why waste valuable marketing dollars? Instead, plan on a software ROI frequently over 500% this summer! Contact us today at sales@deeptarget.com or 256 217 4055.
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FEBRUARY 3, 2018
Loving the Love Triangle of Data-Driven Communications
While a sticky situation for a romantic comedy or an interesting subplot for a teen novel, you may just love the love triangle that results from the smart segmentation, personalization and targeting of an automated and intelligent customer engagement and communications platform, sometimes also referred to as digital marketing or marketing automation.
Love Your Enabling Communications Platform
Instead of your account-holder data gathering dust, imagine it working for you. Using the account-holder information you already have, a digital communications and marketing platform can automate and segment, providing targeted ads using a combination of factors such as age, gender, life events, personal preferences and buying habits to deliver the right offer to the right person at the right time and place.
The adoption of marketing automation is growing at a rapid pace as realization of positive ROI spreads. On average, 51% of companies are using some form of marketing automationalthough levels of sophistication vary. This technology makes menial tasks practical while providing valuable business analytics. Plus, it makes intelligent segmentation and multi-channel marketing a reality… you’ve got to love it!
Love Your Account-Holders
Automation no longer means “cold” or “impersonal” – in fact, it is quite the opposite. Show your account-holders that you love and appreciate them by sending relevantcommunications. Communication or offers to customers or members that do not meet a current need, do not support their life objectives, or are not even of interest, communicate that you do not know your customers, or do not care. You are indeed wasting their time and filling their inboxes and newsfeeds with stuff that doesn’t matter to them.
On the contrary, automated, intelligent digital marketing and communications help take the guess work out of marketing by creating clear patterns and segments of your larger audience. This makes each communication and touch point much more meaningful to the recipient. By combining your knowledge of individual customers with automation, you can leverage technology to achieve that critical factor of relevance for all of your communication to your account holders. That resonates and provides you the returns and results you seek by engaging them in what matters to them. You’ve got to love that too!
They Love You (And Your Communication) Back
With more of consumers banking either online or on their mobile devices, the expectations for concurrent conversations are growing. When asked whether they would rather see online ads for random products and services or ads directed toward their interests,
40.5 percent of respondents to a new survey chose the latter (targeted ads) while another 27.6 percent were content to see both.
Give the people what they want and they’ll love you for it. Communication that is relevant builds trust. By actually using the rich account-holder information that you own to target your communications across all channels, you are building trust between the consumer and their bank or credit union. Ultimately, you engage and cross-sell with positive results. It’s truly a win-win for you and your account-holders.
How can you not love that?
You own a wealth of information about each of your account-holders. Why not leverage that for an overall campaign strategy that embodies a seamless communication plan to reach each and every account holder individually? Not doing so is such a wasted opportunity!
Instead of shotgun mass marketing, show some love by taking advantage of what you know about your customers. When you are precise, deliberate and intelligent in your communications, it shows. When you are purposeful and personalized in your messaging, it shows. And we guarantee that you will absolutely love the results! Targeted ads are on average almost twice as effective as non-targeted ones. That’s huge! And IBM shared that organizations that embrace analytics are more than twice as likely to outperform their peers. In fact, enterprises that apply advanced analytics have 33% more revenue growth and 12x more profit growth.
With a hyper focus on intelligent customer engagement and marketing for the Financial Services industry, DeepTarget’s enabling communications platform plus our expertise and experience can help you show that love to your customers. And you will love the results!
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JANUARY 8, 2018
How To Make (And Keep) A New Year’s Resolution For Your Financial Institution
More than a third of all resolutions made for the New Year fail before January. But, with the right planning, it doesn’t have to be yours! A successful resolution for your bank or credit union hinges on identifying the right goal for your organization, creating an actionable plan, and communicating the goal.
Identify a goal that makes sense
Many New Year’s resolutions more closely resemble wishful thinking with lofty goals and no measurable way to track success. Instead, your financial institution should set a specific goal with an achievable timetable and measureable results.
The beginning of a New Year is a great time for your team to do some strategic planning. A successful strategy identifies audiences to target and products that need to be emphasized in a deliberate way with the timeline and budget to achieve it.
Creating an actionable plan
Remember, setting the goal does not automatically get the ball rolling. After setting the goal, you need to create the plan that will help you achieve it, and will foresee any potential setbacks or difficulties along the way.
Your resolution was carefully chosen based on the goals and strengths of your organization. Create a flexible routine that breaks down goals into bite-sized, achievable action items. Communication tied to your goal, when done consistently over time, can become second nature to your employees to create, and expected for your members or customers to receive.
Any resolution plan should have a room for improvements. Every strategy will meet its challenges – a good marketing strategy is flexible and can evolve as results are measured for success and adapt for the highest results.
Communicating the goal
Once overarching goals and metrics for success are established, share the resolution and action items with your team. By sharing your plans, you are asking your team to join in and have them hold you accountable. Having a community who understands the plan and wants the organization to succeed can help you stick with it. Employees may be excited to see results, suggest improvements to strategy, and be more likely share marketing materials and messaging related to goals.
