50 Questions About Your Bank’s Digital Marketing Future

Here are 50 practical questions to ask -- with answers -- when rethinking (or kick starting) your financial institution's digital marketing strategy.

By Julie White and Scott Schablow Hip Brand Group

Published on January 6th, 2014 in Digital Marketing

Banks and credit unions are readying themselves for the digital age of banking, with a stronger focus on technology-dominated products. While many have scrambled to throw something out there, few are thinking about how to differentiate their organization’s digital products from their competitors. Most are simply trying to figure out how they can gain a short-term competitive position in their market and also capture long-term customer loyalty.

Retail banking challenges in the US include dealing with pure play digital competitors, digitally empowered customers demanding a new set of products and services and developing a smart transition from branches to digital customer care centers.

What’s the bottom line for digital success? Don’t just dabble in digital. Take the time to read this Q&A and then launch a digital lifestyle experience as a market leader with highly branded, customized and useful products and services that meet the needs of your customers’ digital lives.

Mobile: The New Dominant Platform

Use of mobile banking has increased 50% since last year and nearly one-third of US consumers (32%) now do mobile banking at least once a month according to a recent Accenture survey. Mobile will soon be your bank’s central hub of service delivery and customer engagement. Surveys show that 40% of customers (of all ages) now factor mobile solutions into why they choose their primary financial service institution. By 2014, it is estimated that there will be 45 million mobile banking users, a number that is growing daily.

1. Do you have mobile apps already deployed for your customers?

If not, you better get in the game or get left behind. Surveys consistently show that mobile is one of the top priorities for bank CIOs which is an indication that it’s a priority for most financial institutions for 2014.

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2. Do your mobile apps look like everyone else’s—same template, different colors?

If you are not developing your own custom app, you should select an app template that provides significant customization options for your brand. We see many banks and credit unions missing an important opportunity: an important branding opportunity.

3. Do your mobile apps offer robust features such as mobile bill pay and deposit?

Many financial institutions did jump on the mobile app bandwagon early to attempt to be first to market. But in doing that, their apps are not as robust as they should be. We tell our clients that if it takes an additional six months to get to market with an app that has the latest features available, then it is worth the competitive edge that the app will bring.

4. Have you integrated your bank’s brand into your mobile apps?

Many customers will interact with you via your mobile app most of the time. Your mobile app should be branded to represent your financial institution. The last thing you want is for a customer to be shopping in the app store and for your app to not stand out. View your mobile app as a branding project and not just a technical one. Make sure your mobile development team includes designers, marketing strategists and developers.

5. Do you monitor your app store ratings? And compare them to those of your competitors?

According to Rajesh Kandaswamy, Research Director with Gartner, "The average of Apple App Store ratings for the mobile banking apps of the ten largest consumer banks in the U.S. is 2.9 stars for all versions." Know where you stand and strive to be in the lead.

6. How will you transition the bulk of your budget from operating and staffing branches to investing in Internet, social networking and mobile?

Your team should be planning now for the growing digital banking revolution in every aspect of your operations. There are no guidelines for transitioning away from branches and more toward digital. One thing is for certain, if you wait to follow a success story, you will be much too late.

7. Are you training your employees for your technology products?

Your front line employees should be your no. 1 brand and product ambassadors and they need to understand the technology you are offering such as mobile or PFM. Before you roll out online and mobile products, make sure they can talk about them intelligently with the customers they interact with in the branches and be able to answer any questions.

8. How are you educating your customers about the latest in banking technology?

Even if your bank has innovative mobile banking in place or plans to put them in place, most customers won’t stumble on them on their own. Bank marketers need to work to educate customers about the great innovative features that are available now and about new ones as they come out. Host in-branch seminars or webinars that you can promote via social media or online through a video series. Install technology oriented product kiosks in the branches that are designed to quickly educate your customers.

9. Are you updating your web site to become an information center for your new technology products?

The first place many will go to for answers to their questions when using your mobile products is online. Have you customized your web site to be user friendly with FAQ sections, User Guides, video tutorials and step-by-step instructions about how to download and start using your apps and other online features?

10. Are you keeping track of what’s on the horizon?

Many banks are scrambling now to add mobile deposit to their apps. Do you have mobile deposit in your plans, along with person-to-person payments, mobile bill pay and mobile funds transfer? What about voice and speech recognition – voice recognition for authentication and speech recognition to let people conduct banking transactions by speaking rather than typing? Make sure you have a team charged with plotting your next steps. Surveys show that consumers whose banks offer innovative mobile banking features are significantly more satisfied.

