Switching Banks is Hard. Luckily, it’s not impossible.
Switching. Banks. Is. Hard. Like – getting-a-toddler-to-sit-still, opening-a-pickle-jar-on-your-91st-birthday, changing-political-views-on-social-media hard. Yet as financial institutions, we all want to achieve that brass ring, to become their primary financial institution – with all the loan and share balances that come with that relationship.
So let’s take the hard and make it eas…OK. OK. Let’s take the hard and make it less hard.
It’s gonna take more than a banner ad
Helping a potential customer switch to your place won’t happen with a single ad. Or email. Or Facebook post. This journey is long. This switch is very work intensive. With automatic payments, overdraft protection, and loan payment transfers, most have spun a very tangled monetary web.
So multiple touchpoints from multiple channels are in order. A simple, campaign-able idea will need to be communicated and communicated consistently.
There is no peak bank switching season
The good news, you didn’t miss a peak window on the calendar when it comes to reaching your audience. The bad news, there is no peak window on the calendar when it comes to reaching your audience. So your creative will need to be persuasive and targeted. The persuasive part beings with getting just enough out of your comfort zone to gain real attention. Recent studies have shown that award-winning ads are 11 times more effective than the usual noise that’s out there. Translation? There is a method to all the creative madness. Use it.
Next up? Let’s target. Now that women are increasingly making the financial decisions a household, start seeing them as the CFO of the family.
Aim small. Miss small.
To make your ad spend more effective, don’t just target. Hyper target. Run paid social media ads targeted at women who have financial interests on Facebook and Twitter. Run them on Fridays and Saturdays, the times of the week your audience will have time to tackle the time-consuming task of switching everything over to your financial institution. (Dig in deeper into audience targeting using our guide here).
On your first week, starting with the widest audience segment (25,000,000 potential). Wait. Wait. Wait. Didn’t we just say we should aim small? We did. This is the aiming part. Use the larger group to insight on demographics with targeting adjustments made each week to narrow down to a strong social media audience, thus helping you garner insights on this and future campaigns.
Cut and focus.
Your six-week campaign became an authentic six-week focus group (if we can borrow a term more suited for Mad Men than today’s marketing). Using your new-found knowledge, translate the 25,000,000 potential audience into a more targeted 5,500,00 potential audience based on actual engagement with your ads. Now you’re communicating more efficiently to the people who actually want to switch. Now ready to sink the hook – to borrow a fishing phrase.
Engage with email.
Run a more call-to-action heavy message and offer your audience a Dump Your Bank Coach. You’ll handle a lot of the heavy lifting, and all they have to do is shoot off an email and they can start their transition to a better financial life. This is the time for your customer service folks to really shine. And it’s the best first impression your new customers could possibly have.
Practice your victory dance.
There you have it. You’ve leveraged your budget, your people and your channels to bring more customers into the fold. And you’ve done it by running killer, targeted creative work that builds your brand while building your base. You have results. You have new customers. And you have invaluable knowledge about what resonates with the folks that weren’t quite ready – this time. And that is perfect fuel for next time.
Want to learn more about building a digital marketing strategy for your bank or financial institution? Contact us at expert@emfluence.com or use the form below!
