2025 Strategies: Excelling at the Basics & Striving for Digital Maturity
A recent study reveals four stages of digital maturity among banks and credit unions, with data-first organizations leading the pack. These institutions leverage advanced analytics to personalize experiences, identify growth opportunities, and diversify offerings. The key to thriving in this new landscape? Balancing innovation with a strong focus on customer needs and operational excellence. As the industry shifts, banks and credit unions must adapt or risk being left behind in the digital banking revolution.
By Marla Pieton Sr. Director, Research & Thought Leadership Strategy
By the end of this decade, winning in digital banking will require much more than offering the latest technology — it will hinge on mastering the basics that drive trust and loyalty in the eyes of customers and members.
These fundamental "table stakes" require commitments across the digital banking sales and service channels that will define the reputation and longevity of top-performing financial institutions by 2030:
These are the same building blocks for delivering exceptional banking experiences that have attracted and retained account holders, support operational efficiencies and strategic decision making for eons. Operationally, these focus areas then become the foundation of the work needed to replicate a complete in-branch experience onto digital channels.
Why is Digital Important?
Today, most account holders are connecting with their banks digitally. In fact, the digital banking experience is the cost of entry to the millennial financial relationship. The good news, for those worried about catering to only one demographic, is that a great digital banking experience can not only lure millennials but do so without alienating Generation X or baby boomers, as 86% and 90% respectively of those generations also say that the digital banking user experience is important or very important to them.
Digital banking solutions empower banks and credit unions to deliver cohesive, outstanding user experiences, regardless of the device or platform. As the consumer use of online and mobile banking continues to trend upward, financial institutions must up their digital maturity to keep pace.
The Digital Maturity Spectrum
While it may be obvious, the first step to digital maturity is prioritizing digital banking over branches and call centers. More mature segments overwhelmingly say it’s more important, while others say they’re equal, at most.
Digital maturity is a spectrum, and not all banks and credit unions are progressing at the same pace. According to the Retail Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model study that surveyed 215 U.S. financial institutions, digital maturity spans four distinct segments. Knowing where your organization falls within these categories will help inform the next phase of the journey. Research analysts compiled the data in the report and determined these four segments:
1. Patiently exploring (14% of surveyed organizations): Organizations in this stage are primarily smaller and just beginning their digital journey and they rely heavily on third-party vendor solutions providers. They are starting to recognize the importance of digital channels for engaging with account holders but may not have fully committed resources or strategies in place. They have a customer-first relationship driven mindset and value high-touch in-person experiences.
2. Innovation-ready (39% of surveyed organizations): At this stage, organizations have a foundational digital presence and are prepared to take more significant steps with investments into technology. This group is mostly mid-sized and prioritize the user experience over advanced functionality. They are open to experimenting with new ways to speed up their digital account opening process.
3. Digital-forward (38% of surveyed organizations): Organizations in this segment are above average in digital maturity, have established a strong digital strategy and are actively leveraging modern technology to drive their business. Digital-Forward institutions are characterized by their proactive approach to automating back-end processes and their account set-up for customers and non-customers is among the best in regards to the user experience.
4. Data-first (9% of surveyed organizations): The most advanced stage of digital maturity, Data-First organizations are characterized by their strategic data-driven mindset for decision-making, innovation, and personalized account holder engagements. They have fully integrated digital technologies across all aspects of their operations and consider it an advantage. This group tends to be larger, full-service banks and credit unions that look beyond banking to hire great talent. Data is their differentiator.
Research analysts went a step further, and from the above research, developed a first- to-market digital maturity self-assessment for financial institutions to benchmark themselves to the market. Though idealism is important, and it certainly has tremendous value in the minds of innovative leaders, benchmarking against industry peers provides a reality-check of the institution’s current state and next best actions, based on unbiased data.
Digital maturity is not a vanity metric.
Financial institutions that prioritize digital maturity experience substantial revenue growth. The most advanced banks and credit unions report two times the increase in annual revenue growth compared to their less digitally mature counterparts.
Another notable stand-out, identified in The Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model, was the importance of mindset. Fostering a results-driven mindset that permeates the organization, ensuring both leadership and employees are committed to leveraging digital tools effectively, led to better account holder experiences and financial outcomes. Exercising the skill of being open to data-informed introspection, and a willingness to transform in order to reach new levels of digital maturity as an organization, has shown to have an impressive impact on digital maturity.
‘Data-First’ Financial Institutions are Primed for Being Diversification Leaders
Data-first financial institutions will have the best potential for excelling at the basics of outstanding digital banking, and innovating well beyond them in the next several years. This is due to the fact that to be considered a data-first organization, a financial institution must have a data modernization strategy with strong infrastructure in place, have outstanding digital banking solutions deployed, ensure data hygiene and governance, and embrace a results-driven culture.
These organizations are equipped to leverage data not just for operational efficiency but for strategic growth, as they utilize data insights to identify new revenue streams, personalize user experiences, make results-oriented decisions and optimize product offerings.
Moreover, data-first financial institutions are well-positioned to diversify their offerings. As highlighted in Play #3 The 2025 Digital Banking Playbook by Alkami, these institutions have an opportunity to significantly impact revenue by analyzing transaction and behavioral data. As stated in the Playbook, "this intelligence is the catalyst to equip the data-informed digital banker of the future, empowering them to engage relevantly at scale with their customers and members."
Diversification in financial institutions is not just about acquiring new customers, expanding to new regions, or offering new products. A key advantage of being a data-informed organization is the ability to uncover unique growth opportunities within the existing customer base. By striking a balance between acquiring new accounts and deepening relationships with current customers, institutions can maximize their potential.
Competitive and business insights derived from transaction data are two unparalleled buckets where bank and credit unions leaders can capitalize on revenue gaps. Competitive insights help identify where account holders are moving their funds, such as direct deposits or external investments, which can inform product and marketing strategies. For example, identifying account holders who are transferring their mortgage payment to another institution can be a target campaign for growth.
Business insights simultaneously can reveal hidden business accounts operating within retail accounts, presenting an open door for financial institutions to engage these customers or members with tailored products, getting them on the right financial path. By analyzing transaction data, financial institutions can better serve these segments, leading to improved engagement and revenue growth.
These insight categories are a small cross section of how financial institution’s transaction and behavioral data insights can support strategic full funnel marketing efforts and diversify both the product and account holder portfolios. The organizations that leverage this strategic use of data are poised to not only excel in their core operations but also to lead in innovation and customer or member experience.
To learn more about the plays for digital banking success, download Alkami’s 2025 Digital Banking Playbook: Budgeting & Strategies for Banks and Credit Unions here.