How can Financial Institution Marketers Drive More Inbound?

Old-school product and service promotion just doesn’t work the way it used to. Hardly anyone walks into a branch or contacts a call center about loans, CDs, or other financial items without having done some “investigative” work beforehand. Today, over eighty percent of consumers admit to researching products and services before attempting to make a purchase.

And while we like to think the level of education consumers glean is a quick search on Google and a fast scan of an article or two, we’d be wrong. These aren’t responses to inflammatory social media comments. People are much more careful when it comes to how they spend and invest their money. On average, a person will spend between forty and one hundred thirty-seven days investigating before making a purchase.

Where is the best place to test pushing Inbound marketing?

With so many current and potential account holders doing their own financial legwork, it’s no wonder that standard advertising isn’t getting the business it used to grab. Bank and credit union marketers have to meet consumer expectations, leveraging push and pull strategies to promote the brand and provide the information people need.

How can financial institution marketers combine strategies drive more inbound leads?

Like most marketing maneuvers, push and pull promotions work better together. Many banks and credit unions make the mistake of letting the push strategy focus one hundred percent on brand awareness. Then their pull methodology places all its weight on building SEO. But keeping such a siloed structure makes it harder to develop new prospects from recognition to account holders and beyond.

When coupled with content, push marketing is an amazing way to not only improve brand recognition but also create brand differentiation. Rather than “just another financial institution” promoting rates and a logo, push advertising can raise questions, promote educational materials, and encourage engagement with the brand’s social media channels.

Using these methods in push campaigns can help shape search queries and raise specific landing pages to the top rankings. They can also help direct consumers to visit pages or financial tools like loan calculators, retirement planning tools, or charitable donation calculators through easy-to-use QR codes or clickable online links. Consumers are then more likely to include and even regularly reference the bank or credit union’s resources in making their final financial decisions.

Where are the best places to push pull marketing?

Not every location is ideal for implementing a combined marketing message. Large display advertising, like billboards, might make it easy to pose questions but not provide links to fast answers. Television and radio ads often have the same difficulties.

As with any campaign, it is also important that the offer aligns well with the audience. So, the best places to advertise pull marketing assets are often locations that have the ability to present links or QR codes and offer some level of targeted advertising. Places like social media, retargeted advertising, and ATMs.

Social media is a go-to option for many financial institution marketers. Venues like Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Facebook make it easy to generate targeted advertising to specific demographics. Now it is even possible to generate follow-up advertising based on responses to prior ads. Referred to as retargeted advertising, this system lets campaigns that begin as push marketing programs roll into a completely pull strategy; feeding engaged consumers the information they are looking for.

Few bank and credit union marketers look at an ATM and think, “what a great place to advertise.” But financial institutions that aren’t viewing the automated teller machine as a viable venue to reach account holders are missing out on an amazing opportunity. After all, consumers using an ATM are already thinking about their finances.

Wait, ATMs?

Today’s machines offer much more than a simple branded transaction experience. More advanced machines can even offer dynamic, targeted messaging to be presented throughout the screen flow. Even better, messages can be hyper-targeted based on the card inserted. Financial institution marketers can build BIN groups to target the competition. In some cases, it is even possible to target messages by PAN, leveraging account holder information to deliver specific educational materials or financial tools to fit individual needs.

But messaging at the ATM is not merely relegated to the on-screen experience. Unlike other push advertising methods, ATMs have a built-in takeaway in the form of a transaction receipt. Most ATM users keep their receipts for around thirty or more days, whether physical or digital. And coupon messaging responses continue up to fifteen days post transaction, according to independent data collected by FCTI.

While old-school push marketing isn’t working the way it used to, a new approach and some unique venues can help financial institution marketers drive more inbound leads. Leveraging the institution’s pull marketing strategy within push marketing campaigns through social media, retargeting, and ATM marketing will help build awareness, create brand differentiation, and provide current and potential account holders with the information they want before they make big financial decisions.