If this seems overwhelming, DeepTarget can help. You set the goals. We help you reach them. Our fully integrated omni-channel platform provides intelligent, targeted communication that puts your data to work. Effectively promote your brand or specific financial products and services to your customers and access our comprehensive analytics and insights that track ad-specific impressions and clicks in real time and measure the true engagement of visitors to your website.
Make your 2018 resolution one that sticks and works for your financial institution. To learn more about customer engagement and cross-selling with DeepTarget’s integrated, enabling platform, contact us today.
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DECEMBER 13, 2017
New Year But No New Marketing Plans?
If those twinkling lights and Christmas carols are a wake-up call that the year is almost over, you are not alone. Over 30% of businesses fail to create a marketing plan while a whopping 49% of businesses still don’t have a digital marketing strategy in place.
While the ideal time to start making plans for the coming year is in the early fall months, it’s not too late. You can create a solid marketing plan for next year by keeping in mind a few helpful guidelines:
1. Know your people
Before you dive headfirst into planning for the New Year, remind yourself of whom you serve. What are your members/customers likes and dislikes? Are certain products more aligned with an age group or life stage? Targeted messages are meaningful and build trust so creating some segmented lists is a great place to start planning for communication that delivers the right message to the right person.
2. Know your strengths
Make sure that your team is presenting a cohesive experience. It is important that each employee knows your financial institution brand, products, and messaging to ensure that your strengths are leveraged and your customers receive a pleasant and consistent experience each time they interact with your institution.
3. Know what works
You can plan for the future by knowing what worked (and what didn’t) in the past. Analytics are key – evaluate the clicks, impressions, and sales from recent ad campaigns. This quick review should giving you a good idea of what to tweak for next year and give measurable goals for what a successful ad will attain.
4. Know the cost
The main reason that financial institutions feel unprepared for the coming year is because they haven’t planned for the cost – in time, resources, and budget – to be successful. On average, most companies spend more on janitorial services than they do on marketing! Schedule time to determine your marketing budget, focus, messaging, and resource needs for the coming year so you are confident about the coming months and that you have a plan for success.
5. Know when to ask for help
With a communications and cross selling such as DeepTarget, you are able to automate and intelligently target messages and offers using a combination of factors such as life events, personal preferences and buying habits. And all of this can be done by leveraging account holder information that you already have! Over time you can continue to multi-segment and be creative with your messaging using different communication styles to reflect the diverse personas in your account-holder base to create more and more ad success.
We are confident – based on results that our financial institution customers have witnessed that DeepTarget can help you engage, cross–sell, and measurehelping you to achieve the highest number of ad impressions, clicks, leads, and sales transactions ever in the history of your financial institution.
Let’s get started today to welcome the New Year with confidence!
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NOVEMBER 14, 2017
Connect with Gen-X through a Giving Spirit this Holiday Season
A generation is a group of people born within a similar span of time – 15 years at the upper end – who are of comparable age and life stage. Each individual has their own unique personality so preferences are not uniform; however people who were shaped by a particular span of time’s events, trends and developments are generally characterized by generational preferences.
Generation X (1965 – 1979) loves to support a cause, so share your institution’s charitable outreach with Gen-X account holders. Or better yet, get them involved. The holiday season is a wonderful time to experiment with charitable giving initiatives as people enjoy the “most wonderful time of the year” with year-end giving (and spending). These festive events show that your bank or credit union is a good community citizen and creates positive connections with people – especially Gen-X – as they have the opportunity to support a good cause. Plus, they are just plain fun.
Fun and feel-good holiday promotion ideas for banks or credit unions:
• Sponsor a holiday event: Christmas pageants, tree lighting, outdoor ice skating rink, a Christmas classic at a local theater
• Host a drive: Collect warm clothes for a local shelter, toys for children, canned food drive for the food bank, pet supplies and more
• Start a social media holiday hashtag: #GetCreative and think social, tying each use of the hashtag to a $1 donation to a local nonprofit
• Help someone in need: Partner with local nonprofits or news stations to solicit nominations of deserving community members to fulfill their Christmas wish or letter to Santa
• Put it to a vote: Create a holiday contest around a theme and allow fans to vote for their favorites. The winner receives a donation to the charity or nonprofit of their choice. (Example: Best holiday pet photo wins a donation to a local animal shelter.)
Who wouldn’t love participating in events like these? But these promotions are gift-wrapped to resonate with Generation X. Remember, while more tech savvy than the previous two generations, Gen-X still prefers to communicate via email so be sure to incorporate email advertising for your holiday festivities.
