Everyone knows the importance of cross-sell and what this does to the bottom line of our financial institutions, but do you know the first place to start in putting an effective cross-sell program together? It begins with every employee within your company.
The best way for your employee to know and promote your products and services is if they themselves use them. Other ways to encourage employees to get excited about cross-selling are:
Start with internal campaigns to encourage and educate your employees well in advance of your external campaigns.
Be sure to offer as-great or greater incentives for your employees than you offer your customers. After all, it’s your employees that take care of your customers.
Make the internal campaigns fun and exciting - friendly competition among coworkers, branches, and/or departments can really get people fired up. If your company has ‘silos,’ mix up the silos with team members competing on different teams. (For an example – everyone with birthdays in January on one team, February another team, etc.)
Make it your goal that each employee is your financial institutions’ best customer. I promise you, if every employee uses each of the products and services your financial institution offers, your cross-sell ratios will be greatly impacted!
People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily. - Zig Ziglar
MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.
Today, the MarketMatch blog surpassed 50,000 page views! Thank you for your continued interest. We hope that you enjoy reading our rants about financial marketing as much as we enjoy sharing them.
To get you caught up on the last 50,000 page views, we thought it was appropriate to share some of our more popular posts:
Again, thank you for following us. We share our opinions because we love bank marketing and we sincerely hope that our passion bleeds through in our words.
We also share our expertise as a "test drive" for your bank or credit union ... To demonstrate our understanding and knowledge of financial marketing ... In the hopes that one day, you'll require our marketing experience.
MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.
Starting today, we will begin rolling out updates to your Impression Share metrics, which include new ad group-level impression share metrics as well as revised campaign-level impression share metrics. We've also changed the frequency with which we update this data to once a day. These updates will be in effect in all accounts globally over the next few days.
For more information on Impression Share, please visit the AdWords Help Center.
Since introducing Dynamic Search Ads in beta in October, we’ve seen questions from around the web asking about real-world performance and recommendations for implementation. Today we’re grateful to share the perspectives of Matt Mierzewski and Jen Syverud at RKG, an online marketing services firm with B2B and B2C clients ranging from startups to the Fortune 500 (details about RKG below).
Here’s a short video followed by Q&A. RKG has further offered to answer any other questions you might have about their experience with Dynamic Search Ads over on their blog.
Q. What’s your strategy for using Dynamic Search Ads with your clients today?
We think of Dynamic Search Ads as an advertiser-specific broad match type. Here, instead of allowing Google to match searches related to your keywords, you're allowing them to match searches related to your website.
For advertisers without automated pay-per-click inventory-based management solutions, Dynamic Search Ads can help identify products that are new or re-emerging. The system is tremendous in keeping up with changes to inventory in real time. For example, a product line may have been suspended for years, but quietly (without the search marketing team's knowledge) appears back on the website. In this case, keywords for the product line would still be paused until the marketing team is made aware, but Dynamic Search Ads are able to catch the change immediately, create ads, and generate orders. As another example, for advertisers frequently offering clearance products, Dynamic Search Ads are similarly able to offer ads while these limited quantity items are in-stock. In both examples, Dynamic Search Ads act as a safety net for advertisers wishing to advertise on dynamic products and/or inventories.
Q. What were your main concerns with Dynamic Search Ads and how have you addressed them?
One initial concern was that Dynamic Search Ads would cannibalize existing traffic, siphoning it away from active keyword campaigns. What we found was that the vast majority of Dynamic Search Ads traffic was complementary to our campaigns. Another concern was that we would have little to no control over what keywords Google was able to match on. However, Google has provided a great deal of controls within the Dynamic Search Ads product to ensure that the matching queries are relevant to the advertiser.
Q. What does your typical implementation of Dynamic Search Ads look like?
Implementation strategies will vary. In general, however, it is wise to consider pages that the advertiser wishes to exclude, as well as any known keyword negatives within the accounts, and add those from day one. From there, segmenting pages into campaigns or ad groups based on product margin, conversion rates, and so forth will allow for custom max CPC bids and maximum ROI.
Q. What best practices would you suggest for using Dynamic Search Ads?
Through restrictive targeting, exclusions and negatives, tight budgets and close monitoring, Dynamic Search Ads can be made very low risk and the results you see should be encouraging. For conservative advertisers, start by targeting only product level pages in your best converting categories.
