Is your financial institution doing all it can to establish a transformative digital marketing presence? Here are 8 tips on how to make your digital marketing performer better:
1. Does your online marketing align with your offline marketing?
Too many financial institutions are expanding into the digital realm in a willy-nilly, haphazard fashion. Make sure that your online and offline communication is working in concert. Both should be on brand and on message. If your marketing resources are divided, at least make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing and the two are working together.
2. Are you bidding on the right keywords?
The best way to improve your keyword Quality Score is to have high relevancy between your keyword, ad copy and landing page. Make sure the keywords you bid on are reflected in your landing page, as well as your ad copy. This means creating a large number of ad groups with 5-20 keywords and 2-4 ads that are deep linked to very specific landing pages. Do this and your PPC budget will go a lot further.
3. Is your search retargeting strategy everything it should be?
Search retargeting targets individuals who have searched keywords or phrases relevant to your business (loans, checking, investments, mobile banking, etc.). With search retargeting, you have to make certain assumptions around the searcher’s intent and stage in the purchase funnel. Of course, just because a person searches a term doesn’t mean they are ready to buy. But retargeting is, nevertheless, a very important tool.
4. Is your mobile branding staying up to speed with new technologies?
Surveys show that 40% of customers now factor mobile solutions into why they choose their primary financial service institution. 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. Make sure your mobile branding is up to date and the user experience is smooth.
5. Do your mobile apps look like every other bank?
If you are not developing your own custom app, you should select an app template that provides significant customization options for your brand. Many banks and credit unions are missing an important branding opportunity by not customizing their apps to be brand correct and customer-friendly.
6. Is the customer online experience seamless and responsive?
How do you create a seamless online banking experience? Easy. Try to think from the outside-in. Start the thought process from the consumer experience to determine how to drive a consumer-facing strategy. Be sure to have an ongoing user experience discipline to understand how people are consuming what you are creating and optimize around those experiences.
7. Are your Social Media efforts expediting better business-to-customer communication?
If your financial institution doesn’t already have one, set up a Facebook fan page. This will create an immediate influx of “Likes” simply by asking your employees and existing customers to “Like” and “Share” your page. Keep your page current by posting links and comments about your various financial services. You can also use your fan page to promote your other inbound marketing pieces. Apply this technique to your bank’s Twitter page and other social media outlets. You’d be amazed how this sort of communication can enhance your paid marketing efforts.
8. Do all your tactics carry your brand promise?
This sounds very basic, but you would be surprised how often a financial institution drops the ball on this. Banks are oftentimes very siloed in their communications. Too many times, the brand promise gets lost in the shuffle. Make sure that every new service launch and every new digital channel carries your institution’s promise, loud and clear.
Put these 8 digital marketing tips to work for your financial brand and see what happens. If you are looking for more digital insights to supercharge your financial marketing, give us a call at 866.642.7559.
We are a Dallas Advertising Agency with expertise in digital marketing.