DeepTarget has the expertise to create highly focused communication to very concentrated target audiences based on their generational archetypes and so much more. Our tools create relevant communication that builds trust with your account holders. Let us help take the guess work out of marketing by creating clear patterns and segments of your larger audience to make each marketing message meaningful to the reader.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
3 Reasons to Begin Generational Marketing Today
Across all industries the adoption of marketing automation is growing at a rapid pace. On average, 51% of companies are using some form of marketing automation although levels of sophistication vary. Automated business intelligence technology makes menial tasks practical while providing valuable business analytics. But, is it necessary? And, if so where do you begin?
1: Mass Marketing Does Not Work
Communication that is relevant builds trust. By actually using the rich account-holder information that you own to target your communications across all channels, you are building trust between the consumer and their bank or credit union.
When asked whether they would rather see online ads for random products and services or ads directed towards their interests, 40.5 percent of respondents chose targeted ads. Source: http://cmo.cm/2eKSutZ
So if your current messaging does not solve the reader’s problem, or meet their need, or resonate, is irrelevant and unnecessary. Messaging like this communicates that you do not know your customers, or do not care and that you are indeed wasting their time (and yours).
Targeted advertisements are, on average, almost twice as effective as non-targeted ads. A retargeted display ad will encourage 1,000 percent more people to search for a product. Source: http://cmo.cm/2eKSutZ
Is your account-holder data gathering dust? Industry expertise and experience has shown that even a simple targeting methodology such as generational targeting will yield higher responses compared to broad, undifferentiated mass marketing. So, a first step would be to start segmenting your customer or member data by generational characteristics and needs.
2: Generational Marketing is a Good Place to Start
Generational segmentation is one of the simplest yet most effective methods to use when communicating a variety of products and services in a targeted way to your overall audience. A generation groups people born within a similar span of time – about 15 years – because they shared and were shaped by similar events and trends. And, while each individual has their own unique personality, there are proven generalities that can benefit your organization’s communication with far better results than a non-targeted, mass marketing approach that tries to show all products to all users despite differences in life stage, finances, and product preferences characterized by generational preference.
For example, did you know that Baby Boomers prefer programs with cash-back incentives? Or that Gen-X is drawn to participating in programs that donate to worthy causes? Or that Gen Z highly values reviews and testimonials?
Generational information like this allows us to create the formula of success: the right offer or message to the right person at the right time and place. To do this effectively and efficiently you must use business intelligence to automate the digital marketing process.
3: With Digital Marketing Tools You Can Target Automatically
Digital marketing products help take the guess work out of marketing by creating clear patterns and segments of your larger audience to make each marketing message meaningful to the reader. You ALREADY own a wealth of information about each of your account-holders. With more of consumers banking either online or on their mobile devices, it is important that you have an overall campaign strategy which embodies a seamless communication plan to reach every account holder – collectively and individually.
Once you implement generational targeting, you can continue to improve on it. To provide even more relevance to the consumer, from this point forward, you can get even more sophisticated with segmentation, narrowing your targeting methods to get increasingly better results from your marketing investments. DeepTarget can help you add automation variables including first name, age, gender, location, credit rating, financial info; loans, CDs, and more.
Generational segmentation is the foundation of digital targeting. While there are other segmentation methods that pull from the rich customer information available, starting generational targeting will immediately boost marketing returns. As other customer data is utilized to create multi-segmentation, marketing campaigns advance to highly focused communication to very concentrated target audiences refined with micro business intelligence. The key now is to get started! Visit our website to download our FREE Digital Marketing Handbook or contact us today to achieve the highest number of ad impressions, clicks, leads, and sales transactions ever in the history of your financial institution.
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JUNE 7, 2016
Tips For Retention!
What is the Lifetime Value of a Customer? CLV represents the total dollar amount that each customer is worth to your business.
Repeat After Me: RETENTION
How are we retaining our Customers?
Now Say: CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE
Let those 3 words ring in your mind. What is the Lifetime Value of a Customer? CLV represents the total dollar amount that each customer is worth to your business. Now that we have established how important Retention is; let’s talk about a few tips for increasing it.
Tip #1 – Proactive Customer Support
For happy customers, great customer service needs to be the norm, but exceeding expectations is a powerful way to get your customers talking (after all, a recent survey found that Americans tell an average of nine people about good customer service experiences). The never ending pursuit of excellence to keep customers so satisfied that they tell others how well they were treated when doing business with you. This one is easy! The better the service you provide, the more customers you’re going to retain, and the more loyal they will be.
Tip #2 – Scheduled Frequent Communication
Your communications are fundamental to any customer retention techniques. However, this has to be planned out. You have to provide a strategy for how often you want to contact existing customers and decide upon what communication type should be used. (Email, newsletter, blog) The exact frequency you choose will depend on your industry and even seasonality but you must have a plan and you must communicate.
Tip #3 – Request Feedback
All the best customer retention strategies require constant feedback from the customer to establish what is working and what is not working. Surveys and questionnaires are a perfect way of doing this. Both of these methods gather information from your customer. When you get a complaint see it for what it is….. A Gift! 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain. The just walk away, and you’ll never know why. When you incorporate questionnaires and surveys it gives your customer a place to complain and share their experiences with you. When customers have the opportunity to complain/share they are giving you a gift; they are still talking to you and giving you another opportunity to return them to a state of satisfaction.