A higher-level strategy is to add a site-wide target at a conservative bid with appropriate exclusions, and then layer on additional, more finely targeted ad groups and copy with bids corresponding to their expected performance. This approach is similar to the best practices for running Product Listing Ads and ensures wide coverage, but with a preference towards better quality traffic.
Use the power-tools that Google has made available in both targeting specific pages, while excluding other pages and search queries.
Q. How is Dynamic Search Ads doing with respect to matching relevant queries and landing pages?
With Dynamic Search Ads we can see every search that triggers a dynamic ad, the headline generated, the landing page selected, and, of course, performance stats. The searches that we’ve seen targeted are absolutely relevant to the website content -- it’s the only place Google is able to generate its targeting information from. If the system is matching to any query that the advertiser does not care to be matched on to meet their performance goals, it is very easy to restrict that traffic by URL or Keyword level negatives.
Q. What kind of results are you seeing with Dynamic Search Ads across your clients? Which is it working best for?
We’ve seen Dynamic Search Ads incremental sales impact range from 0.5% to 12%, so it’s important to note that individual account results may vary. The product is compatible with our tracking and reporting systems which makes it easy to measure performance and do head-to-head comparisons with our existing keyword-based campaigns.
Dynamic Search Ads work best for advertisers that have an extensive product offering and well developed web pages for Google to index and match relevant content to.
Q. What do you focus on when optimizing Dynamic Search Ads?
Like other AdWords campaigns, proper campaign management and optimizations are a necessity. Just like broad match, the Dynamic Search Ads product is most successful with carefully selected negative keywords, pages and categories of the website that do not perform optimally, and/or are not goal-oriented. Also similar to broad match, advertisers should monitor queries that produce conversions, and add them back as keywords to other AdWords campaigns.
Q. To what degree do you think Dynamic Search Ads are cannibalizing organic search traffic?
We haven’t seen evidence of cannibalization. But we’ll continue to evaluate performance and, if needed, make adjustments.
Q. Would you recommend Dynamic Search Ads for novice-to-intermediate or intermediate-to-advanced advertisers?
RKG would recommend Dynamic Search Ads for intermediate-to-advanced advertisers. Because it necessitates ongoing management, and is best utilized as a complement to robust keyword campaigns, it’s not likely to be a good fit for novice advertisers. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the richer the site content, number of pages, and breadth of product offering, the more fruitful Dynamic Search Ads will be. Naturally, these characteristics lend themselves to more established and sophisticated campaigns and advertisers.
About RKG
Founded in 2003, RKG is a data-driven digital agency that combines savvy marketers with sophisticated technology to deliver unrivaled results for over 180 clients in paid search marketing, search engine optimization, multichannel attribution management, display advertising and comparison shopping management. Long recognized as the thought leader in search marketing, RKG clients range from start-ups to the Fortune-500, and include both B2C and B2B direct marketers in retail, travel, finance and education. RKG is an independent, privately held agency with offices in Charlottesville, VA, Bend, OR and Boston, MA.
Creative departments and designers in general, are a major keystone in your end marketing product. Simply put...we turn thoughts into a visualization. We craft visions and concepts into a tangible "look" and "feel" that represents your brand.
The best way to get your project out of your head and onto a sheet of paper or a computer screen is to be able communicate those thoughts and goals with your designer. Easier said than done, I know, that is why I have listed a few tips to help in this process.
What's the point? What is it that you are trying to say. In the end it is the most important part to any design. What is the message you are trying to get across? What is the end milestone for this particular piece/project?
Who cares? Your audience dictates many things in a design. Be sure to communicate to your designer who the piece goes to. Who is going to pick this out in a stack of mail? You don't want to insult your target demographic/audience.
Trust me, I got this. Creative folks are educated professionals in their field, similar to contractors in the construction field or mechanics in the automotive field. We know all about the latest design techniques, color theories, software, visual hierarchy, etc. and have a ton of resources to implement them. In general we have a pretty good idea of what is going to work and what isn't. Trust us we are professionals - we do this all of the time. Listen to your designers thoughts and advice.