Responsive: One Design, Infinite Possibilities

A responsive web site automatically adapts to all web-enabled devices creating a custom user experience for hundreds of millions of mobile customers. By 2015, mobile Internet usage will surpass desktop usage according to Morgan Stanley analysts and 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7.

11. Customers are already rejecting stripped-down versions of full web sites. Do you have plans to build a responsive web site in 2014?

Many banks and credit unions have dedicated mobile versions of their web sites, but they only contain limited content and features. In today’s digital world, where over 80% browse the Internet using a mobile or smartphone, they may never see your full site. The only answer is to move your site to a responsive platform that can be viewed fully across many devices and screen sizes.

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12. Are there tests for determining if my web site passes the responsiveness test?

Yes, think about how your customers interact with your website. Now open your website on a smartphone or tablet. Is the same experience possible on all devices? Responsive design allows the creation of a website that reformats its content depending on what device it is being viewed on for easy navigation and viewing.

13. When customers are shopping for financial products online, is it important that they have the same experience no matter which device they’re using?

Yes. Consumers use different platforms depending on their location or situation, and can use up to three devices (PC, tablets, smartphone) in the same day. So when they transition from one to another, it is important they have the same browsing experience. They will become frustrated if they aren’t viewing the same site on their desktop as they did on their smartphone.

14. When considering either a separate mobile version or a fully responsive site, which is the best for optimal search engine optimization?

If SEO is a core component of your digital marketing strategy, having a mobile-friendly website is becoming essential. Google states that responsive web design is its recommended mobile configuration, and even goes so far as to refer to responsive web design as the industry best practice. This is because responsive design sites have one URL and the same HTML, regardless of device, which makes it easier and more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content. In addition, content that lives on one website and one URL is much easier for users to share, interact with, and link to than content that lives on a separate mobile site.

15. Have you taken into consideration the recently released Google Hummingbird update?

Google is embracing the rapid advance of mobile devices, and banks should be, too. With less emphasis on keywords, you must focus on consistently producing high-quality, original content with a unique perspective (that’s accessible via mobile devices, of course), all that may be needed is some updating to your current strategy. Aspects of your content strategy like creating an editorial calendar, developing your message and goals, and measuring outcomes will largely remain the same.

16. Is your web site your communications hub?

If it’s not, it should be. It should communicate everything a customer or potential customer would want to know about your history, your products and services, your culture and links to your social networks.

17. For many customers, your web site is their primary form of communications with you. Do you have a web maintenance plan in place?

The web sites of the past were posted and left alone. Fast forward to the digital age. With the growing importance of building a stronger web presence, it is important to maintain it regularly with updates, enhancements and fresh content. Another advantage to a responsive site is that’s it’s easier to manage one site vs. a separate desktop and mobile site.

18. Do you view your web site as a marketing expense?

Your web site should be an operational expense and should receive regular maintenance and improvements just like your brick and mortar locations.

19. What is the best content management system for your new responsive site?

There are plenty of options when it comes to picking a CMS system for a development project. The three most widely-used ones are all open-source software: Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. For the majority of banks and credit unions, WordPress tops our list because of its ease of use for you and plug-in features that make it easy to expand the functionality of the site such as managing a community blog.

20. What type of company should I hire? An ad agency? A marketing firm? Or a digital company?

You should hire a company that will guide you instead of looking to you to tell them what to do. It is equally important that they are brand strategists as well as being well versed in the latest digital advances such as responsive web design. Your responsive site development should be viewed as a brand project more than a technical project.

Search: Get Found, Be First in Line

Search engine marketing, optimization and pay per click should be on your radar if you want to stand out online and attract new customers. Research shows that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Currently, 57% of all banks and 55% of the top 20 credit unions in the U.S. utilize Google AdWords campaigns. Are you among them?

21. Have you checked Google lately to see where your bank or credit union ranks?

You should have at least a simple search strategy. Find out what keyword phrases are important for your site traffic. Know where they rank in Google and Bing. But don’t stop there. It’s a common mistake to focus on keyword rankings but it means nothing to rank #1 for keywords that nobody uses. Determine how many visitors those keywords brought to your site. Optimize for the best keywords. Learn how or hire an expert.

22. Did you know that the recently released Google Hummingbird update could torpedo search rankings for banks?

The dependence on "keywords" has been reduced and compelling content is now king. So, if you were high in the rankings before, you might not be now. Preference will be given to sites that are not platform dependent – i.e. responsive designs. Furthermore, bank web sites that serve different content to different devices may virtually disappear from the search results.