The consequences of customer retention will compound over time – and that can either be a very good or a very bad outcome; so be on purpose with your strategies for customer retention. These few tips should just get the juices flowing in creating that strategy. The resulting effect on long term profit and growth ….. Priceless.
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JUNE 7, 2016
Is Technology Moving Fast Enough?
Almost universally the answer to this question is: Yes, absolutely! Technology is moving at an incredible pace – at the “speed of thought” some say.
Is computer technology moving fast enough?
Almost universally the answer to this question is: Yes, absolutely! Technology is moving at an incredible pace – at the “speed of thought” some say. Moore’s Law (search the internet for “Moore’s Law” for more details), formulated in 1965 and updated in 1975, has been accurate for 50 years in predicting the exponential growth of computer performance. Moore’s Law predicted that the number of transistors that can be packed into an integrated circuit would double every couple of years. This has far reaching implications, from the number of megapixels in your digital camera and the ability to deposit checks from your mobile phone, to navigation systems used by drones.
Having said this, the raw power of computers helps enormously, however, it is not the solution to everything. Someone has to write applications. These are programs written by humans that naturally will encapsulate human flaws. It is very common to hear in the news things such as that a disruption in stock trading or chaos in an airline reservation system was caused by a “computer glitch”. Most of the time, this really means that there was human error in a computer program.
There have been huge advances in computer applications that track and leverage on the power of microprocessors predicted by Moore’s Law. However, I would argue that there are some cases where perhaps technology is moving too slow. I will discuss one example that I am sure will resonate with everyone.
It is hard to believe that after decades since the advent of modern computers, passwords are the mainstay of computer security. Most likely everyone reading this article has experienced the “password nightmare”. A myriad of passwords written in sticky notes, forgotten passwords (at the worst possible moment), hacked accounts, etc. Experts provide advice on how to manage your password. The most common advice is to create cryptic passwords like “This#must$be@Joke”… Oops, the password cannot contain words found in a dictionary and it should contain letters and numbers, so it better be something like “GFt#kHgT$33@Ef20”. How am I supposed to remember this? So here come the sticky notes. Experts tell us that passwords need to be changed often (say every 90 days), and that you need to use a different password for each account that you use. All this is tragicomic and it results in many people getting frustrated and using passwords like “123456” and “password”. Amazingly, many industry surveys show that these are the two most popular passwords (search the internet for “most popular passwords”). There is new technology that helps authentication with devices such as finger print readers or iris readers, however these technologies are still not well developed. Let’s hope that at some point in the future, passwords will become obsolete and computer scientists will develop authentication that is easy, reliable and secure. It will not be soon enough in my book.
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APRIL 27, 2016
How To Be a Master Gardener of Your Business
My father was known as the Tomato King in our county – his garden was immense (11 dozen tomato plants) for our family of four – and that was just the first planting. I still cringe whenever I hear the sound of a handle hitting the side of a bucket as it brings back memories of early mornings when he would bring in a hundred gallons of newly picked tomatoes for us to wash and can. You would have thought I would have had enough tomatoes for a lifetime. Truth be told, I did.
However, after years of eating pale, woody, tasteless tomatoes from the grocery, I longed for the taste of the juicy home-grown tomatoes I had eaten as a youth. I had a little extra time on my hands, so I decided to grow my own. After reading all I could on plant varieties and watching hours of YouTube videos on container gardening, I was ready to get started. It is strange how a little gardening gives one perspective on other areas of life – even business. Here are my 10 gardening tips that amazingly parallel ways to grow a successful organization:
1. Choose a large enough container – think big – give the roots a place into which to expand.
2. Select multiple varieties of plants – hire people with diverse capabilities and age ranges – choose new hybrids and heirlooms.
3. Cage and stake the plants early – have processes and procedures in place so that there is structure – trying to fit a cage on a larger plant takes more effort and can damage the plant.
4. Choose a sunny spot – create a positive environment – get 8 hours of sun a day.
5. Water consistently – stay fresh and current – don’t let the roots go dry.
6. Pinch off suckers – don’t get sidetracked from the main goal – keep the energy on the primary stalk.
7. Flick the flowers – encourage skill development – stimulate pollination to develop the fruits.
8. Rotate the containers – be strong in all areas of the business – develop every side of the plant.
9. Watch for pests and disease – monitor and control the health of the business – be alert and treat issues promptly.
10. Fertilize weekly after the fruit forms – don’t get comfortable with the first signs of success – extra nutrients are essential for a thriving plant.
The most successful organizations include all of these elements. What other gardening tips do you have for growing a successful business?
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APRIL 25, 2016
Do It Yourself, But First Get Help!