What's it made of? Its all about the details. Designers can better interpret your needs if they can visualize the facts. Let them know about: copy requirements, overall ideas, image requirements, colors, schemes, size, printing preferences, timeline, budget. Without an idea, rough content or organized thoughts, a designer has nothing to go on. We can make pretty pictures all day long but they mean nothing if the content is not on point. These are all the crucial things you'll need to tell your designer before starting a project. Do not leave out information that is important to you. You don't want to get to the final draft of an ad and remember about all of the stuff that needs crammed in at the last minute when your already out of room.
Timing is everything. Allow ample time for the design process. Design is an artform and allowing enough time for the designer to take your concepts and put them in a visual form is imperative. Often times a designer goes through many different layouts before they find what works. If a rush design is needed, be sure to inform them prior to the start of the work so they can offer suggestions to fit your timeframe without compromising the art.
Using these basic guidelines will yield a better end product as well as smooth the creative process. You will get more out of your thoughts and visions by being able to communicate them better with your designer.
Until next time, Jeremy
MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.
For most companies using Google Analytics, reporting on website traffic and performance for a few web properties is a straightforward task. However, if your company manages hundreds of web properties, delivering useful and timely reports can become a significant challenge. For many, the only apparent solution is to manually export analytics data for each web property, then combine and compare that data to answer relevant business questions. It’s a slow and costly process and you spend most of your time creating reports instead of carrying out meaningful analysis.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) faced precisely this challenge when it made the decision to use GA Data Grabber by AutomateAnalytics.com. GA Data Grabber works within Excel and uses the Google Analytics API. Users create or choose reports and GA Data Grabber automatically retrieves the Google Analytics data from any number of websites. And with multi-login capabilities, users can seamlessly combine data between Google Analytics profiles that reside under different Google Accounts.
Designed for non-technical users, GA Data Grabber generates great-looking visualizations and can automatically highlight important changes in key metrics over a date range. It’s also possible to use Excel’s visualization and data processing features. For example, formulas can be added to calculate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on any set of metrics.
Amy Sample, Director, Web Analytics, Public Broadcasting Service explains the challenges that PBS faced and how GA Data Grabber was able to help. “The PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org web sites are made up of hundreds of individual companion sites to broadcast programs. From a business perspective, there is a need to evaluate performance of individual program sites relative to each other.” As is common for many large organizations, PBS has separate Google Analytics accounts for each program site. “While multiple accounts works well to evaluate the site content and performance, it makes it difficult to look at all of the sites side-by-side without a lot of manual effort. Our previous attempts to create this type of report were time-consuming and often subject to data input errors.”
“Using Google Analytics, combined with GA Data Grabber, we were able to create a benchmark report for our program sites. The monthly report pulls a standard set of KPIs from each of the program accounts and ranks the programs by traffic. The report is used as a management tool by both the PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org teams to monitor monthly performance of programs. The teams have also used it to identify opportunities for programs that are no longer being broadcast but still getting significant online traffic. Our program producers use the report to benchmark their performance against other sites of similar content or size and determine ways to improve audience engagement. As a result of using GA Data Grabber to pull the data, we can produce this report quickly and accurately on monthly basis.”
GA Data Grabber Mikael Thuneberg, Founder & CEO of AutomateAnalytics.com has been using the Google Analytics API since its launch. “I’ve been very happy with the API. Having developed for several other APIs, I can say that the Google Analytics API is by far the easiest to develop for. It’s logically structured and flexible, the documentation is excellent, and it’s easy to get help through the forum. I’ll certainly continue developing for the Google Analytics API. I’ve expanded to other APIs as well, but Google Analytics is still by far the most important one for my business.”
More and more people are falling in love with Valentine’s Day. According to a recent survey by ORC International, Valentine’s Day is now the number two gift giving holiday, right behind Christmas, with 88% of Americans saying they plan on giving a present to their loved ones. This should be great news for businesses, but marketers still have trouble making a love connection with consumers based on charts that look more like dated EKG readings than real-time insights into the heart of the consumer.
Since getting the affections of one person is hard enough, below are some timely insights from Google’s “database of intentions” to keep you ahead of the game as you create your Valentine’s Day campaigns.
Search is where the heart is
Already we’re seeing Google searches related to Valentine’s Day increase 35% compared to last year. Not only are more people searching, they’re searching earlier - last year people began looking for Valentine’s Day ideas on January 9th. This year the upward trend began two days earlier, on January 7th.