23. Are you advertising on Google?

You should be running a continuous campaign in Google AdWords for your bank, even if it’s a low budget buy. Organize a set of ads for your mass consumer products like checking, set a small daily budget and then tweak it over time for efficiency. Then plan search ads as companions for seasonal promotions and traditional ad campaigns. The continuous exposure and experience gained will pay off through an increasing ROI.

For the online advertising trifecta, combine a smart SEO plan for organic results with a paid combination of AdWords alongside an online ad schedule on a dominant local media site (TV news, newspaper, sports, etc.). Brand awareness gains from the media site helps to boost the click through rate when you appear in the search results, attracting new visitors to your web site.

Gain significant traction in mobile ad targeting on Facebook and Google and you can be ready to ride the new wave.

24. Do you know which of your competitors are advertising on Google?

There are dozens of tools and services currently available that can show you what keywords and what pay-per-click text ads your competitors are buying. Look at competitive ads for clues on what’s working. Ads that change frequently may not be pulling well and weekly or monthly changes indicate some level of experimentation. Those ads that repeat unchanged for months at a time are likely successful and working well. Analyze the headline and body copy for ideas and adjust your strategy accordingly.

25. Are you actively driving new traffic to your site via search engines or online ads?

A "set-it-and-forget-it" strategy will no longer pay off. Make sure you have someone with the right experience to tightly manage and optimize your SEO and SEM campaigns. Experiment with Google AdWords’ (and Bing’s) enhanced features. Text ads can be enhanced with a local address, promotional offers, site links and even custom Google phone numbers. It is worth the effort to set it up. Also give the Google Display network a try. We have found in many cases that graphic ads have less competition, lower cost per click and a higher click through rate than AdWords text ads.

26. Do you know how many banking-related searches are being done in your local market?

There are 304,667 daily searches in the US for the keyword mortgage. You should learn how many of those (and other important keywords) are searched in your market. You can get local search information from Google’s AdWords tools. Then review your site’s analytics report. What share of the keywords in your market are you currently getting? 10%? 50%? Create a plan to increase your market share of important search phrases and watch your market share of customers follow along.

27. Are you creating or updating your content strategy for your web site and your social media platforms?

This cannot be over emphasized: content is still king. In fact, Google’s Hummingbird update makes it imperative to have the content your customers are looking for, in the right form. Businesses now need to think like publishers and for banks, that’s a far cry from the traditional product listings marketers are accustomed to. Content needs to be informational (beyond product details), contextual, helpful and constantly updated. Some leading banks are adopting a pseudo-blog style that is more story telling and practical advice, but not as casual or frequent as an actual blog. The content for social media needs to advance your bank’s brand message while also being helpful and engaging.

28. Are you optimizing your videos properly so they show up prominently in search engine results?

Video content is like a magnet for traffic. If you are not utilizing video as a marketing tool, then 2014 is the year to get started. Before you post your videos make sure that you have optimized the file to be search engine friendly. Begin by using successful keywords in your file name and video title. Your description should be keyword rich (but not stuffed) and include a clear idea of what the video is about. Choose your category and tags carefully so they make sense and fit naturally. Finally don’t forget to set the visibility or privacy to public or your audience will be restricted.

29. Are you expanding your social media reach to include additional social networks, especially those indexed by Google and Bing?

Google, Bing and other search engines are indexing more social content than ever. If it has an individual URL the search engines will index it. That applies for a Tweet, Google+ post or Facebook page (not your status updates) because it is considered an individual website. Individual indexed pages do not increase your web site or blog rankings in search. However you can boost your page rankings by getting others to share your pages or blog posts using Twitter and Google+. Popular posts can help get a higher page ranking. Registering for Google Author will help others find the other content you have authored. It’s also worth noting that Google+ posts are crawled and indexed in search immediately in Google. Google will even index your Tumblr content if you set a custom URL in the Tumblr settings. Explore each social network you participate on to see if you can optimize the content for search.

30. Are you and your staff leaving comments on the blog posts you read?

Leave a comment on relevant blogs. This one is low hanging fruit. It’s the easiest tactic to implement and if you are not doing this already may I suggest you take the time to do so at the end of this article. If you read a blog post, take a moment at the end to write something. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering insight, just say something relevant (no blatant spam – you’ve seen those before). In the process of leaving a comment, you’ll be asked to input your URL. This is easiest back link you’ll ever get to your site or blog. It may not seem like much but over the course of time this practice can lead to thousands of links to you. On occasion, if it is interesting to the blog’s audience, you could also offer a useful idea or a link to a web page. And just like that you have a double backlink.

