With so many banks, fintechs, and credit unions vying to win consumers’ attention, 2024 will be a heavy year for digital ad competition. How can banking marketers alleviate that budget pressure? Many are turning to channels the organization controls to convert more prospects into customers.
For banking marketers, owned channels normally include the website, signage, social media, and distribution through mail and email. ATMs and ITMs are traditionally included in the ‘signage’ category because institutions can display ads on screens and their exteriors. As display space, ITMs have been like billboards; they’re valuable for awareness but haven’t been usable for segmented, performance-tracking, or conversion-orientated marketing.
Now, the $1 billion Royal Banks of Missouri is changing all that. With 50% or more of its transactions serviced by its 21 interactive teller machines, ITMs are an owned channel with relatively large volumes of customer and prospect transactions. Using technology, the St. Louis-based bank is building an engaged audience to grow relationships across its two-state market encompassing rural and metropolitan communities.
Layering Engagement on top of Convenience
Like most banking institutions, Royal Banks of Missouri didn’t start installing ITMs with a marketing purpose in mind. The technology offered solutions to staffing and operating hours and allowed the bank to expand teller services to new markets.
“About 95% of teller transactions can be done at our ITMs,” says Michael Stevenson, chief operating officer at Royal Banks. “If you’re a dentist and your office closes at five p.m., you don’t have to wait until the next morning to make the deposit to our bank. We were the only bank that expanded banking hours during the pandemic.”
The bank financed a building for Habitat for Humanity and put an office there as part of the deal. “We were able to open it with limited branch hours as we worked to grow it and used the ITMs for transactions,” Stevenson says. “Now, it’s a full-service branch. The machines allow us to make a branch anywhere; they allow us to try new things.”
With so many transactions flowing through ITMs, the bank knew it needed to get creative. ITMs were more convenient, but Stevenson wanted to retain the value of teller engagement with customers. “Tellers tend to have more information on our clients than anybody else in the bank,” he says. “Tellers were the ones hearing them talk about a broken air conditioner or car repair. They were also the ones who could ask if clients had considered a home equity loan to pay for repairs.”
The bank began working eight months ago to ensure it doesn’t miss the engagement potential of those transactions. “When people are thinking about their financial needs, we want to talk to them,” Stevenson says.
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Engaging Prospects and Customers
Royal Banks began strategizing by thinking of its ITMs as a kind of digital publication. “People tend to pay attention to the machine while they’re using it,” says Katie Karraker, the marketing coordinator at Royal Banks who manages campaigns run across the ITMs. “It’s an opportunity to nurture a more intimate connection with them.”
Royal Banks uses software provided by Data Business Equipment (DBE) called Elevate to segment their device users based on Bank Identification Number (BIN) and machine location. Elevate allows financial institutions to distribute different campaigns per machine and by BIN, turning a static transaction into a dynamic, relevant experience for the user. Machine location allows marketers to engage people who are not yet customers by publishing offers to ATMs positioned at loan production offices, for example.
For Royal Banks, identifying “off us” ATM-type transactions by BIN allows the bank to engage people who are not customers. “We have a known, captive audience on this channel that doesn’t currently bank with us. We can now distribute a different campaign designed specifically for foreign cardholders to entice them to bank with us,” Karraker says.
Royal Banks began by developing promotional ads and community-focused content for ITM campaigns. Only a portion of those who use the machine will need a mortgage or a home equity loan, but a wide number of users may be interested in a $1,500 scholarship for high school seniors or upcoming community events the bank can now promote through this channel. Karraker launched a newsletter for community content in April.
Prospects and customers scan a QR code to engage with the bank’s content. Their phone then opens a landing page with a sign-up form and facilitates a marketing conversion into Royal Banks’ technology stack. From there, Karraker can see who subscribes to the newsletter and their open rate and can even begin segmenting them further. “We’re getting nearly 50% open rates right now,” she says.
E-receipts available through Elevate are a second tactic Royal Banks uses to engage customers through their email inboxes. What’s the first thing consumers and businesses do when they receive a receipt in their email inbox? Most read it to ensure the deposit or withdrawal amounts are correct. Placing information beside that information is a compelling tactic.
“We’re using clickable ads in the footer of e-receipts to retarget and promote a wider set of options than could be shown on screen during their transaction,” Karraker says. “The receipt is an opportunity to remind clients of current products and bank initiatives.”
Shifting Landscape for Attention, Transactions, and Ad Costs
Looking at banking institutions, the traffic available through ITMs is enormous, at least in marketing terms. About 750 million transactions per year happen on financial institutions’ ATMs, according to an estimate from the ATM Industry Association. How many of those belong to your institutions? Executives can gauge leads available by checking the volume of cardholder or “off us” foreign transactions coming through their machines.
ATM leads are beginning to have real value when compared to ads. According to Wordstream, the cost per click through Google Ads this year has increased by an average of 10% across industries. For financial services, the cost per click is $3; the cost per lead reached $75.94 this year. According to fiworks, the cost of acquiring an account is up to $500.
Royal Banks has identified another benefit as well. It has already invested in the machines, and now it can find growth with them. “We’ve invested in these machines for the client experience,” Stevenson said. “We’re doubling the ways we can get a return on that investment through our marketing.”
Tara Hergott is Vice President of Business Development of DBE, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Since joining the company in 2021, she has helped community financial institutions transform branches through hardware, services, and software support that enhance the account-holder experience. She serves as DBE’s in-house subject matter expert on marketing via ATMs.