Across categories, jewelry is seeing a 42% increase in mobile and desktop queries compared to January of last year; gifts jumped 27%, and flowers saw an 18% spike.
Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice
The results from this graph show women look for gift ideas earlier and more often than their male significant others. Maybe men are more last minute about buying gifts than women, but it doesn’t mean they’re cheap about it! In 2011 the average man spent $158 for Valentine’s Day, about $80 more than women.
Looking for a change of heart?
Valentine’s Day is less than three weeks away, which means that this is the great opportunity for marketers to influence people with their products since consumers are still searching for ideas. If you look at the word cloud below (spoiler alert!), a good chunk of people are searching for “diy valentines gifts” and “valentines day baskets,” which means there will be quite a few people unwrapping homemade gifts or pre-made gift baskets this year. The biggest cluster of phrases, “valentines day border,” “valentines day drinks,” and “valentines day meals,” signal that people are also planning on celebrating in style. Now would be a good time to promote recipes and decoration ideas in your campaigns.
For more useful trends and tips for your campaign, download and review the 2012 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions Deck on Think Insights. Hopefully it helps you steal away some hearts!
By Christina Park, Product Marketing Manager, Think with Google
According to a Rand Corporation researchstudy, consumers usually select a financial institution based on convenience of branches, convenience of ATMs and bank fees. While bank users were more likely to select based on convenience, credit union users more likely chose with a desire to avoid fees. Consumers also cite personalized service when selecting a credit union.
With this as a backdrop, it is interesting to study the divergence of opinions expressed by more than 300 financial marketers from larger banks, credit unions and community banks as part of the2012 Bank and Credit Union Marketing Surveycovered on January 17 on both The Bank Marketing Strategy blog and onThe Financial Brand.
Faced with many of the same environmental challenges of increased availability of data, a proliferation of delivery options, imminent changes in how payments are processed, new marketing communication channels and consumer sentiment that has at times been polarizing, there are significant differences in how bank and credit union marketers view their roles, challenges and opportunities. There are also differences in the channels different types of organizations will use to communicate in the next 12 months.
Breakdown of Participants and Budgets
The survey was completed by slightly more than 300 financial institution marketers, with more than half the respondents being credit unions and more than 30% being non-community banks. 82% of respondents worked in a marketing capacity. As shown below, financial institutions in all asset ranges were well-represented, including organizations with over $100 billion in assets. More than 50 total responses came from financial institutions with less than $100 million in assets.
Distribution of Respondents by Institution Type
As noted in the initial analysis, it was interesting that more than 80% of marketers surveyed indicated that their marketing budgets would either stay the same or increase over the next year, with credit unions having a slightly lower likelihood of having their budgets cut this year.
Challenges and Priorities
As shown below, all classes of organizations indicated the expectation of a resource constraint challenge in 2012 (despite equal or higher budgets), yet that is where the similarities end between banks and credit unions. Banks indicated a significantly higher challenge due to the lack of trust in the banking industry, which credit unions have used to their advantage in the second half of 2011 and into this year. Banks also are much more challenged by the presence of silos within the organization as well as by regulatory and compliance issues that credit union marketers indicated. Interestingly, non-community banks seem to have it easier when it comes to getting employee support for programs initiated.
From a prioritization perspective, loan growth was less of a priority for larger banks than for credit unions, while the desire for checking and deposit growth was significantly more important. In addition, while cross-selling was an important mission for all classes of organizations, the importance of this goal was much greater for larger banks, with almost half of the banks ranking this as a top priority. Alternatively, none of the organization types ranked stemming attrition as a significant priority which is interesting given the cost of acquiring a new customer/member. Finally, credit unions seem to be much more focused on changing the demographic composition of their member base, putting a high priority on acquiring a younger clientele.
Product Emphasis
Reinforcing some of the findings above, credit unions will be focusing on virtually all types of loans in 2012, with a much higher emphasis on auto loans and credit cards than their larger bank counterparts. Not surprisingly, credit unions and community banks will also continue to market free checking accounts, while large banks will focus on fee-based checking. Finally, both community and larger banks will be focusing on small businesses this coming year, doubling the percentages found at credit unions.