Social: A Game Changer

The cost of doing nothing in social media? You lose business, both on the customer acquisition side and the attrition side, because customers who expect you to engage with them in these new media will go somewhere else when they see that you’re not. Social media has become the new "word of mouth." What people say about your brand is more important than what your bank says about itself.

31. Do you have a presence in any social media networks? Do you know the right ones for your bank?

Social is an investment into your bank’s reputation that, over time, becomes an effective tool for building trust. That requires participation on a personal level in a meaningful way to build real human relationships. Where you should participate is usually dictated by your business goals and your brand messaging. Figure out whom you are trying to talk to (with what message) and then find out where they spend their social time online.

Is it Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Perhaps, or maybe Pinterest or YouTube is big among certain target groups. Tip: Don’t forget online discussion forums. A recent report from Social Media Explorer shows that 90% of conversations about banking and banking products happen in forums rather than social networks.

32. Do you have social media guidelines and policies established and do they meet compliance requirements?

Every organization should have a well thought out set of policy documents governing the use of the Internet and of social media by the organization and clearly defined terms of use for site visitors. That is the minimum cost of entry for the usage of the online platforms.

Add to that the areas that are more administrative or operational such as compliance and legal. Compliance is typically the reason listed by banks and credit unions for not participating in social media. It’s ironic then that the recently proposed FFIEC regulations regarding social media will also affect banks that don’t even have a social media presence, by requiring all banks to come up with a plan to manage customer mentions. Compliance can be effectively managed with diligence and a predetermined workflow that facilitates the necessary reviews.

33. Have you researched the best social media management platforms?

There are so many social media management platforms, tools and services out there you could spend a week looking at them all. Take a few moments to list what you need it to do and use those criteria to select the right one for you. For instance:
Do you need to have an all-in-one (dashboard) view of your social media channels, create efficiencies for posting to multiple networks or measure engagement?

  • Hootsuite – Our preferred management platform is HootSuite, a popular social media management tool for collaborating across different social networks. HootSuite’s desktop dashboard lets you see and manage your streams from different accounts and different social networks all on a single page. It also has tracking and measurement tools built into the interface.
  • Sprout Social – Sprout Social is a management and engagement platform for social business. It uses a single-stream inbox created to help you keep track of each message. It has a sophisticated tool to seamlessly post, collaborate and schedule messages to the popular social networks. It also has monitoring and analytics tools.
  • Buffer – Buffer is a simple way to schedule content across social media. You can fill the virtual queue with content and then stagger posting times throughout the day and also keep a consistent schedule during the week.

Other notable social management platforms include: SocialBro, Postling, Engagor and ArgyleSocial.

34. What have you done to talk with your customers in those spaces?

Customers want convenience and that requires quick, simple, and reliable service that is available everywhere at anytime. Retail banking should become a seamless convenience for the customer – wherever the customer is, especially within social networks. To get the details, you will have to ask them. You can start by finding relevant research, commission your own research or create a small informal survey or questionnaire to ask your customer what they expect from their bank and why.

35. Are you selling products and services in those spaces? Banks are increasingly selling on Facebook, etc.

By 2025, it is estimated that social networks will become the major distribution channel for retail banking products. A recent Accenture survey shows that sales of mortgages via the Internet increased 75%, while sales at branches fell 16%. Online sales of auto loans nearly doubled, while branch sales dropped nearly 10%. Online sales also increased in checking, savings, personal and home equity loans and money market funds.

36. Are you providing customer service in those channels?

Social media, once considered a nontraditional method of customer interaction is clearly becoming increasingly important for banks to understand. It’s no longer just a vehicle for customers to vent about poor experiences or praise their bank for exceeding expectations…it has now become a legitimate service channel.

37. Are you advertising on social media networks?

Facebook has been the most aggressive in developing advertising opportunities for business. Facebook has decently sophisticated planning and analytics tools and is continuously fine-tuning their ability to target Facebook users based on a wide variety of criteria. In fact, most social networks have some paid promotional options that are worth exploring if your customers frequent a specific social network.

38. Do you have a social media command center?

Big banks are making a big statement with high visibility command centers, staffed with social media teams and customer service specialists. Chase Bank and MasterCard both unveiled their social media command centers this year. Wells Fargo upped the ante by announcing plans to open two "social reputation command centers" with the main location in San Francisco and another located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The point of these command centers is not to suggest that you imitate the fancy, studio-like locations. We mention them here to emphasize the corporate commitment to creating a more social business. Bringing social media and customer service together in a collaborative environment is a good idea, whether it’s two staffers or 200.