I consider myself relatively independent. I am not afraid to try something new, and if given the option, I prefer to do it myself: to learn about it on my own and try it out without somebody looking over my shoulder.
That kind of attitude certainly has its advantages, such as getting things done at your desired pace, not having to rely on anyone else, and best of all, avoiding the laughter or criticism of others when you trip and fall.
On the flip side, there is nobody there to pick you back up, encourage you, or help keep you from tripping in the first place. Getting help at the start can mean avoiding common (and potentially costly) mistakes, and it can build trust and confidence that could make whatever you are working on better/faster/smoother/more successful.
More and more, your clients, your customers, or your members want to do it themselves, and they expect to be able to. But they will likely need some help along the way. Are you providing the help they need to be a DIY’er success?
A couple of examples I personally experienced within the past week.
First, the DIY Fail.
My brother is coming across the country to visit next month, so we decided that for part of the visit we would all rent a condo at the beach together. I’m very accustomed to booking travel online, so I started looking. To my delight, there were several sites with beach condos for rent and the ability to book them online. I spent hours looking for the best location at the right size for an acceptable price. Part of those hours were intentional, but part of them were caused by:
Problem #1: we only wanted 3 nights but most places wanted a week minimum. This caused me grief in the search process because many places would appear to be available, but after spending the time to enter a lot of information, I would then get rejected because of that minimum. That did not happen on every site, but on those it did, It was frustrating to say the least.
We finally found what we felt was a perfect setup, it claimed it was available for the desired 3 nights, and it had everything necessary to book it online myself, which I did with great satisfaction. I got the confirmation emails, and I let my brother know we were beach-bound in just over a month. It was a learning experience, but I felt good about having found the best place I could, on my own, and booking it myself. Until I got another email:
Problem #2: just a few minutes after celebrating the confirmation of our trip, I received another email from the vacation rental management company.
“Great choice! Only issue is we require a Saturday to Saturday minimum. Give us a call ASAP if you can make this work or if you are open to another option. Your card has not been processed.”
Fail! I started looking on my own again, but at my brother’s suggestion, I gave in and called the place. I got an extremely knowledgeable and helpful rep named Luke. From him I learned that they have a standard 6 night minimum (that I misunderstood in the Terms and Conditions) but that it can be flexible if it’s closer to the travel dates and the condo hasn’t been booked (hence the ability to book it for 3 nights with the online tool). We were not close enough to our dates, so the owners still wanted to hold out for a 6 night reservation. What to do?
Solution: while on the phone, Luke immediately went into finding mode. Within 5 minutes I was looking at a new place I hadn’t seen during all my independent searching. It was in nearly the same location, with similar accommodations, and best of all, with a lower price tag. Plus, Luke provided expert information and advice helping me get the lower price and feel even more confident about the new reservation than the one I had booked myself.
LESSON: This was a DIY fail on multiple levels, from my own lack of experience and reluctance to get help, to the failure of enabling software to actually enable me. In the end, if I could have talked to Luke or someone like him at the beginning of the process, I could have saved myself a lot of time and wasted effort. The experts in this case had a lot of help to offer, but I didn’t get it until the end. In other words, do it yourself, but first get help!
Second, the DIY Success.
Recently we decided to put wood flooring in the main level of our home, and with that “I can do anything!” spirit, we set out to do it ourselves. Ripping up the carpet was easy. Taking up the tile was more involved, and when it was done, we found ourselves with an area of the concrete slab with some superficial damage that would need to be repaired in order to ensure the new flooring rested on a smooth and level surface. What to do? Hello Google!
Within 10 minutes I was aware of 3 different products that could do the job. The company that made one of those had also made several step-by-step videos showing how to use their products. Five minutes later, I had seen what tools were needed, how to prep the surface, and how to accomplish the task.
Fast forward a week and my slab is patched and ready for the wood flooring. The product was available at the store, looked just like it did in the video, and worked exactly as described and shown. Success!
LESSON: Expert advice up front made all the difference. I could have gone to the store and purchased the patching material without that advice, but I would not have been confident about what I was doing. I could have followed the instructions on the bucket, but it did not provide the same level of detail about surface preparation or tools to use, and it certainly did not show me how to do the job. The finished job would have been sub-par at best. The video I watched at the beginning gave me important knowledge as well as the confidence to move ahead and successfully complete the project. In other words, do it yourself, but first get help!
Technology is enabling the independent DIY’er in all of us more than ever, from booking a beach condo to remodeling your home to managing your investment portfolio. But it is that expertise and human touch that can make a world of difference. If you are diving into something new, look for help at the outset. If you provide services for others, look for opportunities to better provide the help they need up front. You can do it yourself, but first get help!
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MARCH 25, 2016
How Social Are You, Anyway?
Seven Social Media Marketing Tips for Financial Institutions
1. Ignore social media at your peril
Here are some statistics that will either excite you or scare you:
• There are now more than 2 billion active social media users worldwide and this is growing at an amazing annual pace of 25%
• Nine out of ten U.S. companies are active on social media
• Question: Are you one of them?