Marketing and Media Tools
As noted in our original analysis, traditional marketing channels will continue to be used by all classes of organizations, with only print looking to have significant potential reductions based on our survey. As expected, banks and credit unions will be increasing their emphasis on digital and online marketing with onboarding programs also getting more attention across the board. Interestingly, there was virtually no statistically significant difference in the marketing tools that will be emphasized based on the type of organization for the coming year.
While most of the trends in use of online marketing tools by the different organizations were consistent, one of the most surprising findings as we analyzed the results by type of organization was the significantly higher use of social media and estatement advertising by credit unions compared to both community and larger banks. While this may change in the future, the ability to have front-runner status at this time may be advantageous for credit unions if their underlying strategies and measurement of results are sound.
Social Media Use
It appears the primary reason for the differentiation between banks and credit unions in the social media space is due to the much higher presence on Facebook by credit unions than by banks. Being local in nature, this makes sense to build this community following, but it will be interesting to see what is done with this channel and whether financial organizations are using this simply as a landing zone for members or if this channel becomes an effective marketing tool.
In October, we made Google Webmaster Tools available to all users in Google Analytics, allowing everyone to surface Google search data in new Search Engine Optimization reports. Starting today, Webmaster Tools will update how they calculate data to make it better match expectations about what a search engine ranking really means.
Based on their research, the answer to the question "What is your rank in search results?" is the first position of a link to your site. Previously we reported the average position of all links to your site. Now your Google Analytics reports will be updated to reflect the first position.
An example calculation
We anticipate that this new method of calculation will more accurately match your expectations about how a link's position in Google Search results should be reported.
How will this affect my Google Analytics data? This change will affect your Search Engine Optimization reports, when your data in Google Analytics Search Engine Optimization reports will be calculated using the new method. Historical data will not change. Note that the change in calculation means that the Average Position metric will usually stay the same or decrease, corresponding to the same or improved search ranking.
We look forward to providing you a more representative picture of your Google Search data. Please let us know any feedback you have.
Strategic advisor, management consultant, and blogger Peter Bregman has written a book that will clearly resonate with everyone who wishes that there were more than 24 hours in a day. He blogs regularly for Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Forbes magazines and also provides commentary for CNN and public radio – so he understands this wish in today’s era of instant communication and too many priorities. In his words, “To get the right things done, choosing what to ignore is as important as choosing where to focus.”
Bregman’s book, 18 Minutes: Finding Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, should be required reading for all new hires and also provided to longer-term employees on their anniversary dates. Imagine a typical day at the office. After arrival and start-up of the computer or laptop, you open your email only to find 200 emails in your inbox. Then, the phone rings, and your boss wants you to completely change your projects for the day. Then, the network crashes. Well, you get it – just like the tagline for Calgon beauty products that has become a cult phrase, “Take me away.”
The book provides secrets to cut through the clutter and distractions so that you can focus and accomplish your objectives. Here are some:
Regular rest stops are useful interruptions.
Don’t settle for being less than you are. It won’t serve others and it won’t serve you.
Know what outcome you seek.
Recover your passion – think about what you love doing.
Failure is inevitable, useful, and educational. Just don’t give up.
The time to judge your failures and successes is never.
Plan your day ahead so you can fly through it, successfully maneuvering and moving toward your intended destination.
Reduce your overwhelm by putting your tasks in an organized list.
If you really want to get something done, decide when and where you are going to do it.
Never leave things on your to-do list for more than three days. They’ll just get in the way of what you really need to get done.
The right kind of interruption can help you master your time and yourself. Keep yourself focused and steady by interrupting yourself hourly.
Spend a few minutes at the end of each day thinking about what you learned and with whom you should connect. These minutes are the key to making tomorrow even better than today.
The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity.
And now, here’s a breakdown of Peter’s 18 Minutes:
Step 1 – 5 Minutes: Your morning minutes – plan ahead.
Step 2 – 1 Minute Every Hour (8 Minutes): Refocus – manage your day hour by hour. Don’t let the hours manage you.
Step 3 – 5 Minutes: Your evening minutes – review how the day went.
According to Peter, the key is to add this 18 minute review to your routine EVERYDAY. “This particular ritual may not help you swim the English Channel while towing a cruise ship with your hands tied together. But it may just help you leave the office feeling productive and successful.” Now, who wouldn’t want that?