39. Do you have a distinct head of social media in an executive role?

According to Brett King in his latest book, Bank 3.0, social media is not just an add-on to the IT or marketing function. He asserts that social media is more vital to the future of your bank than your call center, your ATMs or any of your branches. You know that change works best from the top down and that for true transformation to take place social media must become part of the company’s vision and an essential part of the company culture. An executive-level leader can ensure that social media initiatives are all aligned with and driving the business goals of the company.

40. Are you still using mass advertising but in its changed role?

Just because something new comes along doesn’t mean that the previous method should be abandoned. Advertising’s importance has diminished a bit, but it is still efficient at reaching a mass audience. That means that advertising is still a good branding tool to use in shaping and influencing your image and reputation. It also means that advertising may sometimes hold the supporting role by driving web traffic or promoting an online initiative.

Don’t Leave Your Brand Behind

Banking is no longer about who has the most branches or the best technology. Digital banking products will continue to be the fastest growing and most transformative trend in the industry. Your digital brand may be the first and most frequent contact that your financial institution has with your customer. Make the most of it.

41. Does your bank or credit union have a brand with a unique selling proposition?

With technology becoming a commodity for all financial institutions, the only way to stand out and apart is through your brand. Your logo is not your brand. Your brand is your story. Your brand must be able to tell customers and prospects what makes you different and better.

42. Do you use the same logo and tagline the founders launched with years or decades ago?

If your brand’s logo hasn’t been updated within the last 5 years, it’s time to perform a brand evaluation and audit. Make sure all brand identifiers communicate your uniqueness instead of the ‘me-too’ message.

43. Do you have a clear vision of what sets your bank apart?

As part of your brand evaluation do the research to determine specifically what your customers like and dislike about your organization. You also need to fully understand what consumers in your market expect from a bank in today’s digital age. Become that bank and spell it out in your marketing.

44. Are you communicating that vision across all mediums and channels: print, online, social and PR?

The addition of digital and social media does not change the fundamentals of marketing communication. Your marketing strategy should still focus on your USP and telling the story to your specific audience, using the same message across all mediums and channels.

45. Have you really integrated your brand into your mobile apps or did you just stick a logo on the template?

Today’s customers know the difference between a custom experience and a template with your logo on it. Take the steps necessary to customize your design and add relevant features. Only then will you be providing the apps that really add value in the customers’ eyes. For instance, if your brand is built around progressive, convenient service but your mobile apps have few features and use the same template as everyone else, it will create a disconnect between perception and reality.

46. Are you providing a confusing hodge-podge of third-party apps, mobile and online services?

There’s little perceived value in providing disparate apps and services with different names and designs. However, presenting them packaged as a branded suite of mobile and online products gives the customer a simple, single concept to embrace while differentiating your bank’s offerings.

47. Are you investing in a branded and excitement-building launch of your bank’s new digital products?

Your new digital products provide the perfect opportunity to promote your unique brand in the marketplace. They should be launched with the same (or better) effort and attention that is used when introducing a new product in the market. You must educate your employees and customers about these changes and branded content will play a significant role in communicating what’s new and how it will benefit them. Don’t leave your brand behind. Instead, polish it and use it to lead the way to transform your bank into a profitable digital competitor.

48. Are you communicating your brand to your internal audiences as effectively as you are to your external audiences?

Your employees and shareholders are your greatest ambassadors. Make them your communications ambassadors. Provide the proper training about your new digital products so they can effectively talk about the benefits, answer questions and build excitement.

49. How are you building brand awareness?

The rapid growth of digital channels has created more fragmentation of media options than ever. Advertising (offline) should still be an important part of your marketing plan in creating top of mind awareness. In order to reach your customers where they ‘live’ you should be adding an increasing amount of online, mobile and social media advertising to your media mix.

50. Are you using quality creative to communicate your bank’s brand essence and flavor across all channels?

Your digital campaigns should reflect the same kind of creativity as a TV campaign or print ad. While new communications channels bring new opportunities to get noticed and build a buzz about your bank, it is still important to stand out with creative, attention-getting campaigns. Don’t just have a Facebook page filled with self-promotional posts. Instead, stand out on Facebook with an interesting campaign (lifestyle, community topics, local events) that is being liked, shared and talked about.

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Julie White and Scott Schablow are principals with hip_brand_groupHip Brand Group, a consulting firm that specializes in brand marketing and digital development work for financial institutions. Hip Brand is based in Birmingham, Ala., a leading banking center in the US. Please follow us on Twitter @HipBrandGroup

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