• Question: Do you know what you are doing on social media?
• Question: Are you reaping benefits?
• Question: Or not?
My advice to you: get excited about the opportunity to engage and market using social media!
2. Customers and prospects
There is not a single demographic that is not active in social media. Well, maybe babies and toddlers (except have you seen some of those little children glued to their parents’ tables or Smartphones?).
Facebook, the most popular social platform, boasts 72% of all American adults!
And to show the diverse demographics of the users, check this out:
• 77% of women are users,
• 82% of adults aged 18-29,
• 79% of adults aged 30-49,
• 64% of adults aged 50-64 and
• An incredible 48% of adults over 65!
This is just a teaser for you. Have a look at some of the other demographics and social media trends.
Now, imagine this: These people are your customers and your potential customers.
What a wasted opportunity if you are not investing heavily into getting to know them better.
3. Listen
One of the first activities on social media is to monitor what real people – your customers – are saying about you.
4. Engage
The next, logical thing to do is to engage them in a conversation. This could be one that they start or one that you start, it doesn’t really matter. The important aspect is to either take the initiative or be responsive (which can only happen if you are listening, in the first place).
5. Connect
When you engage your customers, you connect with them at a level that is not possible with other types of traditional marketing. By listening, by responding and by having a conversation, you are taking the connection to a new, higher level. And the amazing part of this is that, today, you are able to make this close connection on a truly human-to-human level without ever having to have face-to-face encounter in a physical branch. It really works!
6. Stay Connected
The story doesn’t end there. Once you connect, don’t make the mistake about forgetting about that connection. Figure out how to stay connected. During the first engagement, you found out something about that individual. Now, it’s important to use that information in a manner that makes sense – one that is appropriate, relevant and ongoing. The conversation will evolve and change, but staying connected to your customers through these social media channels should not be an afterthought. It should be part of your entire marketing strategy.
7. Repeat
Now that you have the formula, repeat it. Repeat it with each and every individual customer and contact that you are able to make. And repeat the formula on an ongoing basis with all of your connections. When you think about the sheer marketing opportunity this offers, how can you help but get excited? I know I can’t!
Finally, to help you on this social media marketing journey a number of resources are either available now or being introduced in the market every day.
This is but the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of a long and profitable journey for your financial institution.
Image Credits:
1. By Ibrahim.ID [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
2. By Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Content Credits:
Fast Company – 5 Trends That Will Change How Companies Use Social Media in 2016
Pew Research Center – The Demographics of Social Media Users
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MARCH 25, 2016
Marketing Lessons from Bernie and The Donald
FDR used the radio to speak to a nation with his fireside chats. John F. Kennedy took advantage of television to display his charm and good looks. Barack Obama used the Internet to break down communication barriers and be accessible to minority groups and young voters often untouched by political campaigning. Looking back, these strategies seem like no-brainers. However, in their time, these approaches were questioned and even criticized. The lesson – those who learn to embrace the media environment of the time WIN. The trend continues … as we see both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders innovatively using social media and finding success in the 2016 Presidential Election campaign process. Political ad spending is to reach an astonishing $11.5 billion. Spending on social media is estimated to account for more than half of the $1 billion budget for digital media.
So – how does a reality TV star/billionaire businessman and a 74-year old anti-establishment Senator find themselves taking prominent positions in the 2016 race? Simply put, they both learned how to connect with people … and using social media to do just that is a big part of their strategy.
If you logged onto Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram, you have probably seen Bernie’s #FeeltheBerncampaign slogan. According to Winnie Wong, digital strategist for the Sanders campaign, the goal was “to find something that would carry his name all across the Internet and be more than just a hashtag.” Wong describes the Internet as a “way you can express yourself in a very democratic way” and describes the strategy to bring people together to discuss and promote Sanders policies, platform, and 40 years of dedicated service. Many experts attribute Sanders’ social media success to his authenticity – noting that he often writes his own posts and tweets. Bernie said of his own posts, “Usually, it’s in the shower where something pops into my head.” With millions of online followers and over $96 million in campaign donations coming mostly in small amounts less than $200 per donation, his social media connection appears to be working and is in large part responsible for the success of Sander’s “political revolution.”
And what of Donald Trump? He has millions of followers on Twitter, Facebook, Vine, and Instagram. He uses Periscope and YouTube. His own personal view is that he “understands social media maybe better than anybody else,” even calling himself “the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.” He often tweets personal things about himself and his family and frequently thanks his supporters. He participates in gossip and popular culture. The result – many feel like he is “one of them.” They believe he is more in-touch with them than other politicians. Just like Sanders, Trump has found success in connecting with people.