The Google Analytics Team has always supported the promotion of analytics education and professional development. We’d like to share this guest post by Wendy Greco & Eric Peterson from Analysis Exchange - an initiative designed to provide hands-on training opportunities for aspiring web analytics professionals while providing free web data analysis to the entire nonprofit community.
In the right hands, technologies like Google Analytics can do great things, but unfortunately not every organization is able to hire resources to dedicate to web analytics. What’s more, there are thousands of talented individuals out there who would love to work in this field but don’t have the hands-on experience required to get their first web analytics job.
Two years ago Web Analytics Demystified looked at this problem from both angles and decided to create a solution - The Analysis Exchange. The Analysis Exchange pairs a non-profit organization with pair of web analysts --- one a student wanting the experience and the other a mentor with years of direct work in the field. The trio work together to have the student learn to use Google Analytics to “tell a story” with the data about how the non-profit can better meet their business goals.
Thanks to the generosity of all of our sponsors and participants, Analysis Exchange projects are completely free. Google Analytics is the standard analytics tool for Analysis Exchange for a few key reasons:
No cost means it is accessible to all non-profits
Nearly 100% of the non-profits we work with already have it installed
Our students find Google Analytics incredibly easy to learn
Our mentors, even if they don’t use Google Analytics day-to-day, pick it up immediately
Most importantly, Google Analytics attention to ease-of-use dramatically improves our non-profits likelihood to continue to use web analytics after Analysis Exchange projects. Our mentors and students teach them to fish, and Google Analytics becomes the fishing pole.
Most Analysis Exchange projects take less than a few hours for non-profits and mentors. Students spend more time, but students have the most to gain as they develop the types of “Analyst Ninja” skills that are required to get a great job in this field. We’re looking for more partners to sign up to the The Analysis Exchange - who are interested in supporting this initiative.
You may have already heard that Google is rolling out a new main privacy policy on March 1. With these changes, the privacy policy will be easier to read, and will help us create one beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google products and services. The new privacy policy makes it clear that if you’re signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services - helping us treat you as a single user across all our products. (To read more about the new privacy policy, check out the Official Google Blog post here.) We know you may have questions about how this affects you and your Google Analytics data, so want to take this opportunity to explain.
Most importantly, the privacy policies and controls you have over your website data will not change. Just as it was before, your website’s data is governed by the data sharing settings, which you control directly. You can still choose how much, if any, of your website’s data to share with Google to help us improve our products, provide anonymous, aggregate statistics, or make enhanced features like Conversion Optimizer available to you. Your website data will not be used for purposes other than those that you specify in your settings, which you may change at any time. You can find more information about data sharing settings here.
The way that we handle information about your website’s visitors is also unchanged. Their data will continue to be governed by your website’s privacy policies, and their actions will remain anonymous in Google Analytics to both websites and Google. The only change for Google Analytics users under the new privacy policy is that now, information about how you interact with the Google Analytics interface may be shared with our other products.
Helping you understand our privacy controls and giving you meaningful choices to determine how you want to share your data is very important to us, and we encourage you to take the time to read through the new privacy policy changes and our data sharing options.
Posted by Paul Muret, Director of Engineering, Google Analytics
OK, checking is not "DEAD," but certainly evolving.
I've been seeing several blogs and e-discussion about the death of the checking account because of electronic evolution and I'd like to add my two cents. To me, it's a matter of perspective.
I'm rarely a fan of renaming products and re-educating customers, but it may be time, my friends.
As true customer-centric marketers, think about how your "Checking Account" is used. In the past, the paper check was the primary access tool for the account. Well, we all know, it's not your parent's checking account any more.
People will always have a need for this account -- simply because they will always have a need to access their money. We just need to change the way we look at it.
It is no longer a CHECKING account, it is an ACCESS account.
Think about it! It's a simple idea with enormous ramifications.
This basic change in product name shifts the focus to what the customer really needs the account for. It also controls how our staff sell the products and services that go with it.
Would you ask, "would you like checks with your checking account?" Of course not, it's absurd. Then why do we ask, "Would you like online banking with your checking account?"
As an ACCESS ACCOUNT, our front line team can now focus on, "How would you like to access your account?"
When we increase the utilization, we increase our PFI status and, in turn, increase income.
MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.