Is there a lesson here for financial institutions? Can financial institutions build an emotional connection with customers and therefore build a relationship? Experts say yes – but many believe there may need to be a “rediscovery of social media”. Many financial institutions rushed to social media without having a well thought-out strategy – or any strategy at all. The result – many financial institutions have abandoned twitter, Facebook, and other social media venues. Banks and Credit Unions have always spent considerable time and money on print ad strategies, considering things like demographics, circulations, and costs. A similar strategic approach must be taken with the digital field … with care taken to leverage analytics, add elements such as video and social feeds, and give customers mobile options they crave. It is simply another way to connect with people. Your strategy and authentic approach can be your game-changer …. Just like it has been for Donald and Bernie. And remember – those who learn to embrace the media environment of the time WIN.
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FEBRUARY 23, 2016
5 Steps to Building a Better Organization with CLASS
Care
– Because somebody has to. Show up. Be invested. Clean up after yourself. Clean up after someone else. Don’t settle. Act like it matters because it does (and if it doesn’t, move on to what does).
Learn
– The opportunities to improve yourself have never been greater, and the cost to do so has never been lower. Perhaps more importantly, the cost of not doing so is higher than ever. Good enough will not be good enough for long.
Act
– Do something! Learning is worth little without application. Caring is worthless if you keep it to yourself. Give yourself permission to make a difference, then do it.
Share
– Be generous. Teach, mentor, and invite others to do the same. You’ll never get more out of others than when you give of yourself.
Start again
– It is an exhausting process, but it is the most satisfying and sustainable way to build up an organization, a family, a friendship, or even an individual.
H/T Seth (thanks for the daily inspiration)
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FEBRUARY 17, 2016
The Mobile Juggernaut
How quickly things have changed for Facebook! As this write-up mentions, just a couple of years ago, this was a company that was struggling to transition its mobile presence.
In Case You Had Any Doubts
Recent business headlines include one that is worth paying attention to:
80% OF FACEBOOK’S AD DOLLARS COME FROM MOBILE
FACEBOOK’S MOBILE PUSH CONTINUES TO PAY OFF: THE COMPANY REPORTED $4.5 BILLION IN MOBILE AD REVENUE DURING ITS QUARTERLY EARNINGS CALL.
How quickly things have changed for Facebook! As this write-up mentions, just a couple of years ago, this was a company that was struggling to transition its mobile presence.
Welcome to this pace of technological change – where change has been the fastest that we have ever witnessed. So far. Technological change itself is increasing at an astronomical pace. We have no concept yet what will be invented and what will be brand new in a very short time horizon of the future.
The Emergence of Mobile
But back to “mobile” – a word that is fraught with so many meanings and connotations today. A truly mobile world is not inconceivable anymore. That vision has turned into reality. It doesn’t matter what the industry is. If leaders and managers are not thinking “mobile first”, they very well could be last. They could conceivably even be extinct before long. That’s how fast things are happening.
In today’s world, mobile devices outnumber people, and smartphones are spreading like wildfire. So, for any type or size of business, they better be asking themselves these questions – what is the impact of mobile usage to us? And how do we use this incredible adoption rate to our benefit?
Mobile Advertising
Let’s have a look at one avenue for businesses to evaluate, namely mobile advertising and connecting with your customers on their mobile devices.
A little history lesson from not so far back, this picture to the right shows you what used to be known as “mobile advertising”.
Joking aside, advertising expenditures, once driven by TV and print, are being funneled increasingly into our digital and our handhelds. And why not?
After all, mobile web traffic now surpasses that of all desktops globally and as a matter of fact, it did not even take that long to happen.
According to eMarketer, the mobile tipping point will occur this year when mobile ad spending exceeds desktop ad spending for the first time ever.
[You can and should read the full article here: Mobile Will Account for 72% of US Digital Ad Spend by 2019].
Then, when you see the kind of results that a company like Facebook reported, you know that this trend is very real.
Meanwhile, at Banks and Credit Unions
Financial institutions have been going through their own transformative times, just as technology has. But wait, technology has something to do with this transformation! Among the trends we are seeing:
• A continued shift and priority to all things digital
• More digital = more cybersecurity awareness and measures
• Acknowledging that a digital omni-channel presence is key to customer connection and retention, and doing something about it
• Using data analytics, cut and sliced in many ways, in order to personalize customer experiences while increasing customer loyalty, banking income and competitiveness.
• Mobility!
Since the focus of this write-up is mobile, here’s a great statistic that shows the sheer opportunity available for financial institutions of all sizes to leverage:
> 42% of all US adults who own a mobile device have never used it for mobile banking. <
[Note that this statistic is dynamic and a fast-moving target; it may very well be out of date soon].
Not only is there a great opportunity for financial institutions to increase penetration of mobile banking with existing customers, but there is significant untapped potential for “native” advertising (like Facebook does) where a financial institution can use personalized and targeted advertising to really connect with customers wherever they are banking – at a branch, online, or mobile when they are on the go.
According to one industry analyst, financial institutions have already seen the peak of spending occur on compliance and regulatory matters. Now, they see a refocus on winning back customers and increasing their business footprint with them by making investments in digital channels, mobile and branch transformation. So, in case you had any doubts, it’s still not too late to think mobile, think mobility first!
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JANUARY 28, 2016
Tell Your Company’s Story!
So what does storytelling have to do with your business? Everything! As a company in this social media age, you have an opportunity to draw devoted customers by rethinking the way you express your company’s core value. If you can’t properly convey a story then your products are not going to appeal to your audience. Research shows with all the advertising messages overwhelming us all that a story can cut through the noise. Your story needs to have a message that is a clear takeaway for your listeners. You want those that are reading the story to become emotionally invested in the story and to leave them longing for more. If you give too many details readers/customers get lost in the details and don’t find the emotional tie to the story.
As a business owner or marketer you need to have many stories in your toolkit. Stories about your leaders and their values. You need stories that bring your vision to life. Stories that pack the most punch are personal ones. Your real value is about what you believe in, what you’re trying to do in the world and how you make others’ lives better. These stories ring true! Use language that speaks from the heart. You can’t engage your customers using industry slang. Also post these stories/video’s on your “About Us” page on your website. This is an ideal place to start telling your story. Stories grab our attention, change minds and attitudes and inspire us. Well told stories make you trustworthy and encourage others to want to collaborate with you. Your delivery may not be perfect but no one is looking for perfection. Your customers are looking to be engaged, inspired and to be entertained. With that being said, what’s your story?
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JANUARY 27, 2016
A Beginner’s Look at UX Design
Have you ever tried to use something – anything, a website, an app, an appliance, a service – and found it so complex, so non-intuitive, or so utterly frustrating that you finally gave up?
“Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
– Albert Einstein
Have you ever tried to use something – anything, a website, an app, an appliance, a service – and found it so complex, so non-intuitive, or so utterly frustrating that you finally gave up? Similarly, have you ever tried to use something so presumably easy but over-simplified to the point that you could not figure out how to make it do what you wanted that it created the same frustration and, again, you gave up? Poor user experience (UX) design is likely to blame. Comedian Brian Regan illustrates this perfectly:
Conversely, think of the last time you used an app or a service that you really enjoyed, or that simply worked the way you expected the very first time. Think about your favorite restaurant, your favorite store, or your favorite app. What is it that you love about them? What makes them your favorites? Chances are, a lot of that has to do with the positive, easy-to-use, hassle-free, and/or delightful experiences associated with each. In other words, good UX design made a difference.
The term “UX” is everywhere these days. So what exactly is UX design, and why should you care? Well let’s begin with what UX is not.
1. UX is not new. UX as a field or a career by itself may be somewhat new, but a lot of the principles and practices associated with it have been around for decades.
2. UX is not UI. This is a common misperception. User Interface (UI) design is an important part of UX design, but it is only part and a small one.
3. UX is not research and interviews. Certainly those are key to effective UX, but as with UI, they are only part of the UX design process.
4. UX is not statistics or strategy, interaction design or information architecture, copywriting or creating personas. See where I’m going?
5. UX is none of those things…alone.
6. UX is not complicated, though it can be complex.
7. UX is not easy to do well (but nothing worthwhile ever is).
8. The great news is, UX is not difficult to learn, and there are a plethora of resources available (I’ve listed many below).
Now let’s focus for a moment on what UX is. In the “UX is not UI” article referenced above, Erik Flowers defines UX design as “the intangible design of a strategy that brings us to a solution.” UX design is the umbrella that pulls all of those other elements together into a final solution that provides the best experience possible for the end user.
In his book The Elements of User Experience, UX design expert Jesse James Garret defined user experience as “the experience the product creates for the people that use it in the real world.” He goes on to then define “user-centered design” as “the practice of creating engaging, efficient user experiences […by taking…] the user into account every step of the way as you develop your product.”
UX design is about caring. It involves strategy and structure, research and personas, mockups and prototyping, visual design and testing, and more all with the same focus: caring about your end users enough to make the experience of using your product or service effective, engaging, and delightful. It is powerful and a differentiator that can set your brand apart. In other words, it makes everything for your user as wonderful and as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Want to learn more about UX design? Here are a few places to start:
• A classic (from March 2000!), Jesse James Garrett’s The Elements of User Experience chart provides a clean visual understanding of what goes into his 5 elements of UX (strategy, scope, structure, skeleton, and surface). Check out the whole book for a more details. The 2nd edition was updated in 2010, and it all still applies today.
• UXPin – this company has software to promote (with which I have no affiliation), but they have produced dozens of FREE ebooks on UX, UI, web, mobile, typography, and many other subjects to educate and assist you in your UX design process. Great resource!
• Be inspired by Jared Spool’s “$300,000,000 Button”
• And check out these sites for all the latest on UX:
• http://uxmag.com/
• http://www.uxmatters.com/index.php
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/
• https://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/uxdesign/
• https://www.uie.com/